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No doubt you want your college experience to be a successful one. What you might not realize is that the road to success begins as early as your search for colleges and universities.

What criteria are you using to narrow your search for colleges? Location? Median SAT score? Student-faculty ratio? Those are important factors, but the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) encourages you to dig deeper.

NSSE's 2007 report reveals that taking part in high-impact activities during college--such as internships, learning communities, study abroad, undergraduate research, and capstone projects--boosts your critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork skills, to name a few. Students who study abroad, for instance, report greater gains in intellectual and personal development than those who stay stateside.

The survey, which is based on information from randomly selected first-year and senior students at four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, measures five key areas of educational performance: level of academic challenge; active and collaborative learning; student-faculty interaction; enriching educational experiences; and supportive campus environment.

According to NSSE, students who meet with their advisor at least twice a year are more engaged and gain more from their college experience. But 10 percent of students never meet with their advisor. Likewise, in terms of greater self-reported gains, the report reveals that an internship or field placement is the most powerful form of a culminating senior experience. But only 29 percent of seniors at public institutions do a culminating senior experience, compared with 42 percent of their private college and university counterparts.

Based on results like these, colleges and universities need to do everything possible to encourage undergrads to participate in at least two high-impact activities (e.g., study abroad, internship), one in the first year and one later in their college experience. After all, such experiences can better prepare you for lifelong, satisfying learning.

As you search for colleges and universities, be sure to spend time discovering the extent of each institution's commitment to improving teaching and learning. If schools are making use of an assessment tool like NSSE, are they using the results to make changes to improve your college experience? This level of information and insight can help you find the school that's truly right for you.

Don't just search for colleges that have the major that interests you--search for colleges that are committed to actively engaging you in the learning process. From there, you'll be well on your way to a satisfying, successful college experience.



Robyn Tellefsen is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.

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