Barrett

Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.

Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.

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Equity Issues Involved in Using Letters of Recommendation to Evaluate Undergraduate Students

Description
Mounting evidence suggests that gender biases favoring men and racial biases favoring whites and Asians contribute to the underrepresentation of women and underrepresented minorities (URM) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Systemic issues caused by gender and racial biases create barriers that prevent women and URM from entering STEM…

Mounting evidence suggests that gender biases favoring men and racial biases favoring whites and Asians contribute to the underrepresentation of women and underrepresented minorities (URM) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Systemic issues caused by gender and racial biases create barriers that prevent women and URM from entering STEM from the structure of education to admission or promotions to higher-level positions. One of these barriers is unconscious biases that impact the quality of letters of recommendation for women and URM and their success in application processes to higher education. Though letters of recommendation provide a qualitative aspect to an application and can reveal the typical performance of the applicant, research has found that the unstructured nature of the traditional recommendation letter allows for gender and racial bias to impact the quality of letters of recommendation. Standardized letters of recommendation have been implemented in various fields and have been found to reduce the presence of bias in recommendation letters. This paper reviews the trends seen across the literature regarding equity in the use of letters of recommendation for undergraduates.
ContributorsKolath, Nina (Author) / Brownell, Sara (Thesis director) / Goodwin, Emma (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05