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GraduateRecordExamination(GRE)UseSurvey

TheUniversityofPittsburgh’sSenateEquity,Inclusion,andAnti-DiscriminationAdvocacyCommittee'sEducationWorkingGroup

EllenAnsell

BrendaCassidyKathrynGardnerKaceyMarra

NatashaTokowicz

Fall2018

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IntroductionAnincreasinggoalingraduateadmissionsistoincreasediversity.Onewaytoaccomplishthisistousewhathasbeentermed“holisticreview”,whichplacesemphasisontheentireapplicationpackage,ratherthanemphasizingquantitativeaspectsalone(seetheattacheddocument entitled “Holistic Review in Graduate Admissions: A report by the Council ofGraduateSchools”formoreinformation).Anumberofuniversitieshavemadestandardizedtestssuchas theGREoptionalorhavestoppedrequiringit,ashaveentirefields.Forexample,theAmericanAstronomicalSocietycreated a policy (https://aas.org/governance/society-resolutions#GRE) that encouragesastronomy departments to not require GRE scores for admission because these scores“correlatewithdemographiccharacteristicsunrelatedtopotentialforgraduatestudy,suchasgender,raceandsocioeconomicstatus”andfurtherthey“arepoorpredictorsofsuccessingraduatestudyintheastronomicalsciences”.EventheVicePresidentoftheEducationalTestingService(ETS),whichmakestheGRE,questionswhetheritshouldbeusedbecauseit reduces the number of minority graduate students(https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/06/06/ets-plans-encourage-graduate-departments-de-emphasize-gre).ThereismixedevidenceregardingthepredictivevalueoftheGRE;seetheattacheddocumentforanannotatedbibliographyentitled“TheGREandIts PredictiveValidity forGraduate Student Success” compiledby theGraduateDiversityProgram, UC Berkeley (December, 2014). Furthermore, there are several best practicessuggestedbyETSregardinghowtheGREshould(andshouldnot)beused(seetheattachedInfographicprovidedbyETS).

SurveyWeconducteda surveyof theUniversityofPittsburgh’soveralluseof theGREexam foradmissions decisions, because of the concern for the effects of using scores from thisstandardized test on female and minority applicants. We focused on ETS’s suggestionsregardinghowthetestshouldbeusedinmakingadmissionsdecisions.Here,wereviewthefindingsofthatsurvey.The request to complete the survey was sent via email to a distribution list includinggraduateprogramdirectorsonJune18,2018.Afollow-upemailwassentonJuly11,witharequestthatthesurveybecompletedbyJuly15.ThelastresponsewasmadeonJuly25.A total of 98 responsesweremade. The email indicated that if admissionsdecisions aremadedifferentlyinseparatedivisionsofthedepartment, itwouldbeappropriatetohavethosedivisionsrespondseparatelytothesurvey.Therefore,somedepartmentsrespondedtothesurveymultipletimes.Someresponseswereincompleteorwereobviousduplicates;oncethesewereremoved,82responsesremained.

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8SurveyQuestionsQuestion1:DoyourequiretheGREforadmission?Question2:DoesyourprogramaddtheGREsubtestscorestogetherortreatthemasthreeindependentpiecesofinformation?

Response Number PercentConsiderindependently 67 82%Addtogether** 4 5%Idon'tknow 1 1%(blank) 10 12%

**Addingscorestogetherisoneofthe5commonmistakesQuestion3:Doesyourprogramuseacutoffscore(i.e.,ascorebelowwhichapplicantsarenotconsidered)?Response Number PercentYes** 4 5%No 42 51%Yes,butwithexceptions(pleaseexplain;seeAppendixA)** 26 32%(blank) 10 12%

**Usingacutoffscoreisoneofthe5commonmistakesQuestion4:Whatcutoffscoredoyouuse?Responses:

• 20percentileonthesubjecttest,so-notaveryhighbar• 70%forthemathGREforPhDstudents• Notabsoluteonthecutoffscoresbutlooktohaveabove60percentiles• Notevensure.Weusethemedicalschool'scutoffnumbers.Wewouldprobablynot

usethenumbersifthemedicalschooldidn'thaveawrittenpolicyestablishingminimumcutoffs.

