Many studies have explored the advantages of being physically attractive, but new findings show that this upper hand also may apply to college students, as research seems to indicate that those with better looks get higher grades.

In findings presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association, and first reported on the website Inside Higher Ed, researchers from Metropolitan State University of Denver claim to have found that female students who are considered attractive received higher course grades and less attractive students received lower ones.

Metropolitan State University associate professors Rey Hernandez-Julian and Christina Peters used data for 77,067 students who attended the university between 2006 and 2011, matching school identification card photographs of students to 1,139,772 course grades.