Why emphasize hands-on experience and research?


Although most graduates won’t spend the rest of their lives as students in a classroom, almost all will need to be able to apply the skills they develop there. Every day, people are called on to gather information, interpret that information and use it to make decisions. Hands-on research experience helps develop these important life skills. At LaGrange College, students gain research experience, both in required courses such as Research Methods and in elective courses such as Survey Research. Other students may elect to complete an independent research project or to work with a professor as a research assistant.

During your senior year, you may choose a research topic based on your specific interests, which you will then defend to your professor. After conducting the research and writing a major paper, you will then present your findings to your classmates.

Recent student projects have involved:
  • predicting classroom performance based on sleep time, classroom attendance, and study time studying the relationship between computer use and academic performance
  • examining the links between academic performance and age, gender, and religious backgrounds