The Effect of Online College Attendance on Job Obtainment Through Social Connections

Attending college online has implications for students’ ability to make social connections and eventually obtain jobs by means of social capital. Previous academic work has tested employer callback rates to fictitious resumes treated by indications of either online or face-to-face college attendance but such methods overlook the networking aspect of job obtainment. This article uses data from a national survey to examine if online college attendance reduces the likelihood that a student uses a social connection to obtain his or her first job out of college. Using an instrumental variables approach to account for the nontraditional characteristics of online students, the author found that attending college exclusively online reduces the likelihood of obtaining a job through social connections, independent of personality and other relevant characteristics of the college setting.