title: Minority Student Academic Performance under the Uniform Admission Law: Evidence from the University of Texas at Austin.
abstract: UT-Austin administrative data between 1990 and 2003 are used to evaluate claims that students granted automatic admission based on top 10% class rank underperform academically relative to lower ranked students who graduate from highly competitive high schools. Compared with white students ranked at or below the third decile, top 10% black and Hispanic enrollees arrive with lower average standardized test scores, yet consistently performed as well or better in grades, first year persistence, and four-year graduation likelihood. A similar story obtains for top 10% graduates from Longhorn high schools verses lower-ranked students who graduated from highly competitive feeder high schools. Multivariate results reveal that high school attended rather than test scores is largely responsible for racial differences in college performance.
authors: Office of Population Research of Princeton University,  niu@princeton.edu.
authors: Sunny X
authors: SX
authors: Niu
authors: Marta
authors: M
authors: Tienda
keywords: college performance; grades; high school quality; percent plan; race/ethnicity; test score