Introduction
“In academia, writers most often respond to arguments that are formally delivered (in an essay or editorial). They respond to a particular text or person and to particular statements or claims.” This is true in almost all cases, as unless there is evidence to prove otherwise, everything is taken on face value, or on whatever is available to them. This is the case with college admissions as well. Little is known about a student who is applying for a particular course except for the marks provided for their memorization of rote knowledge. Therefore, colleges are bound to consider the marks of a student to evaluate him or her, and assess whether they are suitable for a seat in their college. A student who may be good academically because of his or her cognitive skill will not be easily recognizable by the marks they score. Talented students sometimes find themselves pushed into studying something they are less interested in, and because of this, they underperform. In order to justify selection of students to courses in colleges, assessment centers help gather comprehensive information about students. Moreover, I think the professional help from assessment centers could be advantageous to a degree that these centers offer constructive personality tests to all candidates, including students.
The assessment centers have been existence for more than half a century, and are used to screen candidates suitable for various positions. The assessment centers can facilitate the interest of students in a variety of available subjects at their college and even alleviate the burden associated with the students’ choice of their academic major. Psychologists believe that assessment centers as such should aim at testing the cognitive skills of applicants. Along with these valuable skills, come motivation and optimism that can facilitate the development of leadership skills in people. In my opinion, the centers should actively cooperate with colleges at the early stages of admissions to screen for learning effectiveness and help predict the future capabilities of the mainstream prospective students. Nevertheless, assessment centers don’t come cheap; they are costly and require extensive financial support to set up. Even if the infrastructure is made available, the need for qualified experts will be even harder to bear.
In the article Throw out the College Application System, Adam Grant argues that selection is centered on outdated college application systems. The criteria for selection should not be considered for an assurance of a seat in college, or for excellence in life. While there are many who will support the idea of having students assessed based on evaluations drawn from assessment centers, it is not easy to avail such services everywhere. Students, who are busy studying hard to score high grades, won’t have the time or inclination to look at other options to enhance their cognitive skills. Therefore, students may not opt for assessment centers, and instead, stretch themselves by reading their subjects more than indulge in other activities.
As a matter of fact, colleges call only those students for interviews who have excelled themselves in academics. Contrary, if selection procedure that grants a seat in college was made in cooperation with assessment centers, then tenth of thousands of high school graduates would be striving to focus on those centers in order to benefit from their services. After graduation from high school the young people are at the age when they have enough of motivation to decide on their future; some of them may have a sturdy desire to study. Often, though, they want to please their parents or relatives, and they opt for college because of little other options are available in their lives.
In real life, we evidence that students are called for admission interviews based on their grades. This is a major concern for educationists who believe that there are students out there who may not have performed well academically, but are certainly talented. I think there are two sides of the story: knowledge generated from text books and intelligence does not match because knowledge and information alone is not enough to make somebody successful. Rather the young adults should prepare themselves for trouble shooting situations in factual life. Certainly, the college system needs an overhaul. I am almost sure that colleges can find new ways how to test their potential students or do pretty well without such tests. Educational professionals should seek new techniques to gather all the available information on their potential students.
Talent and innovation is all we need these days to succeed in life and business. Searching for hidden talent is more imperative than assessing the students’ academic knowledge. Douglas Bray’s method to understand a student’s cognitive skill should be employed by colleges, and this should follow the pattern of assessing students over a period of time, rather than assessing them based on interviews. Just like how students memorize rote knowledge, they can easily prepare for interviews, which kill the purpose of identifying talent. Similarly, the role of recommendation letters that influence selection can also be made redundant. Therefore, colleges are in high need for certified assessment centers. Assessment centers can help not only identify the role models, it will also deliver training and development programs to identify talent and enhance them. This view is also expressed by Pappie (2006), who says, “by eliminating biased policies and procedures; providing equal opportunities; training and development; and conducting workshops,” organizations can improve the level of performance and production of their employees considerably.
Also, the centers of excellence should evaluate a student by his or her academic strength and other achievements to recognize their potential. Business centers should be set up in colleges to teach students on business, and business acumen. The more exposure these students get to such professional business environment, the better they will be in business. From freshmen to sophomore years and onwards, young adults should continue with realizing their potential and preparing themselves for their future careers. Psychologists need to be hired to assist and motivate students in realizing their talent, and exposing them to extensive thought and reasoning processes within the centers. Hence, the criteria for selection into colleges should be made based on the results of both; academic and cognitive. Ultimately, a student’s professional growth will be decided not just by his or her academic score, but how well he or she is able to adapt to the challenges in the professional world, and that can come only through the development of cognitive skills.
Conclusion
Motivation is the human driving force and without them pure academic grades mean very little. I believe that interest in higher education and pursuing a degree should come from the young people and not their supervisors. Today, emphasis must be drawn to recognize the importance of assessment centers in communities and colleges. While it is easy for academicians to relate a student’s progress based on his or her academic score, little do they know how well this education is going to help them face the challenges of the professional world. Scoring high grades isn’t going to assure a student of success, but development of cognitive skills will. Therefore, the impetus should be on recommending selection of students based on their cognitive skills. When our government was able to fund quality assessment centers throughout the biggest cities and colleges, it would progressively enhance the development of cognitive skills in our talented people. The whole country would benefit through reorganization of college admissions systems, putting a superior emphasis to the escalation of business acumen.
References
Grant, A. (2014). Throw Out the College Application System. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 23 October 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/opinion/sunday/throw-out-the- college-application-system.html?_r=1
Pappie, D. (2006). The MT Essays 40th Anniversary: Women in business - The long haul to parity - Management Today. Managementtoday.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2014, from http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/591708/mt-essays-40th-anniversary-women- business---long-haulto-parity/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH
