Peer effects of on-campus students

Within Labor Economics, there is a growing literature on peer effect spillovers. Peer effects, in education, examine how a student’s characteristics or innate ability might affect the achievement outcomes of their peers. Within the peer effect literature in post-secondary education, peer groups are often examined within dormitories. The Kent State University dataset used is interesting. In this dataset, peer groups are defined within First Year Experience classrooms, which are mandatory courses taken by freshman students in their first semesters at KSU. First, we distinguish the differences between our two student groups of interest, off and on campus students. We find that there are distinct differences between the two student groups and that the proportion of a student’s class that is on-campus is insignificant for off-campus students. Given these differences, we will then analyze how the quality of student achievement outcomes might affect one another’s grade point average or retention outcomes.