Identifying Pre-Collegiate Determinants of College Performance Over a Student's College Career for Public Broad-Access Four-Year Institutions

With national calls for more students to obtain a postsecondary degree, it is essential to have a deeper understanding of what factors might predict a student's success in college. In this study, I analyze the relationship between a student's pre-college determinants (specifically demographic characteristics and academic preparation) and their academic performance over their college career at California's public broad-access four-year institutions---the California State University (CSU). To examine this relationship I conducted my analysis using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) with clustered standard errors at the institutional level to account for unobserved heterogeneity between campuses. I find strong correlational evidence that, on average, academic preparation and some background characteristics are significant determinants of college GPA over a student's college career. Additionally I examine how this relationship varies by college major.