We study how colleges shape their students' voting habits by linking millions of SAT takers to their college-enrollment and voting histories. To begin, we show that the fraction of students from a particular college who vote varies systematically by the college's attributes (e.g. increasing with selectivity) but also that seemingly similar…

Utilizing course grade data from 22 four-year higher education institutions, this study highlights the trends in first-year grade point average (FYGPA) between the 2017-2018 and 2021-2022 academic years, the period immediately before and after the pandemic disrupted both K12 and higher education. Results showed that while FYGPAs generally…

Financing college expenses through an income share agreement (ISA) is an arrangement where the student agrees to pay a fixed percentage of future earned income for a designated period of time in exchange for college funding. Using administrative and survey data for all eligible applicants to a university ISA program, I estimate the adverse…

Traditionally, a college grade point average (GPA) of 2.00 or higher has signified that a student has made acceptable academic progress and avoided academic probation. However, having a 3.00 or higher has signified a level of success that is often required for admission to graduate school, maintaining a scholarship or enrollment in an honors…

Recent national research on the validity of the SAT shows that students with higher SAT scores are more likely to earn higher grades in college, and that SAT scores add about 15% more predictive power above high school grade point average (HSGPA) to estimate students' college performance (Westrick, Marini, Young, Ng, Shmueli, & Shaw, 2019).…

To demonstrate the sequential nature of the college application process, in this paper I analyze the evolution of applications among high-achieving low-income students through data on the exact timing of SAT score sends. I describe at what point students send scores to colleges and which score sends ultimately become applications, resulting in…

Many of the numbers used to assess students are statistical in nature. The theoretical context underlying the production of a typical number or statistic used in student assessment is presented. The author urges readers to recognize objective data as subjective information and to carefully consider the numbers that often determine admission,…

Family and social networks are widely believed to influence important life decisions but identifying their causal effects is notoriously difficult. Using admissions thresholds that directly affect older but not younger siblings' college options, we present evidence from the United States, Chile, Sweden and Croatia that older siblings' college and…

This paper presents the results of a national validity study examining relationships between new SAT Essay scores and first semester grades in English and writing courses, as well as first-year grade point average (FYGPA) in college. The sample includes more than 180,000 first-year students across 171 four-year institutions. Results show that…

In May 2019, College Board published the first national operational SAT® validity study on the new SAT introduced in 2016. Based on data from more than 221,000 students across 169 four-year colleges and universities, the study showed that the SAT was essentially as effective as high school grades in predicting students' college performance and…

Most enrollment management systems today use historical data to build rough forecasts of what percentage of students will likely accept an offer of enrollment based on historical acceptance rates. While this aggregate forecast method has its uses, we propose that building an enrollment model based on predicting an individual's likelihood of…

Only half of SAT-takers retake the exam, with even lower retake rates among low income and underrepresented minority (URM) students. We exploit discontinuous jumps in retake probabilities at multiples of 100, driven by left-digit bias, to estimate retaking's causal effects. Retaking substantially improves SAT scores and increases four-year college…

Students who double major have higher earnings and are more satisfied with their educational experience in college than those who graduate with a single major. In this study, the authors examine the extent to which a student's experience with academic acceleration programs in high school, specifically successful participation in the Advanced…

Learning outcomes assessment has been widely used by higher education institutions both nationally and internationally. One of its popular uses is to document learning gains of students. Prior studies have recognized the potential imbalance between freshmen and seniors in terms of their background characteristics and their prior academic…

Colleges are increasingly interested in identifying the factors that maximize their enrollment. These factors allow enrollment management administrators to identify the applicants who have higher tendency to enroll at their institutions and accordingly to better allocate their money rewards (i.e., scholarship and financial aid). In this paper we…