Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

College students not meeting minimum academic requirements are placed on academic probation. Though most colleges intend probation to be helpful to students, many students placed on probation continue to struggle, often dropping out or ending up suspended. Standard explanations for these difficulties implicate insufficient motivation, skills, or resources. We suggest an additional explanation: probation threatens students’ belonging, feels stigmatizing, and leads to counterproductive strategies and disengagement. 

Study 1 surveyed students previously on probation. Consistent with a stigma-based account, students described feeling ashamed, embarrassed, and isolated when they received probation. Insights from the survey were used to revise the probation notification letter at a selective private university to frame probation as a process rather than a label, to normalize probationary status, and to highlight trajectories from probation back to good academic standing. In Study 2, students newly on probation received either the revised notification letter or the university’s previous letter. The revised letter increased the likelihood students reached out to an advisor soon after notification. A year later, students who had received the revised letter were less likely to have received a more “severe” academic status and less likely to have discontinued enrollment at the university (either due to suspension or dropping out). Study 3 explored the underlying psychology of this effect. Students who saw the revised letter, compared to those who saw the university’s previous letter, anticipated feeling less shame and stigma about being placed on probation.