Affirmative action is always a controversial issue, but in 2003, with the Supreme Court set to rule on whether universities could consider an applicant's race in admissions, the debate was especially intense. Carnegie Mellon—along with dozens of other private universities, nearly 14,000 law students, and companies like General Motors—filed briefs supporting affirmative action in admissions, while the White House and conservative think tanks filed briefs against it. Numerous media pundits took sides. The court's split decision was less than definitive.
Holger Sieg and Dennis Epple, economics professors in the Tepper School, watched the unfolding drama with interest. One of their specialties is the study of how universities compete to attract students, and they believed they could help answer a key question being lost in the debate: What exactly would happen if universities stopped taking race into account?
The professors, along with a colleague in Florida, constructed a model that simulated a scenario where colleges would no longer consider race in admissions and financial aid applications. Their results, published recently in the Journal of Public Economic Theory, were unexpected. They found that while top-tier colleges such as Carnegie Mellon would experience a drop in minority admissions up to 35%, minority admissions at lower-tier schools would actually increase. Qualified minority students who were no longer able to afford elite universities wouldn't forgo college; they would find affordable alternatives.
"The discussion isn't about whether [minority students] would go to college," says Sieg. "It's really about what types of college and who will benefit. And that's a very different question." A new question for ongoing affirmative action debates.
—Rob Cullen (HS'02)
