Cassandra Pattanayak (Wellesley) presents "Effects of Mentors and Advisors on Major Choice: A Naturally Re-Randomized Experiment and a Subclassified Observational Study"

We examine the effects of a peer mentor’s major and faculty advisor’s department on a student’s choice of major at a liberal arts women’s college. In particular, we study whether assignment to a peer mentor or faculty advisor from STEM v. non-STEM fields during the first year of college influences students’ choice to major in STEM v. non-STEM. Our approach to the mentoring component illustrates a novel application of rerandomization techniques to a natural experiment. The advising component is an observational study designed for causal inference via subclassification. Students’ STEM v. non-STEM choices did not appear to be affected by the STEM status of first year peer mentors or faculty advisors at this college.

Joint work with Kelly Kung (BU).