Summer/Fall 2004
The Last Word
What Matters in College?
As I write this, St. Lawrence’s newest first-year class
is less than a month from its arrival in Canton. They have chosen St. Lawrence
from among many diverse collegiate options.
This issue of the magazine is devoted to sharing with you what
we think we know about what prospective students consider when making a college
choice. I have watched this process for over three decades, had three children
go through it, and a portion of my own research program has been devoted
to studying it for a very long time at three liberal arts colleges.
But even more importantly, I have also followed very closely
the research that connects student outcomes with institutional programs and
characteristics. As it happens, we know a great deal about what matters in
college. Based on my personal and research experiences, I believe prospective
students and their parents should be looking for the following attributes
in a college: high levels of student engagement; an institution that is both
very demanding academically and deeply committed to engaging the whole student;
an institution that recognizes the impact on students of the total collegiate
experience and its interrelated parts while at the same time being highly
focused on its core mission, goals and objectives.
The very best colleges and universities attract students who
come to college ready to take advantage of the extraordinary educational
resources such colleges have. Their students are already motivated to learn,
develop and take every opportunity offered. At the best colleges these students
then encounter faculty and staff who are also highly engaged and prepared
to involve them in active learning, using ways of teaching that in turn foster
even more student engagement. In these colleges:
- students interact with faculty members frequently, not just in class;
- students are expected to write a great deal and display higher-order
thinking skills, and their professors take their writing seriously and
provide prompt, detailed feedback;
- students collaborate with one another in various kinds of structured
exercises—the faculty do not leave to chance getting students to
influence and challenge each other;
- open to learning from others, students actively seek to learn from
the diverse perspectives other students bring with them;
- and the vast majority of students in the best colleges have the opportunity
to undertake a serious piece of research, scholarship or artistic creation
under the mentorship of a faculty member.
The best colleges are filled with willing, engaged learners
and willing, engaged teachers who are also willing learners, and the whole
institution is organized to bring them together effectively. Very importantly,
peers matter. Some research suggests that as much as 40% of student learning
in college comes from interactions and engagement with other students.
Engaged students and faculty are attracted to colleges that
are both very demanding academically—that expect a great deal of students
academically—and highly focused on students as whole persons. Having
high academic expectations of students does not mean that an institution
cannot also take a holistic approach to students’ education. The best
colleges not only have a great and committed faculty, but also student life
and other staff who feel the same kind of ownership of the educational process
and the institution’s educational goals and objectives.
The unfortunate news, the research shows, is that finding both
characteristics in the same institution at the same time is rare. The most
demanding institutions academically sometimes, over time, become “faculty-centered,” leaving
students who, after all, come to those institutions with very strong preparation,
to fend too much for themselves while faculty members pursue their research.
My advice to prospective students and their parents is to hunt
for evidence that both characteristics are present in the institutions being
considered for application and enrollment. Certainly our goal at St. Lawrence
is to be one of the rare colleges that are both highly demanding academically
and highly focused on students as whole persons.
Finally, in my experience the very best institutions for students
are those that have a clear mission, and clearly articulated goals and objectives
that they pursue with single-mindedness and great clarity of purpose. Sometimes,
for financial reasons, institutions begin a kind of mission creep, expanding
programs into new areas seeking new markets. Inevitably, their performance
in programs at the core of their mission suffers from a dilution of effort.
My advice to prospective students and their parents is to look for institutions
that say what they’re doing clearly and cogently, and then do what
they say. Again, it is our ambition at St. Lawrence to do exactly that.
These are exciting times in American higher education. From
where I sit, the demand for liberal arts education of the highest quality
has never been stronger, and it has never been more important for our nation
and the world. For the issues and problems we face, and our leaders face,
liberal arts education is the most practical of educations. We plan to be
there doing it with the best for a long time to come.
Daniel F. Sullivan
