Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/215146 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12750
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Over the past 20 years, elite colleges in the US have seen dramatic increases in applications. We provide context for part of this trend using detailed data on Harvard University that was unsealed as part of the SFFA v. Harvard lawsuit. We show that Harvard encourages applications from many students who effectively have no chance of being admitted, and that this is particularly true for African Americans. African American applications soared beginning with the Class of 2009, with the increase driven by those with lower SAT scores. Yet there was little change in the share of admits who were African American. We show that this change in applicant behavior resulted in substantial convergence in the overall admissions rates across races yet no change in the large cross-race differences in admissions rates for high-SAT applicants.
Subjects: 
college applications
college recruiting
inequality
JEL: 
I23
I24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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