<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/07/06/tufts_gets_creative_on_admissions/[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/07/06/tufts_gets_creative_on_admissions/</a></p>
<p>Robert J. Sternberg, leading proponent of using different ways of measuring aptitude than the SAT, is Tufts new dean of FAS.</p>
<p>Marite, thanks for posting the Boston Globe article. Inside Higher Ed also picked up the story:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/06/tufts[/url]”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/06/tufts</a></p>
<p>Thanks, Marite, for posting the Boston Globe link, and Asteriskea for the Inside Higher Ed story.</p>
<p>In perusing the picture accompanying the Boston Globe article, I wondered if “choice of tie during interview” might be a factor to be considered. ;)</p>
<p>JEM:</p>
<p>LOL! It IS colorful, isn’t it? What should a female applicant wear, I wonder?</p>
<p>I confess I worry about students who are not inclined to be counterfactual and would be exasperated by questions such as “Imagine what would have happened had Rosa Parks not refused to give up her seat?” Many of these students can be found in science disciplines. Their thinking outside the box may not be captured by questions such as these.
It will be interesting to find out what type of questions Tufts comes up with.</p>
<p>From the story:
"This fall, Tufts will try a more scientific approach to its toughest decisions, using its application to measure aspects of intelligence that cannot be approximated by SAT scores. A top Tufts dean believes that creativity and practical skills – the ability to implement ideas and win other people’s backing – are just as important as the analytical skills typically measured by standardized tests.</p>
<p>The university will ask applicants to show original thinking and imagine, for example, an alternative version of history: What if civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks had given up her seat on the bus? Or, they could be asked to write an off-the-wall ministory with the title, ``My roommate is a space alien."
The first question might not sound so different than those on a typical application essay, but this year's questions will be designed and evaluated based on psychological research. Tufts officials hope to better identify future leaders and predict college grades. Such methods could also boost diversity among those accepted , because research indicates that the assessment erases much of the gap between racial and socioeconomic groups seen on traditional standardized tests.
``If you want to admit people who are going to be leaders in tomorrow's world, which every university says it does, focusing on [grade point average] and SATs does not get you very far," said Robert J. Sternberg, Tufts' new dean of arts and sciences and a psychologist who is directing the pilot project, based on research he did as a Yale professor.</p>
<p>Word of Tufts’ experiment generated buzz at an admissions training seminar at Harvard last month, and deans at MIT and Stanford said they would be watching closely in the next few years to see if Tufts is successful. "</p>
<p>I believe that a good interview can uncover creativity and the ability to get others to follow one’s leadership far better than can an essay, which could always be written by a high paid consultant.</p>
<p>I don’t think this new format will help disadvantaged applicants. I think that the more advantaged will yet again pay to get the help they need to give the right answer.</p>
<p>As for predicting college grades, the best predictor of college grades is h.s. gpa. I doubt that this new essay format will predict better.</p>
<p>Their plans for more thoughtful essays sure sounds like what U. Chicago has been doing for years. I wonder if U. Chi has “scientifically” validated the approach?</p>
<p>I do agree that we parents have such a sense of randomness precisely because it is not apparent what separates the winners from the losers in the admissions lottery. Maybe this article sheds a little frank light on the topic?</p>
<p>I rather suspect this was intended (or will turn out to be) another device to raise the chronically low Tufts yield rate; the common app will now be shunned by those recognizing that writing the new “special essays” will be a recommended option to increase your odds of admission by showing a “sincere interest” in the school.</p>
<p>I’d love to hear what the admit rate and yield rate differences will be for those who avail themselves of this new option to “stand out” vs those who stick with the common app.</p>
