The Early Decision Option in College Admission and Its Impact on Student Diversity

Colleges and universities that adopt early decision (ED) as an admission practice can generate additional resources by attracting wealthier students who make binding commitments to attend and forgo shopping for competing aid offers. An unanswered question is whether the resources generated from pric...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of law & economics 2012-02, Vol.55 (1), p.217-249
Main Authors: Antecol, Heather, Kiholm Smith, Janet
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
College admissions
College students
Colleges
Colleges & universities
Herfindahl Hirschman index
Impact analysis
Ivy
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Out of state students
School admission
School enrollment
Student diversity
Student financial aid
Students
Studies
Universities
Urban universities
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Summary:Colleges and universities that adopt early decision (ED) as an admission practice can generate additional resources by attracting wealthier students who make binding commitments to attend and forgo shopping for competing aid offers. An unanswered question is whether the resources generated from price discrimination are used by schools during the regular admission process to attract more diverse students. Using a sample of private national universities and liberal arts colleges, we model the choice to adopt an ED program and its impact on students’ racial and geographic diversity. We find that schools facing more competition for students are more likely to adopt an ED program. The overall heterogeneity of students is lower for schools that adopt ED, and heterogeneity decreases as schools enroll larger percentages of students through ED. Higher ED enrollment percentages appear to strongly and negatively affect Asian American and Hispanic students and positively affect white students.
ISSN:0022-2186
1537-5285
DOI:10.1086/661195