USA: Colleges are starting to give students more engagement, involvement and work in their chosen vocations alongside faculty and community because employers prefer hiring people with experience. Some colleges or groups thereof have designed websites publishing information for parents about what the students get for the cost, promoting transparency as ‘the right thing to do’ (as says Julia Williams, who heads the institutional research office at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana) because people need to make sure this major life choice—college—is chosen correctly. Each institute has a purpose, attracts different students, offers different resources, provides innovative programs. Many schools offer various assessments: the Collegiate Learning Assessment measures critical-thinking skills, is used by 330 universities; the College Senior Survey shares data among 130 universities; the National Survey of Student Engagement has surveyed 1200 schools with 85 questions in five categories:
1. level of academic challenge (How many books do teachers assign students to read? How many papers do students write? How long do they prepare for class? Does coursework apply theories to practical problems, or synthesize ideas?)
2. student-faculty interaction (How many full-time faculty teach? How long and often are they available to students? Do students work with faculty members on activities outside coursework, or on research projects? Do faculty give prompt oral or written feedback?)
3. active and collaborative learning (Do students participate in classroom discussion, make class presentations, work with classmates outside class to prepare assignments, discuss ideas from readings outside class time?)
4. cultural and extracurricular experiences (Do students seriously discuss different beliefs or values with other students? Do they interact with students of different ethnicity? Do they participate in student clubs, learning communities, internships, or culminating senior experiences?)
5. support for groups on campus (Does campus provide support to succeed academically and thrive socially? How are student relationships with other students, faculty and administration?)
Assessment results lead to redesigning curriculum (for example, the amount of writing required), advisory services.
Most schools decide to quietly improve rather than to publish results, since most people don’t have the time ‘to become experts on what it all means’, says John Novak, director of institutional research at Indiana University at South Bend. The purpose is to enhance college experience to include activities helping students develop mental habits ‘to survive and thrive during and after college’, says NSSE director George Kuh.

When applying for college, a prospective student can:
a. Consider your own interests and strengths. If you want to go to a large research institute and want to work with faculty in research, then find student-faculty interaction scores for new students at those institutions. You might work better on your own or with group collaboration. Choose a college that works your way.
b. Consider the school’s nature. Commuter schools or adult-education schools have lower student involvement because their students have other jobs and/or live off-campus.

Colleges and students can do things to make student engagement happen:
1. Learning communities provide a stake in each other’s well-being and success. Study together. Form small, discussion-based seminars. Help each other with mutual accountability, knowing each other. This helps more students graduate.
2. Writing a lot helps you think more deeply, understand more highly. Struggling for precise language means struggling for precise thought. Rewriting means rethinking: ‘Do I mean that? What did I learn? How does this matter?’ Prompt, honest, constructive faculty response helps people turn a mistake into a step up.
3. Senior capstone courses with low enrollment and high group involvement on real problems. ‘Step forward, take responsibility, prepare carefully, work with other students in preparation’ for an oral and written comprehensive exam synthesizing everything experienced over college program.
4. Set inclusive tone at residence halls, intervene if there’s bias. Expect respect.
5. During admissions, note student leadership in former school. Have a student-led honor system (to report and punish cheating) and judiciary committee (to investigate, defend and resolve complaints). Student-organized and –led Contracted Independent Organizations meet individual interests. This can help meet a college requirement of cultural activities related to completed coursework. For instance, students can be required to attend a Convocation program of lectures, symposia, concerts and other arts performances.
6. Work with older students through career-oriented distance-learning programs. ‘Adults already have a social life. They’re looking specifically for credentials.’
7. Students whose parents did not graduate from college, ‘first-generation students’, need advice on campus life. They move from looking like ‘deer in the headlights’ to ‘I have what it takes to do this and I’m in the right place.’