TORONTO, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acuity Insights announces the launch of its admissions assessment solution for business schools in higher education. After the immense impact of its Casper situational judgment test (SJT) in medical and health education, the company has now built a version specifically for business schools that helps admissions teams assess the applicant holistically. Schools can now look beyond an applicant’s GPA and other cognitive measures to select students by additionally evaluating their soft skills such as collaboration, communication, problem-solving, and empathy, as well as personal values that are critical for business leaders.

Built on and backed by nearly 20 years of research, Casper is the most widely used open-response situational judgment test in higher education admissions worldwide. It reliably measures social intelligence and professionalism to provide admissions teams with distinct data that supports their holistic review, and helps them identify applicants who are most likely to be successful in the program. It provides a measure of competencies and attributes beyond academic achievement early on that helps in refining the pool of applicants more holistically.

“We worked closely with business schools and experts to develop a situational judgment test that is specific to the needs of business education,” says Dr. Kelly Dore, Co-Founder and VP of Science & Innovation at Acuity Insights. “We saw the impact Casper has in medical and health education and its ability to identify and select students who don’t just have deep knowledge but also the skills needed to be great healthcare professionals. We felt it was important to extend its benefits to business education. The world needs great business leaders just as it does great healthcare professionals.”

“A holistic approach to admissions is critical to ensure an equitable process for applicants that will in turn allow for a diverse student cohort. Traditional admissions measures have been historically inequitable, and requirements such as personal statements are now becoming additionally ineffective due to the introduction of AI tools, such as ChatGPT,” says Rich Emrich, Co-Founder and CEO of Acuity Insights. “Our solution for business schools provides a reliable and holistic view of every applicant, giving equity-seeking groups a better chance of success.”

How does Casper work?

Casper evaluates what an applicant would do in personal and professional dilemmas and, more importantly, why. Its open-response format encourages authenticity by allowing the applicant to explain what they would do in a given scenario and provide the rationale behind their decision. Casper presents real-world scenarios, which means that no prior knowledge of a particular profession is required. The test format includes both text and video-based scenarios and responses that represent real life and encourage freer expression of thought.

Casper also benefits the admissions process with:

• high program and applicant acceptability
• lower demographic differences than other admissions assessments
• time savings, as Casper delivers a single ‘z’ score for every applicant
• evaluation by highly trained ‘raters’, who represent members of the community students will eventually serve
• easy incorporation into existing admissions process
• performance outcome prediction, such as in-program performance
• lower instance and cost of student remediation
  

Please visit our website to discover how Casper can support your business admissions goals.

About Acuity Insights

Acuity Insights is the leading provider of connected outcomes management solutions for higher education. The company’s solutions connect data from admissions through to graduation for a deeper understanding of applicants, students, and programs, enabling data informed decisions and interventions for student and program success. Recognized as one of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 companies for 2021 and 2022, Acuity’s solutions are used by nearly 600 higher education programs worldwide. Its Casper situational judgment test (SJT), taken by more than 150,000 applicants every year, is the most widely used open-response SJT in higher education and is backed by almost 20 years of efficacy research. For more information, visit acuityinsights.com.

Media contact: Brianna Bell, bbell@acuityinsights.com