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UNIVERSITE DE LAUSANNE ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES COMMERCIALES Macroeconomic Modelling Determinants of Academic Performance of HEC-Lausanne Graduates Awa Sakho Urién 1 June, 2003 Professor: Jean-Christian Lambelet Assistant: Alexander Mihailov 1 I am grateful to all the former students who kindly accepted to fill in the questionnaire in which this study is based, as well as to all the people working in HEC-Lausanne who contributed to make this project possible.

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Page 1: Determinants of Academic Performance of HEC-Lausanne Graduates · Determinants of Academic Performance of ... mother tongue, ... we measure the academic performance of HEC-Lausanne

UNIVERSITE DE LAUSANNE

ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES COMMERCIALES

Macroeconomic Modelling

Determinants of Academic Performance of

HEC-Lausanne Graduates

Awa Sakho Urién1

June, 2003

Professor: Jean-Christian Lambelet

Assistant: Alexander Mihailov

1 I am grateful to all the former students who kindly accepted to fill in the questionnaire in which this study is based, as well as to all the people working in HEC-Lausanne who contributed to make this project possible.

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Abstract

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence of the determinants of academic

performance for the case of HEC-Lausanne graduates. It analyses econometrically the

relationship between different variables and the average grade obtained during the

licence studies by 156 students. Our findings suggest that a large number of different

factors related with the personal and family background, with the work and study

discipline and with the type of degree interact together in order to explain the variation

of HEC students’ performance.

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1. Introduction

What are the main determinants of academic performance in the specific case of

HEC-Lausanne graduates? In fact, if we think about why some students perform better

than others many ideas come to our mind: is it because they study more? Or because

they have a higher capacity to learn? Or maybe, the personal background, way of life

and environment of the student can also favour his/her performance?

By providing empirical evidence, this study tries to identify whether there exist

specific objective factors explaining the variation in students’ achievement and also to

look at the comparative importance of these factors. The set of variables considered can

be classified in four main categories: 1)own student’s characteristics, 2)family related

characteristics, 3)characteristics related to the study and work discipline during the

university years, 4)type of degree in which the student was enrolled. Therefore, this

paper attempts to see if the variables included in each of these four groups are

significant factors underlying the students’ academic performance, and to evaluate their

relative weight.

Our empirical analysis is based on individual survey data. In fact, we have

conducted a survey among a random sample of former HEC-Lausanne students.

This survey allowed us to compile the required information about the above-mentioned

characteristics.

By giving an in-depth analysis of the determinants of graduates’ success, we

hope that the results of this study can be of interest for HEC-Lausanne in its permanent

goal of improving the education offered to the students’ community.

The paper is organised into six main parts. In the next section, we will review

the literature that has previously analysed the role of different factors in student’s

achievement. In section 3, we will provide a description of the data that we used. Then,

we will present our econometric model. After this, we will describe and analyse the

results and finally in section 6, we will offer our conclusions.

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2. Literature Review

Numerous studies have analysed the factors behind the performance of students.

Identifying the variables that influence the achievement of young individuals at school,

high school or university is of great importance for two different communities. On one

hand, it is an essential tool for the public authorities in charge of the definition of

optimal and efficient education policies. On the other hand, this kind of analysis can

help the educational institutions to improve the quality of their programmes. Also, some

authors have suggested that there is a relationship between the performance of students

during their university studies and their future earnings.

In this direction, the OECD conducted in 2000 a Programme for International

Student Assessment (PISA 2000): “Knowledge and Skills for Life”. It is an

international study (32 countries) assessing the performance of young students at age 15

in three main domains: reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy.

PISA also collected from these students information about their background and

institutional factors. As a consequence, the study gives an extremely rich set of results

that are used by researchers as well as by policy-makers in order to better understand

what determines different levels of performance in education.

For instance, Fertig and Schmidt (2002) used the PISA 2000 study in order to

analyse econometrically the relationship between the national reading test scores and

the family, school and class characteristics of the 15-year-old students. They conclude

that students from many countries (like for example, Finland, Korea and Australia)

show a performance statistically significant better than students from the US. They also

found evidence that being a female, having both parents working, living in an intact

family and a high level of parental education are factors positively related with the

reading test scores.

Other authors have been interested in finding the variables explaining the

variation in academic performance for university students. Betts and Morell (1998) try

to identify the determinants of undergraduate success using as a measure the Grade

Point Average (GPA). Their results suggest that factors like gender, ethnicity, and

family income as well as the socio-economic environment of the school have an

important role in explaining why students obtain different GPA.

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Also, Stricker and Rock (1995) conduct a similar analysis by assessing the

impact of the examinees’ initial characteristics (gender, ethnicity, parental education,

geographic region and age), college-related characteristics and college-related

performance variables in the performance on the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE)

General Test. They found that the students' initial characteristics have a modest impact

on the GRE results and among them parental education is the most significant. On the

contrary, the college-related characteristics (major, institutional quality and research

university) seem to have a more important role in explaining the difference in GRE

scores among students.

The common point of our study and previous research is that we aim to analyse

the relationship between the academic achievement of HEC-Lausanne graduates and

their background characteristics. Besides these factors, the present study examines

whether different variables related with the study and work discipline are determinants

of the performance of HEC-Lausanne students.

3. Data

The data employed in this study are the result of a survey: we sent a multiple-

choice questionnaire to a random sample of former HEC-Lausanne students (the

questionnaire can be found at the end of the appendix). This sample included licence

students, who finalized their studies after 1994 and who are currently members of the

“Association des Gradués HEC”. The respondents are asked about different aspects of

their socio-economic and demographic characteristics such as gender, age, canton of

residence at the beginning of the university studies, mother tongue, socio-professional

status and education of the parents2, source of finance of their university studies.

Moreover, other questions ask about how often the respondent used to go to the

university library, to use the internet, or to do personal research and about the

professional experience during the university years. Finally, the participants are asked to

specify in which degree they were enrolled (management, economics, actuarial science,

computer science in management) and give their average grade obtained at the end of

their licence studies. The last question ask the respondents if they agree to give their

2 Education levels 1: compulsory school; 2: compulsory school and vocational training (e.g. apprentissage); 3: maturité, baccalauréat or equivalent diploma; 4: university graduate; 5: post graduate degree.

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authorisation in order to check with the university files the average grade obtained. The

questionnaire was sent to 589 former HEC-Lausanne graduates, among which 163

completed the questionnaire, i.e. the response rate was 27.6%. However, we were not

able to use all the 163 questionnaires as 7 of them were not correctly completed. As a

consequence we used the questionnaires of 156 former HEC-Lausanne graduates. It is

worth mentioning, that among the 156 respondents, 18 of them refused to give their

authorisation to check their average grade with the university files and 16 of them forgot

to answer this question. In these cases we used the grade provided by the respondent. As

a consequence, we were able to compare the average score from the questionnaire with

the one of the university files for 122 former students. This comparison allowed us to

see that in most of the cases the average grade provided in the questionnaire was very

close to the real one. This shows that most of the people who gave their average score of

licence studies in the questionnaire remembered it with good accuracy. Moreover, the

majority of the respondents tend to approximate their average grade by rounding it (e.g.

if they had a 7.3, they said in the questionnaire that they had a 7). Also, among the 156

questionnaires, 38 persons answered that they could not remember their grade but gave

the authorisation to check it in the university files.

In fact, it is interesting to look at the descriptive statistics of the obtained dataset

(table 1 in the appendix). Almost 30% of the students were women, most have French

as their mother tongue (80%), half of them lived with their parents during their

university studies and almost all of them financed their studies mainly or partially

thanks to their parents (94%). The largest majority of the respondents were enrolled in a

management degree (80%) and slightly more than half of them had some kind of

professional experience during the university studies. It is also striking to see that only

21% of the respondents used the university library very often and 14% of them did

frequently personal research. However, the fact that 43% of former HEC-Lausanne

students recognize to use very often internet, leads us to think that maybe internet is

used as a research tool and thus becoming a substitute for the library research.

Finally, we measure the academic performance of HEC-Lausanne graduates

with the average grade obtained during the licence studies. The average grade ranges

from 6 (parity grade) to 10. The mean average grade in our sample is 7.34 and the

median 7.7.

