Foreign Students, Immigrants, Domestic Minorities and Admission to Texas' Selective Flagship Universities Before and After the Ban on Affirmative Action

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Abstract
A growing body of research examines the effects of state affirmative action bans on domestic minority students’ application and admission rates. This study expands previous research, considering how Texas's implementation of a race-neutral percent plan influenced admission opportunities for two understudied groups: foreign students and in-state Black and Hispanic immigrants. Using a census of all applicants to Texas's flagship universities—University of Texas-Austin (UT) and Texas A&M (A&M)—between 1992 and 2002, descriptive analysis and logistic regressions help examine how the passage of the Top Ten Percent Plan influenced selectivity in terms of observed admission rates and counterfactual admission probabilities for students of varying SAT scores and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) versus non-STEM-proposed majors for foreign students compared to a variety of in- and out-of-state Black and Hispanic immigrants and domestic minorities. Findings point to salient institutional differences in selectivity for foreign applicants. The surge in UT's foreign applicant numbers post–Top Ten led to significant decreases in admission rates and increases in average SAT score and STEM foreign admits. Post–Top Ten A&M, on the other hand, maintained numbers of foreign admits on par with UT by accepting a significantly larger percentage of less selective foreign applicants.

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