Divergent: The Time Path of Legacy and Athlete Admissions at Harvard

Peter Arcidiacono, Josh Kinsler and Tyler Ransom

No 2019-081, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: Applications to elite US colleges have more than doubled over the past 20 years, with little change in the number of available seats. We examine how this increased competition has affected the admissions advantage that legacies and athletes (LA) receive. Using data on Harvard applications over 18 years, we show that non-legacy, non-athlete (NLNA) applications grew considerably and that LA applications remained flat. Yet, the share of LA admits remained stable, implying substantial increases in admissions advantages for legacies and athletes. We develop a simple theoretical model of university admissions to frame our empirical analysis. Viewed through the lens of the model, stability in the share of LA admits implies that elite colleges treat the number of LA admits and overall admit quality as complements. Our empirical analysis reveals that, if the admissions advantages for LA applicants had been constant throughout this period, there would have been a large increase in the number of minority admits.

Keywords: college admissions; legacy admissions; racial bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I23 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
Note: ECI
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Arcidi ... h-legacy-athlete.pdf First version, December 6, 2019 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Divergent: The Time Path of Legacy and Athlete Admissions at Harvard (2024)
Working Paper: Divergent: The Time Path of Legacy and Athlete Admissions at Harvard (2019)
Working Paper: Divergent: The Time Path of Legacy and Athlete Admissions at Harvard (2019)
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