Admissions Policies, Cohort Composition, and Academic Success: Evidence from California

Abstract

I study how postsecondary admission policies affect the composition and academic outcomes of new cohorts. I leverage the staggered replacement of lotteries and waitlists at California’s community college nursing programs with admissions that rely on grades, work experience, and other evaluative measures. I find increases in the average prior academic performance of incoming cohorts, but not in academic outcomes like completion rates and licensing exam pass rates. In some specifications, I find increased shares of new students who were White, though in others I find no effect. The change also reduced how long students spent waiting to enter nursing programs.