Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, USA.
School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 23;14(1):4449. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-55119-0.
There is debate over whether Asian American students face additional barriers, relative to white students, when applying to selective colleges. Here we present the results from analyzing 685,709 applications submitted over five application cycles to 11 highly selective colleges (the "Ivy-11"). We estimate that Asian American applicants had 28% lower odds of ultimately attending an Ivy-11 school than white applicants with similar academic and extracurricular qualifications. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds). Given the high yield rates and competitive financial aid policies of the schools we consider, the disparity in attendance rates is likely driven, at least in part, by admissions decisions. In particular, we offer evidence that this pattern stems from two factors. First, many selective colleges give preference to the children of alumni in admissions. We find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants. Second, we identify geographic disparities potentially reflective of admissions policies that disadvantage students from certain regions of the United States. We hope these results inform discussions on equity in higher education.
关于亚裔美国学生在申请选择性大学时是否面临比白人学生更多的障碍，存在争议。在这里，我们分析了五个申请周期内提交的 685709 份申请，这些申请来自 11 所高度选择性的大学（“常春藤盟校 11 校”）。我们估计，与具有类似学术和课外活动资格的白人申请者相比，亚裔美国申请者最终上常春藤盟校的几率低 28%。对于南亚裔学生来说，这一差距尤其明显（低 49%）。鉴于我们所考虑的学校的高收益率和有竞争力的助学金政策，入学率的差异很可能至少部分是由招生决定造成的。特别是，我们提供的证据表明，这种模式源于两个因素。首先，许多选择性大学在招生时优先考虑校友的子女。我们发现，与亚裔申请者相比，白人申请者具有这种校友后代身份的可能性要大得多。其次，我们发现了潜在反映招生政策劣势的地域差异，这些政策对来自美国某些地区的学生不利。我们希望这些结果能为关于高等教育公平性的讨论提供信息。
