You say global pandemic, I say natural experiment

From Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching by Adrian Mehic.  From the Abstract:

This paper examines the role of student facial attractiveness on academic outcomes under various forms of instruction, using data from engineering students in Sweden. When education is in-person, attractive students receive higher grades in non-quantitative subjects, in which teachers tend to interact more with students compared to quantitative courses. This finding holds both for males and females. When instruction moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the grades of attractive female students deteriorated in non-quantitative subjects. However, the beauty premium persisted for males, suggesting that discrimination is a salient factor in explaining the grade beauty premium for females only.

Specifically:

When education is in-person, attractive students receive higher grades.

The effect is only present in courses with significant teacher–student interaction.

Grades of attractive females declined when teaching was conducted remotely.

For males, there was a beauty premium even after the switch to online teaching.

Biology and evolutionary structures show through whenever we look for them.