Were Minority Students Discouraged from Applying to University of California Campuses after the Affirmative Action Ban?

Kate Antonovics () and Ben Backes ()
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Ben Backes: American Institutes for Research/CALDER

Education Finance and Policy, 2013, vol. 8, issue 2, 208-250

Abstract: This paper uses student-level data to investigate how the college application behavior of underrepresented minorities (URMs) changed in response to the 1998 end of affirmative action in admissions at the University of California (UC). We show that all URMs experienced a drop in their probability of admission to at least one UC campus. However, the relative decline in URM SAT score-sending rates—our proxy for application rates—was small and concentrated at Berkeley and UCLA among underrepresented minorities who experienced the largest relative drop in their predicted probability of admission. In addition, we find some evidence of a shift toward less-selective UC campuses rather than out of the UC system. Overall, our paper highlights the stability of URM application behavior in the face of substantial declines in their admission rates. © 2013 Association for Education Finance and Policy

Keywords: minority students; University of California; affirmative action; college application (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I21 I23 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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