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Chart: Distribution of average grade

0%2%4%

6%8%

10%12%

14%16%18%

6.3

6.6

6.8 7 7.

27.

47.

67.

8 8 8.2

8.4

8.6

average grade

per

cen

tag

e o

f st

ud

ents

Source: Questionnaire, Number of observations: 156.

4. Econometric Models

The main purpose of this paper is to identify what objective factors determine the

academic performance of HEC students and to evaluate their relative importance. More

precisely, we want to see whether the initial characteristics, the family related

characteristics, the work and study related variables or the type of degree are factors

explaining the variation of students’ success, and if this is the case, to evaluate their

relative weight. As a consequence our dependent variable is the average grade obtained

by the student during his university years on a scale of 6 to 10 (6 is the minimum

average grade a student can get in order to graduate). We use a Tobit model (Tobin,

1958) because the dependent variable is limited in its range: with lower limit 6 and

upper limit 10. The specification of our model is as follows:

Y =X �

Where:

� Y is our dependent variable, the average grade obtained for the licence

studies

� c is the constant

� is the vector of the coefficients of the explanatory variables

� X is the vector of the explanatory variables

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� is the error term.

From the information contained in the constructed database, we obtain our set of

explanatory variables, which can be classified in four main categories (table 2 in the

appendix gives a detailed description of all the variables):

1. Own initial and demographic characteristics: gender, mother tongue, canton

of residence at the beginning of the university studies, age.

2. Family related characteristics: parents employment situation, level of

education and socio-professional status of the parents, source of finance of

the studies, parental co-living status.

3. Study and work discipline related characteristics: type of

Maturité/Baccalauréat, use of the university library, use of internet resources,

class attendance, professional experiences during the studies (internship,

assistantship, others), personal research, membership in students’

organisation.

4. Type of degree: management, economics, actuarial sciences, and computer

sciences in management.

All the explanatory variables except age are dummy variables.

The questionnaire provides us with a very large number of independent variables.

As a consequence, we believe that the best strategy to follow is a top-down procedure.

In other words, we will start by including all the 68 explanatory variables in our

regression (model 1) and we will reduce progressively the number of independent

variables by doing a stepwise selection (models 2, 3 and 4). The stepwise selection

removes from the model the variables with a p-value larger than a specified significance

level.

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5. Results

As we mentioned in the previous part, we start by including all the 68 independent

variables in our regression. The obtained results (model 1, table 4 in appendix) look

overall satisfactory: the pseudo R2 is 52% and although some variables are far from

being significant, it seems that we have a good number (22) of independent variables

which are significant at a 10% level.

The next step is to reduce our model using a stepwise selection. We choose 20% as

the significance level for removal from the model. The resulting model (model 2, table 5

in appendix) shows also a high pseudo R2 at 44%, i.e. the model explains 44% of the

variation of the dependent variable and the rest of the variation is explained by very

specific factors. With the stepwise selection we have removed 33 variables, and

therefore we obtain a model with 35 variables. Looking at the p-values, we can observe

that almost all the explanatory are significant at a 10% level. In fact, only three of them

are not significant at a 10% level. Moreover, if we restrict ourselves to a significance

level of 5%, 10 variables have a p-value above this level. As a consequence, the results

of model 2 are quite satisfactory in terms of significance.

We have also removed these variables, which are not significant at a 10% and at a

5% level (models 3 and 4, tables 6 and 7 in the appendix) in order to see if the model is

improved. However, we notice that the pseudo R2 is in both cases lower (41% and 31%

respectively) suggesting that the removal of these variables does not provide a better

explanation of the variation of the average grade obtained by HEC-Lausanne graduates.

Thus, we will focus on model 2 and we will interpret the results looking at each

category of independent variables separately:

Own initial characteristics

First, we observe that students whose mother tongue is French perform significantly

better. Given the fact that the large majority of the licence courses is given in French

and that most of the material is in this language, it is an obvious advantage to have this

language as mother tongue. It is interesting to see, that the variables “Spanish mother

tongue” and “English mother tongue” are significant as well, but with different signs.

According to our results, the students whose mother tongue is Spanish perform better

and the students whose mother tongue is English perform worse which may be

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surprising. One possible explanation of this finding, is that Spanish is more similar to

French than English and hence, Spanish speaking students might experience less

difficulties with French. Secondly, the canton of residence at the beginning of the

university studies is not statistically significant, which implies that the students adapt

themselves easily to a new environment. Thirdly, the average grade obtained by HEC-

Lausanne students declines with the age at which the student started his/her licence

studies. In fact, students leaving a long time between the end of the high school and the

beginning of the university studies, will probably forget more of what they have learned

at school and high school. This is likely to be an disadvantage with respect to the

students who go straight to the university after obtaining their maturité/baccalauréat and

therefore who do not need to “refresh their memories”. However, contrary to previous

studies (Stricker and Rock, 1995; Betts and Morell, 1998) we have not been able to find

evidence of a relationship between academic performance and gender.

Family related characteristics

Regarding, the parents’ employment situation, we perceive that there exists a

significantly positive correspondence between the fact that the mother is retired and the

academic achievement of HEC-Lausanne students. If the mother is retired, it means that

she has previously worked and therefore this can represent an example to follow for the

students and increase their motivation at university. However, it is worth mentioning

that in our sample only 1% of the students’ mothers are retired, and therefore, the result

that we found might just be a coincidence. On the contrary, students whose father is

retired or works only part time obtain a lower average grade. In all the cases, if the

mother or the father is not alive, it tend to have a negative impact on the performance of

the student.

Among all the variables related to parental education, the only ones that are

statistically significant are the ones “father level of education 3” and “father level of

education 4”. In fact, it seems that students with a father who completed the

maturité/baccalaureat or/and graduated from a university perform significantly worse.

We were not expecting this result, as previous studies have shown that a higher level of

parental education affects positively the performance of students. A possible

explanation of this result could be that students whose father have a high education

level are less motivated because for them going to the university is a “normal” step after

their high school studies, i.e. they do not see the university studies as a new challenge.

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Therefore their level of effort will be lower than for someone who sees the fact of going

to university as an opportunity that not everyone can have. The results also suggest that

in the case of our sample, the mother’s level of education is not relevant or can not be

identified in our sample.

Although these results are somehow surprising, we want to stress the fact that our

findings may be related to the specific sample at hand.

Looking at the results, we also see that the variables “mother employee” and “father

employee” display a significantly positive coefficient estimate. More interesting is the

significant positive link between having a father who is Executive/manager or who is

self employed (artisan, retail trader, company manager) and the average grade obtained.

If the student’s father is an executive or a manager, the socio-economic status of his/her

family is likely to be high. This implies that students with high parental income perform

better. However, we can think another type of explanation: individuals who are

executives, managers or self-employed have usually a high entrepreneurial spirit, i.e.

they have initiative and a highly motivated attitude for what they do. This can exert a

positive influence on the student, if he/she sees his/her father as a model to follow.

Model 2 also shows that there is a negative link between the fact that the student

only lives with his/her father and the academic performance during the university

studies. Similarly, the PISA survey shows that 15 years old students living in single-

parent families tend to perform less well than their peers.

It is also very interesting to notice that studies financed by parents is negatively

related with the academic performance whereas the financing through a loan, a

scholarship or/and own gains of the student is positively related and significant. A

possible explanation of this result is that students who depend on a loan, a scholarship

and/or on their own gains are more aware of the economic cost, including the

opportunity cost, involved in studying for a university degree and therefore their efforts

tend to be higher than those exerted by students who depend financially on their parents.

Study and work discipline

Having a Maturité/Baccalauréat in economics or in languages3 exhibits a

significantly positive correspondence with academic success, suggesting that these

3 The variable Maturité/Baccalauréat in languages includes the variables “maturité moderne” and “maturité Latin”.

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types of diplomas prepare the students better in order to study one of the four degrees

offered at HEC-Lausanne (management, economics, actuarial science and computer

science in management).

A low course attendance has a significant and negative coefficient estimate. This

supports the idea that class attendance plays a relevant role in the learning process as it

contributes to a better understanding of the subjects treated and allows for an interaction

between the student and the teachers and also between the student and his/her peers.

With regard to the professional experiences of the student, we observe that having

some professional experience before entering the university and/or during the university

studies has a significantly positive effect on the academic success of the student.

