Mismatch: Does affirmative action hurt more than it helps?

In his book Mismatch, Richard Sander examines the unintended consequences of preference programs in collegiate admissions. From his analysis, Sander finds that students who are given preferences over others fare worse at more elite schools where the academic barrier to entry and overall rigor is higher. This discrepancy in performance is a manifestation of what Sander calls mismatch theory. 

Eliminating racial targets in admissions increases the graduation rate among historically underrepresented groups, Sander argues, citing UCLA enrollment and graduation figures leading up to and following the implementation of California Proposition 209 in 1998, which banned the use of racial preferences in University of California admissions decisions. Sander also contends that by not admitting less academically prepared students, UCLA allowed them to excel at institutions where their abilities more closely matched expectations. 

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