As our university has changed its admissions policies to target more Pell-eligible students, we have admitted more students who attended high schools with limited advanced placement (AP) opportunities, who are among the first in their family to attend college, and who seem less quantitatively prepared. In addition, there is interest in recruiting economics majors from traditionally underrepresented groups. In response, we developed two, multi-week programs offered in the month before fall classes begin, to help both incoming first-year students prepare for introduction to microeconomics, and rising sophomore students prepare for intermediate microeconomics. Our contribution to economic education is primarily how to overcome the following challenges:
- How to identify the desired set of students, given that efforts to provide extra assistance to at-risk students may attract other students
- Providing incentives to attend (e.g., small classes, tailored advising, free or discounted room & board, tuition, course credit, and/or textbooks) subject to budget constraints
- Determining what material belongs in a time-constrained “microeconomic boot camp” and how it should be taught (e.g., to what degree should one reveal to students how s/he writes exams?)
- Attaining a balance between lectures, problem-solving sessions led by undergraduate and/or graduate student teaching assistants, evening homework, and practice or actual exams
- Creating a larger community of academic at-risk students (e.g., through joint social events with parallel programs in chemistry)
- Assessing whether the program is successful and how it might best evolve (e.g., how did BRIDGE students subsequently perform in the target courses?)