This course examines how college impact students. Specifically, it is designed to introduce graduate students to those pre-and-existing institutional conditions, educational practices, and campus experiences that influence student decision-making, ranging from college choice to retention. Students will learn about major theoretical perspectives explaining the formative relationship between the college environment and the student, the research informing and emerging from these perspectives, and how each can be used to inform their own processes of decision-making regarding what constitutes the effective educational policies and practices.