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Physics Graduate Record Exam does not help applicants “stand out”

Nicholas T. Young1,2 and Marcos D. Caballero1,2,3,4

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
  • 2Department of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
  • 3Center for Computing in Science Education & Department of Physics, University of Oslo, N-0316 Oslo, Norway
  • 4CREATE for STEM Institute, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA

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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17, 010144 – Published 23 June, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010144

Abstract

One argument for keeping the physics Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is that it can help applicants who might otherwise be missed in the admissions process stand out. In this work, we evaluate whether this claim is supported by physics graduate school admissions decisions. We used admissions data from five Ph.D.-granting physics departments over a 2-year period (N=2537) to see how the fraction of applicants admitted varied based on their physics GRE scores. We compared applicants with low GPAs to applicants with higher GPAs, applicants from large undergraduate universities to applicants from smaller undergraduate universities, and applicants from selective undergraduate institutions to applicants from less selective undergraduate institutions. We also performed a mediation and moderation analysis to provide statistical rigor and to better understand the previous relationships. We find that for applicants who might otherwise have been missed (e.g., have a low GPA or attended a small or less selective school), having a high physics GRE score did not seem to increase the applicant’s chances of being admitted to the schools. However, having a low physics GRE score seemed to penalize otherwise competitive applicants (i.e., applicants with mid to high GPAs). Thus, our work suggests that the physics GRE does not, in fact, help applicants who might otherwise be missed stand out.

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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17, 010144– Published 23 June, 2021
  • Received 24 August 2020
  • Accepted 1 June 2021
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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