High-School Math Courses and Completion of the Bachelor's Degree‪.‬

Using a national longitudinal sample of 5,257 young people who were pursuing the bachelor's degree, we studied how credits in intensive high school mathematics courses affected their completion versus noncompletion of the degree. Finishing one unit in any of four intensive math courses more than doubled the likelihood that participants would later complete the bachelor's degree. Effects were present above and beyond the effects of background variables, including early math ability. Implications of findings are presented. **********