Differentiating Admission Standards at UMass-Amherst to Meet Out-of-State Enrollment Targets. White Paper No. 182

UMass' flagship Amherst campus has become increasingly prestigious over the last decade and a half. The growing prominence of UMass Amherst has made the school competitive with the nation's most elite public universities. However, the policies that have largely driven the school's standings have controversial implications for Massachusetts residents seeking to enroll there. Massachusetts students are finding it increasingly difficult to gain admission, and some parents of rejected or waitlisted UMass applicants share concerns that the University has prioritized maximizing the financial benefit derived from accepting out-of-state students over serving in-state applicants. Based on information provided to Pioneer Institute by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education in response to a public records request, there are notable differences when comparing the profiles of in-state and out-of-state students accepted at UMass Amherst. Admissions changes, taken from publicly reported UMass Amherst data, show a pattern in which a higher proportion of out-of-state students have been accepted to UMass each year for over a decade, with the exception of fall 2017, when more in-state than out-of-state students were accepted for the first time since 2014. The combined trends of increasing the volume of out-of-state acceptances and a slightly higher acceptance rate for this cohort suggest that it is getting easier for out-of-state students to matriculate at UMass Amherst, while admissions standards have become disproportionately more rigorous for Massachusetts residents. The UMass system has aggressively sought to increase its out-of-state population, and UMass Amherst in particular has defended its nonresident recruitment efforts. Data presented by the 2016 Pioneer reports combined with information in this paper delineate UMass' proactive out-of-state recruitment. Examples from other state university systems offer useful guidance to address these trends and ameliorate the harm to Massachusetts residents.