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A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (abstract available here) explores the impact of California's ban on consideration of race in admissions on admissions rates for black students to the law schools at the University of California at Berkeley and UCLA. The study finds a significant drop in the black admit rate -- from 61 to 31 percent, controlling for various factors. The 31 percent figure, the study finds, is still significantly higher than it would have been had the law schools focused largely on traditional admissions criteria such as test scores and grades, and the advantage for black applicants is greatest among the share of the applicant pool that is on the line between admission and rejection. The study suggests that the UC law schools have minimized the loss of black students by placing greater emphasis in admissions on race-neutral factors (such as economic disadvantage) that apply to many black applicants. Officials of the two law schools said that they were studying the report and could not comment on it Monday.
