This week at the Applied Statistics Workshop we will be welcoming Cassandra Pattanayak, Director of the Quantitative Analysis Institute and lecturer at Wellesley College. She will be presenting work entitled Effects of Mentors and Advisors on Major Choice: A Naturally Re-Randomized Experiment and a Subclassified Observational Study.  Please find the abstract below and on the Applied Stats website here.

As usual, we will meet at noon in CGIS Knafel Room 354 and lunch will be provided.  See you all there!

Title: Effects of Mentors and Advisors on Major Choice: A Naturally Re-Randomized Experiment and a Subclassified Observational Study
Co-authored with Kelly Kung (Boston University)

Abstract:  We examine the effects of a peer mentor’s major and faculty advisor’s department on a student’s choice of major at a liberal arts women’s college. In particular, we study whether assignment to a peer mentor or faculty advisor from STEM v. non-STEM fields during the first year of college influences students’ choice to major in STEM v. non-STEM. Our approach to the mentoring component illustrates a novel application of rerandomization techniques to a natural experiment. The advising component is an observational study designed for causal inference via subclassification. Students’ STEM v. non-STEM choices did not appear to be affected by the STEM status of first year peer mentors or faculty advisors at this college.