%0 Report
        %A Silva, Pedro Luís
        %T Specialists or All-Rounders: How Best to Select University Students?
        %D 2022
        %8 2022 May
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 15271
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp15271
        %X This paper studies whether universities should select their students only using specialised subject-specific tests or based on a broader set of skills and knowledge. I show that even if broader skills are not improving graduates' outcomes in the labour market, the university chooses to use them as a criterion for selection alongside the mastery of more subject-specific tools. Empirically, I exploit the variation between subject-specific and non-specific entrance exam sets on Portuguese students' large administrative dataset. My central finding is that, on average, universities with less specialised admission policies admit a pool of students who obtain a higher final GPA.
        %K job market
%K admission tests
%K university choice
%K general skills