This first-of-its-kind study evaluates how a college or university’s partnership with TimelyCare impacts student retention.
Using rigorous research methods, retention rates for TimelyCare customers were compared against a well-matched group of non-customers.
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How Virtual Care Impacts Student Retention
This first-of-its-kind, propensity-matched analysis across 316 institutions and 1M+ students examines how partnering with TimelyCare relates to year-over-year retention.
Higher education leaders need credible evidence on whether virtual mental health services are associated with student persistence. This nationwide evaluation compares TimelyCare partner schools with a carefully matched set of non-partner schools to examine differences in retention—offering new empirical evidence to inform campus strategy.
What you’ll learn:
- Whether partnering for virtual mental health support is associated with a statistically significant retention advantage versus matched peers.
- How a rigorous propensity score–matched, quasi-experimental design approximates a randomized comparison.
- What the findings mean for student success and resource planning on your campus.
- Population: More than one million students across 316 colleges and universities nationwide.
- Outcome: Year-over-year student retention (re-enrollment in the subsequent academic year).
- Approach: IPEDS data + propensity score matching to compare 2022 retention for TimelyCare partners vs. objectively similar non-partners—an approach that approximates an RCT.
- Balance check: Post-match groups were well-balanced on key covariates, supporting a fair comparison.
Result (at a glance): Partner schools showed a positive, statistically significant retention advantage compared with matched peers. (Exact effect size inside the report.)
- A walkthrough of the matching design and the institutional covariates used (e.g., level/control, Carnegie classification, aid mix, Pell %, past enrollment/retention).
- Visuals that compare partner institutions to matched peers and explain the observed statistical significance of the retention advantage.
- Implications for student success and decision-making in higher education.
FAQs
This study found a statistically significant association between partnering with TimelyCare and higher retention compared with a matched group of similar institutions.
Analyses represent 1M+ students from 316 institutions, with a matched comparison of 158 partner and 158 non-partner schools.
After matching, groups were well-balanced, and the partner group demonstrated a significant retention advantage versus matched peers (p = 0.039).
