A Study of Racial and Ethnic Differences1

During the formative adolescent years, peers ’ influence on students ’ educational outcomes and are among the most powerful social forces affecting youth behavior. Adolescent friendships are arguably even more important than parents, teachers, or counselors in guiding student behavior during this critical period and can have profound impacts on their educational trajectories. However, most studies assume that the influence of peers is uniform across groups, even though youth tend to self-segregate by race and ethnicity and empirical evidence suggests substantial heterogeneity in outcomes between groups. Using data from the Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project, we conduct a multilevel analysis of peer effects on the college applications of high school seniors of different racial and ethnic groups. We find that, compared to Black and White students, Latino students do not reap the same benefits from college bound friends and may face even greater obstacles to college attainment than previously expected. We discuss possible explanations for the weaker influence of peers on Latino students ’ college application and attainment outcomes as well as implications for school integration policies