New college program targets students with grit, not high test scores
A new college program that will primarily select students by personal characteristics -– grit, resiliency and motivation –- rather than test scores began accepting applications this week for campuses in California and Colorado.
Portmont College at Mount St. Mary’s aims to give students who have “the will but not the way” high-quality, personalized programs featuring online learning, success coaches and other services -- all for the bargain price of $5,240 per year.
The program, which will initially launch with a few hundred students in San Francisco and Denver, is a nonprofit joint venture between Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles and MyCollege Foundation, a charity of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation has donated $3 million to the effort.
“If you think about the American dream as offering a fair shot to all, it’s not as fair as it used to be,” Srikant Vasan, Portmont's founder and president, said Tuesday. “This is our opportunity to make the dream true again.”
The required personal characteristics will be determined through an interview, psychological test and initial online