Ray Diffley
Director of Admission
Choate Rosemary Hall, CT
Member of AISAP Board of Directors
I've
been reading a lot of NBC "news feed" headlines on Facebook lately and
they sure do know how to get you to click and "read more. The headlines
leave out all but one key detail of a story that completely whets your
appetite and then boom, you've opened the story and spent a few minutes
seeing what's behind door number 1. Great marketing actually, I have to
hand it to them.
Well the mystery of admission decisions is just
as alluring to everyone who looks into our offices and our processes,
and wants to know more. That's very good news for us. We're relevant, or
at least interesting.
Well now that I've pulled you in to my
newsfeed, let me give you the answer to my headline. The most important
factor in an admission decision is that you have FACTORS outlined in
your admission process leading to an admission decision. Those factors
should define, to some degree, your school & perhaps your culture.
The
work I have been lucky enough to be involved with through AISAP and
SSATB's Think Tank on the Future of Assessment has allowed me and us to
blast that message from the highest mountaintop. In the near future
there will be tools, and training, that will allow schools to highlight,
define and assess for, the most important factors in your admission decision.
As
I travel the world recruiting for Choate trying to simplify who does
well and why they do well, one of the ways I summarize core factors is
with some memorable takeaways or buzzwords. To me, core factors in an
evaluation should include the buzzwords hunger and humility.
Rebadge these terms any number of ways: hunger, aka: intrinsic
motivation, love of learning, curiosity. Coupled with humility, aka :
gratitude, groundedness, respect…there are lots of labels but these two
are a winning combination. What are yours?