PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Grosz, Michel
TI  - Admissions Policies, Cohort Composition, and Academic Success: Evidence from California
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.59.2.0820-11131R3
DP  - 2021 May 13
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0820-11131R3
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2021/05/04/jhr.59.2.0820-11131R3.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2021/05/04/jhr.59.2.0820-11131R3.full
AB  - 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.