Psychologists are finding that hope plays a surprisingly vital role in giving people a measurable advantage in rounds as diverse as academic achievement, bearing up in tough jobs, and coping with tragic illness. And, by contrast, the loss of hope, is turning out to be a stronger sign that a person may commit suicide than other factors long thought to be more likely risks. ‘Hope has proven a powerful predictor of outcome in every study we've done so far,’ said Doctor Charles R. Snyder, a psychologist, who has devised a scale to assess how much hope a person has. For example, in research with 3920 college students, Doctor Snyder and his colleagues found that the level of hope among freshmen at the beginning of their first semester was a more accurate predictor of their college grades, than were their SAT scores or their grade point averages in high school, the two measures most commonly used to predict college performance. ‘Students with high hope set themselves higher goals and know how to work to attain them,’ Doctor Snyder said. ‘When you compare students of equivalent intelligence and past academic achievements, what sets them apart is hope.’ In devising a way to assess hope scientifically, Doctor Snyder went beyond the simple notion that hope is merely the sense that everything will turn out all right. ‘That notion is not concrete enough and it blurs two key components of hope,’ Doctor Snyder said, ‘Having hope means believing you have both the will and the way to accomplish your goals, whatever they may be.’