New application initiative reinforces Oklahoma State University's commitment to land-grant mission; focuses on leadership, creativity, service
Thursday, June 23, 2011
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The project, titled Panorama, is a collaboration of the OSU Office of Admissions and
Provost Dr. Robert Sternberg, who has collaborated on similar, successful programs
at Yale University and Tufts University.
"The projects at Yale and Tufts demonstrated that it is possible to assess leadership
skills in new ways that traditional college applications generally miss," Sternberg
said. "The Panorama initiative was motivated in part by OSU’s commitment to its land-grant
mission, which focuses on educational access through service, instruction, and scholarship."
Applicants for undergraduate admission will be asked to respond to questions designed
to measure creative, analytical, practical, and wisdom-based skills that are not currently
directly measured by traditional college-entrance requirements such as GPA and standardized
test scores.
"The idea is that leaders who make a positive, meaningful, and enduring difference
to the world are creative in generating a vision for their leadership, analytical
in ensuring that the vision is a good one, practical in implementing the vision and
in persuading others of its value, and wise as well as ethical in ensuring that the
vision helps to attain a common good," Sternberg said.
Responses to the application questions will be evaluated based on these four leadership
skills and used, in addition to high-school GPA and standardized test scores, to evaluate
students for admission and select scholarships.
"In addition to broadening the measurements in which college applicants are evaluated,
Panorama aims to engage students in the college application process in a manner other
institutions generally have not," said Kyle Wray, associate vice president of OSU
enrollment management and marketing.
"The nature of the questions will allow students more broadly to reveal who they are
and how they intend to make the world a better place in which to live," Wray said.
"In changing the nature of the questions, OSU hopes to attract students who demonstrate
active citizenship and exemplify leadership qualities."