Admissions

Summary of recent research on admissions and low-income students in The Chronicle of Higher Education: admissions experiment and diversity in the college admissions office. See also a recent episode of The Crush podcast, a piece by Shankar Vendantam on NPR Morning Edition.

Bastedo, Michael N., D’Wayne Bell, Jessica S. Howell, Julian Hsu, Michael Hurwitz, Greg Perfetto, and Meredith Welch. 2022 (in press). “Admitting Students in Context: Field Experiments on Information Dashboards in College Admissions" Journal of Higher Education.
In this paper, we address whether the provision of contextual information about where students live and learn has the potential to expand postsecondary opportunities to students from disadvantaged neighborhoods and high schools. To examine this question, we describe the results of field experiments with admissions officers working in eight universities who re-read real applications from previous admissions cycles with a dashboard of contextual data about the applicant’s neighborhood and high school. In this low-stakes context, admissions officers from institutions utilizing holistic admissions practices were more likely to recommend admitting low-SES applicants when provided with contextual data. The experiment also primed admissions readers to treat students from highly disadvantaged high school and neighborhood contexts more favorably relative to the results of the high-stakes official read, even when the dashboard was not shown to study participants. The results of this experiment suggest that contextualized data can improve equity in admissions, but fidelity to holistic admissions practices is crucial.
Baker, Dominique J. and Michael N. Bastedo. 2022 (in press). “What If We Leave It Up to Chance? Admissions Lotteries and Equitable Access at Selective Colleges.” Educational Researcher.
Many prominent social scientists have advocated for random-draw lotteries as a solution to the “problem” of elite college admissions. They argue that lotteries will be fair, equitable, eliminate corruption, reduce student anxiety, restore democratic ideals, and end debates over race-conscious admissions. In response, we simulate potential lottery effects on student enrollment by race, gender, and income, using robust simulation methods and multiple minimum thresholds for grades and standardized tests. In the overwhelming majority of lottery simulations, the proportions of low-income students and students of color drop precipitously. With a GPA minimum, we find the proportion of men could drop as low as one third. Admissions lotteries with minimum bars for GPA and/or standardized tests do not appear to produce more equitable outcomes.
Media Coverage: Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The 74, Yahoo News, Higher Ed Dive, Diverse
Bastedo, Michael. 2021. “Holistic Admissions as a Global Phenomenon." In Heather Eggins, Anna Smolentseva, & Hans de Wit (Eds.), The Next Decade: Challenges for Global Higher Education. Leiden: Brill.
Globally, standards for college selection have been historically dominated by national entrance examinations, with the U.S. an outlier in its development of holistic review for selective universities. This chapter discusses the gradual diffusion of elements of the U.S. holistic model to other admissions systems around the world, including Australia, China, England, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, and South Korea. There are many drivers of the move to holistic admissions, including student anxiety, stifled creativity and innovation, rote learning for examinations, shadow education, stratification and inequality, and workforce preparation. Serious concerns are raised across country contexts, however, including transparency, fairness, equity, and corruption.
Bastedo, Michael N., Nicholas A. Bowman, Kristen M. Glasener, and Jandi L. Kelly. 2018. “What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Holistic Review? Selective College Admissions and Its Effects on Low-SES Students" Journal of Higher Education 89: 782-805. “ Policy Brief.
This mixed method study uses open-response survey data, focus groups, and an experimental simulation to explore how 311 admissions officers define and use concepts of holistic review in selective college admissions. We find that three distinct definitions of holistic review predominate in the field: whole file, whole person, and whole context. We explore these concepts qualitatively and use the coded data to predict decision making in an experimental simulation. We find that admissions officers with a "whole context" view of holistic review are disproportionately likely to admit a low-SES applicant in our simulation. Inconsistent definitions of a core admissions concept make it more difficult for the public to comprehend the "black box" of college admissions, and a more consistently contextualized view of holistic review may also have real-world implications for the representation of low-income students at selective colleges.
Bowman, Nicholas A. and Michael N. Bastedo. 2018. “What Role May Admissions Office Diversity and Practices Play in Equitable Decisions?" Research in Higher Education 59: 430-447. Policy Brief.
