How can a family tell which colleges care most about graduating students? Here are tips from the Education Trust:
• Plug the words "National Survey of Student Engagement" or "NSSE" into a college's Web site search engine and see if the school has responded to the Indiana University-based study, which surveys student participation in useful learning activities.
• When visiting a college, ask some NSSE-like questions, such as: How much of a chance is there for undergraduates to do original research? Do professors generally assign many short papers (good) or one, big, long one (bad)?
• Ask your tour guide how often he speaks to professors outside class about what he is learning. Such conversations are good.
• Ask your tour guide how often she and her friends were contacted by their campus advisers in the last semester. Florida State -- which has a good graduation rate for all students, including minorities -- requires at least three contacts a semester.
