Improving the Chilean College Admissions System

Ignacio Rios (), Tomas Larroucau, Giorgiogiulio Parra and Roberto Cominetti ()
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Ignacio Rios: Naveen Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080
Giorgiogiulio Parra: Departamento de Evaluación, Medición y Registro Educacional (DEMRE), Universidad de Chile, 8320000 Santiago, Chile
Roberto Cominetti: Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, 9250000 Santiago, Chile

Operations Research, 2021, vol. 69, issue 4, 1186-1205

Abstract: In this paper we present the design and implementation of a new system to solve the Chilean college admissions problem. We develop an algorithm that obtains all applicant/program pairs that can be part of a stable allocation when preferences are not strict and when all students tied in the last seat of a program (if any) must be allocated. We use this algorithm to identify which mechanism was used in the past to perform the allocation, and we propose a new method to incorporate the affirmative action that is part of the system to correct the inefficiencies that arise from having double-assigned students. By unifying the regular admission with the affirmative action, we have improved the allocation of approximately 2.5% of students assigned every year since 2016. From a theoretical standpoint, we show that some desired properties, such as strategy-proofness and monotonicity, cannot be guaranteed under flexible quotas.

Keywords: networks/graphs: matchings; education systems: operations; OR Practice; college admissions; stable assignment; flexible quotas; nonstrict preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:oropre:v:69:y:2021:i:4:p:1186-1205

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