Late for the Meeting: Gender, Peer Advising, and College Success

47 Pages Posted: 1 Jun 2016

See all articles by Jimmy Ellis

Jimmy Ellis

American University

Seth Gershenson

American University - School of Public Affairs

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Abstract

Many male and first-generation college goers struggle in their first year of postsecondary education. Mentoring programs have been touted as a potential solution to help such students acclimate to college life, yet causal evidence on the impact of such programs, and the factors that influence participation in them, is scant. This study leverages a natural experiment in which peer advisors (PA) were quasi-randomly assigned to first-year university students to show that: (i) male students were significantly more likely to voluntarily meet their assigned PA when the PA was also male and (ii) these compliers were significantly more likely to persist into the second year of postsecondary schooling. We find no effect of being assigned to a same-sex PA on female students' use of the PA program, nor do we find any evidence that the PA program affected subsequent academic performance (GPAs).

Keywords: higher education, peer advising, mentoring, gender gap, retention, demographic mismatch

JEL Classification: I21, I23, I28

Suggested Citation

Ellis, Jimmy and Gershenson, Seth, Late for the Meeting: Gender, Peer Advising, and College Success. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9956, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2786040 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2786040

Jimmy Ellis (Contact Author)

American University ( email )

4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20016
United States

Seth Gershenson

American University - School of Public Affairs ( email )

4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
United States

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