However, if the student does both internships and has other jobs during his/her studies,

the sign of the coefficient associated to this variable is negative. The results suggest that

having some contact with the labour market during and before the university years is

positive. Nonetheless an excess of working experience during the university years can

also impact the academic performance negatively, probably because it reduces the time

dedicated to study.

Repeating a year is a highly significant predictor of a lower average grade. Also, all

the variables related with the use of the internet are negatively associated with the

academic performance.

Type of degree

Finally, the average grade obtained can also depend on the type of degree in which

the student is enrolled. Looking at the results we detect that students enrolled in

actuarial science tend to have higher average grade, whereas among management

students the academic performance is lower.

We have used a Tobit model because we have a limited dependent variable.

However, we do not have many observations close to the limits, i.e. in our sample only

a few cases have average grade close to 6 and none of the students has an average grade

very close to 10. Under these circumstances, even though the Tobit approach is the

theoretically correct one to use, OLS yields the same results (Tables 8, 9, 10 in the

appendix). In fact the OLS estimated coefficients are exactly the same than the ones

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obtained using the Tobit estimation. However, the standard errors are higher in the OLS

case, and therefore we can conclude that OLS is less efficient than Tobit.

After analysing these results, the next question is: among all the significant variables

which ones are the most important? In order to answer to this question, we ����������� �

coefficients4, i.e. the coefficient estimate from a regression in which the variables have

been standardized. We use this coefficient to measure the relative strength of the

explanatory variables in influencing the regressand. The results are shown in table 8.

We can observe that among all the variables the one that has the strongest influence in

the average grade obtained is having a father who is Executive/manager. Apart from this

variable, having French as one’s mother tongue, studying actuarial science and having

an internship experience during the university studies are the variables with a strongest

impact on the academic performance of HEC-Lausanne students.

6. Conclusions

The existing literature trying to identify the determinants of university students’

performance, focuses on personal background characteristics, college related

characteristics and the degree in which the student is enrolled. However, this paper also

includes variables related to the type of study and work discipline of the students.

Our empirical analysis based on an individual data level survey for the specific case

of HEC-Lausanne graduates, leads to the following conclusions. First of all, we observe

that most of our 35 explanatory variables, belong to the category of family related

characteristics. Secondly, the variable father Executive/manager or self-employed is the

one with the strongest influence on the average grade of HEC-Lausanne students.

Another interesting feature is that the self-financed studies through own gains, a loan

and/or a scholarship is positively and significantly related with the academic

achievement of the students whereas financial support by the parents exhibits a negative

effect. Finally, a Maturité/Baccalauréat in economics or in languages, class attendance,

and the acquisition of some professional experience during and/or during university

studies, have a significant and positive impact on the score of HEC students. It is worth

4 = (estimated coefficient*standard error of the explanatory variable)/ standard error of the dependent variable

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mentioning that the size of our sample or its characteristics might explain why in some

cases we do not find the results that we expected.

It would be of great interest to replicate this analysis with a sample including not

only graduates, but also students who did not finish their licence studies.

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REFERENCES

� Betts, Julian R. and Morell, Darlene (1998) The Determinants of Undergraduate

Grade Point Average: The Relative Importance of Family Background, High

School Resources, and Peer Group Effects. The Journal of Human Resources,

34, 268-293.

� Fertig, Michael and Schmidt, Christoph M. (2002) The Role of Background

Factors for Reading Literacy: Straight National Scores in the PISA 2000 Study.

� Greene, William H. (2003) Econometric Analysis, Fifth Edition. Prentice Hall.

� Kennedy, Peter (1998) A guide to Econometrics, Fourth Edition, Blackwell.

� Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2002)

Knowledge and Skills for Life: First Results from PISA 2000. Paris.

� Stricker, Lawrence J. and Rock, Donald A. (1995) Examinee Background

Characteristics and GRE General Test Performance. Intelligence, 21, 49-6.

� Tobin, J. (1958) Estimation for Relationships for Limited Dependent Variables.

Econometrica, 26, 24-36

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APPENDIX

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics Females 28% Socio-professional status of the mother

French mother tongue 79% Agricultural worker 1%

Type of Maturité/Baccalauréat Self-employed worker 8%

Maturité/Baccalauréat in sciences 29% Executive/manager 6%

Maturité/Baccalauréat in econonomics 59% «Profession libérale» 3%

Maturité/Baccalauréat in Latin 7% Employee 34%

Maturité/Baccalauréat in modern languages 5% Worker 1%

Canton of residence before studies Retired 1%

Canton Vaud 58% Mother not employed 46%

French speaking part of Switzerland 13% Mother not alive 1%

German speaking part of Switzerland 12% Socio-professional status of the father

Ticino 4% Agricultural worker 3%

Bilingual part of Switzerland5 10% Self-employed worker 16%

Abroad 3% Executive/manager 39%

Parents employment situation «Profession libérale» 7%

Mother working full time 29% Employee 22%

Mother working part time 24% Worker 4%

Mother not employed 46% Retired 4%

Mother not alive 1% Father not employed 7%

Father working full time 88% Father not alive 2%

Father working part time 3% Work and study discipline characteristics

Father not employed 7% Used UNIL library very often 21%

Father not alive 2% Used UNIL library often 34%

Live with both parents 50% Hardly ever used UNIL library 30%

Live with the father 1% Never used UNIL library 15%

Live with the mother 6% Used the internet often 43%

Finance source of university studies Did personal research very often 14%

Parents (mainly and/or partially) 94% Did personal research often 34%

Own gains, scholarship and/or loan (mainly and/or partially)40% Hardly ever did personal research 46%

Parental education: Never did personal research 6%

Mother education level 1 19% Repeating a year 24%

Mother education level 2 44% Attendance to all the courses 51%

Mother education level 3 16% 22%

Mother education level 4 12% Attendance to less than half of the courses 11%

Mother education level 5 3% Professional Experiences

Father education level 1 9% Professional experience before the university studies 32%

Father education level 2 41% Internship during the studies 52%

Father education level 3 16% Other professional experience during the studies 54%

Father education level 4 22% Assistants 16%

Father education level 5 12% Type of degree

Management 79%

Economics 12%

Actuarial Science 3%

Computer Science in management 6%

5 Bilingual part of Switzerland includes: Fribourg, Neuchatel and Valais. Source: Questionnaire, 156 observations

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Table 2: Description of variables

Variable Description

Average grade (grade) Average grade obtained at the end of the licence studies

Gender (gender) 1 if student is female; 0 otherwise

French (fr) 1 if the student’s mother tongue is French; 0 otherwise

German (gr) 1 if the student’s mother tongue is German; 0 otherwise

Italian (it) 1 if the student’s mother tongue is Italian; 0 otherwise

Spanish (sp) 1 if the student’s mother tongue is Spanish; 0 otherwise

English (eng) 1 if the student’s mother tongue is English; 0 otherwise

Other language (olang) 1 if the student’s mother tongue is other than the French, German, Italian, Spanish or English; 0 otherwise

Maturité/Baccalauréat in science (matsc) 1 if the student has a Maturité/Baccalauréat in science; 0 otherwise

Maturité/Baccalauréat in economics (mateco) 1 if the student has a Maturité/Baccalauréat in economics; 0 otherwise

Maturité/Baccalauréat in Latin (matlat) 1 if the student has a Maturité/Baccalauréat in Latin; 0 otherwise

Maturité/Baccalauréat in modern languages (matmod)

1 if the student has a Maturité/Baccalauréat in modern languages; 0 otherwise

Maturité/Baccalauréat in languages (matlang) 1 if the student has a Maturité/Baccalauréat in Latin or in modern languages; 0 otherwise

Age (age) Age at which the student started her/his university studies

Canton Vaud (vd) 1 if the student at the beginning of the university studies was a resident in the Canton Vaud; 0 otherwise

French speaking Switzerland (chrom) 1 if the student at the beginning of the university studies was a resident in a French speaking canton; 0 otherwise

German speaking Switzerland (chgerm) 1 if the student at the beginning of the university studies was a resident in a German speaking canton; 0 otherwise

Ticino (ticino) 1 if the student at the beginning of the university studies was a resident in the Ticino; 0 otherwise

Bilingual Switzerland (chbil) 1 if the student at the beginning of the university studies was a resident in a bilingual canton; 0 otherwise

