No, which is why I said that the free lunch effect may have affected the demographics of what would be expected of the typical applicant pool. Logically, if your chances of admittance are decreased because admittance is based on non-competitive factors such as race or ethnicity, one would assume it would deter people in the majority from applying. Add in the factor of scholarships that you will not receive and I can certainly see that having an effect. And yes, I understand that you can apply for the women, Latino, black and Asian scholarships if you aren't in those groups, but it is a barrier nonetheless.

At the same time, this has not deterred white females as being the largest demographic of applicants to elite colleges and as a result, having the lowest admittance rates. The only reason we even have a sense of that is due to lawsuits over the years. The same would be required to ever get a real sense of how this small program at United is selecting applicants, so it's really just academic. I don't see a very small group of young pilots-to-be banding together to file a class action, so it's more likely we'll never know unless the company sees it in their best interest to showcase that they are selecting the best of the applicants.