<p>This may mark the beginning of a counter-trend, as schools overwhelmed by apps from students who are applying to a dozen schools and obviously planning to attend only one discover that although the app increase makes them appear more “selective” now that US News doesn’t factor in yield rate anymore, that its harder than ever to appear more “diverse” (in the current fashion) if you don’t have a better way of figurig out who will - or won’t - matriculate if admitted.</p>
<p>The rainbow changes in the application essays are no doubt part of a general revamping of the whole Tufts’ package aimed to reverse the trend in accepted student enrollment. This includes marketing and enrollment management techniques to enhance Tuft’s media image to turn a “yes, we want you” into a "“yes, I will attend”. While the experimental essay section of the application process is significant, it has to be viewed in the context of Tuft’s new approach to admissions - one that will use glossy brochures decked out with appealing graphics to replace the incredibly lackluster package it has used in the past.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.tuftsdaily.com/media/storage/paper856/news/2004/03/05/392087/April.Acceptance.Letters.Get.Makeover-1479906.shtml?norewrite200607061011&sourcedomain=www.tuftsdaily.com[/url]”>http://www.tuftsdaily.com/media/storage/paper856/news/2004/03/05/392087/April.Acceptance.Letters.Get.Makeover-1479906.shtml?norewrite200607061011&sourcedomain=www.tuftsdaily.com</a></p>
<p>This is all I had to read - “If you want to admit people who are going to be leaders in tomorrows world . . . focusing on GPAs and SATs does not get you very far.” Robert J. Sternberg, Tufts dean of arts and sciences. (Pat Greenhouse/ Globe Staff)</p>
<p>Oi, I love this man :)</p>
<p>ACK! I didn’t see this until now and cross-posted in the Cafe. </p>
<p>Anyway… in theory, I like the idea. Marite is right, though - the “counterfactual” types (like me) don’t really like the “What if” questions that focus on something so narrow. I mean, “What if the South won the Civil War” is, IMO, a lot easier to answer than “What if Rosa Parks gave up her seat?” The latter, to us science-types, is, very simply: “The civil rights movement would have been delayed for a few years. Maybe months. Maybe someone else would have engaged in civil disobedience. Um, who knows? Let’s explore all options and try to assign some sort of probability weighing to each one.” </p>
<p>There are at least four distinct learning styles (abstract/concrete, random/sequential). Some of how you look at those questions depends on how you think… which is why I really like the idea of having several questions.</p>
<p>For the person who commented on Tufts Syndrome… um, Tufts has been using an optional essay for years. I know people who wrote it and got in and who didn’t write it and got in. I think that there’s also more direct ways to figure out if a student will attend, such as requiring them to list all the schools they are applying to. Sorry, never bought the “Tufts Syndrome” thing and had never heard of it until after I graduated.</p>
<p>The question “What if Rosa Parks gave up her seat?” is historically flawed anyways, since the Montgomery Bus Boycott was planned. Rosa Parks didn’t engage in spontaneous civil disobedience, but rather a well-organized attempt to change unjust laws. That would be a rather crappy essay topic.</p>
<p>I think Tufts is going about its problem the wrong way. It seems as though Tufts wants to do what many other schools have done - rise in the rankings through manipulating their acceptance rates and matriculation rates. However, by shifting to this quirky app, they’re only more likely to turn off students. I’ll predict a decrease in application volume - thus an increase in acceptance rate. Their yield rate probably won’t change a lot. The experiment will be failure.</p>
<p>If Tufts is committed to change, they should try to lure top students with merit money and other ‘perks’.</p>
<p>To the question, “What if Rosa Parks gave up her seat?” my son would reply, “She would have stood.” (I know that sounds very strange)</p>
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<p>But first they will have to determine how many of this small group of admitted students actually enrolls. Wouldn’t it be ironic if this specially selected group enrolled at a lower rate than the typical Tufts yield? Perhaps other schools will also identify them as “special” through essays, interviews and recommendations even if their test scores and grades are not outstanding. </p>
<p>I also wonder how much help can a student accept on these special essay questions? None at all? Reviewed for punctuation and spelling only? The more weight given to an essay, the more the issue of originality (and how much help is given) becomes important.</p>
<p>NJ:</p>
<p>You raise a very good question. </p>
