Given the importance of academic motivation for student retention and persistence and that most undergraduate students participate in paid employment, this study investigated first-year undergraduate student employment and its relationship with academic motivation. Specifically, this study used the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education…

We examine the relationship between undergraduates' engagement in applied learning experiences and changes in students' fourth-year attitudes toward professional success and desire to contribute to the arts or sciences, using longitudinal data from the Wabash National Study. Results suggest applied learning experiences were positively or…

While levels of civic engagement among undergraduate students in the United States have increased, understanding how applied learning experiences might facilitate or hinder promotion of civic attitudes, or personal importance of social and political involvement, can provide insights for both faculty and student affairs practitioners. Using…

This study uses data from the 2014 wave of the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey to examine the association between students' interactions with and perceptions of faculty in college and their perceptions of the climate for diversity at research universities. Results revealed that frequently communicating with a faculty…

In this chapter, we discuss microaggressions, or the everyday (and often unintended) incidents of discrimination that individuals from marginalized or underserved groups experience on college campuses as they relate to students' social class identities--or simply, class-based prejudices.

This study considers how institutional histories of admitting women are associated with present college experiences, and uses data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education to compare the experiences of women at women's colleges or former women's colleges to those of women at former men's colleges and colleges that have always been…

There is an inverse relationship between lifetime unemployment rates and attainment of advanced college degrees, as well as a positive relationship between levels of human capital and graduate degree attainment (Carnevale, Cheah, & Strohl, 2012). This suggests that there is a need to better understand college experiences that may promote…

Extensive research on college impact has identified a range of practices that enhance students' academic outcomes. One practice--clear and organized instruction--has received increasing attention in recent research. While a number of studies have shown that clear and organized instruction is related to a range of postsecondary outcomes,…

Many higher education studies have examined linear relationships between student experiences and outcomes, but this assumption may be questionable. In two notable examples previous research that assumed a linear relationship reached different substantive conclusions and implications than did research that explored non-linear associations among the…

Using data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, this study examines the relationship between engagement in diversity experiences during college and student attitudes about the importance of being socially and politically involved at the end of their fourth year of college. Findings suggest a positive link between…