Abstract: Within the last decade, many Chinese provinces have transitioned from the ‘sequential’ to the ‘parallel’ college admissions mechanisms. We show that all of the provinces that have abandoned the sequential mechanism have moved towards less manipulable and more stable mechanisms. Furthermore, Tibet implements the least manipulable parallel mechanism, whereas Beijing, Gansu and Shangdong have adopted the most manipulable versions. In the laboratory, participants are most likely to reveal their preferences truthfully under the DA mechanism, followed by the parallel and then the sequential mechanisms. While stability comparisons follow the same order, efficiency comparisons vary across environments. Keywords: college admissions, school choice, sequential mechanism, Chinese parallel mechanism, deferred acceptance, experiment