Michael Bastedo speaks with the New York Times about the ways in which data from a new study could help reform college admissions

The New York Times reports that a new study released by Opportunity Insights, a group of Harvard-based economists who study inequality, quantifies for the first time the extent to which long-held admissions policies at elite universities benefit the very wealthy. The study’s findings arrive as colleges are being forced to rethink their admissions practices following the Supreme Court ruling against race-based affirmative action. 

The Times reports: “The analysis is based on federal records of college attendance and parental income taxes for nearly all college students from 1999 to 2015, and standardized test scores from 2001 to 2015. It focuses on the eight Ivy League universities, as well as Stanford, Duke, M.I.T. and the University of Chicago. It adds an extraordinary new data set: the detailed, anonymized internal admissions assessments of at least three of the 12 colleges, covering half a million applicants.”

Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education professor Michael Bastedo notes that the illustration this data provides can help inform efforts to reform the admissions process.

“Nobody has this kind of data; it’s completely unheard-of,” said Bastedo. “I think it’s really important to good faith efforts for reforming the system to start by being able to look honestly and candidly at the data.”