Character Assessment in College Admissions
Making Caring Common and colleges and universities across the country are working together to develop and pilot new character assessment tools and practices in college admission.
The goals of this work are to:
Develop and pilot new assessment tools and processes to better understand a student’s character
Identify tools and best practices that can be replicated across the field
Send young people positive messages about what matters to college and society through new character-focused assessment systems
We are eager to continue to work with college admission leaders who:
Are committed to placing value on students’ character in the college admissions process
Want to collaborate on piloting new tools and processes with our team
Our new guide for character assessment in college admission provides concrete tools and practical guidance for colleges doing this work. The guide includes best practices; definitions and examples of key character skills and terms; and many examples of colleges’ application questions, related marketing language, and assessment tools.
We have also published recommendations for character assessment in high schools and tips for writing character-focused letters of recommendation.
This work was funded by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation. College admission leaders interested in learning more should contact Trisha Ross Anderson at trisha_ross@gse.harvard.edu.
Related Resources
Contact
Trisha Ross Anderson
trisha_ross@gse.harvard.edu