Response Number PercentYes 64 78%No 10 12%It'soptional 8 10%

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Question5:Doesyourprogramconsiderscoresfrommultiplestandardizedtests(suchasMCAT,LSAT,GMAT)?

Response Number PercentYes 13 16%No 57 70%Other(pleaseexplain) 11 13%(blank) 1 1%

Question6:Doyoucomparepercentileranksacrossthedifferenttests?

Response Number PercentYes** 4 5%No 8 10%Other(pleaseexplain) 1 1%(blank) 69 84%

**Comparingpercentileranksacrossdifferenttestsisoneofthe5commonmistakesQuestion7:Whatfactorsdoesyourprogramconsiderforadmissionandhowimportantaretheyinthedecision?Inthegraphbelow,itemsareordered(lefttoright)frommosttoleastimportant.Responses:

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Thesamedata,brokendownasafunctionofwhethertheGREisrequiredornot,orifitisoptional.RecallfromQuestion1(p.3above),thepercentagebreakdownas78%,Required,10%Optional,and12%Notrequired.

Question8:Hasyourprogram'suseoftheGREinadmissionschangedinthelast3years?Responses:No 73Yes 9

SurveyComments

34individualsgavetheirnameinresponsetoaquestionthatsaidthattheycouldprovideitiftheywishedtofindoutmoreaboutincreasingdiversity/bestpracticesinusingtheGRE.Space was provided for individuals to leave open-ended comments. Below are somenotablecomments.

• WhilewenolongerrequireGREscores,wedostatethatwerecommendthem(largelysothatwenominateapplicantsforuniversity-widefellowships).

• Inthepastwehad191applicantswitharound100completingtheprocess.Whatdo

otherprogramsdotostreamlinetheprocessinrankingthestudentsontheabove

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factorcriteria?Wehavecreatedarubricbutwewanttonotoverlookqualityapplicants.

• PittPublicHealthhasaschool-levelpolicyrequiringthesubmissionoftheGRE

scoresforallDepartments/programs,buttheschooldoesnotrequirethatthesescoresbeusedinanyparticularwayformakingadmissionsdecisions.ThePittPublicHealth(school-level)EducationalPoliciesandCurriculumCommitteehasrevisitedtheliteratureontheGREanddiscussedtheschool-levelpolicyonnumerousoccasionsinrecentyears,aswellascompiledinformationonpeerinstitutionsGREpolicies.FortheDepartmentofHumanGeneticsMSandPhDprograms,eachmemberofthesix-personsub-committeeevaluatesapplicationsholistically,weighingeachcomponentashe/sheseesfit.Myresponsesregardingtherelativeimportanceofeachcomponentofanapplicationarebasedonmyunderstandingofthepreferencesofthesub-committee,overall.

• IwouldbehappytogetridoftheGRErequirement.Itisnotagooddiscriminator

forsuccessinthegraduateprogram.

• I'dbehappytohaveusstopusingtheGRE.

• PittshouldjointhenationalmovementtoeliminateGREsormakethemoptional.

• thankyouforcaringaboutthis!itisSOimportantthatwelookatupstreamwaystodiversifyourstudentbody!!soevenasIindicatedgradesandGREareveryimportant,wealsolookatiffolksarefirstgenerationalcollege,anunderrepresentedmin

• TheGREisveryproblematicforstudentswithdisabilities.Therefore,wedonotuse

it.

• WouldliketoconsidereliminatingGRErequirement

• WouldbehappytojoinaUniversity-widediscussionofthisissue.

ConclusionInconclusion,ouranalysisdemonstratedthatmostprograms/departmentsoncampusthatresponded to our survey do currently require the GRE for admissions decisions.Fortunately, only a small number of programs use the GRE in ways that ETS wouldconsiderproblematic,withtheexceptionofthequestionindicatingthat32%ofprogramsuseacutoffbutwithexceptions(seeAppendixAfortheexplanationsgiven).Thatsaid,thecommentsthatwere left in thesurvey implythat therearepreferredGREscoreseven inprograms/departmentsthatdon’thavestrictcutoffs,soeliminatingGREscoresormakingthemoptionalcouldincreasediversityeveninthesecases.Thismakesholisticinterviewinganattractiveoption.Commentswehaveheardfromcolleaguesandinthesurvey(seealso

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the Council of Graduate Schools report) suggest that programswould bemore likely tomovetoalternativeinterviewingstrategiesiftheywereprovidedmoreinformationabouthow to accomplish this with existing resources. An additional important issue that wasraised (see comments above) is how students would be nominated for university-widefellowships without standardized test scores. Finally, we note that a number ofrespondentswereeagertohearmore,ortogetridoftheGRErequirement.

