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

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 fi...

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Autores principales:	Nicholas T. Young, Marcos D. Caballero
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2021
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/2250c50ff4f34ee5830aaf7afeb9f6a4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:2250c50ff4f34ee5830aaf7afeb9f6a42021-12-02T17:44:00ZPhysics Graduate Record Exam does not help applicants “stand out”10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.0101442469-9896https://doaj.org/article/2250c50ff4f34ee5830aaf7afeb9f6a42021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010144http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010144https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896One 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.Nicholas T. YoungMarcos D. CaballeroAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 17, Iss 1, p 010144 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Nicholas T. Young Marcos D. Caballero Physics Graduate Record Exam does not help applicants “stand out”
description	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.
format	article
author	Nicholas T. Young Marcos D. Caballero
author_facet	Nicholas T. Young Marcos D. Caballero
author_sort	Nicholas T. Young
title	Physics Graduate Record Exam does not help applicants “stand out”
title_short	Physics Graduate Record Exam does not help applicants “stand out”
title_full	Physics Graduate Record Exam does not help applicants “stand out”
title_fullStr	Physics Graduate Record Exam does not help applicants “stand out”
title_full_unstemmed	Physics Graduate Record Exam does not help applicants “stand out”
title_sort	physics graduate record exam does not help applicants “stand out”
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/2250c50ff4f34ee5830aaf7afeb9f6a4
work_keys_str_mv	AT nicholastyoung physicsgraduaterecordexamdoesnothelpapplicantsstandout AT marcosdcaballero physicsgraduaterecordexamdoesnothelpapplicantsstandout
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Physics Graduate Record Exam does not help applicants “stand out”

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