jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
Colleges Turn to Personality Assessments to Find Successful Students
Some School Are Looking Past SAT or ACT Admission Tests
Personality tests, which measure things like drive and persistence, are cropping up at some schools trying to diversify their student body. WSJ's Joseph Barrett reports.
By DOUGLAS BELKIN WALL STREET JOURNAL
Updated Jan. 8, 2015 10:10 p.m. ET
CHICAGO—Gabby Toro Rosa was a strong student in high school but she was lousy at standardized tests, killing her chances at some colleges. Then she heard that DePaul University here was willing to accept a series of short essays in lieu of test scores.
The questions were designed to elicit responses that would gauge traits such as perseverance, adaptability and discipline. They rely on the premise that certain personality types are more likely to succeed at college than others.
“I am very ambitious, and that’s hard to learn, so when you do have it, it sets you apart from other people,” said Ms. Toro Rosa, who is 20 years old and from San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was accepted and is now a junior at DePaul with a grade-point average of 3.63.
Ms. Toro Rosa’s persuasive essays and subsequent success are part of a broad rethinking of the college admissions process, in which students’ scores on the SAT or ACT admission tests have long played a prominent role.
As schools aim to boost graduation rates, some have lost confidence in the power of the standardized exams to predict which ones will succeed in college. At the same time, the tests have been criticized for bias because, on average, white and Asian students, as well as those from wealthier families, score higher than African-American and Latino students and those from poorer families.
TEST OF CHARACTER
Statements presented to applicants to the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology are similar to these:
‘There are some subjects in which I could never do well.’
Agreement would indicate stronger belief that other people or external circumstances shape the applicant’s future.
‘I study every day because it is important.’
Agreement would indicate stronger belief that the applicant has control over their own future.
Source: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
With schools seeking to widen their net in their search for promising students, interest in noncognitive, or nonacademic, assessments has been growing. Of the approximately 3,000 four-year colleges and universities in the U.S., more than 850 are “test optional,” with more than 100, including top-tier schools such as Bowdoin and Wake Forest, dropping the requirement in the last decade, according to Fair Test, a non-profit group critical of standardized testing.
Now, a handful of colleges are going beyond the subjectivity of essays like those used at DePaul and are asking students to take personality assessments to determine if they will do well.
In the past few months, more than 2,000 high-school seniors who have been granted deferred admission to Michigan State University have filled out a nearly 100-question online “behavioral inventory” that will help decide which of them gets into the school. At Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indianapolis, applications soon will include a test with 30 “yes or no” questions designed to gauge how much control applicants believe they have over their own future.
The field has its critics. It isn’t clear how well the assessments ultimately will correlate with success because their use is so new, said Kristi Ferguson, director of the Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. And just as students can prepare for the SAT and ACTs, they also can prepare for noncognitive assessments.
“I’ve seen list-serves of medical students who have gone through the process and have leaked the questions,” said Dr. Ferguson, noting that can skew results.
Some research, moreover, has found that the better a student performs on the SAT the more likely they are to succeed in college. According to a report by the College Board, the percentage of students who make it to their fourth year rises sharply as SAT scores climb. A student with a score between 600 and 890 had a 42% chance of reaching their fourth year, while one scoring between 2,100 and 2,400 had an 88% chance.
Gabby Toro Rosa was allowed to submit essays gauging traits such as perseverance and adaptability in her application to DePaul University. ENLARGE
Gabby Toro Rosa was allowed to submit essays gauging traits such as perseverance and adaptability in her application to DePaul University. TAYLOR GLASCOCK FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
For schools that require them, the tests are the third most important criterion for admission, behind grades earned in college prep courses and the strength of the high-school curriculum, according to a 2012 survey of 446 four-year colleges and universities by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling.
And the vast of majority of schools still require the exams.
“It levels the playing field,” said Paul Thiboutot, Director of Admissions at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. “It helps us gauge the ability of students across the country when there is no uniformity in the strength of the curriculum.”
At Michigan State, every student who is deferred must take the “inventory” to be considered. The assessment takes about 45 minutes and consists of 70 biographical questions and 25 questions that describe situations and ask how the taker would react.
One asks what a student would do if he or she came back to the dorm room with a guest and the place was a mess, with the best scores assigned to the choices made by MSU seniors with high grades, said Mr. Schmitt.
“Up until this point, it’s been very hard to determine the factors outside of grades or ACT or SAT will help make a student successful,” said Jim Cotter, MSU director of admissions. “This will allow us to consider another dimension.”
DePaul made tests optional in 2012 and allows applicants to substitute essays that reveal whether a student is disciplined, committed to service and goal-oriented. That has helped the school identify hundreds of students who might not have met the traditional criteria, said Jon Boeckenstedt, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing at DePaul. Most have been successful, he said.
“The great struggle for admissions is to a) identify which characteristics matter and b) figure out how to measure them in a 17-year-old,” said Mr. Boeckenstedt.
Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com
Some School Are Looking Past SAT or ACT Admission Tests
Personality tests, which measure things like drive and persistence, are cropping up at some schools trying to diversify their student body. WSJ's Joseph Barrett reports.
By DOUGLAS BELKIN WALL STREET JOURNAL
Updated Jan. 8, 2015 10:10 p.m. ET
CHICAGO—Gabby Toro Rosa was a strong student in high school but she was lousy at standardized tests, killing her chances at some colleges. Then she heard that DePaul University here was willing to accept a series of short essays in lieu of test scores.
The questions were designed to elicit responses that would gauge traits such as perseverance, adaptability and discipline. They rely on the premise that certain personality types are more likely to succeed at college than others.
“I am very ambitious, and that’s hard to learn, so when you do have it, it sets you apart from other people,” said Ms. Toro Rosa, who is 20 years old and from San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was accepted and is now a junior at DePaul with a grade-point average of 3.63.
Ms. Toro Rosa’s persuasive essays and subsequent success are part of a broad rethinking of the college admissions process, in which students’ scores on the SAT or ACT admission tests have long played a prominent role.
As schools aim to boost graduation rates, some have lost confidence in the power of the standardized exams to predict which ones will succeed in college. At the same time, the tests have been criticized for bias because, on average, white and Asian students, as well as those from wealthier families, score higher than African-American and Latino students and those from poorer families.
TEST OF CHARACTER
Statements presented to applicants to the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology are similar to these:
‘There are some subjects in which I could never do well.’
Agreement would indicate stronger belief that other people or external circumstances shape the applicant’s future.
‘I study every day because it is important.’
Agreement would indicate stronger belief that the applicant has control over their own future.
Source: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
With schools seeking to widen their net in their search for promising students, interest in noncognitive, or nonacademic, assessments has been growing. Of the approximately 3,000 four-year colleges and universities in the U.S., more than 850 are “test optional,” with more than 100, including top-tier schools such as Bowdoin and Wake Forest, dropping the requirement in the last decade, according to Fair Test, a non-profit group critical of standardized testing.
Now, a handful of colleges are going beyond the subjectivity of essays like those used at DePaul and are asking students to take personality assessments to determine if they will do well.
In the past few months, more than 2,000 high-school seniors who have been granted deferred admission to Michigan State University have filled out a nearly 100-question online “behavioral inventory” that will help decide which of them gets into the school. At Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indianapolis, applications soon will include a test with 30 “yes or no” questions designed to gauge how much control applicants believe they have over their own future.
The field has its critics. It isn’t clear how well the assessments ultimately will correlate with success because their use is so new, said Kristi Ferguson, director of the Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. And just as students can prepare for the SAT and ACTs, they also can prepare for noncognitive assessments.
“I’ve seen list-serves of medical students who have gone through the process and have leaked the questions,” said Dr. Ferguson, noting that can skew results.
Some research, moreover, has found that the better a student performs on the SAT the more likely they are to succeed in college. According to a report by the College Board, the percentage of students who make it to their fourth year rises sharply as SAT scores climb. A student with a score between 600 and 890 had a 42% chance of reaching their fourth year, while one scoring between 2,100 and 2,400 had an 88% chance.
Gabby Toro Rosa was allowed to submit essays gauging traits such as perseverance and adaptability in her application to DePaul University. ENLARGE
Gabby Toro Rosa was allowed to submit essays gauging traits such as perseverance and adaptability in her application to DePaul University. TAYLOR GLASCOCK FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
For schools that require them, the tests are the third most important criterion for admission, behind grades earned in college prep courses and the strength of the high-school curriculum, according to a 2012 survey of 446 four-year colleges and universities by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling.
And the vast of majority of schools still require the exams.
“It levels the playing field,” said Paul Thiboutot, Director of Admissions at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. “It helps us gauge the ability of students across the country when there is no uniformity in the strength of the curriculum.”
At Michigan State, every student who is deferred must take the “inventory” to be considered. The assessment takes about 45 minutes and consists of 70 biographical questions and 25 questions that describe situations and ask how the taker would react.
One asks what a student would do if he or she came back to the dorm room with a guest and the place was a mess, with the best scores assigned to the choices made by MSU seniors with high grades, said Mr. Schmitt.
“Up until this point, it’s been very hard to determine the factors outside of grades or ACT or SAT will help make a student successful,” said Jim Cotter, MSU director of admissions. “This will allow us to consider another dimension.”
DePaul made tests optional in 2012 and allows applicants to substitute essays that reveal whether a student is disciplined, committed to service and goal-oriented. That has helped the school identify hundreds of students who might not have met the traditional criteria, said Jon Boeckenstedt, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing at DePaul. Most have been successful, he said.
“The great struggle for admissions is to a) identify which characteristics matter and b) figure out how to measure them in a 17-year-old,” said Mr. Boeckenstedt.
Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com
