ABSTRACT
College is supposed to do something to students, and that something refers primarily to consequences that make a difference in later years. A series of investigations of students and alumnae of Vassar College, by Sanford and his associates, has led to interesting conclusions about the problem of persistence as related to secular changes. The Vassar studies led their authors to conclude that little change in values or attitudes occurs after graduation. Changes in religious belief were greater on the part of respondents who had attended state universities than by the remainder, whose colleges had been church-related. College-experienced changes in politico-social-economic attitudes, typically in the liberal direction, in several instances have been shown to persist, or even to be extended, after college years. One source of individual differences in openness to value change lies in individual personality.
