Foreign Students and Domestic Minorities: Complements or Competitors?

Jayanti Owens, Princeton University

Foreign students represent the newest frontier for universities seeking to diversify their undergraduate student body, but we know very little about admissions outcomes for foreign students relative to domestic applicants. This paper examines selectivity and admissions odds of foreign students relative to domestic applicants of various racial/ethnic groups using logistic regressions with a rich set of controls. Data draw from a census of all applicants to four Texas universities between 1990-2004 (exact years vary by institution). Findings: At the most-selective public and private universities, foreign applicants are less likely to gain admission over time due to increasing selectivity. The less-selective public institutions have experienced an increase in their foreign student acceptance rates with odds of admission on par with those for domestic minority applicants. Foreign applicants proposing non-engineering and science majors have the highest admission odds, debunking the common belief that foreign undergraduates in S&E fields are favored in admissions.