Christine Mulhern

Christine Mulhern is a PhD Candidate in Public Policy at Harvard University. Her research studies how students choose whether and where to enroll in postsecondary education and how social networks, school resources and technology influence these choices. Her research shows how students’ postsecondary choices and educational attainment are influenced by school counselors and siblings, as well as a popular technology. She also has work examining the impact of online learning technologies on course performance in higher education. Christine received a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University in 2013 and worked as a research analyst at Ithaka S+R prior to her PhD studies.

Articles by Christine Mulhern

• Beyond teachers: Estimating individual school counselors’ effects on educational attainment

  Thursday, November 14, 2019

  Counselor effectiveness is most important for low-achieving and low-income students, perhaps because these students are most likely to lack other sources of information and assistance. Good counselors tend to improve all measures of educational attainment, but some specialize in improving high school behavior while others specialize in increasing selective college attendance. Improving access to effective counseling may be a promising way to increase educational attainment and close socioeconomic gaps in education.