Developing Social and Personal Competence in the First Year of College

The available research on first-year college outcomes remains highly segmented (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) and surprisingly incomplete (Upcraft et al., 2005), particularly as it relates to psychosocial outcomes like social and personal competence. This study, based on data from nearly 6,700 students and 5,000 faculty members on 30 campuses nationwide, identifies the individual, organizational, environmental, programmatic, and policy factors that individually and collectively shape students' development of social and personal competence in their first year of college.