This study examined the effects of the MDUE admissions policy on African-American student Career Decision-Making and how these effects might be mediated by Self-Efficacy. The study's impetus is African-Americans' historical struggle for higher educational achievement, standard of living, and career goals (California Legislative Black Caucus, 2007; Lease, 2004). With education being considered "the great equalizer", having a college degree is a key requisite for success (Kneram, 2009; Judd & Flynn, 2007).

A series of voluntary and mandated interventions were identified as important correlates for academic success. Because of limited research on the role admission policies play in student success, university admissions policies, career decision-making, and self-efficacy served as the constructs for this study.

Using a two-treatment (two-group), one-shot case study, quasi-experimental design (Campbell & Stanley, 1963), self-identified African-American students were surveyed at two comparable UE and MDUE universities in the CSU system to investigate the following hypotheses: Career Decision-Making 1. The MDUE policy positively affects the Career Decision-Making of African-American students in the areas of Occupational Information, Goal Selection, and Planning. Scores for MDUE students on the Occupational Information, Goal Selection, and Planning subscales of the CDSE-SF should be statistically higher than the comparable scores for UE students. 2. The MDUE policy negatively affects the Problem-Solving skills of African-American students. Scores for MDUE students on the Problem-Solving subscale of the CDSE-SF should be statistically lower than the comparable scores for UE students. Self-Efficacy 3. The MDUE policy's effect on African-American student Career Decision-Making is mediated by the students' Self-Efficacy. Scores for MDUE students on the subscales of the CDSE-SF should be statistically different from the comparable scores for UE students when MDUE and UE scores on the Self-Appraisal subscale are taken into account.

While the study's findings show that the UE policy might be superior to the MDUE policy in terms of African-American student Career Decision-Making and that students' Self-Efficacy might mediate these policies' Career Decision-Making effects, serious flaws in the study's design compromised the study's internal and external validity.