Code for Advisor Value-Added and Student Outcomes: Evidence from Randomly Assigned College Advisors

This paper provides the first causal evidence on the impact of college advisor quality on student outcomes. To do so, we exploit a unique setting where students are randomly assigned to faculty advisors during their first year of college. We estimate advisor valued-added (VA) based on students’ first-year course grades. We find that having a higher grade VA advisor reduces time to complete freshman year and increases four-year graduation rates by 2.5 percentage points. It also raises high-ability students' likelihood of enrolling and graduating with a STEM degree by 4 percentage points. The magnitudes of our estimated effects are comparable to those from successful financial aid programs and proactive coaching interventions. We also show that non-grade measures of advisor VA predict student success. In particular, advisors who are effective at improving students’ persistence and major choice also boost other college outcomes. Our results indicate that allocating resources towards improving the quality of academic advising may play a key role in promoting college success.