College choices: a deeper look

Even without NSSE results to pore over, you can ask similar questions: How much help is there for people with weak skills in certain subjects? What kind of living- learning centers are on campus - a language-immersion house? A dorm centered on women in the sciences? What are the results of student- and alumni-satisfaction surveys?

The admissions office is a good first stop for such questions. But for more details on quality issues, one underutilized resource is a school's institutional research office.

Tip No. 4: Probe preferred majors.

Some majors are reviewed by outside accrediting boards, so that's a good place to look for ratings, Stuart suggests. And you can ask for pass rates on external exams - whether it's LSATs for potential law students or licensing tests for accountants.

Prospective students and their parents should also ask about other forms of "outcomes assessment," Banta says. More schools are starting to help professors and departments define learning goals and measure students' achievements in classes over time. This scrutiny may reveal that students aren't getting enough chances to practice a key skill, such as public speaking, and then the curriculum can be adjusted accordingly.

Another good question to ask is whether students will have a "capstone" experience in the major, and whether they've published student papers, written either on their own or with faculty.

After Stuart's daughter looked far and wide for a school with a good film and video major, she ended up choosing the University of Oklahoma in her own backyard - to everyone's surprise. When she put aside her preconceptions and went on campus, she liked the diversity of students and activities, her mother says. Now she's a junior, and film and video have taken a back seat to her interest in advertising.

Do as much research as you can, Stuart says, but when it's time to make a choice, "it comes down to a feeling."

Policy Center on the First Year of College

Go to www.brevard.edu/fyc or call the center on the campus of Brevard College in North Carolina at (828) 966-5401.

The center publishes research and a list of institutions of various types and sizes that exemplify effective initiatives focused on first-year students.

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

Go to www.nsse.iub.edu or call the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University in Bloomington at (812) 856-5824.

On the website, you can click on a list of institutions that participate in this measure of factors that influence college students' learning and personal development.

You can also click on a link to NSSE's pocket guide, "College: What you need to know before you go." (www.nsse.iub.edu/html/pocket_guide_intro.htm).

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