Outcomes of a Christian College Education: A Comparison of CCCU Students’ Gains to the National Aggregate

Abstract

This study examined the patterns of college experiences and outcomes among 3,501 students attending colleges or universities that belong to the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU). As part of the CCCU-sponsored Comprehensive Assessment Project (CAP), 25 member institutions collected data from their first-year students using the Freshman Survey from UCLA's Cooperative Institutional Research Project in 2004 and assessed those same students as seniors in 2008 using the College Senior Survey. The study analyzed the data and compared the findings with a national sample of private colleges during those same years. Although the results generally reflected gains over the four years of college in terms of students’ degree aspirations and social awareness, this positive change was more pronounced among the CCCU students compared to their national aggregate counterparts. In contrast, CCCU students appeared to have relatively fewer gains in their interpersonal abilities during college than did the national aggregate. In particular, CCCU students tended to be less engaged with their peers and less involved with diversity-related activities while in college than did the national aggregate. Additionally, while CCCU students had more informal and social interactions with faculty, they reported having lower levels of course- or research-related interaction with faculty than did their peers at other private institutions. A discussion of the association between specific college experiences and three college outcomes—academic self-esteem, interpersonal ability, and social awareness—concludes the article.