ABSTRACT
Drawing on data from the National Survey of Senior Capstone Experiences, this chapter highlights the various forms of culminating experiences on US campuses. It interrogates the national landscape, highlighting concerns for institutions and faculty who teach and direct capstones. The 2016 National Survey of Senior Capstone Experiences, conducted by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, was administered to produce a national profile of campus efforts to support student success in the final year of baccalaureate study. The most prevalent administrative home of capstone experiences is in academic departments or disciplines; nearly all (98.7%) of the participating institutions reported at least one discipline-based capstone experience on their campus. Slightly more than half of the respondents reported offering cocurricular capstones (51.5%), and more than a third reported having a campus-wide capstone experience (37.8%).
