Mooney, M. 2005. Religion at America’s Most Selective Colleges: Some Findings from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF). Annual Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion.
Does religion improve academic achievement in college? Drawing upon the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen dataset, Margarita Mooney argues that it does. Mooney finds that those students who participate in religious rituals have higher GPAs, that more “religiously observant” students studied longer hours, and that those who attend services once a week or more were more satisfied with their college experience. Mooney suggests that attending church may provide structure and guidance for college students, and that being part of a religious community during college may make students happier.
