The Correlates of College Effectiveness: Organizational Characteristics Associated With Bachelor's Degree Completion

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Abstract

Recent research has shown that some colleges are more successful than others in facilitating bachelor's degree (BA) completion, net of students' pre-college characteristics and the selection process into college. Yet the organizational mechanisms driving this variation remain unclear. This paper examines the relationship between 46 college characteristics and BA completion effectiveness. Using administrative data for 11 baccalaureate-granting colleges and data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I find that the racial composition and distribution of pre-college academic achievement are core explanations for differences in BA effectiveness. However, a variety of more malleable college attributes, including expenditures on student support and trajectories through STEM majors, also are closely related to BA effectiveness, often in ways unanticipated given the existing literature.

Author

• Christina Ciocca Eller, Harvard University