Economics paper, impact of admitting marginally qualified students vs. Denying them

[MYOS1634]

https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qje/qjaf055/8376650

A study over all Texas publics universities.

[ucbalumnus]

Figure 10 suggests that the payback time for college spending on students at the margin of admission is:

• 11 years for society (IRR = 16%)
• 8 years for students (IRR = 26%)
• 18 years for taxpayers (IRR = 7%)

From the conclusion:

@Jack Montjoy

Thus, despite the fact that marginally admitted students tend to arrive on campus with substantially weaker academic preparation and end up with below-average degree attainment and earnings relative to their university peers, the analysis in this paper shows that these outcomes are significant improvements over the typical trajectories these marginal students would have experienced had they been rejected instead. Moreover, since the benefits of enrolling marginal students surpass the costs, the results in this paper also suggest that marginally expanding admissions slots at public universities would tend to generate positive net returns, both for the newly admitted students themselves and for the taxpayers subsidizing the investment.