Abroad (abroad) 1 if the student at the beginning of the university studies was not living in Switzerland; 0 otherwise

Mother working full time (mothfull) 1 if the student’s mother was working full time at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Mother working part time (mothpart) 1 if the student’s mother was working part time at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Mother not alive (mothna) 1 if the student’s mother was not alive at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father working full time (fathfull) 1 if the student’s father was working full time at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father working part time (fathpart) 1 if the student’s father was working part time at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father not alive (fathna) 1 if the student’s father was not alive at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Living with parents (livepar) 1 if the student was living with his/her parents during the university studies; 0 otherwise

Living with mother (livemoth) 1 if the student was only living with his/her mother during the university studies; 0 otherwise

Living with father (livefath) 1 if the student was only living with his/her father during the university studies; 0 otherwise

Studies financed by the parents (finpar) 1 if the university studies were mainly or/and partially financed by the parents; 0 otherwise

Studies financed by own gains, loan or/and scholarship (ownscholloan)

1 if the university studies were financed mainly or partially by a loan, the student’s own gains and/or by a scholarship; 0 otherwise

Mother’s education level 1 (mothedu1) 1 if the student’s mother completed the compulsory school; 0 otherwise

Mother’s education level 2 (mothedu2) 1 if the student’s mother completed the compulsory school and vocational training; 0otherwise

Mother’s education level 3 (mothedu3) 1 if the student’s mother completed the “maturité”, baccalauréat or equivalent diploma; 0 otherwise

Mother’s education level 4 (mothedu4) 1 if the student’s mother is a university graduate (licence or equivalent diploma); 0 otherwise

Mother’s education level 5 (mothedu5) 1 if the student’s mother completed a post graduate degree; 0 otherwise

Father’s education level 1 (fathedu1) 1 if the student’s father completed the compulsory school; 0 otherwise

Father’s education level 2 (fathedu2) 1 if the student’s father completed the compulsory school and vocational training; 0 otherwise

Father’s education level 3 (fathedu3) 1 if the student’s father completed the “maturité”, baccalauréat or equivalent diploma; 0 otherwise

Father’s education level 4 (fathedu4) 1 if the student’s father is a university graduate (licence or equivalent diploma); 0 otherwise

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Father’s education level 5 (fathedu5) 1 if the student’s father completed a post graduate degree; 0 otherwise

Mother agricultural worker (mothagri) 1 if the student’s mother was an agricultural worker at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Mother self-employed (mothself) 1 if the student’s mother was self-employed at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Mother Executive/manager (mothexec) 1 if the student’s mother was an Executive/manager at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Mother «Profession libérale» (mothlib) 1 if the student’s mother had a «Profession libérale» at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Mother employee (mothemp) 1 if the student’s mother was an employee at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Mother worker (mothw) 1 if the student’s mother was a worker at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Mother retired (mothret) 1 if the student’s mother was retired at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father agricultural worker (fathagri) 1 if the student’s father was an agricultural worker at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father self-employed (fathself) 1 if the student’s father was self-employed at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father Executive/manager (fathexec) 1 if the student’s father was an Executive/manager at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father «Profession libérale» (fathlib) 1 if the student’s father had a «Profession libérale» at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father employee (fathemp) 1 if the student’s father was an employee at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father worker (fathw) 1 if the student’s father was a worker at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Father retired (fathret) 1 if the student’s father was retired at the beginning of the university studies; 0 otherwise

Repeating a year (repeat) 1 if the student repeated one year during his/her university studies; 0 otherwise

Used UNIL library very often (library 4) 1 if the student used UNIL library very often; 0 otherwise

Used UNIL library often (library 3) 1 if the student used UNIL library often; 0 otherwise

Hardly ever used UNIL library (library 2) 1 if the student hardly ever used UNIL library; 0 otherwise

Never used UNIL library (library1) 1 if the student never used UNIL library; 0 otherwise

Attendance to all courses (course3) 1 if the student attended all the courses; 0 otherwise

Attendance to almost all the courses (course2) 1 if the student attended almost all the courses; 0 otherwise

Attendance to less than half of the courses (course1)

1 if the student attended less than half of the courses, or even only 10% of the courses; 0 otherwise

Professional experience before the studies (prejob)

1 if the student had some kind of professional experiences before entering the university; 0 otherwise

Internship (internship) 1 if the student did an internship during the university studies; 0 otherwise

Professional experience (profexp) 1 if the student had a professional experience during the university studies; 0 otherwise

Internship and professional experience (intprofexp)

1 if the student did an internship and a professional experience during the university studies; 0 otherwise

Assistantship (assist) 1 if the student was an assistant during his/her university studies; 0 otherwise

Organisation (org) 1 if the student was a member of a students’ organisation; 0 otherwise

Used internet often (web4) 1 if the student used very often the internet; 0 otherwise

Hardly ever used the internet (web3) 1 if the student used hardly ever the internet; 0 otherwise

Never used the internet (web2) 1 if the student never used internet; 0 otherwise

No internet (web1) 1 if during the university years, the internet did not exist or was starting; 0 otherwise

Did personal research very often (research4) 1 if during the studies, the student did personal research very often; 0 otherwise

Did personal research often (research3) 1 if during the studies, the student did personal research often; 0 otherwise

Hardly ever did personal research (research2) 1 if during the studies, the student hardly ever did personal research; 0 otherwise

Never did personal research (research1) 1 if during the studies, the student did never do personal research; 0 otherwise

Management (manag) 1 if the student was enrolled in the management degree; 0 otherwise

Economics (eco) 1 if the student was enrolled in the economics degree; 0 otherwise

Actuarial science (actu) 1 if the student was enrolled in the actuarial science degree; 0 otherwise

Computer science in management (comp) 1 if the student was enrolled in the computer science management degree; 0 otherwise

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Table 3: Determinants of Academic performance of HEC-Lausanne graduates

Explanatory variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Gender .0849

(.0876)

French .3821** (.1559)

.3985** (.0965)

.3019** (.0891)

.2452** (.0090)

German -.0609 (.1602)

Italian -.1800 (.2757)

Spanish .4363* (.2443)

.4146** (.2004)

.3411* (.1956)

.1471 (.1938)

English -.3547 (.3560)

-.5553* (.2956)

-.4749 (.3014)

Maturité/Baccalauréat in science .3525 (.4485)

Maturité/Baccalauréat in economics .4458 (.4452)

.1531** (.0777)

.1471 (.0795)

.1706 (.0823)

Maturité/Baccalauréat in languages .6783 (.4757)

.3381** (.1132)

.3444** (.1159)

.2032* (.1070)

Maturité/Baccalauréat in Latin -.1552 (.2145)

Age -.0332** (.0163)

-0.3355** (.0152)

-.0350** (.0156)

-.0401** (.0159)

Vaud -.0354 (0.1349)

French speaking Switzerland -.0782 (.1615)

German speaking Switzerland .0885 (.1582)

Ticino .2654 (.3636)

.2917 (.1959)

Abroad .0155 (.2347)

Mother working full time -.3376* (.2003)

Mother working part time -.2154* (.2051)

Mother not alive -.7850* (.4044)

-.8119** (.3938)

-.6533** (.3957)

-.5420 (.4168)

Father working full time -.1806 (.2467)

Father working part time -.6270* (.3263)

-.3524* (.2090)

-.3495* (.2030)

Father not alive -.5464** (.2652)

-.4275* (.2212)

-.4188 (.2206)

-.4781 (.2230)

Living with parents -.1351 (.0881)

-.1179 (.0748)

Living with mother -.2233 (.1734)

Living with father -1.5934* (.5423)

-1.522** (.0501)

-1.557* (.0506)

-1.198** (.5066)

Studies financed by parents (mainly and/or partially) -.1482* (.0503)

-.1016** (.0472)

-.1118** (.0476)

-.1037** (.0497)

Studies financed by own gains, schoolarship, loan (mainly and/or partially)

.1342 (.0894)

.1824** (.7935)

.2128** (.0793)

.2509** (.0794)

Mother’s education level 1 -.2925 (.2400)

Mother’s education level 2 -.2365 (.2172)

Mother’s education level 3 -.1970 (.2066)

Mother’s education level 4 -.1541 (.2155)

Father’s education level 1 .1734 (.2154)

