Synopses & Reviews
What Matters in College? presents a study of how students change and develop in college and reveals how colleges can enhance that development. The book shows how a range of variables--including academic programs, faculty, student peer groups, and much more--affect students' college experiences. It examines more than 190 environmental characteristics of institutions and details how these factors can have an impact on students' personality and self-concept, patterns of behavior, values and beliefs, academic and cognitive development, career development, and satisfaction with the college environment.
Review
"An essential addition for the library of any college administrator, faculty member, or student affairs professional. It cuts through many of the myths in higher education with data-driven observations and conclusions. It is one of the best of its kind on the market. If you are invloved in the higher education enterprise, it is a must.", Contemporary Psychology
Synopsis
From the author of Four Critical Years--a book the Journal of Higher Education called the most cited work in higher education literature--What Matters in College? presents the definitive study of how students change and develop in college and how colleges can enhance that development. Based on a study of more than 20,000 students, 25,000 faculty members, and 200 institutions, the book shows how academic programs, faculty, student peer groups, and other variables affect students' college experiences.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 447-455) and index.
Table of Contents
1. Studying College Impact
2. Environmental Variables
3. Assessing Environmental Effects: A Prototypical Example
4. Personality and Self-Concept
5. Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs
6. Patterns of Behavior
7. Academic and Cognitive Development
8. Career Development
9. Satisfaction with the College Environment
10. Summary of Environmental Effects
11. Effects of Involvement
12. Implications for Educational Theory and Practice
Resources: A. Multiple Correlations at Selected Steps B. Longitudinal Changes in the Weighted and Unweighted Samples