Attending a selective college or university has a notable impact on the likelihood of graduation, graduate school attendance, social networks, and career earnings. Given these short-term and long-term benefits, surprisingly little research has directly explored the factors that might promote or detract from equitable admissions decisions at these schools. This study examined a unique national sample of 311 undergraduate admissions officers who work at selective institutions to explore this issue. Among the descriptive findings, more than half of respondents reported that they consider applicants’ demonstrated interest in attending their institution when making a recommendation, about two-thirds review at least 100 applications during busy weeks, and almost half were working at their alma mater. Moreover, in a simulation of admissions scoring, admissions officers from historically underrepresented groups were more likely to admit low-SES applicants, whereas participants with more work experience and who were employed at their alma mater provided less equitable recommendations.
Bastedo, Michael N. and Nicholas A. Bowman. 2017. “Improving Admission of Low-SES Students at Selective Colleges: Results From an Experimental Simulation" Educational Researcher. “ Supplementary Online Material. Policy Brief.
Low socioeconomic status (SES) students are underrepresented at selective colleges, but the role that admissions offices play is poorly understood. Because admissions offices often have inconsistent information on high school contexts, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether providing detailed information on high school contexts increases the likelihood that admissions officers (n = 311) would recommend admitting low-SES applicants. Admissions officers in the detailed-information condition were 13 to 14 percentage points (i.e., 26%–28%) more likely to recommend admitting a low-SES applicant from an underserved high school than those in the limited-information condition, although the limited-information condition provided significant details about family SES and high school context. These findings were consistent regardless of the selectivity of the college, admissions office practices, and participant demographics.
Media Coverage: NPR Morning Edition, Michigan Radio, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, EdWeek, EAB Daily Briefing
Bastedo, Michael N., Joseph E. Howard, and Allyson Flaster. 2016. “Holistic Admissions after Affirmative Action: Does “Maximizing” the High School Curriculum Matter?" Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 38: 389-409.
Selective colleges and universities purport to consider students’ achievement in the context of the academic opportunities available in their high schools. Thus, students who “maximize” their curricular opportunities should be more likely to gain admission. Using nationally representative data, we examine the effect of “maximizing the curriculum” on admission to selective colleges. We find that curriculum maximization has very little effect on students’ probability of college admission outside of states with affirmative action bans. Low-income students are less likely to maximize their high school curriculum, and underrepresented racial minority students are both less likely to maximize their high school curriculum and less likely to benefit from doing so when applying to colleges in states that ban affirmative action. Thus, even if widely diffused, holistic admissions practices may be unlikely to adequately reduce race or class disparities in higher education.
Bastedo, Michael N. 2016. “Enrollment Management and the Low-Income Student: How Holistic Admissions and Market Competition Can Impede Equity." Pp. 121-134 in Andrew P. Kelly, Jessica S. Howell, and Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj (Eds.), Matching Students to Opportunity: Expanding College Choice, Access, and Quality. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press. (Originally a working paper for the American Enterprise Institute & Gates Foundation.)
Low-income students constitute less than 5% of the enrollment at our most selective colleges, a percentage that has been virtually changed for decades. Many recent efforts define the problem as inadequate resources and asymmetric information among low-income students, and thus focus on changing students’ application behavior. These efforts are admirable, but fail to take into account how decisions are made inside selective colleges, particularly in admissions and enrollment management. This paper discusses how holistic admissions practices, market competitive behaviors, and enrollment management largely determine college match, and the implications for policy debates on low-income students, institutional stratification, and undermatching.
Bastedo, Michael N. and Allyson Flaster. 2014. “Conceptual and Methodological Problems in Research on College Undermatch.” Educational Researcher 43: 93-99.
Access to the nation’s most selective colleges remains starkly unequal, with students in the lowest income quartile constituting less than 4% of enrollment. A popular explanation for this phenomenon is that low-income students undermatch by attending less selective colleges when their credentials predict admission to more highly selective colleges. We identify three problematic assumptions in research on undermatching: (a) that researchers can differentiate colleges at the “margin that matters” for student outcomes; (b) that researchers can accurately predict who will be admitted at colleges that use holistic admission processes; and (c) that using achievement measures like SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) scores to match students to colleges will reduce postsecondary inequality. We discuss the implications of these assumptions for future research on college choice and stratification.
Media Coverage: The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, School Leadership 2.0, Community College Spotlight, Harvard Crimson
Bielby, Robert, Julie R. Posselt, Ozan Jaquette, and Michael N. Bastedo. 2015 (in press). “Why Are Women Underrepresented in Elite College and Universities? A Non-Linear Decomposition Analysis.” Research in Higher Education 55: 735-760.
