Higher Education Project.

Members and guests of the NBER's Research Group on Higher Education met in Cambridge on October 29. Director Charles T. Clotfelter, NBER and Duke University, organized this program:

Dominic J. Brewer, RAND; Eric R. Eide, Brigham Young University; and Daniel D. Goldhaber, The Urban Institute, "An Examination of the Role of Student Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education since 1972"

Discussant: Jill Constantine, Williams College

David J. Zimmerman, Williams College, "Peer Effects on Academic Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment"

Discussant: Thomas J. Kane, NBER and Harvard University

Christopher Avery and Andrew Fairbanks, Harvard University; and Richard J. Zeckhauser, NBER and Harvard University; "The Early Admissions Game: The Perspective of Participants"

Discussant: Eric A. Hanusheck, NBER and University of Rochester

Susan M. Dynarski, NBER and Harvard University, "Does Aid Matter? Measuring the Effect of Student Aid on College Attendance and Completion" (NBER Working Paper No. 7422)

Discussant: Sarah Turner, University of Virginia

William F. Becker, Indiana University, and Robert K. Toutkoushian, University of New Hampshire, "Measuring Gender Bias in the Salaries of Tenured Faculty Members"

Discussant: Stephen Cameron, Columbia University

Sharon Levin and Anne Winider, University of Missouri; and Paula Stephan, Georgia State University, "Imported Brains in Science and Engineering: Employment Consequences for U.S. Citizens in Academe"

Discussant: Ronald G. Ehrenberg, NBER and Cornell University

Brewer, Eide, and Goldhaber use national data on the high school classes of 1972 and 1992 to estimate how students' race and ethnicity affect their application and admission to different types of college. They find that both black and Hispanic students are more likely than white students to apply to a four-year top institution as their first-choice school. There is little evidence of widespread preferential treatment for minority students in institutions' admissions decisions at any point over the past 20 years. However, both black and Hispanic students were found to have received preferential treatment in admissions as compared with white students at the most selective schools; blacks in 1972 and Hispanics in 1992. The authors conclude that only a small number of schools are particularly selective on any grounds, and that even at these schools, any racial/ethnic preference over the past 20 years has been relatively modest.

Using data from...