The Effect of Student–Advisor Match on Retention and Performance
Evidence from Random Assignment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21752151 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexei Karas (0000-0002-6149-1208, Roosevelt University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Research in Higher Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1573-188X • E-ISSN: 0361-0365 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11162-026-09900-x |
| OpenAlex | W4401706227 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 36 |
How should colleges assign students to academic advisors? I address this question using administrative data from a small Dutch liberal arts college in which faculty advisors are randomly assigned to students. I estimate how advisor–student matching on three characteristics, namely academic department, origin, and gender, affects student grades, academic standing, and exit. I find that matching on academic department has beneficial effects, whereas matching on origin and gender does not. I interpret these results through the similarity-attraction paradigm, treating department, origin, and gender as proxies for deep-level, experiential, and surface-level similarity, respectively. The findings suggest that disciplinary proximity is a more important dimension of advisor–student similarity than shared demographic background and that advisor assignment can be used as a low-cost tool to improve student success
Random assignment · Statistics · Accounting Education and Careers · Computer Science · Evaluation of Teaching Practices · Innovations in Educational Methods · Mathematics · Psychology
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |