Effects of Workload Allocation per Course on Students' Academic Outcomes : Evidence from STEM Degrees

We analyze the effect of a change in workload allocation across university courses on students' academic outcomes. We provide the first evidence that reducing the number of courses needed to graduate without changing the total workload expressed in university credits drives students to severely underperform and, ultimately, drop out at the end of their first year. We demonstrate that procrastination accounts for these effects, suggesting that students struggle to adjust their study time to handle the intensified courses. These courses entail an unintended consequence, that is, an increase in the inequality of opportunity, as students from high-income families are less affected by them. Graduates with intense curricula are more likely to be employed within a year of graduation, suggesting that this effect is driven by improved peer quality after the first academic year