Women's Colleges Receive High Marks for Learning Effectiveness But recruiting minority students still a challenge
BY Eleanor Lee Yates

Amherst, Va.
Good news for women's colleges: A recent national survey of 276 colleges and universities has found that students attending women's colleges give their schools high marks for learning effectiveness, as well as for providing enriching educational experiences and a supportive campus environment.
Women's colleges have long been known for providing a sound educational foundation in an atmosphere away from the distractions of the opposite sex. The fact that many women's colleges are small and foster a sense of community along with providing more individual attention may be factors in their high marks in the National Survey of Student Engagement.
The survey, a $3.3 million project underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trusts, set out to find what colleges and universities specifically contribute to student learning. The survey does not focus on how many resources colleges have but rather on what they do with them.
The survey included responses from 63,000 first-year students and seniors on topics such as how much time they spend preparing for class, talking with professors and working on extracurricular projects. The survey also examined how much academic and social support colleges offer them. Students ranked their colleges in five categories such as academic challenges, enriching educational experiences and supportive campus environments.
Sweet Briar College, a small women's college in Amherst, Va., is among one of only four schools in the survey scoring in the top 20th percentile in the categories for both freshmen and seniors. Columbia College in South Carolina scored in the top 10 percent in four categories and Regis
College in Maine scored in the top 20 percent in four categories. At Meredith College in North Carolina, 90 percent of freshmen and seniors say the campus environment is supportive. Fifteen of the nation's 73 women's colleges participated in the survey.
The National Survey of Student Engagement is considered another option to the annual U.S. News and World Report ranking, which measures a school's resources, such as the library size.