Presents the results from the definitive study on how students are changed by their college experiences.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.

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.