Specialists or All-Rounders: How Best to Select University Students?
76 Pages Posted: 19 May 2022 Last revised: 4 Sep 2024
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Specialists or All-Rounders: How Best To Select University Students?
Abstract
This paper studies whether universities should select their students only using specialised subject-specific tests or based on a broader set of skills and knowledge. I show that even if broader skills are not improving graduates' outcomes in the labour market, the university chooses to use them as a criterion for selection alongside the mastery of more subject-specific tools. Empirically, I exploit the variation between subject-specific and non-specific entrance exam sets on Portuguese students' large administrative dataset. My central finding is that, on average, universities with less specialised admission policies admit a pool of students who obtain a higher final GPA.
Keywords: job market, admission tests, university choice, general skills
JEL Classification: I23, I24, I28, J24
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