Ever wonder what college might be like? Maybe you have heard that the college experience is more than just preparing students to get a good job. A lot happens to students while attending college, and Dr. Arthur Chickering* has attempted to describe students' development by identifying seven areas of growth.

Developing Competence
In keeping with a primary reason for attending college, students are expected to master an area of study. In addition to acquiring the knowledge and skills pertaining to a specific subject, students are expected to improve their abilities to care for their physical health, such as engage in regular exercise and healthy eating. They are also expected to develop effective communication skills, the ability to work well with others, and leadership skills.

Managing Emotions
When it comes to emotions, students need to learn how to recognize and accept emotions, appropriately express them, and act on feelings in a responsible manner.

Moving Through Autonomy Toward Interdependence
Chickering identified two types of independence that students need to achieve as part of their development. First, emotional independence involves students decreasing their reliance on others for reassurance, affection, and approval. Second, instrumental independence consists of acquiring the ability to problem-solve, increasing reliance on one's self to determine the best course of action for one's life, and increasing the ability to move in and out of various situations as needed. Interdependence, the recognition that we are all interconnected and come to rely on each other to meet certain needs, is another task for students in this area.

Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships
Students need to learn how to build relationships with persons different from themselves by appreciating and tolerating those differences. They also need to develop healthy and lasting relationships with others.

Establishing Identity
A significant area of growth for students is establishing their identity. This involves such things as feeling comfortable with their body, appearance, gender, and sexual orientation; awareness of their social and cultural heritage; feeling comfortable with their roles and lifestyle; being open to feedback from others while remaining secure in themselves; achieving self-acceptance and positive self-esteem as well as personal stability and integration of multiple identities.

Developing Purpose
In this area, students are not only expected to develop their life purpose by defining and committing to vocational/career goals but to commit to other endeavors including personal interests and activities, relationships, and decisions. They will learn how to maintain commitments even when others disagree with them.

Developing Integrity
Achieving balance between self-interests and the interests of others is a major task for students in this area. Students are expected to not only adopt a values system that respects the rights of others to have different values and beliefs, but their values and actions are expected to become congruent and reflect a sense of social responsibility.

There are a variety of factors that help students grow and develop. They include but are not limited to: Institutional Objectives, Friendships and Student Communities, Institutional Size, Student Development Programs and Services, Student-Faculty Relationships, Integration of Work and Learning, Curriculum, Recognition and Respect for Individual Differences, Teaching, and Acknowledgement of the Cyclic Nature of Learning and Development. Students are encouraged to get involved by seeking out opportunities that expand their abilities and knowledge of the world.

*Adapted from: Chickering, A. & Reisser, L. (1993). Education and Identity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.