The Role of Personality in College Admissions Using

The Role of Personality in College Admissions: Using Personal Statements to Identify Desired Personality Traits Andrew Geissler & Jacquelyn Kwaterski, Dr. Laura Barron, University of Wisconsin-Stout Purpose and Background Outcomes of Interest • Does personality help predict academic achievement and retention? • Current factors for admitting students -High school GPA & ACT scores Theory • Five Factor Model of Personality Traits -All encompassing framework that describes the five broad domains of human personality Previous Research • Academic Achievement & Job Performance are related to: -Conscientiousness -Agreeableness -Emotional Stability -Openness • Only Openness has been found to be related to ACT scores & intelligence Dependent variables: -Academic Achievement measured by first semester, first year, and cumulative undergraduate GPA -Retention measured by # of fall/spring semesters attended & cumulative credits earned -Open to new experiences, complex -Conventional, uncreative. (reversed) -Dependable, self-disciplined -Disorganized, careless (reversed) -Extraverted, enthusiastic -Reserved, quiet (reversed) Procedure • Random sample of 200 Fall 2007 accepted freshmen • Four raters (MSAP graduate students) for each personal statement • Used personal statements to rate personality on the Ten-Item Personality Inventory • Averaged two minutes to read and rate each statement • Raters did not have access to the admitted undergraduates’ high school GPAs or ACT scores Instrument • Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) • Seven point Likert rating scale where 1 = strongly disagree &7 = strongly agree -Sympathetic, warm -Critical, quarrelsome (reversed) -Calm, emotionally stable -Anxious, easily upset (reversed) Statistical Analyses • Pearson Correlations • Hierarchical Linear Regression Results • Academic Achievement is positively related to: -Agreeableness -Openness (GPA) • Retention is positively related to: -Conscientiousness -Agreeableness -Emotional Stability • Personality improves prediction of academic achievement and retention beyond high school GPA & ACT scores alone Recommendations • When considering borderline applicants, use personality traits to identify applicants that are most likely to be academically successful -Ratings can be made quickly and consistently by untrained raters -Method of broadening admission criteria by adding another factor (personality) that is not solely related to academic performance -Increase diversity and inclusive excellence