The Effect of Race and Sex on College Admission

Applications for admission were sent to each of 240 American colleges and universities. All applications were identical except for the race, sex and ability levels of the applicants. The procedure used for preparing the applications is discussed. The authors predicted that blacks would be preferred...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author Walster, Elaine
Format Publication
LanguageEnglish
Published 1968
Subjects
Ability
College Admission
College Bound Students
Females
Males
Race
Sex (Characteristics)
Student Placement
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Summary:Applications for admission were sent to each of 240 American colleges and universities. All applications were identical except for the race, sex and ability levels of the applicants. The procedure used for preparing the applications is discussed. The authors predicted that blacks would be preferred to whites, and males to females, other things being equal. The main dependent variable was an applicant's acceptance or rejection, but other measures were collected: (1) the time which elapsed between a request for application materials and the school's response; (2) the nature of the reply; and (3) the time between mailing the application and the school's decision. The relationships between additional variables and patterns of admission were explored by analyzing the size, type and regional location of the schools. Results showed that neither the race nor sex main effect was significant. However, contrary to the authors' expectations, blacks were accepted less frequently than whites. As expected, males were preferred over females, but this occurred primarily at the low ability level. No other significant correlations were attained. (TL)