Brian Heseung Kim 

Brian Heseung Kim, Ph.D., is the Director of Data Science, Research, and Analytics at The Common Application, Inc., a major postsecondary application platform used throughout the United States. His primary research interests revolve around supporting students of diverse backgrounds through major decision-making junctures like the postsecondary application process and the post-graduation job application process. He received a 2021-2022 National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. Having been both a public high school teacher and a counselor for aspiring first-gen students, Brian has seen just how many hurdles – formal and informal – students can face on the way to better opportunities.

Figuring out how to use thoughtful policy and interdisciplinary approaches to better understand — and then address — these structural inequalities are his main goals as a researcher. He leverages a variety of toolsets in these pursuits, from traditional econometric methods to machine learning and natural language processing techniques, and intends to continue exploring the intersection of education, data science, economics, and ethics in his future work.

His current projects examine the role of teacher recommendation letters in postsecondary access (with special focus on the potential for linguistic biases in the letters themselves), the influence of advising styles in a community college virtual advising intervention, and the disparities in labor market outcomes between community college graduates from high- and low-income families.