Last spring, 107 Marshall University seniors voluntarily took the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a test that measures students' critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving and written communication skills.
Dr. Mary Reynolds, director of assessment at Marshall, said the CLA is an open-ended test in which the students do a lot of writing and solve real-world problems.
"As a group, Marshall's seniors' performance on the CLA last spring was outstanding," Reynolds said. "After adjusting for incoming ACT/SAT scores, mean performance of Marshall's seniors was better than that of seniors at 89 percent of other participating institutions. We are very proud of the accomplishments of our students and their professors!"
The following 10 students scored the highest on the test. They are listed in alphabetical order with their hometowns, majors and colleges:
* Robert D. Brumfield of Lesage, Economics, College of Liberal Arts
* Kassandra D. Friedman of Barboursville, Criminal Justice, College of Liberal Arts
* Ashley R. Deem Hager of Mineral Wells, Print Journalism, W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications
* Daniel B. Hager of Hurricane, Management, Lewis College of Business
* Alicia K. Hess of Hedgesville, Finance, Lewis College of Business
* Rachel Huff of Dillsburg, Pa., Communication Studies and Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts
* William Koch of Elkins, Accounting, Lewis College of Business
* Angelina Lowers of Chester, Political Science, College of Liberal Arts
* Miriam Katherine Reasons of Huntington, Public Relations, W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications
* Emily Vargo of Scott Depot, Environmental Science, College of Science