College Course Shutouts

Kevin Mumford, Richard Patterson and Anthony Yim

No 33800, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: What happens when college students cannot enroll in the courses they want? Using conditional random assignment to oversubscribed courses at a large public university, we find that a course shutout reduces the probability that a student ever takes any course in the corresponding subject by 30%. Course shutouts are particularly disruptive for female students, reducing women's cumulative GPAs, probability of majoring in STEM, on-time graduation, and early-career earnings. In contrast, shutouts do not appear to be disruptive to male students' long-run outcomes, with one exception—shutouts significantly increase the probability that men choose a major from the business school.

JEL-codes: I23 J16 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05
Note: ED
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Working Paper: College Course Shutouts (2024)
Working Paper: College Course Shutouts (2024)
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