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Big Fish, Small Pond: The Effect of Rank at Entry on Postsecondary Outcomes
Author(s) -
Payne A. Abigail,
Smith Justin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/soej.12420
Subject(s) - ranking (information retrieval) , rank (graph theory) , fish <actinopterygii> , educational attainment , percentage point , higher education , point (geometry) , psychology , statistics , demography , demographic economics , medical education , mathematics education , economics , computer science , mathematics , medicine , sociology , fishery , biology , economic growth , combinatorics , geometry , machine learning
We study whether a student's rank in her program of study in university affects short‐ and longer‐term educational outcomes. Using student‐level administrative data from four universities across many cohorts, we show that ranking higher compared to students in the same program in the same year has a positive effect on grade point average and lowers the probability of switching programs at the end of the first year, but has small effects on credit completion, departures, and degree attainment. Our results suggest that being the big fish in the small pond produces moderate advantages in higher education.