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The study documents how competition varies across the student ability distribution and by region, with the sharpest increases among higher-ability students and in the Northeast. It also examines how high school seniors’ college preparatory behavior has shifted, and discusses implications for longer-term learning and achievement, testing these claims empirically with limited evidence.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/playing-the-admissions-game-student-reactions-to-increasing-college-competition-nber-working-paper-15272/266738/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/playing-the-admissions-game-student-reactions-to-increasing-college-competition-nber-working-paper-15272/266738.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Stanford","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-09-14",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does the paper study about college admissions competition?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It examines how gaining entrance to four-year colleges has become increasingly competitive, documenting variation by student ability and region.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the paper link competition to high school preparation?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It explores changes in college preparatory behavior by high school seniors in response to the growth in competition.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What do the authors find regarding long-term learning benefits?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"They discuss theoretical implications and test them empirically; the evidence and related literature suggest little long-term benefit.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},266738,1789411131,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},2336477552062,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d","NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES  \nPLAYING THE ADMISSIONS GAME:  \nSTUDENT REACTIONS TO INCREASING COLLEGE COMPETITION  \nJohn Bound  \nBrad Hershbein  \nBridget Terry Long  \nWorking Paper 15272  \n[http://www.nber.org/papers/w15272](http://www.nber.org/papers/w15272)  \nNATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH  \n1050 Massachusetts Avenue  \nCambridge, MA 02138  \nAugust 2009  \nWe are grateful to Arline Geronimus, Dan Silverman and Sarah Turner for helpful discussions; to Jesse Rothstein, DeForest McDuff and Amanda Pallais for providing tabulations from SAT and ACT data on score sending behavior, and Sarah Turner for providing tabulations ofthe Survey of Earned Doctorates. This work was started while Bound was a fellow at that Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Science, Stanford University. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.  \nNBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.  \n© 2009 by John Bound, Brad Hershbein, and Bridget Terry Long. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source.  \nPlaying the Admissions Game: Student Reactions to Increasing College Competition John Bound, Brad Hershbein, and Bridget Terry Long  \nNBER Working Paper No. 15272  \nAugust 2009 JEL No. I2,J24  \nABSTRACT  \nGaining entrance to a four-year college or university, particularly a selective institution, has become increasingly competitive over the last several decades. We document this phenomenon and show how it has varied across different parts of the student ability distribution and across region, with the most pronounced increases in competition being found among higher-ability students and in the Northeast. Additionally, we explore how the college preparatory behavior of high school seniors has changed in response to the growth in competition. We also discuss the theoretical implications of increased competition on longer-term measures of learning and achievement and attempt to test them empirically; the evidence and related literature, while limited, suggests little long-term benefit.  \nJohn Bound  \nDepartment of Economics University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220 and NBER [jbound@umich.edu](jbound@umich.edu)  \nBrad Hershbein Department of Economics University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220 [bjhersh@umich.edu](bjhersh@umich.edu)  \nBridget Terry Long Harvard University Graduate School of Education Gutman Library 465  \n6 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 and NBER [longbr@gse.harvard.edu](longbr@gse.harvard.edu)  \nI. INTRODUCTION  \nDuring the last several decades, it has become increasingly difficult to gain entry into an American four-year college or university. Growing numbers of students fight for admission to such schools as the number of applicants has doubled since the early 1970s while school sizes have changed little. This increase is due both to the increasing fraction of high school graduates applying for college and more recently to the increase in the size of the college-aged cohorts. Using data from the Digest of Education Statistics and various National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) surveys, we summarize these trends in Table 1. The table shows that while the application rate to four-year colleges has steadily increased over the last several decades, the decline in cohort size between 1982 and 1992 left the number of applicants practically unchanged between the two years. From 1992 to 2004, on the other hand, the number of applicants to four-year colleges grew from 1.19 million to 1.71 million students, an increase of 44 percent, as rising application rates and growing cohort size reinforced each other. The pattern was slightly d","cbCairHpiICoNARv","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairHpiICoNARv","pdf",329981,54,"English","# I. Introduction\n## Trends in applications and competition\n## Gender differences in admissions demand\n## Supply constraints and admission slots","[{\"question\":\"What does the paper study about college admissions competition?\",\"answer\":\"It examines how gaining entrance to four-year colleges has become increasingly competitive, documenting variation by student ability and region.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper link competition to high school preparation?\",\"answer\":\"It explores changes in college preparatory behavior by high school seniors in response to the growth in competition.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the authors find regarding long-term learning benefits?\",\"answer\":\"They discuss theoretical implications and test them empirically; the evidence and related literature suggest little long-term benefit.\"}]","Playing the Admissions Game - Student Reactions to Increasing College Competition - NBER Working Paper 15272 | PDF",136]