The Impact of Peer Mentorship on College Enrollment

Varied enrollment rates across the country have prompted admissions leaders to evaluate the efficacy of community-centric student support systems, such as peer mentorship, as a means of encouraging fall matriculation. To what degree does mentorship, specifically engagement with a mentor, affect enrollment rates and what student populations have the most to gain?

Mentor Collective’s network of more than 150 partner institutions positions our research team to gather crucial data in support of providing students with the tools and resources they need to transition into and be successful in higher education. This new white paper focuses on peer mentorship as an intervention to reduce “summer melt,” a phenomenon where students fail to enroll following acceptance into a higher education institution. The sample analyzed included 2,520 admitted first-year undergraduate students from five, four-year colleges and universities around the U.S. who utilized Mentor Collective programming on their campuses and provided enrollment data for the fall 2020 semester.

Read this paper to find out:

- How communicating with a peer mentor from April to September reduces a student’s likelihood to melt by 30%.

- How just 1-3 conversations with a peer mentor throughout the duration of the program reduces melt significantly for historically underserved racial and ethnic groups and first-generation students.

- How peer mentorship reduces melt propensity by 20%-36% for socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

- How effective peer mentorship can be facilitated virtually, saving institutions time and capital.