The purpose of this study was to investigate the co-curricular experiences, course-taking behaviors, and educational practices that influence the moral reasoning development of 1,469 first-year students at 19 American colleges and universities. Results showed that contexts and practices that encourage students to engage divergent perspectives when…

Analyzing three-year longitudinal data from 18 diverse four-year institutions, this study investigated the role of race in the solidifying plans for a graduate degree. Net of other influences, African American and Hispanic students were significantly less likely than their White classmates to lower their plans for a graduate degree. However,…

With statistical controls for confounding influences, including precollege learning orientations, attendance at a two-year versus four-year college had modest but significant positive effects on student growth in first- and second-year Openness to Diversity, second-year Learning for Self-Understanding, and first-year Internal Locus of Attribution…

Argues that demographic, institutional, economic, and technological changes have altered fundamentally both the way we think about what it means to go to college and the methodologies we use to assess college impact. Discusses the implications of four forces: changing undergraduate student population; increasing importance of community colleges;…

A causal model, which included background/family traits, secondary school experiences, pre-college career choice, college major, college achievement and on-campus science-oriented work experience, was tested on 5162 students from 74 institutions. Science oriented on-campus work experience positively influenced science career choice for both sexes,…

Because of limitations on research controls, research designs in postsecondary education are often complex and can involve many independent and potentially confounding variables. What is needed to adequately address such research questions is a flexible and powerful data-analytic approach, and the general linear regression model is recommended.…

Substantive and methodological problems encountered in a five-year synthesis of research on college impact are discussed, including general issues in higher education research and scholarship, relevance of assessments of student change, unnoticed indirect effects of college experience, inattention to individual differences, validity of common…

A national follow-up study of 3,420 college students found (1) the net positive impact of grades on earnings substantially greater for Black men than White; (2) that grades' impact was not conditioned by college selectivity, major, college race, job type, or employer type; and (3) that direct effects alone underestimate grade impact substantially…

The relation between residence arrrangement and college attendance patterns was studied. The degree to which the nature of the group with whom a freshman college student lives may influence that student's decision to continue enrollment into the sophomore year was assessed. (MLW)