That is an example of a question that will be part of a battery that Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology plans to start asking undergraduate applicants to determine if they think they can control their destinies. Students who answer in ways that suggest that they are confident they can control their fates—or who have a “locus of control” to use the psychological term—will get an edge in admissions decisions. And the system could start as early as next year.
3 comments:
An idea whose validity is entirely determined by its execution, and ability to adjust. It could be a great way to differentiate between candidates but there are thousands of books, people, websites dedicated to getting around the college admission process. People would adapt very quickly. Even on a smaller scale Google has to change their interview questions regularly because everyone learns about them so quickly. Every year they would have to update this process because every year someone will post an answer key afterwards. Another thing that stood out to me is that they claim they won't punish for honesty. That is great but an important part of that is actually convincing people that you won't be punishing for honesty. Because after reading that article it kind of sounds like that line about honesty was bull.
I find college admissions to be so interesting. Because of their nature, they need to be a standard test designed to judge a wide range of different, unique individuals. I think it’s great that certain schools are looking to develop some of their admissions methods to review the students as well as their grades. I think that this locus of control concept is definitely a step in the right direction. The fact that you can’t guarantee that students respond honestly somewhat diminishes the value of the questionnaire. It might be more useful if instead or just answering yes or no, the students also added a sentence or two about why they chose that answer. This might aid in giving admissions counselors more insight into whether the answers were honest or not.
I definitely hope that college admissions keep evolving in that direction, and I think that the locus of control questionnaire should be refined and adapted to other desirable characteristics.
the fact that colleges are searching for new and different ways to go about college admissions says a lot about the whole system itself. How do you determine, amongst so many qualified students, who is accepted to the top schools in the nation. This "locus of control" seems a little questionable because, it seems to give to much weight to factors that are not based on academic qualifications. I personally would not want to be accepted to a school just because I answered "no" to a question asking if i was expected to go to college. In a world based so much on the status and name of one's alma matter, college admissions need to find a more efficient and all encompassing way to address college admissions.
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