ERIC Number: ED616652
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Oct
Pages: 56
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
College Advising at a National Scale: Experimental Evidence from the CollegePoint Initiative. EdWorkingPaper No. 19-123
Sullivan, Zach; Castleman, Ben; Lohner, Gabrielle; Bettinger, Eric
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
In-person college advising programs generate large improvements in college persistence and success for low-income students but face numerous barriers to scale. Remote advising models offer a promising strategy to address informational and assistance barriers facing the substantial majority of low-income students who do not have access to community-based advising, yet the existing evidence base on the efficacy of remote advising is limited. We present a comprehensive, multi-cohort experimental evaluation of CollegePoint, a national remote college advising program for high-achieving low- and moderate-income students. Students assigned to CollegePoint are modestly more likely (1.3 percentage points) to attend higher-quality institutions. Results from mechanism experiments we conducted within CollegePoint indicate that moderate changes to the program model, such as a longer duration of advising and modest expansions of the pool of students academically eligible to participate, do not lead to larger program effects. We also capitalize on across-cohort variation in whether students were affected by COVID-19 to investigate whether social distancing required by the pandemic increased the value of remote advising. CollegePoint increased attendance at higher-quality institutions by 3.2 percentage points for the COVID-19-affected cohort.
Descriptors: Academic Advising, College Applicants, Low Income Students, COVID-19, Pandemics, Program Effectiveness, Computer Mediated Communication, Program Evaluation, Enrollment
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: AISR_Info@brown.edu; Web site: http://www.annenberginstitute.org
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Identifiers - Location: Tennessee
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A