There is debate over whether Asian American students are admitted to selective colleges and universities at lower rates than white students with similar academic qualifications. However, there have been few empirical investigations of this issue, in large part due to a dearth of data. Here we present the results from analyzing 685,709 applications from Asian American and white students to a subset of selective U.S. institutions over five application cycles, beginning with the 2015-2016 cycle. The dataset does not include admissions decisions, and so we construct a proxy based in part on enrollment choices. Based on this proxy, we estimate the odds that Asian American applicants were admitted to at least one of the schools we consider were 28% lower than the odds for white students with similar test scores, grade-point averages, and extracurricular activities. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds). We trace this pattern in part to two factors. First, many selective colleges openly give preference to the children of alumni, and we find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants, especially South Asian applicants. Second, after adjusting for observed student characteristics, the institutions we consider appear less likely to admit students from geographic regions with relatively high shares of applicants who are Asian. We hope these results inform ongoing discussions on the equity of college admissions policies.

翻译：关于亚裔美国学生是否比学业成绩相当的白人学生更难以进入精英大学，学界存在争议。然而，由于数据匮乏，对此问题的实证研究十分有限。本文基于2015-2016学年至2019-2020学年五个申请季中，美国部分精英大学收到的685,709份亚裔美国学生和白人学生申请数据进行分析。由于数据集不包含录取决定，我们基于入学选择构建了一个代理变量。基于该代理变量，我们估算出：在控制考试成绩、平均绩点和课外活动相似的情况下，亚裔美国申请者至少被一所研究院校录取的优势比（odds）比白人学生低28%。其中，南亚裔学生的差距尤为显著（优势比低49%）。这一模式可部分归因于两个因素：第一，许多精英大学公开为校友子女提供优先录取，而白人申请者比亚裔（尤其是南亚裔）申请者更可能具有这种“传承录取”（legacy status）优势；第二，在剔除可观测的学生特征差异后，本研究所涉院校似乎更倾向录取来自亚裔申请者占比较低地理区域的学生。我们期待这些结果能为关于大学录取政策公平性的持续讨论提供依据。