Exploring Variation in College Counselor Effectiveness

Abstract

Several recent studies have investigated the impact of college advising on whether students enter and succeed in postsecondary education. These papers generally find positive impacts from advising, yet few explore the extent of heterogeneity in impacts between program counselors. We take advantage of quasi-random counselor assignment to explore variation and correlates of college counselor effectiveness using rich administrative data on adviser-advisee interactions from a multisite randomized control trial of a college advising program. Large overall effects on college enrollment from the advising intervention are consistent across counselors; there is little relationship between counselor characteristics or behaviors and student outcomes.