Dissertation Proposal Defense - Lovenoor Aulck
You are cordially invited to join us for the Dissertation Proposal Defense of Lovenoor Aulck, to be held on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Allen Auditorium. Below, you will find the dissertation proposal abstract and the Supervisory Committee.
Title: From enrollment through graduation: Leveraging institutional data to examine the freshman experience using supervised machine learning and causal inference methods
Abstract:
Institutions of higher education are constantly collecting student-centric data, be it application information, transcript records, or graduation histories. Despite this wealth of data, traditional institutions (i.e. institutions where learning is primarily on campus) are often limited by infrastructure and personnel in their ability to transform this data into useful information to make data-informed decisions. In this work, I use machine learning and econometric techniques to leverage data that is routinely collected at traditional institutions of higher education to improve system processes and better understand student dynamics. First-year, first-time students tend to face numerous challenges as they transition to post-secondary education and, as a case study, I examine two phases of their academic careers: their enrollment decision prior to starting their college education and their first year on campus as they adjust to college life and work towards graduation. In all, this work demonstrates how data-centric techniques can be utilized by academic institutions and contributes to long-standing education theory on post-secondary enrollment, acclimation, and persistence.
Supervisory Committee:
- Jevin D West, Chair
- Min Sun, GSR
- Emma Stuart Spiro
- Joshua Blumenstock