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After publishing a set of case study articles here on Psychology Today on GRIT, I was positively stunned when I saw Purdue University President Mitch Daniels’ recent Washington Post column—"For college admissions, let’s value grit over GPAs." Ultimately Daniels concluded that if the College Board could come up with a new GPA—Grit Potential Assessment—his university would be the first customer.
As an academic researcher, author and organizational consultant who has devoted his life to GRIT, and after assessing more than one million individuals in 137 countries, I could not agree more.
According to Daniels, “discipline, persistence and resilience... [are] characteristics necessary to succeed at the college level (to say nothing of adult life). In the current vernacular, these traits are often collectively called ‘grit.’ Enrollment experts agree on its significance. The problem is in knowing when a high GPA reflects it and when it doesn’t.”
For 35 years, I’ve studied GRIT, how people respond to adversity, and how these critical factors contribute to their prospects for success. Also, by applying independent statistical analysis, I have developed instruments for objectively measuring GRIT and AQ, or Adversity Quotient.
Daniels prizes GRIT more than GPA when it comes to predicting student performance in the college admissions process. He very eloquently makes the case that institutions of higher learning need to identify and foster grit, pointing out that, “The challenge for today’s college admissions officer is like the one faced by corporate recruiters.”
An Unforeseen Coincidence
Over a month ago I published the first part of a case study series in Psychology Today, analyzing a prominent business leader’s Adversity Quotient and GRIT—both synergistic factors of success. By any measure, Keith Krach, the subject of my study, is an extraordinary leader. He also happens to be a Purdue alum. But it gets better.
My reason for measuring and analyzing Krach’s GRIT, along with a few other exemplary individuals, was to validate my model by taking a deeper look at their GRIT scores and seeing how they measure up in terms of actual behaviors, accomplishments, contribution, and impact.
Krach’s scores certainly do. His overall GRIT score is 398 out of 400—we see that composite score in roughly 1 out of 10,000 individuals.
Measuring My Man Mitch
As I researched Krach’s role recruiting Daniels, his GRIT was clearly evident. Krach had to overcome serious opposition from some in the academic community, and others, who objected to bringing on a President who lacked traditional academic credentials—and who also carried the “stain” of being a Republican Governor.
As President, Daniels has challenged the norms of academia by courageously taking on the $1.7 trillion student debt crisis. It took real resilience to hold the line on zero increases in student tuition at Purdue for seven years. And Daniels’ decision to acquire Kaplan and create Purdue Global University is further evidence of the tenacity and instinct that are other components of GRIT.
Now, the Wall Street Journal calls Daniels “the most innovative university president in America.” He even convinced Amazon to put up their first brick-and-mortar facility anywhere, which just happened to be in the Krach Leadership Center at Purdue. His terms as Governor brought a freight train of change to Indiana, resulting in a glossy tale of his achievements, including an automatic refund back to taxpayers and leaving Governor-elect Mike Pence with money to spend. No wonder he is known as “My Man Mitch.” And I can assure you, without even measuring him, Daniels has true grit.
After measuring millions of individuals with the GRIT Gauge (assessment), I can say definitively that high GRIT scores are correlated with top performance in school, business, and life. To date—GRIT is the only factor I’ve found that correlates with one’s likelihood of rising up and improving socio-economic status. Daniels and Krach, like so many with exceptional GRIT, rose from humble, scrappy upbringings.
The GPA Quest Is Over
The GRIT Gauge is a solid, reliable, validated “Grit Potential Assessment.” It’s been taken by 450,000 individuals, and is currently used worldwide by industry-leading organizations like: J.P. Morgan, Anthem, Amazon, Google, BMW, Whole Foods and many more. The GRIT Gauge is also used by dozens of colleges and universities including Harvard Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly).
I am convinced that the GRIT Gauge could be an invaluable aid to other universities and institutions of higher learning, enabling them to include an objective measure of GRIT in the admissions process. More importantly, the Gauge can be used to track and improve the individual students’ GRIT over time.
Based on his article, I’d love to measure Mitch Daniels’ GRIT. Even more important, I’d like to meaningfully help innovative educators like My Man Mitch dig deeper and draw a tighter bead on predicting student performance at Purdue and all institutions of learning.
Perhaps, by utilizing this new GPA, these visionary leaders will lead the way and focus on growing grit and building the next generation of transformers like Daniels and Krach. Hail Purdue!
You can learn more about my analysis of Krach’s Adversity Quotient and GRIT score here in Psychology Today.
