The Kaleidoscope Project

Principal Investigator: R. J. Sternberg
Project Director: Tzur Karelitz

Description: Tufts’ undergraduate admissions process aims to accept applicants who will be successful students, and who will also fulfill the University’s goal of developing "new leaders for a changing world." The focus of the Kaleidoscope project is to help the admissions office identify such applicants by studying the usefulness of measures beyond academic abilities (e.g., SAT and GPA). Specifically, the new framework supplements the application packet with essay questions based on an extension of the theory of successful intelligence, the WICS theory of leadership. The intent is to synthesize measures of wisdom, intelligence (academic/analytical and practical), and creativity into the admissions committee's decision-making process. The idea behind the WICS theory is that leaders can use creative skills to form a vision for their leadership, analytical skills to ascertain whether it is a good vision, practical skills to execute the vision and convince others of its worth, and wisdom-based skills in order to ensure that the vision is for a common good, not just the good of oneself or one's family or friends. By introducing these concepts into the process of selecting applicants, we hope to admit students whose personal qualities indicate their potential as future leaders. The Kaleidoscope project is designed to help the admissions office to achieve these goals, and to assess the usefulness of the WICS measures in identifying these desirable applicants. Finally, we intend to follow the progress of students admitted each year to judge the long-term predictive validity of the WICS measures.