Gender Differences in College Applications: Aspiration and Risk Management

Judith Delaney; Paul Devereux

doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102077

Gender Differences in College Applications: Aspiration and Risk Management

Judith Delaney, Paul Devereux

Department of Economics

University College Dublin

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (SciVal)

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Abstract

We study gender differences in decision-making strategy when applying for college using applications data for all college applicants in Ireland over the 2015-17 period. Detailed information on high school subjects and grades enable us to examine how the college choices of equally achieving students differ by gender. We find that female students better balance the opportunity to aim for highly selective programmes with their top choices while also listing programmes with lower entry requirements so as to reduce their risk of not being admitted to any programme. We also find that females favour field of study over institution with their top 3 choices being more likely to cluster on field of study and less likely to be for a particular college. When we investigate how effects differ across the achievement distribution, we find that gender differences in risk management are concentrated amongst high achieving students.

Original language	English
Article number	102077
Journal	Economics of Education Review
Volume	80
Early online date	12 Jan 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102077
Publication status	Published - 28 Feb 2021

Funding

We are grateful to the Central Applications Office for providing access to the data used in this paper. Thanks also to the State Examinations Commission for helpful information. This work was partially supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence Scheme, FAIR project No 262675. We are grateful to the Central Applications Office for providing access to the data used in this paper. Thanks also to the State Examinations Commission for helpful information. This work was partially supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence Scheme, FAIR project No 262675.

Funders	Funder number
Central Applications Office
Norges Forskningsråd
Helmholtz International Center for FAIR	262675

Keywords

College applications
Gender decision-making
Gender gaps

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education
Economics and Econometrics

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10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102077

Gender College Choice Revised.PDFAccepted author manuscript, 371 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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Gender Differences in College Applications: Aspiration and Risk Management

Abstract

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