Improving the Chilean College Admissions System

Abstract

In “Improving the Chilean College Admissions System,” Rios, Larroucau, Parra, and Cominetti describe the design and implementation of a new system to solve the Chilean college admissions problem. The authors develop an algorithm that (i) obtains all applicant/program pairs that can be part of a stable allocation when preferences are not strict and when all students tied in the last seat of a program (if any) must be allocated and (ii) efficiently incorporates affirmative action, which is part of the system to correct the inefficiencies that arise from having double-assigned students. By unifying the regular admission with affirmative action, the solution proposed and implemented by the authors has improved the allocation of approximately 2.5% of students assigned every year since 2016, helping to improve the overall efficiency of the system.