Studying the Impacts of Colleges on Students

This paper attempts a broad overview of the research on college impacts by outlining the ways in which such research has been done, pointing out the theoretical orientations and analytic strategies underlying these studies, and highlighting some of the concomitant methodological problems and research issues. Difficulties related to the conceptualization and measurement of impact are discussed first. Following is an analysis of the various orientations used in predicting the nature and direction of impacts: actuarial; avowed goals and functions of higher education; personality development; life-cycle movement within the general social system; distinctive social organizational structures and pressures. Ways of measuring college environments and inferring their impacts are presented. Finally, some suggestions are offered for the kinds of future research that would be of particular benefit to the field.