New research presented at the American Economic Association conference this month suggests mentoring, even near the end of high school, can push students to go on to college.
New Hampshire high school seniors met weekly with college students until their college and financial-aid applications had been filed. Women and recent immigrants of both sexes who participated in the mentoring were 24 percentage points more likely to attend college the following year than the school average, and 12 percentage points more likely to do so than students who had expressed interest in the program but did not participate.