A university admissions system

This paper presents a mathematical programming model that will make admit/reject decisions for applicants to a university freshman class.The model is intended to aid (rather than replace) reviewers and will help produce better and more consistent decisions. It also provides a university administration with some control over “balance” in the composition of the student body and allows investigation of the consequences of alternative admission policies.The nature of the problem suggests an integer programming formulation, however it is shown that a linear programming formulation will provide an efficient and practical solution for all but a very small set of applicants (no more than 19).