Father’s education level 2 .01877 (.1435)

Father’s education level 3 -.1817 (.1492)

-.2359** (.0913)

-.2105** (.0927)

-.1326 (.0975)

Father’s education level 4 -.1660 (.1328)

-.1877**

(.0917)

-.1336 (.0877)

-.1106 (.0921)

Mother agricultural worker .9469** (.3602)

.6109** (.2856)

.6056** (.2887)

.6134** (.3023)

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Mother self-employed .1877 (.2490)

Mother executive/senior management .3694 (.2582)

Mother «Profession libérale» .1477 (.3366)

Mother employee .4347** (.2130)

.1228* (.0725)

.1368* (.0733)

Retired mother 1.6555** (.4820)

1.690** (.4577)

1.381** (.4372)

1.238** (.4647)

Father agricultural worker .1076 (.3014)

Father self-employed .2482 (.2002)

.2191* (.1117)

.2548** (.1080)

.1549 (.0987)

Father executive/senior management .3912* (.2136)

.3805** (.1022)

.3721** (.0975)

.2214** (.0851)

Father «Profession libérale» .0046 (.2436)

.1907 (.1061)

Father employee .1939 (.2074)

.1938* (.1122)

.1907* (.1061)

Retired father -.4585* (.2607)

-.2787 (.1958)

Repeating a year -.2781** (.0782)

-.2827** (.0733)

-.3034** (.0744)

-.2852** (.0787)

Used UNIL library very often .0325 (0.991)

-.2939 (.1080)

Used UNIL library often .0526 (.0813)

Never used UNIL library .1996 (.1220)

.1686* (.0963)

.1474* (.0970)

Attendance to all courses .0894 (.0835)

Attendance to less than half of the courses -.1847 (.1234)

-.2811** (.1061)

-.2896** (.1086)

-.3971** (.1107)

Professional experience before university .1617** (.0794)

.1241* (.0747)

.0854 (.0753)

Internship during university .2598** (.1016)

.2870** (.0943)

.2946** (.0947)

.2505** (.0984)

Professional experience during university .2005* (.1059)

.2231** (.0902)

.2109** (.0915)

.1965** (.0960)

Internship and professional experience during university -.2484 (.1522)

-.2965** (.1335)

-.3144** (-1357)

-.3118** (.1444)

Assistanship .01085 (.1120)

Member of students’ organisation -.0847 (.0824)

Use internet often -.3820** (.1262)

-.3338** (.1082)

-.2939 (.1080)**

-.2070* (.1090)

Use hardly ever internet -.3231** (.1304)

-3254** (.1163)

-.3280** (.1182)

-.2361 (.1228)

Internet did not exist -.4595 (.1203)

-.4040** (.1168)

-.3434** (.1173)

-.1759 (.1118)

Did personal research very often .0461 (.1264)

Did personal research often .2289 (.0802)

Never did personal research -.1177 (.1769)

Management -.3028** (.1533)

-.2312** (.0901)

-.2078** (.0898)

-.1273 (.0927)

Economics -.0405 (.1865)

Actuarial Science 1.155 (.3797)

1.032** (.3277)

1.222** (.3150)

0.922** (.3008)

Pseudo R2 0.52 0.44 0.40 0.31 Notes: Each cell contains the coefficient estimate and (in parentheses) its standard error. The dependent variable is the average

grade obtained during the undergraduate studies. Significant coefficients at the 5% level are marked with two asteriks, significant

coefficients at the 10% level are marked with one asterik. The reference categories are: other languages, Maturité/Baccalauréat in

modern languages, bilingual part of Switzerland, mother’s education level 5, father’s education level 5, mother worker, father

worker, hardly ever used the library, attendance to almost all the courses, never used internet, hardly ever did personal research,

computer science in management degree.

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Table 4: Model 1, Tobit estimates Tobit estimates Number of obs 156 LR chi2(68) 119.46

Prob > chi2 0.0001 Log likelihood -54.7022 Pseudo R2 0.5220 grade Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval] gender 0.084947 0.087673 0.97 0.335 -0.08928 0.259178 fr 0.382169 0.155962 2.45 0.016 0.072228 0.69211 ger -0.06092 0.16022 -0.38 0.705 -0.37933 0.25748 it -0.18007 0.275713 -0.65 0.515 -0.72799 0.367854 sp 0.43631 0.244361 1.79 0.078 -0.04931 0.921926 engl -0.35473 0.356043 -1 0.322 -1.06229 0.352826 matsc 0.352507 0.448526 0.79 0.434 -0.53884 1.243858 mateco 0.445858 0.445262 1 0.319 -0.43901 1.330723 matlang 0.678325 0.475702 1.43 0.157 -0.26703 1.623683 matlat -0.15526 0.214556 -0.72 0.471 -0.58164 0.271129 age -0.03322 0.016314 -2.04 0.045 -0.06564 -0.0008 vd -0.03547 0.134953 -0.26 0.793 -0.30366 0.232725 chrom -0.07827 0.161571 -0.48 0.629 -0.39936 0.242819 chgerm 0.088599 0.158251 0.56 0.577 -0.22589 0.403088 ticino 0.265421 0.363699 0.73 0.467 -0.45735 0.988196 abroad 0.015514 0.234764 0.07 0.947 -0.45103 0.482058 mothfull -0.33766 0.200395 -1.68 0.096 -0.73591 0.060579 mothpart -0.21542 0.205137 -1.05 0.297 -0.62309 0.192248 mothna -0.78505 0.404476 -1.94 0.055 -1.58886 0.018763 fathfull -0.18068 0.246761 -0.73 0.466 -0.67107 0.309702 fathpart -0.62706 0.326393 -1.92 0.058 -1.2757 0.021574 fathna -0.54645 0.265209 -2.06 0.042 -1.07349 -0.0194 livepar -0.13514 0.088194 -1.53 0.129 -0.31041 0.040125 livemoth -0.22332 0.173451 -1.29 0.201 -0.56802 0.121377 livefath -1.59349 0.542361 -2.94 0.004 -2.67132 -0.51566 finpar -0.14825 0.050331 -2.95 0.004 -0.24827 -0.04823 ownschooll~n 0.134264 0.089452 1.5 0.137 -0.0435 0.312031 mothedu1 -0.29258 0.24008 -1.22 0.226 -0.76969 0.18453 motheedu2 -0.2366 0.217296 -1.09 0.279 -0.66843 0.195233 mothedu3 -0.19707 0.206621 -0.95 0.343 -0.60768 0.213549 mothedu4 -0.15415 0.215527 -0.72 0.476 -0.58246 0.274165 fathedu1 0.173403 0.215446 0.8 0.423 -0.25475 0.601556 fatheedu2 0.018772 0.143577 0.13 0.896 -0.26656 0.304101 fathedu3 -0.18177 0.14924 -1.22 0.226 -0.47835 0.114812 fathedu4 -0.166 0.132833 -1.25 0.215 -0.42998 0.097978 mothagri 0.946984 0.360245 2.63 0.01 0.231073 1.662895 mothself 0.187701 0.249046 0.75 0.453 -0.30722 0.682627 mothexec 0.369454 0.258284 1.43 0.156 -0.14383 0.882739 mothlib 0.147789 0.336656 0.44 0.662 -0.52124 0.816822 mothemp 0.434712 0.213062 2.04 0.044 0.011297 0.858128 mothret 1.655747 0.482026 3.43 0.001 0.697822 2.613673 fathagri 0.107635 0.301419 0.36 0.722 -0.49137 0.706641 fathself 0.248221 0.200219 1.24 0.218 -0.14967 0.646114 fathexc 0.391252 0.213618 1.83 0.07 -0.03327 0.815773 fathlib 0.004607 0.243602 0.02 0.985 -0.4795 0.488715 fathemp 0.193981 0.207463 0.94 0.352 -0.21831 0.60627 fathret -0.45852 0.260701 -1.76 0.082 -0.97661 0.05957 repeat -0.27818 0.078264 -3.55 0.001 -0.43371 -0.12264 libra4 0.032506 0.099144 0.33 0.744 -0.16452 0.229534 libra3 0.052631 0.081365 0.65 0.519 -0.10907 0.214327 libra1 0.199632 0.122033 1.64 0.105 -0.04288 0.442146 course3 0.089445 0.083558 1.07 0.287 -0.07661 0.255499 course1 -0.18479 0.123413 -1.5 0.138 -0.43005 0.060467 prejob 0.161752 0.079431 2.04 0.045 0.0039 0.319605 internship 0.259866 0.101682 2.56 0.012 0.057795 0.461937 profexp 0.200579 0.105939 1.89 0.062 -0.00995 0.411109 intprofexp -0.24843 0.15228 -1.63 0.106 -0.55105 0.054197 assist 0.108505 0.112044 0.97 0.335 -0.11416 0.331168 org -0.08472 0.082437 -1.03 0.307 -0.24854 0.079108 web4 -0.38207 0.126228 -3.03 0.003 -0.63292 -0.13122 web3 -0.32319 0.130456 -2.48 0.015 -0.58245 -0.06394 web1 -0.45952 0.120341 -3.82 0 -0.69868 -0.22037 research4 0.046179 0.126459 0.37 0.716 -0.20513 0.29749 research3 0.022896 0.080232 0.29 0.776 -0.13655 0.182341 research1 -0.11779 0.176922 -0.67 0.507 -0.46938 0.233807 manag -0.30287 0.153329 -1.98 0.051 -0.60758 0.00184 eco -0.04055 0.18652 -0.22 0.828 -0.41122 0.330121 actu 1.155189 0.379713 3.04 0.003 0.400588 1.909789 _cons 8.064654 0.642147 12.56 0 6.788523 9.340786 _se 0.343598 0.019452 (Ancill ary parameter)

