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The MBA That Delivers The part-time MBA landscape is fundamentally changing—location and duration, cost and content. mg T H E B A B S O N M B A Real-World Results Is it possible to look at scores from our new tests or others like them and predict which students will turn into Dennis Kozlowski or Bernard Ebbers? Maybe not, and we have not followed students into the working world to determine how well their success has been predicted by the admissions tests that I have helped develop. However, we have done a num- ber of studies of correlations between our measures of practi- cal intelligence and measures of job performance in careers such as business manager, army officer, professor, and ele- mentary school teacher. Our tests for military leadership, commissioned by the U.S. Army Research Institute, successfully predicted 360- degree ratings of leadership. For the most part, the majority of our tests predict real-world success at about the same level as conventional intelligence tests, but show modest correla- tions with such tests. Thus, the best prediction is obtained when institutions combine conventional tests with ours, rather than using just one or the other. Over the years, I have had scores of requests from com- panies that wanted to measure employees with our tests. Most often they wanted to use the Tacit Knowledge Inventory for Managers and the Tacit Knowledge Inventory for Sales, both of which were developed with Richard K. Wagner. The original work on the sales test was commis- sioned by an organization that did telemarketing. We have made the tests available, but we have not tracked how com- F O R W O R K I N G LEADS THE FIELD in creating innovative solutions for part-time students: BABSON Fast Track MBA • Nationally ranked MBA taught in 26 months • Collaborative, team-based learning environment • Unique combination of Web-based and classroom learning Evening MBA • Nationally ranked MBA taught in 36 months • Team-taught "cluster courses" encourage learning from multiple perspectives • Career Contexts help students design their electives with a career focus The MBA That Delivers www.babson/edu/mba P R O F E S S I O N A L S The #1-ranked MBA in entrepreneurship by U.S. News & World Report for the 12th straight year. panies used them. None theless, theories of broad abilities clearly have value in the corporate world as well as in the admissions office. Looking Ahead By understanding how creative, practical, and analytical intel- ligence work, corporations can hire the most qualified candi- dates and schools can admit students with the greatest poten- tial. Nonetheless, the current college admissions system is well established, and it will only change if people want it to change. If people are willing to settle for incomplete tests, we will continue to make judgments based on incomplete tests. We will lose the chance to maximize academic excellence and diversity simultaneously. While existing exams do a reasonably good job of testing for analytical intelligence, I believe the system has to change. I am doing what I can constructively to change the system— not to do away with what we have, but rather, to expand it. My hope is that that, in the future, college and university admissions tests will more comprehensively assess the full range of skills that are important for success, both in school and in life. s z Robert J. Sternberg is dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. He is also professor of psychology and Director of the PACE (Psychology of Abilities, Competencies and Expertise) Center, which will come to Tufts in 2006. BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006 27