Gender Identity and College Admissions

Last registered on November 18, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Gender Identity and College Admissions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010414
Initial registration date
November 14, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
November 18, 2022, 12:11 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Bryan McCannon
Affiliation
West Virginia University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Ian Maupin
PI Affiliation
West Virginia University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-11-27
End date
2022-12-17
Keywords
Education, Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
J16; 23;
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
While race-based identify has become a salient issue in higher education admissions, we ask whether gender identity matters as well. Specifically, we ask whether non-binary/trans individuals experience discrimination in access to higher education. To address this question, we conduct an audit study. Email inquiries will be sent to admissions counselors at institutions of higher education in the United States. Emails will differ in their use of gender pronouns in the signature line. Our outcome variable of interest is whether we receive a reply to the email. The control will be emails without any use of pronouns. Emails with either he/him or she/her signatures identify the effect of using a pronoun, while a treatment with the use of xe/xem in the signature line will separately identify the effect of neo-pronouns from "traditional" pronouns. We hypothesize that the use of neo-pronouns will be associated with fewer responses to our email inquiries.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Maupin, Ian and Bryan McCannon. 2022. "Gender Identity and College Admissions." AEA RCT Registry. November 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10414-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will select a random sample of higher education institutions in the U.S. We limit the study to 4-year institutions offering undergraduate degrees. From each institution, we will collect contact information for four admission counselors. Each counselor will receive one email from us. Each email will have the subject line "question" and the content of the email will be a question about which address to include (as our applicant will be moving soon). Treatments will differ in the signature line. The control will have no pronoun used. The male treatment will have "(he/him)" in the signature. The female treatment will have "(she/her)" in the signature line. The neo treatment will have "(xe/xem)" in the signature. The four counselors from each institution will receive a different treatment.
Intervention Start Date
2022-11-28
Intervention End Date
2022-12-16

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcome variable is whether we receive a reply to our email.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
As admission counselors help prospective students with their application and promote the institution, if a student does not receive feedback/aid from their admission counselor then we expect they are less likely to feel welcomed applying to the institutinon.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
The secondary outcome is the speed at which we receive a reply (conditional on receiving a reply).
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will select a random sample of higher education institutions in the U.S. We limit the study to 4-year institutions offering undergraduate degrees. From each institution, we will collect contact information for four admission counselors. Each counselor will receive one email from us. Each email will have the subject line "question" and the content of the email will be a question about which address to include (as our applicant will be moving soon). Treatments will differ in the signature line. The control will have no pronoun used. The male treatment will have "(he/him)" in the signature. The female treatment will have "(she/her)" in the signature line. The neo treatment will have "(xe/xem)" in the signature. The four counselors from each institution will receive a different treatment.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
A computerized randomization device will be used to select our sample of 500 institutions. Our selection of counselors will be the first four listed with the lowest titles (e.g., Admission Counselor, Assistant Admissions Executive, etc.).
Randomization Unit
school
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
500 institutions
Sample size: planned number of observations
2000 counselors
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We will include 500 higher education institutions and four counselors for each university (total sample = 2000). As a within-university design each institution will get each treatment.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
alpha = 0.05; 1-beta = 0.9 Comparing our anticipated treatment effect for the female treatment vs. the control the minimum sample size is 254 institutions. Comparing our anticipated treatment effect for the female treatment vs. the neo treatment the minimum sample size is 134 institutions.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
West Virginia University IRB
IRB Approval Date
2022-11-14
IRB Approval Number
2211675467
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials