Apply Yourself: Racial and Ethnic Differences in College Application

The authors are grateful to the Texas Workforce Data Quality Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin’s Ray Marshall Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. The research presented here utilizes confidential data from the State of Texas supplied by the Texas Education Research Center (ERC) at the University of Texas at Austin. The authors gratefully acknowledge the use of these data. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the ERC or any of the funders or supporting organizations mentioned herein, including the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, the State of Texas, or the study’s sponsor. Any errors are attributable to the authors. Special thanks for helpful comments from Daniel Hamermesh, Darrick Hamilton, Laura Dague, Jonathan Meer, as well as seminar and conference participants at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Southern Economic Association, American Economic Association, UT-Austin’s Economics Department, Texas A&M’s Bush Schools Quantitative Brown Bag Series, Teachers College Columbia University, and Stanford Graduate School of Education. The authors thank Jenna Cullinane, Matt Farber, Katherine Keisler, Chester Polson, Emily Weisburst, and Alan Blanch who provided outstanding research assistance. Institutional support was provided by the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Tulane University, and Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, Center for Education Policy Analysis. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.