T153 Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education Beyond 2020: Individual, Department, Program, and Institutional-Level Approaches to Student Success II

Wednesday, 28 October 2020
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Meeting Rooms

GEOGREXIT: STRATEGIES FOR REMOVING THE GRE AS ONE BARRIER OF ENTRY TO GEOSCIENCE GRADUATE PROGRAMS

Paper number: T153-7
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 3:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Authors

Abstract

From 2019 until summer 2020, at least 69 geoscience-based graduate programs in the United States have removed or made optional the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test for admissions. This is driven by a large body of research that indicates the test is not tied to success in graduate school and instead presents a barrier to minoritized and low-income applicants. With the geosciences as one of the least diverse STEM fields, removing barriers to entry is one step to improved equity. Collected wisdom from programs that have dropped the GRE requirement show that using the body of peer-reviewed literature to convince colleagues increases the likelihood of faculty agreeing to remove the requirement. Other programs have seen success with simple analyses of past GRE waivers, scores, and time-to-degree, along with other measures of student success in their own department. However, understanding the centrality of admissions in your university is key, as is understanding if the test may be required for any university-level fellowships, or the decision to remove the GRE may be made at the College or University level. Initial impressions from graduate programs that had removed the requirement for fall 2020 admissions (before the COVID-19 pandemic) indicate a higher number of total applications and an increase in applications from underrepresented groups. Additionally, several programs have temporarily waived GRE requirements for Fall 2021 admissions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making the next admissions cycle an opportunity for even more geoscience departments to consider dropping the test permanently.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 52, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2020AM-353863

© Copyright 2020 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.