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Table 5: Model 2, Tobit estimates

Tobit estimates Number of obs 156

LR chi2(35) 101.41 Prob > chi2 0

Log likelihood -63.7297 Pseudo R2 0.4431 grade Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval] intprofexp -0.29654 0.133515 -2.22 0.028 -0.56087 -0.03221 fr 0.398577 0.096534 4.13 0 0.207462 0.589691 fathemp 0.193812 0.112224 1.73 0.087 -0.02836 0.415989 prejob 0.124106 0.074756 1.66 0.099 -0.02389 0.272105 sp 0.414694 0.20049 2.07 0.041 0.017771 0.811617 engl -0.55533 0.295695 -1.88 0.063 -1.14074 0.030075 libra1 0.168605 0.096372 1.75 0.083 -0.02219 0.3594 mateco 0.153158 0.077707 1.97 0.051 -0.00068 0.306999 matlang 0.338163 0.113247 2.99 0.003 0.11396 0.562366 mothret 1.690693 0.457739 3.69 0 0.784478 2.596909 age -0.03355 0.01528 -2.2 0.03 -0.0638 -0.0033 web3 -0.32544 0.116302 -2.8 0.006 -0.55569 -0.09519 mothagri 0.610917 0.285659 2.14 0.034 0.04538 1.176454 web4 -0.33387 0.108287 -3.08 0.003 -0.54825 -0.11948 ticino 0.291794 0.195933 1.49 0.139 -0.09611 0.679694 internship 0.287091 0.094328 3.04 0.003 0.100344 0.473839 profexp 0.223102 0.090229 2.47 0.015 0.04447 0.401734 actu 1.032745 0.327751 3.15 0.002 0.383877 1.681614 mothna -0.81194 0.393834 -2.06 0.041 -1.59164 -0.03224 web1 -0.40402 0.116854 -3.46 0.001 -0.63537 -0.17268 fathpart -0.35249 0.209036 -1.69 0.094 -0.76633 0.061351 fathna -0.42754 0.221271 -1.93 0.056 -0.8656 0.010527 livepar -0.11799 0.074841 -1.58 0.118 -0.26616 0.030174 mothemp 0.122853 0.072507 1.69 0.093 -0.02069 0.2664 livefath -1.52237 0.50195 -3.03 0.003 -2.51611 -0.52863 finpar -0.10168 0.047289 -2.15 0.034 -0.1953 -0.00806 ownschooll~n 0.18244 0.079354 2.3 0.023 0.025337 0.339542 fathexec 0.380516 0.102245 3.72 0 0.178095 0.582937 repeat -0.28271 0.073334 -3.86 0 -0.4279 -0.13753 fathret -0.27877 0.195807 -1.42 0.157 -0.66643 0.108879 course1 -0.28116 0.106111 -2.65 0.009 -0.49123 -0.07108 fathself 0.219107 0.111751 1.96 0.052 -0.00213 0.440347 manag -0.2312 0.090183 -2.56 0.012 -0.40974 -0.05266 fathedu3 -0.236 0.091397 -2.58 0.011 -0.41694 -0.05505 fathedu4 -0.18772 0.091733 -2.05 0.043 -0.36933 -0.00611 _cons 7.928913 0.331561 23.91 0 7.272502 8.585325 _se 0.364068 0.020607 (Ancillary parameter))

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Table 6: Model 3, Tobit estimates

Tobit estimates Number of obs 156

LR chi2(32) 93.66 Prob > chi2 0

Log likelihood -67.6055 Pseudo R2 0.4092 grade Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval] intprofexp -0.31444 0.135787 -2.32 0.022 -0.5832 -0.04568 fr 0.301988 0.089191 3.39 0.001 0.125453 0.478522 fathemp 0.190798 0.106147 1.8 0.075 -0.0193 0.400892 prejob 0.085401 0.075323 1.13 0.259 -0.06368 0.234487 sp 0.341134 0.195639 1.74 0.084 -0.04609 0.728359 engl -0.47498 0.301463 -1.58 0.118 -1.07166 0.121702 libra1 0.147484 0.097094 1.52 0.131 -0.04469 0.33966 mateco 0.147125 0.079592 1.85 0.067 -0.01041 0.30466 matlang 0.344461 0.115974 2.97 0.004 0.114916 0.574005 mothret 1.381666 0.437252 3.16 0.002 0.516223 2.24711 age -0.03507 0.015631 -2.24 0.027 -0.06601 -0.00413 web3 -0.32804 0.118217 -2.77 0.006 -0.56203 -0.09406 mothagri 0.605645 0.288779 2.1 0.038 0.034071 1.177218 web4 -0.29397 0.108022 -2.72 0.007 -0.50778 -0.08017 internship 0.294667 0.094755 3.11 0.002 0.107121 0.482213 profexp 0.210965 0.091518 2.31 0.023 0.029826 0.392104 actu 1.222702 0.315098 3.88 0 0.599035 1.846369 mothna -0.65337 0.395761 -1.65 0.101 -1.43669 0.129955 web1 -0.34343 0.11734 -2.93 0.004 -0.57568 -0.11118 fathpart -0.3496 0.203078 -1.72 0.088 -0.75155 0.052351 fathna -0.41888 0.220632 -1.9 0.06 -0.85557 0.017817 mothemp 0.13686 0.073384 1.87 0.065 -0.00839 0.282107 livefath -1.55778 0.506145 -3.08 0.003 -2.55958 -0.55598 finpar -0.11185 0.047673 -2.35 0.021 -0.20621 -0.0175 ownschooll~n 0.212835 0.079343 2.68 0.008 0.055793 0.369878 Fathexec 0.37217 0.097531 3.82 0 0.17913 0.56521 Repeat -0.30348 0.0745 -4.07 0 -0.45093 -0.15602 course1 -0.28965 0.108622 -2.67 0.009 -0.50464 -0.07466 fathself 0.254808 0.108017 2.36 0.02 0.041011 0.468604 manag -0.2079 0.089846 -2.31 0.022 -0.38573 -0.03007 fathedu3 -0.21056 0.092731 -2.27 0.025 -0.3941 -0.02702 fathedu4 -0.13365 0.087726 -1.52 0.13 -0.30728 0.039989 _cons 7.938994 0.33282 23.85 0 7.28025 8.597738 _se 0.373226 0.02113 (Ancillary parameter)

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Table 7: Model 4, Tobit estimates

