Friendship

World Wide Web

Drop out

Mathematics education

Communication

Social psychology

Cohort

Economics

Computer science

Social network (sociolinguistics)

Psychology

Social media

Demographic economics

Internal medicine

Sociology

Medicine

Affect (linguistics)

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Significance Understanding the factors that explain academic failure and success of university students is a core interest of educational researchers, teachers, and managers. We demonstrate how the dynamic social networks that informally evolve between students can affect their academic performance. We closely followed the emergence of multiple social networks within a cohort of 226 undergraduate university students. They were strangers to each other on their first day at university, but developed densely knit social networks through time. We show that functional studying relationships tended to evolve from informal friendship relations. In a critical examination period after one year, these networks proved to be crucial: Socially isolated students had significantly lower examination grades and were more likely to drop out of university.

Integration in emerging social networks explains academic failure and success