Opening the Black Box of Remote College Counseling using Text-as-Data
Many programs remotely disseminate information to students about the college application process, but there is little evidence as to how students engage with this information. This paper uses text-as-data methods to examine 400,000 text messages exchanged between remote college counselors and 15,000 low- and middle-income high school seniors. I show that students are seven to eight times more likely to have productive conversations with counselorsabout financial aid offers and financial aid applications than about college lists. These findings reveal the complexity that remote programs face in providing more personalized advice to students, as well as demonstrate how text-as-data methods can combine qualitative and quantitative analysis to generate useful information about how students substantively engage with large-scale educational programs.