College for what? Getting a Job, Social
Relationships and Civic Participation for
a Recent Cohort of Emerging Adults*
Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa
November 3, 2014
Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy
*We thank the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Lumina, Ford and Teagle
Foundations for their generous financial support and the Council for Aid to Education
for collaboration and assistance with data collection.
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An opening vignette
Limited academic rigor
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45% students in a typical semester do not have
any class with 20 pages of writing
32% students in a typical semester do not have
any class with 40 pages of reading per week
36% students study alone five or fewer hours
per week
Limited learning
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0.18 standard deviation growth on CLA
performance task first two years of college (7
percentile gain)
45% students no meaningful gains on CLA
performance tasks first two years of college
Significant variation
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Greater variation within than across colleges
Academic rigor associated with improved
learning outcomes
Higher gains in arts and science core of
university
Presentation outline:
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How do students experience college in
terms of their academic and social
orientations?
How are recent college graduates faring
in transitions to adulthood broadly and
in labor market outcomes? How do
graduates understand their trajectories?
Are demonstrated generic competencies
(i.e., critical thinking, complex
reasoning and writing), college
selectivity and college major associated
with graduate outcomes?
How can higher education more
effectively prepare graduates for
successful transitions?
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Determinants of College Learning Data
◦ Longitudinal
 College surveys and CLA Assessment: Fall 2005, Spring 2007, Spring 2009
 Post-college surveys: Spring 2010 and Spring 2011
◦ Large scale, but not national probability study; significant (male
and less academically prepared student) attrition
 Academically Adrift (2005-2007) - 24 diverse four-year institutions; N=2,322
student
 2009 senior year: N=1,666 students
 2011 post-college follow-up: N=967 respondents
◦ Structured interviews (80 respondents): Summer 2011
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Nationally representative datasets used for historical context:
GSS, PSID, Pew Media Surveys, IPUMS-Census, BLS-CPS, etc.
Descriptive analysis: early labor market models include
covariates for race, parental education, gender, senior CLA score,
institutional selectivity, major
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Aligned with institutional commitment to therapeutic
ethic/personnel perspective focused on social adjustment, wellbeing and personality development.
Aligned with broader cultural norms valuing “other-directed”
personality ideal-type focused on sociability and sensitivity to
others.
Accelerated by post-1960s change in legal definitions of student
rights (Goss; FERPA) and financial models that privileged student
consumer preferences (see e.g., Armstrong and Hamilton; Jacobs et.
al.).
Increasingly individuals going to college and for greater periods of
time embedded in emerging adult sub-cultures, where delays in
assuming adult roles are normative and legitimated.
Academic time from 1925-1965 in time diaries
relatively constant (39.2 to 34.1); source:
Babcock and Marks, 2011.
Eurostudent 2009-11 data; U.S. AA 2007 Sophomores. SK
lower than U.S.
Eurostudent 2009-11 data; U.S. HERI 2010 freshmen.
SE/NO/FI/DK lower than U.S.
Source: OECD, Education at a Glance 2012
◦ Emerging adulthood: “In the U.S., becoming an adult is achieved
when a person takes on a set of socially valued roles associated
with finishing schooling, leaving home, starting work, entering
into serious relationships and having children.” (Waters et al.)
◦ These milestones are coming later and are becoming less
normative.
◦ For middle class students college is a central feature of these
changes: increasingly individuals going to college and for greater
periods of time embedded in emerging adult sub-cultures.
◦ Higher education legitimates emerging adulthood
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“I was a very good student. I did all my homework and
studied for all my tests.”
“Pretty committed. I went to 90- 95% of all my classes and I
did all my homework and for the most part the readings.”
“Actually, like I put forth a good deal of effort. I was great
about going to class. I think I really only missed a handful of
classes the entire time I was at college. I studied. Any
homework I had to do, I did.”
“I was fairly academically engaged in that I tried very hard not
to fail most of my classes.”
