@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp18171,
            	author={Blanden, Jo and Cassagneau-Francis, Oliver and Macmillan, Lindsey and Wyness, Gill},
            	title={Private Highs: Investigating University Overmatch Among Students from Elite Schools},
            	year={2025},
	month={Oct},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={18171},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18171},
	abstract={Inequality in college attendance is a key driver of intergenerational mobility. We focus upstream to examine how elite high-schools – specifically UK private (feepaying) schools – shape university destinations across the achievement distribution. Using linked-administrative data, we show the main advantage conferred by private schools is not access to elite colleges for their best students, but that lower-achieving students are more likely to ‘overmatch’: lower-achieving pupils from private schools enrol in university courses around 15 percentiles higher ranked than similarly qualified state-school students. Examining mechanisms, we show that this overmatch is driven largely by differences in application behaviour.},
	keywords={private schools;higher education;educational economics;college choice;mismatch},
            }