States with a greater proportion of Asian American applicants tend to have lower estimated admission rates, suggesting that preferences for applicants from certain regions of the country may also disparately impact Asian American applicants.

We estimate that students with a parent who attended one of the schools we consider as an undergraduate are approximately twice as likely to be admitted than non-legacy students. However, Asian American applicants are between three and six times less likely than white applicants to be legacies.

Using data from five application cycles, with the first in 2015–2016, we estimate that Asian American applicants are, on average, less likely to be admitted to any of these schools than white applicants with similar test scores. There is substantial heterogeneity across subgroups.

There is considerable debate over whether Asian American students are admitted to selective universities at lower rates than similar white peers. In new work with Sabina Tomkins, Lindsay Page, and @5harad.com, we explore this issue using nearly 700k college applications. 🧵 nber.org/papers/w31527