<p>As to the Rosa Parks writing prompt, I recall the question for my first Eng. comp essay, on the first day of class. It was: “How did you get into this class?” We had 20 minutes to answer. One student wrote his essay in 2. He’d written, much to the discomfiture of the instructor, “I walked.” He was perhaps the most insightful student in my class, and gave the rather inexperienced and somewhat literal-minded instructor a hard time.</p>
<p>UChicago has been using 'Uncommon" essay topics for some time, and gives them more weight than grades or test scores, though those are important as well. It has worked well for the University and has helped it maintain a very lively intellectual atmosphere and tradition. </p>
<p>Here is a sample for the past few years:
<a href=“http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=376[/url]”>http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=376</a></p>
<p>Sternberg promotes the concept of three intelligences. One is analytic, another is practical, and a third is creative. Research conducted while he was at Yale suggested students who were taught in ways that matched their “greatest” intelligence succeeded at a higher rate than when the teaching methods did not match the students’ type of intelligence (for the same courses and subject matters). One could choose students that match the way faculty teach, or one could align the teaching to the intelligence type. It will be interesting to follow this approach.</p>
<p>Also these questions may put some students at a disadvantage. Consider the question “What if Rosa Parks gave up her seat?”. Now someone who has studied american history or has some knowledge woould be at a much higher advantage than someone living outside the country and who has never taken American History in his life (they do exist; I’m one of them). I have a very vague idea of Rosa PArks but nothing at all compared to most graduating high schoolers. Also people interested in history would be at an advantage comparede to someone planning to major in sciences and engineering. Just my two cents :)</p>
<p>njres, Your thoughts were the same as mine after I read about Tuft’s experiment.</p>
<p>Since so many essays are ghost written, or well edited by well meaning adults, this just looks like another opportunity for people to pay some overpriced college counselor to go at it with the red pen.</p>
<p>I don’t know what more Tufts will get out of this exercise, although I think anything that moves applications away from the Common is a good idea.</p>
<p>According to Steinberg he seeks to find those students whose gpa’s and SAT scores do not adequately reflect their potential capacity to be effective future leaders in society and business. “Our goal is to get better students and to send a message that these things really matter… the great students will get in anyway. This is about the middle. The hard part is the middle.” </p>
<p>Logically, (thinking inside the box) one would hope with all the years of investigation Steinberg has spent on this subject that the essay questions will be given in such a way that answers can be judged on the basis of a culturally/SES neutral scale or paradigm devised to measure creativity and practicality notwithstanding. </p>
<p>Tufts will also offer a minor in leadership which will showcase Steinberg’s ideas. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/23/the_leadership_thing/?page=2[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/23/the_leadership_thing/?page=2</a></p>
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<p>That’s quite true. And in my limited experience, the students in the middle are the hard workers who are not very likely to think outside the box.</p>
<p>Random question… why the attack onTufts? Why is it assumed that the august institution is ONLY doing this to up its yield and not because it has a genuine committment to a wonderful campus environment? </p>
<p>After spending four years of my life there, I am absolutely certain that their admissions staff knows what they are doing. They manage to assemble a class of uniformly intellectual, kind, and caring students who are deeply committed to serving their communities, learning to be better people, and caring about the greater world. Tufts students are not “bubble” people - many of us went to escape the lily-white environments that we grew up in and wanted to experience a university that brings in students with amazing life experiences. </p>
<p>If you can’t understand that, I strongly suggest a visit to the campus. Sit at the dining hall and you’ll understand what makes the university so special. Tufts always has, somehow, made a committment to taking the most interesting people, not necessarily the ones who have the highest SATs. </p>
<p>I was not surprised to learn that my beloved alma mater is again looking beyond the boring stats to find the person who is applying and making a committment to accepting the best of them.</p>