This study builds upon previous research on the effect of diversity on college students by examining and modeling the effects of diversity experiences for students of color and White students' transition to college. Specifically, structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to examine the direct and indirect effects of interactions with diverse peers and their sense of belonging in the second year at public universities. Positive interactions with diverse peers result in a greater sense of belonging to the campus community for all students, extending the link between the campus climate for diversity and transition to college.

In an ongoing effort to identify predictors of educational success and achievement, grit has emerged as a seemingly useful disposition. Grit is conceived as the combination of perseverance of effort and consistency of interest over time, but the predictive utility of these two dimensions has rarely been explored separately, and the limited research available has considered a small number of outcomes. This article draws upon three samples at two universities to examine the relationships between grit dimensions and various student outcomes. Multiple regression results indicated that perseverance of effort predicted greater academic adjustment, college grade point average, college satisfaction, sense of belonging, faculty–student interactions, and intent to persist, while it was inversely related to intent to change majors. Consistency of interest was associated with less intent to change majors and careers, but it was not significantly associated with any other outcome in the expected direction when controlling for other variables.

In light of rapid demographic shifts and legal challenges to affirmative action in the United States, the issue of diversity on college campuses is of increasing importance. Most syntheses of research on diversity interactions and educational outcomes have focused on attitude change, such as reductions in prejudice or racial bias. Despite the presence of numerous studies on college diversity experiences and cognitive development, no research has systematically reviewed the literature on this topic. The current study uses meta-analysis to examine this relationship systematically. The findings suggest that several types of diversity experiences are positively related to several cognitive outcomes, but the magnitude of the effect varies substantially depending on the type of diversity experience, the type of cognitive outcome, and the study design. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

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Recent studies have suggested that a causal link exists between college rankings and subsequent admissions indicators. However, it is unclear how these effects vary across institutional type (i.e., national universities vs. liberal arts colleges) or whether these effects persist when controlling for other factors that affect admissions outcomes. Using admissions data for top-tier institutions from fall 1998 to fall 2005, we found that moving onto the front page of the U.S. News rankings provides a substantial boost in the following year's admissions indicators for all institutions. In addition, the effect of moving up or down within the top tier has a strong impact on institutions ranked in the top 25, especially among national universities. In contrast, the admissions outcomes of liberal arts collegesparticularly those in the lower half of the top tier-were more strongly influenced by institutional prices.

Many higher education studies use self-reported gains as indicators of college student learning and development. However, the evidence regarding the validity of these indicators is quite mixed. It is proposed that the temporal nature of the assessment-whether students are asked to report their current attributes or how their attributes have changed over time-best accounts for students' (in)ability to make accurate judgments. Using a longitudinal sample of over 3,000 first-year college students, this study compares selfreported gains and longitudinal gains that are measured either objectively or subjectively. Across several cognitive and noncognitive outcomes, the correlations between self-reported and longitudinal gains are small or virtually zero, and regression analyses using these two forms of assessment yield divergent results.

Processes of certification and evaluation are some of the most powerful institutional forces in organizational fields, and in the higher education field, rankings are a primary factor in assessing organizational performance. This article explores the institutional effects of the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings on the reputational assessments made by senior administrators at peer universities and liberal arts colleges. In the estimation of structural equation models, we found that published college rankings have a significant impact on future peer assessments, independent of changes in organizational quality and performance and even of prior peer assessments of reputation. In 1983, when U.S. News & World Report published its first set of college rankings, Oberlin College ranked fifth among the nation's liberal arts colleges. This was hardly surprising as the ranking was based entirely upon reputation among its peers, and Oberlin had a long and storied history. It had a particularly strong reputation for placing students in top graduate programs, for decades ranking first among liberal arts colleges in the number of students who ultimately earned the doctorate (National Science Foundation 2006). Four years later, in 1987, Oberlin remained in the fifth position; the next year Oberlin was stunned to fall completely out of the top 10. Beginning in 1988, the U.S. News rankings methodology began to include quantitative measures of student and institutional characteristics that it believed were more objective measures of quality, and consequently peer reputation became a progressively smaller part of the overall ranking. Oberlin did not score at the top of these new measures, and its ranking suffered. By the mid-1990s, Oberlin was in

Previous research has suggested that diversity courses generally have positive effects on college students' cognitive development. However, it is unclear how many courses students need to take to maximize their cognitive gains, or whether some groups of students benefit more from taking these courses. Within a longitudinal sample of over 3,000 first-year students at 19 institutions, students who take at least one diversity course have greater gains in their general interest in ideas and effortful thinking than those who take no courses; however, taking more than one course is not associated with greater benefits than taking a single course. In addition, the number of diversity courses taken is virtually unrelated to gains in critical thinking and moral reasoning. Further analyses reveal that students from middle-or lower-income families and White students experience the greatest cognitive growth from taking diversity courses. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.