The Impact of College on Students

In this landmark work, Kenneth Feldman and Theodore Newcomb review and synthesize the findings of more than 1,500 studies conducted over four decades on the subject. Writing in 1991, Ernest Pascarella and Patrick Terenzini maintained that The Impact of College on Students not only provided the first comprehensive conceptual map of generally uncharted terrain, but also generated a number of major hypotheses about how college influences students. They also noted that Feldman and Newcomb helped to stimulate a torrent of studies on the characteristics of collegiate institutions and how students change and benefit during and after their college years from college attendance. The Impact of College on Students is now a standard text in graduate courses as well as a standard and frequently cited reference for scholars, students, and administrators of higher education. Much of what we understand about the developmental influence of college is based on this work.
In a new introduction, Feldman outlines the background for the production of the book, points out the kinds of research that have been done since it was written, and elaborates on the "accentuation effect" posited in it. He also offers a sensitive statement on the different potentials of research designs and analyses derived from sociology and psychology.

Kenneth A. Feldman is professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.