The emerging female advantage in education has received considerable attention in the popular media and recent research. We examine a persistent exception to this trend: women’s underrepresentation in America’s most competitive colleges and universities. Using nationally generalizable data spanning four decades, we evaluate evidence for three possible explanations. First, we analyze whether men’s academic profiles more closely match the admissions preferences of elite institutions. Next, we consider organizational preferences for male applicants. Finally, we test whether women self-select out of elite institutions through their application choices. Using Blinder–Oaxaca non-linear decomposition techniques and multinomial logistic regression, we find that men’s advantage in standardized test scores best explains the enrollment gap. Our analyses thus suggest that the gender enrollment gap in elite colleges and universities is a matter of access, not student choice. We discuss the implications of these results for educational equity and college admissions.
Media Coverage: The Chronicle of Higher Education, Psychology Today, Business Insider,
Posselt, Julie R., Ozan Jaquette, Robert Bielby, and Michael N. Bastedo. 2012. “Access without Equity: Racial and Ethnic Stratification in Higher Education.” American Educational Research Journal 49: 1074-1111.
This paper examines how the competitive dynamics that sustain institutional stratification have reinforced racial inequality in selective college enrollment between 1972 and 2004. Institutional stratification describes the hierarchy of postsecondary institutions in terms of mission, selectivity, and returns to degrees. Using a dataset constructed from four nationally representative surveys (NLS, HSB, NELS, and ELS), we model how escalating admissions standards—including academic preparation, and the growing importance of SAT scores and extracurricular leadership—effectively maintain racial inequality in selective college enrollment over time. Black and Latino students have made strides in their pre-collegiate academic preparation. Nevertheless, although access to postsecondary education has expanded since 1972 for all ethnic groups, Black and Latino students’ odds of selective college enrollment have declined relative to White and Asian American students.
Media Coverage: Chronicle of Higher Education, Education Trust, ColorLines
Bastedo, Michael N. and Ozan Jaquette. 2011. Running in Place: Low-Income Students and the Dynamics of Higher Education Stratification. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 33: 318-339. Online Appendix
The increasing concentration of wealthy students at highly selective colleges is widely perceived, but few analyses examine the underlying dynamics of higher education stratification over time. To examine these dynamics, the authors build an analysis data set of four cohorts from 1972 to 2004. They find that low-income students have made substantial gains in their academic course achievements since the 1970s. Nonetheless, wealthier students have made even stronger gains in achievement over the same period, in both courses and test scores, ensuring a competitive advantage in the market for selective college admissions. Thus, even if low-income students were "perfectly matched" to institutions consistent with their academic achievements, the stratification order would remain largely unchanged. The authors consider organizational and policy interventions that may reverse these trends.
Media Coverage: The Washington Post, Inside Higher Ed; The Chronicle of Higher Education, Slate
Bastedo, Michael N. and Patricia J. Gumport. 2003. Access to What? Mission Differentiation and Academic Stratification in U.S. Public Higher Education. Higher Education 46: 341-359.

Academic policy initiatives have long been a powerful lever for mission differentiation within U.S. public higher education. Although the higher education literature has examined basic issues in the design of public systems, the tension between access and differentiation has not been explored. Drawing upon comparative case studies of public higher education in Massachusetts and New York, this article examines recent policy initiatives to terminate academic programs, eliminate remedial education, and promote honors colleges within each state system. The analysis depicts how these policies contribute to increased stratification of programs and students within a state system as well as within particular campuses in a system. The authors argue that policy analysis in higher education should develop a more refined conceptualization of access that examines the cumulative impact of contemporary policies on the stratification of student opportunity.
Gumport, Patricia J. and Michael N. Bastedo. 2001. Academic Stratification and Endemic Conflict: Remedial Education Policy at the City University of New York. Review of Higher Education 24: 333-349.

This article examines the remedial education policy change at the City University of New York (CUNY) in historical context and from the analytical perspective of system design. The policy to phase out remedial education in the CUNY senior colleges is interpreted as part of a strategy to create "more of a system" by increasing the differentiation of missions and stratification among campuses within the CUNY system. The authors analyze both the immediate context and the system design rationale for the policy change, then discusses future implications for CUNY and for public higher education more broadly.

Revised: August 11, 2021.