Resources For Colleges

This document includes action steps that colleges can take right away in character assessment.

This document is intended to serve as a starting point for those admission leaders who are deciding where to begin. Information is offered on how colleges might send signals to students about their values, study attributes and skills of successful and unsuccessful students, build support with university leadership, and more.

This document offers concrete tips and basic principles for colleges interested in this work. Each tip offers initial guidance and includes links to related guide resources.

This document is designed as an “audit” to help admission leaders determine their readiness for next steps in character assessment work.

This document offers examples of colleges that have clearly presented their institutional values on their website and/or have thoughtfully articulated the specific skills and attributes that they seek in applicants.

This document is a collection of real colleges’ current character-focused essay questions found in applications. This is designed to inspire new ideas.

This document offers a collection of real college and application platforms’ language around the importance of applicants’ family contributions/the value of family-based service.

This document offers early, exploratory ideas on how recommendation forms might be revised to be more equitable to students and more useful to colleges.

This document suggests innovative and concrete character assessment ideas, tools, and systems that have strong promise in college admissions work.