Beyond SAT= scores and GPA
Harold Wingood, associate provost/dean of admissions and financial aid, provides an inside look at the college search process
By Judith Jaeger Photo by Robn Carlin
Clark’s admissions counselors are now in the throes of evaluating applications from prospective students—searching for the best students in not only academics, but also in the qualities that will allow them to succeed at Clark.
“We care deeply about the way prospective students work in the classroom, and we care deeply about the kind of citizens they are outside the classroom,” says Harold Wingood, associate provost/dean of admissions and financial aid. “We’re interested in students who can thrive here academically and take advantage of the unique opportunities at the University outside the classroom, in the community and quite often around the world.”
Clark isn’t different from most selective schools in this holistic approach, Wingood says, but Clark may place a little more weight on the qualitative measures. In keeping with the University’s penchant for unconventional thinking, Clark is exploring ways to expand its evaluation to include the kinds of intelligence that aren’t necessarily reflected in SAT scores and grade-point average (GPA) but are essential to students who thrive at the University.
More than one kind of smart
Most admissions practices rely primarily on analytical intelligence,” Wingood says. Analytical intelligence is often memory and classroom based and already widely assessed to see how well a student can do differential calculus, for example, or analyze a passage of text. It is highly correlated with socioeconomic status, he notes, and with traditional performance indicators.
“While these assessments are valuable and predictive, we’re learning that assessments related to creative and practical intelligence are also good predictive indicators for success in college.”
Creative intelligence is tapped when solutions to a problem aren’t immediately apparent, requiring a creative approach. Asked to write an essay on an unusual or unexpected topic, how would you respond? There’s no way to prepare for such a prompt, Wingood says, which allows for an assessment of “the way people address problems using their imagination and creativity.”
Practical intelligence is about survival, about solving problems with grave consequences or resolving conflict. According to Wingood, Clark is among a small number of colleges and universities at the forefront of evaluating these intelligences, which were developed by psychologist Robert Sternberg, dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University and director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies and Expertise at Yale University. Tufts is measuring these intelligences in its admissions process this year. Wingood and Psychology Department Chair Michael Addis have met with Sternberg to discuss how these measures could be used at Clark, primarily through short and long essays on the application. While still in preliminary stages, Wingood is enthusiastic about employing the approach here.
Clarkies who thrive
“We learned several years ago through research that the students at Clark who are the happiest are the ones who are able to take the greatest advantage of what the University has to offer,” Wingood says. “This means being engaged academically on campus and seeing Clark’s neighborhood as an asset.”
While these students were quite strong academically, they also had been actively involved in their high schools, a pattern of involvement that continued while at Clark.
“We don’t think SAT scores and GPA or even course selection, which are the three most important factors, alone are enough to give us that kind of insight about students.”
The challenge of public perception
Clark’s evaluation of prospective students is only half of the college selection equation. First, Clark must attract prospective students and their parents to consider the University. Their first stop in the college search may be rankings of colleges and universities. Rankings, Wingood emphasizes, are based on input measures—how much money a school spends per student, percentage of alumni giving, first-year retention, high-school class rank of incoming students, SAT scores, GPA—all of which say something about the schools. But just as test scores and GPA don’t tell the whole story about an individual student, rankings don’t tell the whole story about a college or university.
“The rankings don’t tell you about the ways in which students are engaged in the learning process, or the way they interact with one another or the faculty,” Wingood says. “They don’t tell you about the transformation that happened during the students’ years in a college or university.”
Rankings are also a numbers game, determined by what statistics are submitted and how they are interpreted. Wingood recalls his time as a dean of admissions at another college that watched the rankings carefully and met regularly throughout the fall to review what to submit to U.S. News and World Report. Wingood says that’s probably one of the reasons he didn’t stay at that particular institution for very long.
“From my perspective, it detracted from the real strength of the institution, which was the curriculum, the faculty and the students who came from all over the country to be there.”
A transparent process
Clark combats the public emphasis on rankings, Wingood says, by keeping the University’s core values at the forefront of interactions with prospective students and their parents. The admissions staff, and the University as a whole, work to make it clear to prospective students and their parents exactly what is important at Clark.
It’s all part of Clark’s commitment to what Wingood describes as a transparent process. Unlike some colleges and universities that shroud the admissions process in secrecy, Clark’s admissions counselors share information openly with prospective students and their parents and take phone calls and e-mails right through the application evaluation period. While this is challenging for the staff, Wingood says, “we feel that as a small school, as a particularly unusual place in the panoply of higher education, that if people have questions then we need to be there to answer them.”
Transparency also means being honest with prospective students and their parents about whether Clark is the right place for them.
“If they’re really looking for a place where they can spend every weekend skiing in the mountains or walking in the forest, the admissions counselor knows that Clark is not the right place for that student. And that’s O.K.,” Wingood says. “We’re looking for 580 great new students a year for whom Clark is the right fit, the right choice for them.”
It’s about the student
The college search, he stresses, should be focused on the student. It seems obvious, but is all too rare in what often becomes a frenzy to get into the highest ranked colleges and universities with the most name recognition. Wingood is part of a groundswell among admissions professionals to bring the college search process back to the student. Clark is one of the institutional sponsors in the Education Conservancy, an organization founded by Lloyd Thacker who edited a collection of essays titled “College Unranked.” The Education Conservancy is dedicated to returning the admissions process to an extension of the educational process and to making the transition to college a meaningful part of each student’s personal and academic development.
To parents and students beginning a college search, Wingood recommends setting the general parameters of cost and geography early in the process and then letting the student drive the search. The college search, he says, is a great opportunity for students to explore more deeply their own values and dreams and for parents to learn about their sons and daughters.
Wingood also reminds parents and students that there are many colleges and universities that provide opportunities for intellectual and personal growth. But Clark remains distinctive in its power to change the lives of its students.
“My own experience with the students coming to Clark has confirmed my sense that Clark does change lives,” he says. “There’s something special that goes on here and it’s marvelous to watch.”
Interested in helping tell the Clark story to prospective students and their families? Join the Alumni and Parent Admissions Program and help the University attract the next generation of Clarkies. E-mail apap@clarku.edu or call 1-800-GO-CLARK.
|
