January 31, 2013

Want the fairest shake in college admissions? Send a photo.

Jan. 31, 2013 at 09:40 AM | By W. Kent Barnds | Comment Count

When I started working in college admission in the early 1990’s I recall that one of the items we requested as part of the application was a photograph of the applicant. Most of the time the photograph of the 17-year old applicant matched the story told in the application, but there were exceptions. We’ve all heard the adage “a picture conveys one-thousand words,” and a picture included along with a college application in my experience frequently reinforced this.

However, somewhere along the way, we ceased asking for a photograph to accompany the application. (We’d still occasionally receive grainy black and white photos on transcripts—these often would go back as far as sixth grade through high school and were always of great interest). While I cannot recall the exact justification or rationale we applied when we quit asking for pictures, I imagine it had to do with the argument that the photos could be used to discriminate (which is a real issue) or we’d seek to admit only the “pretty people.” However, it might have been the very practical argument of matching and processing.

Honestly, I cannot remember and have not thought about it at all until today.

Why am I thinking about it today?

I just finished reading Daniel Pink’s terrific book, “To sell is human: The surprising truth about moving others.” (I highly recommend the book—especially for college admissions folks). Near the end of the book he describes a fascinating experiment completed by a radiologists named Yehonatan Turner.

The experiment involved providing radiologists with photos of patients when given the computed tomography (CT) scan to diagnose and analyze. Typically, a radiologists gets the CT scan and that’s all. The photos of the patients represents the twist here. All of the radiologists reported having more empathy toward the patients for whom they had photos. While interesting, it’s not what Turner was really looking for, according to Pink.

As Pink describes it, a great radiologists, in addition to identifying an injury they are told to look for, will make “incidental findings.” These incidental findings are discoveries of additional problems and sometimes are life-saving.

Turner’s purpose was more complex that finding out if a photo led to greater empathy. Three months after the original experiment, he provided a sample of scans from the original study, in which radiologists had found incidental findings to the same group of doctors. However, he did not include the photograph of the patient sand did not disclose that the radiologist had seen the scan previously. Turner discovered that 80% of the incidental findings were not discovered!

The photo and the personalization it provided made a difference in the diagnoses, not just the empathy.

You might be asking, why am I writing about radiologists and describing this passage from Pink’s book? It’s a fair question. College admissions is not radiology. However, both jobs, particularly this time of year for admissions officers, can be very mechanical and isolating. Given the expanding applicant pools at colleges and universities and the pressures to make speedy (but good) decision, I can’t help but wonder if every applicant is getting the full attention they deserve?

I cannot help but think about college admissions and how important it is to make it personal when reviewing applications.

W. Kent Barnds is the vice president of Augustana College and has developed a reputation for innovation and excellence as a result of his admissions and enrollment management expertise. Check out Kent's blog, @bowtieadmission to read more about personalization in the college application process.