The publication of Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa's influential new book, "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses," the findings of which were summarized in an article by the same authors in the March/April "Change," has caused a national furor centering around their multi-institutional findings that the…

This study investigated the accuracy with which administrators describe the college environment as it appears to students. Student personnel administrators projected students as viewing the environment significantly higher in terms of "intellectual stimulation" and significantly lower in "bureaucracy" than students actually did. (Author)

Investigated differences among student self-perceptions, administrator ratings of students, and student projections of how they are seen by administrators. Student personnel administrators, as well as the other administrators sampled, significantly underestimated students' self-reported intellectual orientations. Students projected administrators…

Findings of this three-year longitudinal study, based on 172 African American students, suggest that attendance at an historically Black college significantly enhances the intellectual growth of African American students. The findings held for both standardized, objective measures of reading comprehension, and for self-reported measures of gains…

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…

This study investigated the impact of a "chilly campus climate" on women's first-year cognitive outcomes. The sample population of 1,636 women was selected from incoming first-year students at 18 four-year and five two-year colleges and universities located in 16 different states which had participated in the longitudinal National Study…

This study, done at Syracuse University in 1975, investigated the multidimensional differences in freshman perceptions and experience of the academic and non-academic aspects of college associated with varying amounts of informal contact with faculty. Discriminant analysis indicated that factor dimensions, termed Interest Value, Practical Appeal…

The 14 chapters of this book review and synthesize research on the influence of college on students. Chapter 1 provides a detailed discussion of the evolution of research on college outcomes as an area of study, outlines the conceptual framework that guided the review, and provides a general overview of the study. Chapter 2 summarizes the major…