Engagement is through the roof compared to what we looked like last year. MentorPRO has become the linchpin of those connections.
Mara GouldOur first-year retention had been averaging 76 percent. This year, using MentorPRO, and adopting intentional goal-directed mentoring, we retained 82 percent.
Don WhiteMentorPRO has really increased the engagement of mentors with mentees and given our team a way of more effectively delivering our mentoring program overall. It has been really well received by mentors, mentees, and our professional staff.
Rachel PuopoloOur experience with MentorPRO has been outstanding. The platform's ease of use has made it accessible to both students and mentors, and the support from the MentorPRO team has been instrumental in our successful rollout.
Gregory S. MantoleskyAs someone who heavily utilizes and depends on MentorPRO, I am a major fan. It has allowed me to further connect with my first-year mentees.
Tirzah Suriboryof first-year mentees at a large urban university used the app voluntarily
Peer reviewedWerntz et al., 2023as likely to graduate in four years after completing Connected Scholars
Peer reviewedHersch et al., 2026first-year retention at Salem State after adopting goal-directed mentoring on MentorPRO
Partner dataDon White, Assistant DeanPeer mentoring on MentorPRO turns weekly check-ins, messages, and goals into an early-warning system your advisors can act on. Then it gives you the GPA and persistence data to show it worked.
Each links to the platform feature built to answer it.
Weekly check-ins on academics, belonging, and finances flag trouble before the midterm does.
Check-InShort courses prepare them before the first meeting.
MentorPRO AcademyMatch on background, goals, and interests in minutes.
MatchPRODashboards report retention, GPA, and engagement.
Analytics and ReportsPeer-reviewed findings are labeled as such. Manuscripts in preparation or in press are labeled too, because the difference matters.
Across more than 2,500 first-year students at a private research university, check-ins and messages were associated with higher GPA, belonging, self-efficacy, and well-being after controls.
Werntz et al., 2023, Journal of Technology in Behavioral ScienceAmong 2,000 first-years, pairs matched on race and first-generation status reported stronger relationships and earned higher GPAs.
Ramadurai et al., 2025, Studies in Higher EducationStudents who set goals in the app earned higher first-semester GPAs and reported greater academic self-efficacy.
Hersch et al., 2026, Journal of Community PsychologyIn a randomized trial of 550 students, Connected Scholars produced stronger help-seeking and more mentoring support than the control condition.
Schwartz et al., 2023, American Educational Research JournalConnected Scholars completers were more than three times as likely to graduate in four years.
Hersch et al., 2026, American Journal of Community PsychologyA 2.5 point retention gain in a 1,500-student cohort returns roughly 720,000 dollars in tuition against a 54,000 dollar platform cost.
Hull and Rhodes, manuscript in preparation
Salem State UniversitySalem, MassachusettsSalem State adopted MentorPRO alongside an intentional shift toward goal-directed peer mentoring. Program leaders report that first-year retention, which had averaged 76 percent, reached 82 percent in the first year of the new model. Retention is associated with many factors, and these figures are the program's own reporting.
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UMass Boston Connected FuturesBoston, MassachusettsConnected Futures pairs incoming students with trained peer mentors who use goal setting, weekly check-ins, and secure messaging on MentorPRO. Program staff follow every match from a supervision dashboard and step in when a check-in signals trouble. The model is now being extended to additional campuses.
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Northeastern UniversityBoston, MassachusettsNortheastern made app-supported peer mentoring available to every incoming first-year student and studied what happened over two years. Two peer-reviewed papers came out of it. More check-ins and more messages to peer mentors were both associated with higher end-of-year grade point averages, after controlling for prior academic risk. Both studies are observational, so they establish association rather than cause. More messaging was also associated with more course withdrawals.
Read the case studyRead case study (PDF)UMass Boston CLA FirstBoston, MassachusettsCLA First is a learning community in the College of Liberal Arts at UMass Boston, where paid peer mentors support first-year students from orientation through graduation. In the first three weeks of the 2026 cohort, 108 of roughly 150 students logged in and 76 of them completed a check-in. The partnership began with this one learning community and has since spread to the College of Management and the Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
I am a peer mentor for the CLA First! Program, so as someone who heavily utilizes and depends on MentorPro, I am able to say that I am a major fan! MentorPRO has allowed me to further connect with my first-year mentees and I've been able to assist them in their first couple semesters of college.Read the case studyRead case study (PDF)
Tell us about your first-year, transfer, or peer mentoring program. We will show you the features that matter for your setting and the evidence behind each one.
