This paper provides an empirical examination of the factors that influence graduate admissions decisions. It exploits a unique, large data set on applications and admissions to 48 leading graduate schools in five disciplines, including economics. The analysis shows that these graduate schools in the aggregate gave substantial preference in four out of five fields to U.S. citizens over foreign applicants, modest preference in three fields to women over men, and substantial preference in all fields to underrepresented minorities over other U.S. citizens. The findings suggest that higher standards are applied to overrepresented groups to achieve more diverse enrollments.

Gregory Attiyeh is an economist at the Law & Economics Consulting Group. Inc. and Richard Attiyeh is a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego. They acknowledge the helpful suggestions of Ken Kroner, Ron Oaxaca, Lester Taylor, and two anonymous referees. They also thank the AA U/AGS Project for Research on Doctoral Education for making data available for this study. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning January 1998 through December 2000 from Gregory Attiyeh, Law & Economics Consulting Group, Inc., 2000 Powell Street, Emeryville, CA 94608.

© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

US ISSN 0022-166X

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