Tobit estimates Number of obs 156 LR chi2(24) 71.55 Prob > chi2 0

Log likelihood -78.6576 Pseudo R2 0.3126 grade Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval] intprofexp -0.31187 0.144454 -2.16 0.033 -0.59761 -0.02612 fr 0.245229 0.090962 2.7 0.008 0.065297 0.425162 sp 0.147121 0.19839 0.74 0.46 -0.24531 0.539555 matlang 0.203286 0.107064 1.9 0.06 -0.0085 0.415069 mothret 1.238248 0.46477 2.66 0.009 0.318887 2.157608 age -0.04015 0.015959 -2.52 0.013 -0.07171 -0.00858 web3 -0.23614 0.122852 -1.92 0.057 -0.47915 0.006876 mothagri 0.613438 0.302325 2.03 0.044 0.01541 1.211467 web4 -0.19008 0.111993 -1.7 0.092 -0.41161 0.031452 internship 0.250552 0.098456 2.54 0.012 0.055796 0.445309 profexp 0.196555 0.096065 2.05 0.043 0.006529 0.386582 actu 0.922953 0.300891 3.07 0.003 0.327761 1.518146 mothna -0.54203 0.416853 -1.3 0.196 -1.36661 0.282542 web1 -0.17593 0.118142 -1.49 0.139 -0.40962 0.057767 livefath -1.19893 0.506695 -2.37 0.019 -2.20122 -0.19664 finpar -0.10374 0.049743 -2.09 0.039 -0.20214 -0.00535 ownschooll~n 0.250987 0.079468 3.16 0.002 0.093791 0.408184 fathexec 0.221404 0.085113 2.6 0.01 0.053041 0.389766 fathself 0.154975 0.098722 1.57 0.119 -0.04031 0.350256 repeat -0.28528 0.0787 -3.62 0 -0.44096 -0.1296 course1 -0.39713 0.110767 -3.59 0 -0.61623 -0.17802 manag -0.12739 0.09276 -1.37 0.172 -0.31087 0.056101 fathedu3 -0.13267 0.097581 -1.36 0.176 -0.32569 0.060358 fathedu4 -0.1106 0.092107 -1.2 0.232 -0.29279 0.071599 _cons 8.209417 0.331518 24.76 0 7.553641 8.865192 _se 0.400628 0.022681 (Ancillary parameter)

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Table 8: Model 2, OLS estimates

Source SS df MS Number of obs 156

------------ -------------- ---------------- F( 35, 120) 3.14

Model 18.93267 35 .540933349 Prob > F 0

Residual 20.67708 120 .172308997 R-squa red 0.478

------------ -------------- ---------------- Adj R- squared 0.3257

Total 39.60975 155 .255546754 Root M SE 0.4151

grade Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| Beta

intprofexp -0.29654 .1522422 -1.95 0.054 -0.23483

fr 0.398577 .1100743 3.62 0 0.323041

fathemp 0.193812 .1279648 1.51 0.133 0.157083

prejob 0.124106 .0852417 1.46 0.148 0.114939

sp 0.414694 .2286117 1.81 0.072 0.144956

engl -0.55533 .33717 -1.65 0.102 -0.12398

libra1 0.168605 .10989 1.53 0.128 0.118631

mateco 0.153158 .0886061 1.73 0.086 0.149849

matlang 0.338163 .1291319 2.62 0.01 0.219482

mothret 1.690693 .5219436 3.24 0.002 0.267773

age -0.03355 .0174234 -1.93 0.056 -0.15405

web3 -0.32544 .1326153 -2.45 0.016 -0.25454

mothagri 0.610917 .3257268 1.88 0.063 0.136394

web4 -0.33387 .1234755 -2.70 0.008 -0.32798

ticino 0.291794 .2234148 1.31 0.194 0.111361

internship 0.287091 .1075591 2.67 0.009 0.284662

profexp 0.223102 .1028849 2.17 0.032 0.220485

actu 1.032745 .3737222 2.76 0.007 0.323953

mothna -0.81194 .4490748 -1.81 0.073 -0.1286

web1 -0.40402 .1332439 -3.03 0.003 -0.34719

fathpart -0.35249 .2383559 -1.48 0.142 -0.11057

fathna -0.42754 .252307 -1.69 0.093 -0.14945

livepar -0.11799 .085338 -1.38 0.169 -0.11708

mothemp 0.122853 .0826772 1.49 0.14 0.116484

livefath -1.52237 .5723561 -2.66 0.009 -0.24111

finpar -0.10168 .0539217 -1.89 0.062 -0.16033

ownschooll~n 0.18244 .0904848 2.02 0.046 0.177651

fathexec 0.380516 .1165863 3.26 0.001 0.368499

repeat -0.28271 .0836201 -3.38 0.001 -0.24083

fathret -0.27877 .223272 -1.25 0.214 -0.10639

course1 -0.28116 .1209948 -2.32 0.022 -0.17387

fathself 0.219107 .1274255 1.72 0.088 0.159514

manag -0.2312 .102832 -2.25 0.026 -0.18527

fathedu3 -0.236 .1042167 -2.26 0.025 -0.16898

fathedu4 -0.18772 .1045997 -1.79 0.075 -0.15541

_cons 7.928913 .3780666 20.97 0 .

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Table 9: Model 3, OLS estimates

Source SS df MS Number of obs 156

F( 32, 123) 3.16

Model 17.87928 32 .558727343 Prob > F 0

Residual 21.73047 123 .176670503 R-squared 0.4514

Adj R-squared 0.3087

Total 39.60975 155 .255546754 Root MSE 0.42032

grade Coef. Std. Err. t [95% Conf. Interval]

intprofexp -0.31444 0.1529207 -2.06 -0.61713 -0.01174

fr 0.301988 0.1004459 3.01 0.103161 0.500814

fathemp 0.190798 0.1195409 1.6 -0.04583 0.427422

prejob 0.085401 0.0848278 1.01 -0.08251 0.253312

sp 0.341134 0.2203259 1.55 -0.09499 0.777256

engl -0.47498 0.3395029 -1.4 -1.147 0.197048

libra1 0.147484 0.1093458 1.35 -0.06896 0.363927

mateco 0.147125 0.0896355 1.64 -0.0303 0.324553

matlang 0.344461 0.1306077 2.64 0.085931 0.602991

mothret 1.381666 0.4924262 2.81 0.406939 2.356394

age -0.03507 0.0176033 -1.99 -0.06991 -0.00022

web3 -0.32804 0.1331338 -2.46 -0.59157 -0.06451

mothagri 0.605645 0.3252181 1.86 -0.0381 1.249394

web4 -0.29397 0.1216528 -2.42 -0.53478 -0.05317

internship 0.294667 0.1067115 2.76 0.083438 0.505896

profexp 0.210965 0.1030656 2.05 0.006953 0.414977

actu 1.222702 0.3548588 3.45 0.520281 1.925123

mothna -0.65337 0.4457004 -1.47 -1.5356 0.228869

web1 -0.34343 0.1321469 -2.6 -0.605 -0.08185

fathpart -0.3496 0.2287035 -1.53 -0.8023 0.103108

fathna -0.41888 0.2484727 -1.69 -0.91071 0.07296

mothemp 0.13686 0.0826435 1.66 -0.02673 0.300448

livefath -1.55778 0.5700126 -2.73 -2.68608 -0.42947

finpar -0.11185 0.0536881 -2.08 -0.21812 -0.00558

ownschooll~n 0.212835 0.0893553 2.38 0.035962 0.389709

fathexec 0.37217 0.1098374 3.39 0.154754 0.589586

repeat -0.30348 0.0839004 -3.62 -0.46955 -0.1374

course1 -0.28965 0.1223279 -2.37 -0.53179 -0.04751

fathself 0.254808 0.1216475 2.09 0.014014 0.495601

manag -0.2079 0.1011832 -2.05 -0.40818 -0.00761

fathedu3 -0.21056 0.1044327 -2.02 -0.41727 -0.00384

fathedu4 -0.13365 0.0987953 -1.35 -0.3292 0.061914

_cons 7.938994 0.374817 21.18 7.197066 8.680921

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Table 10: Model 4, OLS estimates

