Search

In response to the growing public interest in seeing that higher education institutions address the personal development needs of students, this study evaluated the personal and social growth of college students and introduced an index of personal and social growth of college students. The study used the new American College Testing Program's College Outcomes Survey (COS) with a national sample of 9,400 undergraduate students to evaluate the effects of college on the personal and social self-concept of students. Indexes of personal growth were developed for each of 36 items from Section 2, Part D of the COS, as an indicator of "college effect" which considers the interaction of student growth and the college role in that development. Application of these indexes indicated that colleges had substantial impact on 28 of the 36 items. A factor analysis was conducted that identified four general factors: intra-personal development, personal valuing and moral development, social leadership and development, and civic involvement and awareness. Examining the broad categories of college impact on student development showed that the highest index value was in the area of intra-personal development. Includes three tables. (Contains 30 references.) (JB)

The study attempted to evaluate the perceived utility of college majors, the academic major and career congruency, a general assessment about the quality of the educational preparation, and the effects of gender upon the outcome measures for 53,372 college alumni. The American College Testing (ACT) Alumni Survey was used to collect data between January 1980, and May 1988, at 172 colleges and universities in 42 states, involving 16 major area categories. Analysis indicated that the major field of study had a clear impact on the perceived utility of the major, the congruency or "job fit," and the overall assessment of academic career preparation. Females generally reported a stronger relationship between their careers and academic majors, which held across a diverse number of academic major fields. Fine Arts majors reported a high degree of perceived utility for their field, as opposed to alumni majoring in home economics and community service, who rated their field's utility as low. Alumni in social science majors reported low ratings in all three categories, whereas majors in professional areas (computer science, engineering, business, education) had consistently high ratings in all categories. Implications for curriculum development and schools are discussed. Contains 32 references. (GLR)