Abstract
As the transition into college can be a challenging time for many students, colleges have developed various campus resources to support them. Faculty members, being integral to the college experience, are uniquely positioned to influence student success, especially during the initial weeks. In this study, we aim to provide experimental evidence on the impact of early-semester student-faculty meetings on students' success at college. Our sample includes 920 students enrolled in 32 sections of mandatory principles-level economics and statistics classes, taught by 18 distinct faculty members. The treatment, delivered to a random subset of our sample, consists of an email from the respective instructor encouraging students to meet during office hours at the beginning of the semester. Using both administrative and survey data, we will evaluate the impact of the interventions on academic performance and wellbeing. We will estimate the intent-to-treat effect of the email intervention on academic outcomes and the average treatment effect of meeting on the treated using data on actual meetings.