Affirmative action in higher education can lead to mismatch, where students admitted through preferential treatment … struggle academically due to inadequate preparation before college. Although some students may face initial challenges, by … disadvantages, these programs may enable students to bridge the gap and catch up to their peers. In this study, we examine the …

There is debate over whether Asian American students are admitted to selective colleges and universities at lower rates … than white students with similar academic qualifications. However, there have been few empirical investigations of this … American and white students to a subset of selective U.S. institutions over five application cycles, beginning with the 2015 …

,000 former students in their early- to mid-20s. Half of participants assigned to the treatment group were offered the opportunity …

This paper studies the causal impacts of public universities on the outcomes of their marginally admitted students. I … American public university students, to systematically identify and employ decentralized cutoffs in SAT/ACT scores that …-10 percent more than their marginally rejected but otherwise identical counterpart. Marginally admitted students pay no …

, grades, and persistence. I estimate that two thirds of the plan's 9.1 point impact on top-decile students' probability of … attending a flagship university was due to information rather than mechanical effects. Students induced to enroll are more … likely to come from low- income high schools, and academically outperform the students that they displace. These effects …

We examine friendships and study partnerships among university students over several years. At the aggregate level …

economic and racial composition of incoming students. Because endowment levels are a function of expenditures and alumni giving … colleges and universities do not increase the number of students they serve or the fraction of students receiving aid, and only … more selective and enrolling fewer low-income students and students of color. Overall, colleges and universities appear to …

. Could such colleges -- which currently have many more students from high-income families than low-income families … due to higher admissions rates for students with comparable test scores from high-income families; the remaining third is … students applying from private high schools that have affluent student bodies, and (3) recruitment of athletes, who tend to …