Who benefits from elite colleges’ decreased reliance on high-stakes standardized tests? Evidence from a quasi-field experiment

Abstract

Despite the increasingly popular perception that elite colleges’ reliance on high-stakes standardized tests to select students exacerbates social inequality, researchers have not demonstrated that a reduced emphasis on such tests actually alters individuals’ admission outcomes. Using all applications submitted in 2022 to National Taiwan University, the most prestigious university in Taiwan, we show who among the applicants would have been admitted under the country’s prior college admission system, which was entirely based on high-stakes standardized test scores, and contrast them with those actually admitted in the current system, which emphasizes holistic evaluations and considers many other criteria. The results indicate that for the majority of students the admission outcomes would be unchanged. Even among those whose outcomes would differ, class backgrounds are not clearly related to the direction of change in the outcome. Rather than students of upper- or lower-class backgrounds, women are the unequivocal beneficiary from the decreased reliance on high-stakes standardized tests. The analysis suggests that the better high school grades and more comprehensive application materials submitted by women applicants contribute to a considerable part of the female advantage in a more holistic admission system. Evidence from this quasi-field experiment has implications for how changes in the structural elements of the educational system affect elite college access.