A Longitudinal Study of the Relationship Between Early Undergraduate Research and Academic Outcomes in Computer Science

This paper reports on the longitudinal impacts of an inclusive, structured research experience program for early career undergraduates in computer science that engages a large number of students from minoritized groups. We compared academic performance and retention in the major for program participants at two large public research universities in the United States vs. a matched control group of demographically and academically similar students. We found that the retention rate of program participants was higher than the control at both universities, though not statistically significantly so. We found no significant difference in post-program GPA, and the program did not erase equity gaps in GPA by race and first generation status that existed before the program. These results help us understand the benefits and limitations of large-scale early research programs for increasing equity in computer science.