How College Affects Students: 21st Century Evidence that Higher Education Works

How College Affects Students synthesizes over 1,800 individual research investigations to provide a deeper understanding of how the undergraduate experience affects student populations. Volume 3 contains the findings accumulated between 2002 and 2013, covering diverse aspects of college impact, including cognitive and moral development, attitudes and values, psychosocial change, educational attainment, and the economic, career, and quality of life outcomes after college. Each chapter compares current findings with those of Volumes 1 and 2 (covering 1967 to 2001) and highlights the extent of agreement and disagreement in research findings over the past 45 years. The structure of each chapter allows readers to understand if and how college works and, of equal importance, for whom does it work. This book is an invaluable resource for administrators, faculty, policymakers, and student affairs practitioners, and provides key insight into the impact of their work.

Higher education is under more intense scrutiny than ever before, and understanding its impact on students is critical for shaping the way forward. This book distills important research on a broad array of topics to provide a cohesive picture of student experiences and outcomes by:

• Reviewing a decade's worth of research;
• Comparing current findings with those of past decades;
• Examining a multifaceted analysis of higher education's impact; and
• Informing policy and practice with empirical evidence

Amidst the current introspection and skepticism surrounding higher education, there is a massive body of research that must be synthesized to enhance understanding of college's effects. How College Affects Students compiles, organizes, and distills this information in one place, and makes it available to research and practitioner audiences; Volume 3 provides insight on the past decade, with the expert analysis characteristic of this seminal work.

Matthew J. Mayhew is the William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Educational Administration at The Ohio State University.

Alyssa N. Rockenbach is professor of higher education at North Carolina State University.

Nicholas A. Bowman is an associate professor of higher education and student affairs as well as the director of the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education at the University of Iowa.

Tricia A. Seifert is an associate professor of adult and higher education at Montana State University and has a faculty appointment at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

Gregory C. Wolniak is associate professor of higher education and director of the Center for Research on Higher Education Outcomes at New York University.

Ernest T. Pascarella is professor and the Mary Louise Petersen Chair in Higher Education at the University of Iowa.

Patrick T. Terenzini is distinguished professor and senior scientist emeritus in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University.

Pascarella and Terenzini are co-authors of the first two volumes of How College Affects Students.