Lauren LotkaMOLBIO Senior and Pre-PhD Standardized test taking is a part of our education that we have become accustomed to. If you are reading this as a Pitt student, you took the SAT as a part of your application, but taking the test is really only half of it. There can be a lot of preparation that goes into taking the test: tutors, study books, and boot camps all just to learn how to take the test. How could this possibly be a good predictor of how well you will do in college? More and more, institutions are beginning to reconsider the value of standardized test scores as predictors of success in school . As you are beginning to think about your post-graduation plans, it is important to think about whether these plans will include taking a standardized test of some kind. As a senior applying to molecular biology Ph.D. programs, I took the GRE, a standardized exam required for entry to most graduate programs. At least, that was once the case, but now it is becoming more and more common for Ph.D. programs in the biomedical and other sciences to no longer require GRE scores. What has caused this shift? How many programs are still requiring GRE scores? This is important information to know if graduate school is in your future plans as you may be able to avoid taking the GRE altogether. Much like the SAT, the GRE is a four-hour long exam consisting of multiple choice and written questions testing quantitative, verbal, and writing skills. However, recent studies have emphasized two major problems with the GRE. First, there is little correlation between GRE scores and performance in graduate school. Second, there are concerns that the GRE poses a disadvantage to underrepresented groups. In response to this, more and more programs are dropping the GRE requirement. The life sciences, in particular, have led this push toward this so-called “GRExit”. Science has reported the following numbers for programs at 50 top-ranked U.S. research universities: 44% of molecular biology Ph.D. programs, 35% of neuroscience programs, and 29% of ecology programs have stopped requiring GRE scores as of 2018. For molecular biology programs, it is thought that this number will rise to 50% for this year’s (2019-2020) application cycle. In my experience thus far, only one of the eight schools that I am applying to requires GRE scores (12.5%). The rest either make it optional to send scores or ask that you do not send them at all. If I had known this, I could have avoided taking the GRE and only applied to schools that do not require it, which I believe is feasible if this is a route you wish to take. The first major problem with the GRE that I mentioned is that there is little correlation between GRE scores and success in graduate school. In the past several years, numerous studies have been conducted to examine this notion. Joshua Hall, director of graduate admissions for the Biological and Biomedical Science program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, authored a 2017 study (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169121) investigating student productivity in graduate school and their GRE scores. Hall showed that for 280 graduate students in his program, GRE scores were not correlated with the number of first-author papers the students published or how long it took them to complete their degree. Another study looking at 495 Biomedical PhD students at Vanderbilt University in Nashville (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166742) found that GRE scores did not predict which students passed their qualifying exams or graduated, how long they spent in the program, how many publications they accrued, or whether they received an individual grant or fellowship. Seeing this data makes you wonder what kind of information the GRE provides about a student to an admissions board that grades, research experience, or letters of recommendations cannot. In addition to the questionable ability of the GRE to predict graduate student success, there are concerns that the GRE may hinder diversity and inclusion efforts. The ETS (Educational Testing Service), a nonprofit testing organization that delivers the GRE, shared data that shows that women and members of underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups score lower on the GRE than white men and Asian men do. The ETS argues that this reflects educational background and unequal access to opportunities. Not only does the GRE exam cost $205 each time you take it, but additional costs can accrue with training and study materials. For low-income students, this poses a disadvantage as they may not be able to afford tutors or other expensive studying material that could potentially help them perform better on the exam. GRExit proponents argue that “the problem with looking at a strong GRE score is you don’t know what the student did to get that score.” Additionally, the test is timed which may pose a challenge for students who do not speak English as a first language. Arthur Kosowsky, Chair of the Physics and Astronomy department at the University of Pittsburgh, says that dropping the GRE “...just seems like a no-brainer. This test is both not really measuring something useful … and at the same time discriminating against students who we are trying to work very hard to increase the numbers of in our program.” With this in mind, if the GRE is not an equal measure of student ability, how can it be used to objectively compare applicants for graduate programs? If you are considering graduate school, keep what you read in mind when choosing where to apply. If you know your strengths do not lie in standardized test taking, like myself, choose to apply to schools that do not require GRE scores, and do not worry if this is the case. There are many parts to the graduate school application in which you can prove your abilities like grades, research experience, letters of recommendations, fellowships/awards, teaching experience, your statement of purpose, and more. With fewer programs requiring scores each year, not taking the GRE is definitely a practical option. Also keep in mind the type of culture in which you want to attend graduate school. Diversity and inclusion efforts may be reflected by not requiring the GRE. With that said, these are decisions are ultimately up to you, and it is important as a student to know your options. Quotes and statistics were taken from the following Science article: www.sciencemag.org/careers/2019/05/wave-graduate-programs-drop-gre-application-requirement Thinking about taking the GRE (or MCAT or DAT) and want some more info? Come to our info session on Tuesday, 1/14: https://www.facebook.com/events/1261034204107116/
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January 2022
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