Can being the oldest in kindergarten help students get into better colleges? A new study suggests the answer is yes.

The National Bureau of Economic Research found that being an older kindergartner has benefits that last into the teen years and beyond — students who are the oldest in their class are more likely to get into selective colleges, more likely to earn a degree, and less likely to become involved with the juvenile justice system than their younger classmates.

The study compared children born in September with those born in August, to see how their age when entering school affected them over time. Researchers examined data from public schools in Florida, which use a Sept. 1 cutoff to determine when students will start kindergarten, to track the children from academic years 1997–98 through 2011–12.

“On average, it is the case that August-born children are going to do slightly worse than September-born children, but this has no implication that Mr. Smith should redshirt their perfectly fine kid to give them an extra edge,” Krzysztof Karbownik told Education Week. “There are real costs to them.”

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