ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the effects of assignment to a one-year college preparatory program on academic performance in college. We use a large dataset of United States Naval Academy students from the 1988 to 2018 graduating classes, of which a little over 22% received remediation. Exploiting the Academy's unique admissions criteria, we instrument for pre-college treatment using the number and quality of other applicants originating from the same Congressional district. We find that these pre-college programs promote significant but short-lived improvements in academic grades. They also can encourage students to choose STEM-oriented majors, and promote retention by lowering voluntary exits.

摘要

本文分析了分配到一年制大学预科课程对大学学业成绩的影响。我们使用了美国海军学院 1988 年至 2018 年毕业班学生的大型数据集，其中略高于 22% 的学生接受了补习。利用学院独特的招生标准，我们利用来自同一国会选区的其他申请人的数量和质量来进行大学预科治疗。我们发现这些大学预科课程促进了学术成绩的显着但短暂的提高。他们还可以鼓励学生选择面向 STEM 的专业，并通过降低自愿退出来促进保留。