The Early Research Scholars Program: Analyzing Correlation with Academic Outcomes in Computer Science StudentsK12In-Person
This poster presents a study of the academic outcomes of students who participate in a structured early research program in CS at a large university in the United States. It is a follow-up to a 2019 study [2] that looked at both the qualitative and quantitative impacts of the year-long undergraduate computing research program. We investigated whether participation in the program improves the retention and academic outcomes of students in computing majors compared to a matched control group, and whether there are demographic differences in these outcomes. Our control group comprised students which matched each of the 190 program participants on admit year, department, GPA, and demographics. We found that participants were retained in computing at higher rates than the control group (95.6% vs 90.2%), though the difference was only statistically significant for women students (96.1% vs. 83.0%). The overall ATE of program participants on GPA was 0.083 grade points. Within the program, there was no significant improvement in post-program GPA distributions for minority participants compared to their peers. While most of the results were not statistically significant, there were quantitative differences between program participants and the control students. The trend in retention and post-program GPA favored students who participated in the program.