“I was a good student. I did my homework on time. I never
missed deadlines”
“I learned about many different views in the world from many different people
then I became a complete individual. I am much more open now to many
different things than I was before I went to college. So religious wise and
business practices and just– every single aspect of my life has changed.
(emphasis added)
I think the act of going to social settings that I didn't go to in high school, was
really important socially. Again pushing boundaries not because I ended up
being a very different person that I was in high school, although I did, but
because the act of exposing yourself to new things is going to make you think
critically about who you are, who you want to be in ways that you might not
have before.
It’s about meeting people from different cultures, different backgrounds, being
constantly competent, and respectful of other peoples’ story and that’s quite
frankly just their simple story of where they’re coming from so socially I was
always at all the little events around campus, the socials and hosting events,
being the face and the voice of a lot of big events around campus. I’ve learned
how to be a better sociable person (emphasis added).”
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0.47 standard deviations – 18 percentile
point gain (0.18 sd, 7 percentile points,
2005-2007)
No meaningful gains* in critical thinking,
complex reasoning and writing skills for 36
percent of the students in the sample (45
percent, 2005-2007)
* If test scored 0-100, less than 1 point gain.
Other employment
outcome, 31%
Full-time
>=$30,000, 47%
Unskilled, 11.5%
Part-time (< 20
hours), 4.1%
Unemployed, 6.8%
Two years following on-time graduation; excludes 30%
full-time graduate students
Full-time skilled employment
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
More than $30,000
college debt
Living at home with
parents
Financial support from
parents
Two years following on-time graduation
40%
20%
0%
Read newspapers monthly or never
Discuss politics monthly or never
Additional questions:
◦ Are these difficulties simply a product of the recent recession?
◦ How do non-college graduates fare in comparison?
Living arrangements by education
Newspaper consumption by education
◦ Emerging adulthood characterized by delayed school
completion, family formation, financial independence and
career commencement.
 “much of the pertinent action occurs in the early thirties”
(Furstenberg et al. 2008);
 “the transition from adolescence to adulthood has in recent years
become more complicated, uncertain, and extended than ever
before” (Waters et al. 2011).
◦ Higher education legitimates emerging adulthood and
fortifies graduates with a sense of optimism in the face of
difficulties.
Perception of life trajectory relative to parents
Perception life will be better than parents by
employment
“I feel generally confident in it (the direction of my life. I wish I had a little
more direction but…”
- grocery store cashier, living with parents (M)
“I’m feeling okay about the way my life is going, It would be cool if I had a
job. I don’t know, I’m like – I tend to look on the bright side because I do
what I can to change the things I dislike in my life, but I’m not going to hate
on things that I can’t change, because they’re going to stay, so I might as
well accept them.”
- unemployed, living with parents, deferring loans (F)
“I have good ideas and I know what I want to do. I know my path will be
positive, but things are moving at a lot slower pace than I expected. If
nobody will give me a job, I’ll just go start my own job to do what I want to
do…. It will be different [the respondent’s life in comparison to parents]. It
depends really on what you mean by ‘better’. I know I won’t be as rich as my
parents, but I know that I will be doing something that I like.”
- program assistant, living with parents, deferring loans (F)
Perception life will be better than parents by
education (GSS data)
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Graduates are optimistic about their futures and sentimentally
attached to their collegiate pasts, but many experienced
limited academic rigor and are struggling with transitions to
adulthood.
Successful adult transitions (particularly employment) are
associated with college selectivity, major and CLA
performance.
Colleges should provide better support for graduate
transitions - particularly through greater institutional
attention to student academic engagement, learning, and
assessment.
Educators need to lead on improvement of teaching, learning
and assessment. Not accountability, but assumption of
professional responsibility.
http://highered.ssrc.org/
Richard Arum
richard.arum@nyu.edu
Josipa Roksa
jroksa@virginia.edu