Patrick T. Terenzini, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist, CSHE
Distinguished Professor of Higher Education, EPS

Dr. Terenzini's research examines the effects of college on student learning and development, persistence, and educational attainment. He has received research grants totaling more than $13 million from such organizations as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Sloan Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. He is co-author (with Ernest T. Pascarella) of the two-volume How College Affects Students (Jossey-Bass, 1991 and 2005), an award-winning synthesis of thirty years of research on the impacts of the college experience on students. The first volume was selected as "one of the 100 most important and influential books about U.S. colleges and universities published in the 20th century." Terenzini has also published more than 130 articles in refereed journals and made more than 250 presentations at scholarly and professional conferences. He is a former editor-in-chief of New Directions for Institutional Research, associate editor of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, and editorial board member for The Review of Higher Education. He has been a consulting editor for Research in Higher Education for 30 years.

He has received the research awards of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), the American College Personnel Association (ACPA), the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), and the student affairs associations of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. He is a three-time winner of the Forum Best Paper Award from the Association for Institutional Research and received the William Elgin Wickenden Award from the American Society for Engineering Education for the best paper published in the Journal of Engineering Education in 2001. Most recently, Terenzini was named the first recipient of the Sphere of Influence Award, given jointly by ACPA and NASPA, an award to be given only once each decade. Terenzini is also a trustee of Dean College (MA) and a past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Fincher, C. L., Keller, G., Bogue, E. G., & Thelin, J. (2001). 100 Classic Books About Higher Education. Bloomington, IN : Phi Delta Kappa International.

ptt2@psu.edu
Terenzini Vita