| On June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court ruled on two affirmative action cases challenging the University of Michigan's admissions policies. The justices supported affirmative action in college admissions but voted against a too mechanical, racial "point" system. These decisions ended a debate as to whether or not diversity as a goal in college admissions was of compelling state interest, and reinforced those admissions policies that took care to assess applicants from a more holistic approach.;Many selective universities look towards broadening the number of admissions measures they use to assess applications. However, they have had few alternative measures accepted by or used widely in college admissions, and no validated tool that could assess non-cognitive traits.;The purpose of this study was to design and test the predictive ability of a new college admissions assessment tool. The Bial Dale College Adaptability Index (BDI) could provide one more, validated option for choosing students on the basis of a different dimension of talent not so strongly connected to race and socio-economic status.;The BDI was based on a successful evaluation strategy (developed for The Posse Program) that identifies significant numbers of traditionally underrepresented students, and evaluates leadership and potential for achievement.;This study pursued the following research question: How well can the BDI predict student success at moderately to highly selective universities? The study looked at outcome measures of persistence, involvement, and leadership on campus---and compared its effectiveness to that of The Posse Program.;Although we could not draw statistically significant conclusions at this early point in the study, we found that the BDI seems to have promise in predicting three student traits: persistence, ability to access resources, and ability to contribute to a campus community (leadership). In addition, this study found that Posse Scholars experience extraordinary success which suggests that the combined program effects of the Posse Program are tremendously valuable. The findings in this study suggest the importance of further research and may help to provide greater options for college admissions officers as they work to admit students with diverse interests, diverse backgrounds, and diverse talents. |
