American higher education is a socializing institution and therefore allegedly influences the values of its participants. Colleges and universities are complex organizations that claim to transfer knowledge and skills to students. In order to communicate knowledge and skills, colleges and universities have developed highly organized disciplines. In the process of categorization and transmitting knowledge and skills, implicit and explicit values are also communicated to students. Along with these formal influences on student values, there are a variety of informal influences on students. The informal influences include personal contact with faculty and student peers. Research into the impact of American higher education on undergraduate student valuing has proven to be as complex as the internal organization of colleges and universities, which provide a variety of potential influences on the formation of student values. Researchers have obtained data that are conflicting and often unreliable. Research methods have been questionable. (Author)