@EdWorkingPaper{ai25-1363,
title = "More Often or Longer? The Effects of the Academic Schedule on Postsecondary Academic Outcomes",
author = "Valerie Bostwick, Tuan D. Nguyen",
institution = "Annenberg Institute at Brown University",
number = "1363",
year = "2025",
month = "December",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1363",
abstract = {One of the most common scheduling decisions in higher education is the determination of biweekly or triweekly classes. On the surface, these two formats are equivalent in terms of the number of minutes in a course (75 minutes twice a week or 50 minutes three times a week). However, the two structures may have different pros and cons for both students and faculty and it is ambiguous which course format should yield better student outcomes. We leverage more than a decade’s worth of administrative transcript data from a large public university in the Midwest to examine the effects of the academic schedule on postsecondary student outcomes. Across a range of model specifications employing department, faculty, course, and student fixed effects, we find that when a student enrolls in a triweekly class, they earn lower grades and are less likely to take a subsequent course in that same field. These effects are especially pronounced in the STEM fields, where we also find negative effects of the triweekly schedule on students’ eventual choice of major.},
}