Short-Term Events, Long-Term Friends?

Abstract

How does the formation of social connections at the beginning of college shape individuals’ subsequent academic performance? Exploiting quasi-random assignment to groups of a two-day freshman orientation program, I find that such brief social activities can be sufficient to generate lasting performance spillovers: being assigned to a peer group with one SD higher ability improves the academic performance of business administration students by 0.05 to 0.08 SD up to three years later. I provide evidence that the effects result from the formation of lasting social ties, and that performance spillovers are moderated by the broader social environment.