Affirmative action

            The desire for a college education has never been greater in this century of fast moving economic outburst. In 2000, college graduates made eighty percent more on average than only high school degree. Moreover, the relative benefits of a college degree are likely to continue growing as the labor market increasingly favors skilled over unskilled workers. Therefore, gaining access to a high quality college has become the goal of many families. Unfortunately, access to higher education is difficult for many due to issues of affordability and preparation (Ellwood and Kane 2000). .
             Although having more students going to college is advantageous towards society, it seems to pose a difficult problem for most universities because of the availability of spaces at the top American colleges is limited. As a result, racial preferences in higher education have been attacked in higher education as the country debates how to distribute access to competitive four year colleges. As the debate continues on about affirmative action in higher education, one major question is whether there are alternative policies that would maintain levels of diversity in higher education. .
             Although it is perceived that affirmative action is widespread in higher education, the true role of race in college admissions is unclear. To understand the role of racial preferences, researchers have compared the academic characteristics of students of different races at particular colleges. However, researchers often do not have complete information of all factors that affect college admissions to determine the extent of racial preferences higher education admissions. For example, Kane (1998) compares the college application decisions of high school graduates at top institutions. Although he finds that students of color attended slightly better institutions then white students with similar characteristics, he notes that this observation is only based on test scores and high school GPA information.