Factors

To begin with, let's take aside emotional factors and assume we have reliable means to assess our applicants, the question at hand is a generic one on decision making.

It goes like this: When there are two (or more) independent factors to consider (in this case, the intellectual capability and the degree of enthusiasm) and the outcome is a binary one (that is, accept an applicant or not), how should we arrive at the decision?

Yes, you guess that much. The traditional way is to give an overall mark by combining the scores on both aspects, usually multiplied with some predefined weighting for each of them.

But, is it the ideal method? Maybe not. With such a system, you would expect the successful applicants are those who do reasonably well on both aspects. If you look at them as a whole, they would be a homogeneous lot of mediocre.

How to get around with this problem? Some tried the two-by-two matrix system with proportional allocation. For example (a really hypothetical one), a medical school could accept one third of the applicants who have the highest combined score, another third who score the highest in the intellectual capability test (as long as they achieve a certain minimum standard in the other component), and the final third who are top on the enthusiastic test (and, once again, satisfy the basic requirement of capability).

Sounds perfect, eh?

Yes, in the ivory tower.

PS. It is interesting to consider what minimal standard of enthusiasm should we ask for from those capable intellectual high fliers. My personal opinion is - low, very low.