Source SS df MS Nu mber of obs 156

F( 24, 131) 3.18

Model 14.57135 24 .6 713977 Pr ob > F 0

Residual 25.03839 131 .19 1132766 R- squared 0.3679

Ad j R-squared 0.2521

Total 39.60975 155 .25 5546754 Ro ot MSE 0.43719

grade Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval]

intprofexp -0.31187 0.157637 -1.98 0.05 -0.62371 -2.6E-05

fr 0.245229 0.099263 2.47 0.015 0.048863 0.441595

sp 0.147121 0.216494 0.68 0.498 -0.28116 0.575397

matlang 0.203286 0.116834 1.74 0.084 -0.02784 0.434411

mothret 1.238248 0.507183 2.44 0.016 0.234919 2.241577

age -0.04015 0.017415 -2.31 0.023 -0.0746 -0.00569

web3 -0.23614 0.134063 -1.76 0.081 -0.50135 0.029071

mothagri 0.613438 0.329914 1.86 0.065 -0.03921 1.266087

web4 -0.19008 0.122213 -1.56 0.122 -0.43185 0.051686

internship 0.250552 0.107441 2.33 0.021 0.038008 0.463096

profexp 0.196555 0.104832 1.87 0.063 -0.01083 0.403937

account 0.922953 0.328349 2.81 0.006 0.2734 1.572507

mothna -0.54203 0.454893 -1.19 0.236 -1.44192 0.357853

web1 -0.17593 0.128923 -1.36 0.175 -0.43097 0.079112

livefath -1.19893 0.552934 -2.17 0.032 -2.29277 -0.1051

finpar -0.10374 0.054282 -1.91 0.058 -0.21113 0.003639

ownschooll~n 0.250987 0.08672 2.89 0.004 0.079434 0.422541

fathint 0.221404 0.09288 2.38 0.019 0.037664 0.405143

repeat -0.28528 0.085882 -3.32 0.001 -0.45517 -0.11538

course1 -0.39713 0.120875 -3.29 0.001 -0.63625 -0.15801

fathind 0.154975 0.107731 1.44 0.153 -0.05814 0.368092

manag -0.12739 0.101224 -1.26 0.21 -0.32763 0.072859

fathedu3 -0.13267 0.106486 -1.25 0.215 -0.34332 0.077988

fathedu4 -0.1106 0.100512 -1.1 0.273 -0.30943 0.08824

_cons 8.209417 0.361771 22.69 0 7.493747 8.925087

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Questionnaire

Pour la plupart des questions suivantes, il suffit de souligner ou de mettre en italiques les réponses proposées. Une fois le questionnaire rempli, je vous remercie de me l’envoyer, soit par courrier électronique à l’adresse [email protected], soit par courrier ordinaire adressé à A. Sakho, p.a. Mme M. Gillot, Association des gradués, Ecole des HEC, Université de Lausanne, CH-1012 Lausanne-Dorigny. Si vous avez des questions, vous pouvez bien sûr me joindre par courrier électronique.

Sauf indication contraire, prière de ne donner qu’une seule réponse. Les questions ne suivent aucun ordre particulier.

1. Je suis de sexe : féminin / masculin 2. Je suis né-e en (année) : 3. Ma langue maternelle est : 4. Mon diplôme de fin d’études secondaires est (par exemple, maturité

scientifique) : 5. J’ai commencé mes études universitaires à l’âge de : (ans) 6. Au début de mes études universitaires, j’étais domicilié-e : - dans le canton de : - à l’étranger 7. Au début de mes études universitaires

a) Ma mère travaillait : à temps plein / à temps partiel b) N’était pas « économiquement active » c) N’était plus en vie

8. Au début de mes études universitaires a) Mon père travaillait : à temps plein / à temps partiel b) N’était pas « économiquement actif » c) N’était plus en vie

9. Pendant mes études universitaires ou la plus grande partie de mes études a) Je vivais avec mes deux parents b) Je vivais avec ma mère c) Je vivais avec mon père d) Je ne vivais avec aucun de mes deux parents

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10. Mes études universitaires ont été financées (réponses multiples possibles)

a) Principalement par mes parents ou ma famille b) Partiellement par mes parents ou ma famille c) Principalement par une bourse d) Partiellement par une bourse e) Principalement par mes propres gains f) Partiellement par mes propres gains g) Autre (précisez, s.v.p.) :

11. Formation de ma mère a) Scolarité obligatoire b) Scolarité obligatoire + formation professionnelle (p.ex. apprentissage) c) Maturité, baccalauréat ou titre équivalent d) Graduée universitaire (licence ou titre équivalent) e) Formation post-grade

12. Formation de mon père a) Scolarité obligatoire b) Scolarité obligatoire + formation professionnelle (p.ex. apprentissage) c) Maturité, baccalauréat ou titre équivalent d) Gradué universitaire (licence ou titre équivalent) e) Formation post-grade

13. Statut socioprofessionnel de ma mère au début de mes études universitaires

a) agricultrice b) indépendante (artisane, commerçante ou cheffe d’entreprise) c) cadre ou profession intellectuelle supérieure d) profession libérale (médecin, avocate, etc.) e) employée f) ouvrière g) retraitée h) économiquement non active i) n’était plus en vie j) autre (préciser, s.v.p.) :

14. Statut socioprofessionnel de mon père au début de mes études universitaires a) agriculteur b) indépendant (artisan, commerçant, chef d’entreprise, etc.) c) cadre ou profession intellectuelle supérieure d) profession libérale (médecin, avocate, etc.) e) employé f) ouvrier g) retraité h) économiquement non actif i) n’était plus en vie j) autre (préciser, s.v.p.) :

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15. Pendant mes études universitaires (réponses multiples possibles) a) J’ai travaillé (prise de notes de cours, exercices, préparation des examens, etc.) le plus souvent par moi-même b) J’ai souvent travaillé en équipe, avec des camarades c) J’ai bénéficié d’aides extérieures à l’Université (leçons privées, aide des parents ou d’autres personnes, etc.)

16. Pendant mes études de licence

a) La durée minimale pour l’obtention d’une licence était de 3 / 4 ans b) Durée effective de mes études de licence : semestres. c) Si mes études de licence ont pris plus que le temps que la durée minimale, c’était pour cause de (réponses multiples possibles)

- Maladie - Redoublement(s) - Séjour à l’étranger - Service militaire - Stage ou autre expérience pratique - Occupation professionnelle pour financer mes études - Grossesse - Autre (précisez, s.v.p.) :

17. Pendant mes études et en dehors des heures de cours, j’ai travaillé principalement

a) A l’Université (bibliothèque, p.ex.) b) Chez moi c) Autre

18. Pendant mes études, j’ai utilisé les bibliothèques de l’UNIL

a) Très souvent b) Assez souvent c) Rarement d) Pour ainsi dire jamais

19. Pendant mes études, j’ai suivi

a) Tous les cours ou presque b) La plupart des cours c) Moins de la moitié des cours

20. Expérience(s) pratique(s) (réponses multiples possibles)

a) Après la fin de mes études secondaires, je suis entré tout de suite à l’Université (pas de stage ou autre expérience pratique préalable) b) Avant d’entrer à l’Université, j’ai fait un stage ou ai eu d’autres expériences pratiques préalables c) Pendant mes études, j’ai effectué un ou plusieurs stages d) Pendant mes études, j’ai eu d’autres expériences ou occupations professionnelles

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21. Pendant mes études de licence (réponses multiples possibles) a) J’ai été assistant-étudiant b) J’ai eu d’autres fonctions de ce type (p.ex. assistant de recherche FNRS) c) J’ai été actif dans des organisations estudiantines (p.ex. Comité des étudiants, délégué des étudiants au Conseil HEC, etc.) d) Rien de ce qui précède

22. Pendant mes études de licence, j’ai utilisé les ressources du web a) Souvent b) Rarement c) Pour ainsi dire jamais d) Le web n’existait pas encore ou en était à ses tout débuts

23. Pendant mes études, j’ai effectué des recherches personnelles a) Souvent b) Assez souvent c) Rarement d) Pour ainsi dire jamais

24. J’ai obtenu une licence HEC en : (réponses multiples possibles)

a) Management-gestion b) Economie politique c) Sciences actuarielles d) Informatique de gestion

25. La moyenne que j’ai obtenue pour ma licence était de : a) /10 b) /6 c) Je ne me souviens plus bien

26. Concernant la question précédente, la mémoire peut jouer des tours. Ou je ne me souviens plus bien de ma moyenne à la licence. Par conséquent, je vous autorise à vérifier ma moyenne dans les archives de l’Ecole : a) Oui

b) Non (Du côté de HEC, l’accord du Doyen a déjà été obtenu.)

Le cas échéant, autres information pertinentes et commentaires :

Un grand merci !