Capitalizing on Segregation, Pretending Neutrality: College Admissions and the Texas Top 10% Law

In response to the judicial ban on the use of race-sensitive admissions, the seventy-fifth Texas legislature passed H.B. 588, which guarantees admission to any Texas public college or university for all seniors graduating in the top decile of their class. We show that high levels of residential and school segregation facilitate minority enrollment at selective public institutions under the uniform admission law because black and Hispanic students who rank at the top of their class disproportionately hail from minority-dominant schools. However, qualifying minority students' lower likelihood of college enrollment at the flagships reflects concentrated disadvantage rather than segregation per se.