Questioning value of GRE

To further its goal of improving diversity and increasing access to its graduate program, the University of Pittsburgh School of Education will be joining 90 other programs at the college that no longer require Graduate Record Examination test scores for admissions.

The GRE has long been assumed to be predictive of graduate school success; however, dozens of universities across the country in recent years have opted to eliminate the four- hour, six-section test in favor of a “holistic” approach to judging candidates.

Proponents for eliminating the GRE argue that the test has proved to be a barrier to access for many students. Prep courses and tutoring, as well as the cost of the actual test, can be prohibitively expensive for many, putting those with time and financial resources to prepare at an advantage.

The strongest arguments in favor of the continuation of the GRE are that by dropping this common, objective standard, schools are left to consider only that which is subjective. In other words, if GRE scores are removed from the process, what’s left is not comparable. This puts more power in the hands of administrators who might themselves not be free of bias.

Recent studies have showed little correlation between GRE scores and success in school. However, these studies have only sampled admitted students. A more accurate experiment would be to gauge the graduate- level success of randomly admitted students covering the full range of GRE scores.

This is all a reminder of how difficult it is to eliminate bias in the graduate admissions process. Will dropping the GRE requirement diversify the applicant pool? The University of Pittsburgh is willing to find out, and this is a good thing.