RecommendationOnerecommendation is tocreateauniversity-wideadhoccommitteeto furtherexaminethisissue.

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AppendixA

Uneditedexplanationsgivenbyindividualswhoresponded“Yes,butwithexceptions”tothequestion“Doesyourprogramuseacutoffscore(i.e.,ascorebelowwhich

applicantsarenotconsidered)?”

• Wetrynottobetoodogmaticbutstudentswhoareinthelowest20percentileinthesubjecttestfrequentlydopoorlyintheprogram.It'saredflagratherthanahardcutoff

• Exceptionsmadefornon-English-first-languageinternationalstudents

• WefollowBCHSguidelineswhichthenincludessomelatitude

• Thecutoffsaresoftandifotheraspectsoftheapplicationarestrong,wemake

allowancesforthatcandidate

• Weusethemasguidelines,notasabsolutes-althoughweprobablywouldnotadmitfolkswithaverbalbelow145,quantbelow140...

• IfGPAisabove3.7,wewouldconsider

• Wehaverecommendedscoresforallbutespeciallyverbalbe50%tileorhigher

• Studentsscoringbelowthe50thpercentileon2of3componentswillbeconsidered

ifcompellingalternativeevidenceofabilitytosucceedintheprogramisprovided(e.g.,throughgrades,writtenproductssuchasathesis,orlettersofreference).

• Welookforscorestobeatthe70th%butstillconsiderapplicantswhohavescores

belowthiscutoffbecausewelookattheentireapplicationwhenmakingadmissionsdecisions.

• Weconsiderallunderrepresentedminorities(nocutoffused)

• Canbecounteredwithexcellentresearchexperience

• Mostofourapplicantsareforeignnationals.Wemuchmorestronglyweighwriting

samples,statementsofpurpose,lettersofrecommendation.

• Wetrytobeflexibleforotherconcerns,suchasdiversity,butscoreswellbelowthe85thpercentilegenerallypredictfailure

• Typicallyawrittenscoreoflessthan4isnotconsidered

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• Wehaveawrittencriteriathatweuseasaguide,butstudentsarestillconsiderediftheyscorewellinotheraspectsoftheapplication.

• Somehighlyqualifiedindividualswithscoresslightlybelowcutoffareconsidered.

• Ifanindividualhasattractivequalitiesandiscloseonthescore,eitherthey're

offeredanothercrackattheGREsormayjustbeaccepted

• Wepreferatorabove50thpercentile,butwilllookatthescoresincombinationwithprioracademicperformance,accomplishments,andinterview

• Targetis50thpercentilehowevermanystudentsadmitteddon'thavea50th

percentileinallareas;wewillacceptascoreof3.5intheanalyticalwritingbutdonotacceptstudentswhohavebelowa3.5intheanalyticalwritingsection

• Weprovidearangebuthavenotrejectedanyone,regardlessofscore

• Westatewewanttoseescoresatorabove50%ilebutwedomakeexceptions

• Withabout400applicationsperyear,clinicalpsychologyprogramfacultyreview

everyapplicationwithanycombinationof2ofthefollowing:GPAover3.6,GREV,Q,W,orPSYabove75%tile.Facultyalsoreviewindividuallyallapplicantsfromanunderrepresentedminoritygroup(African-AmericanorHispanic).

• WelookatGPA,recommendations,essay,clinicalshadowing/pastexperienceall

together

• A50%thresholdissetforeach,butexceptionscanbemadeifastudentgoeswelloverononecomponent.Thisisconsideredonacasebycasebasis

• Itwouldberaretomakeanexceptionbutifallothermaterialswereright,wewould

considerit.

• Suggestedrange