Affirmative action and university fit: evidence from Proposition 209

Arcidiacono, Peter; Aucejo, Esteban; Coate, Patrick; Hotz, V Joseph

doi:10.1186/2193-8997-3-7

Table 1 Characteristics of UC applicants, admits, and enrollees by race, pre-Prop 209 and change post Prop 209 ^†

From: Affirmative action and university fit: evidence from Proposition 209

	Applied		Admitted		Enrolled		Graduated
	Pre-Prop 209	Change	Pre-Prop 209	Change	Pre-Prop 209	Change	Pre-Prop 209	Change
Under-represented Minorities:
No. of Minorities	31,002	2,493	24,352	-472	13,291	-714	8,205	91
High School Acad. Index	619.7	14.7***	645.7	17.2***	641.5	15.6***	653.7	12.4***
Parents have BA	0.369	0.004	0.381	-0.014***	0.385	-0.039***	0.417	-0.046***
Parents’ Income ≤ $30K	0.379	-0.019***	0.364	-0.008*	0.364	0.008	0.334	0.012
Parents’ Income ≥ $80K	0.195	0.015***	0.203	0.009**	0.211	-0.010*	0.238	-0.018***
Graduation Rate ^‡							0.624	0.044***
Share of Calif. Public HS Grads	0.107	-0.011***	0.084	-0.016***	0.046	-0.010***	0.028	-0.005*
Whites:
No. of Whites	67,986	8,217	54,571	4,398	27,652	1,937	20,791	2,210
High School Acad. Index	710.4	11.1***	729.8	8.8***	722.6	13.3***	730.7	12.4***
Parents have BA	0.801	-0.002	0.813	-0.010***	0.805	-0.008**	0.822	-0.008**
Parents’ Income ≤ $30K	0.103	-0.008***	0.101	-0.006***	0.109	-0.006***	0.100	-0.006*
Parents’ Income ≥ $80K	0.528	0.019***	0.533	0.013***	0.525	0.015***	0.540	0.016***
Graduation Rate ^‡							0.769	0.025***
Share of Calif. Public HS Grads	0.187	0.003	0.150	-0.003	0.076	-0.002	0.057	0.000

*** p < 0.01; ** p < 0.05; * p < 0.1.
Data Source: UCOP individual data, Pre-Prop 209 (1995–97); Post-Prop 209 (1998–2000).
Variables: No. of Observations is the total number of students who engaged in activity indicated in column heading; No. of Obs./No. of HS Grads is ratio of a column’s No. of Observations to the number of public high school graduates per year in California; Graduation Rate is share of enrolled students that graduated in 5 years or less; High School Acad. Index is sum of re-scaled student’s SAT I score (0 to 600 scale) plus re-scaled student’s UC-adjusted high school GPA (0 to 400 scale); Parents have BA is indicator variable of whether student has at least one parent with Bachelor Degree or more; Parents’ Income ≤ $30K is indicator variable for whether parents’ annual income is ≤ $30,000, where Pre-Prop 209 income are inflation-adjusted to Post-Prop 209 levels; Parents’ Income ≥ $80K is corresponding variable whether parents’ annual income is ≥ $80,000; and where Graduated denotes those who graduated in 5 years or less.
^†Descriptive statistics for Asian Americans and Others (including Unknowns) are omitted from table, but are available in the Additional file 1.
^‡Totals in each category include occasional cases with missing data; when calculating average sample characteristics, individuals missing that data are dropped. This includes enrollees with missing graduation information, so Graduation Rate is not identical to graduates/enrollees.

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