Investigating institutional influence on graduate program admissions by modeling physics Graduate Record Examination cutoff scores

Rubric-based holistic review: a promising route to equitable graduate admissions in physics

“…When we compared applicants based on whether their undergraduate institution was a more or less selective institution, we found that the only constructs that showed differences were the general GRE and physics GRE scores. This result aligns with the results of our previous work investigating the physics GRE scores by undergraduate institution type [24,80]. We note that if we instead define more-selective universities to include large state universities, such as Michigan State University, University of Colorado, Boulder, and University of Washington, our results are unchanged.…”

“…Numerous potential equity issues emerge when admissions is focused around test scores and grades. First, there is evidence that GRE scores vary based on gender and race [22,23] and the type of undergraduate university the test-taker attends [24]. When combined with the practice of using cutoff scores, which Potvin et al estimate at least 1 in 3 departments do despite the creators of the GRE and physics GRE recommending against it [18], applicants from underrepresented groups in physics may be more likely to not make the first cut.…”

Investigating the Assessment Landscape of Physics Graduate Programs

“…These include the reliability of the physics GRE upon admission as a predictor of success and how rubric-based holistic review contributes to a more diverse population of graduate students. [1][2][3][4][5]. There has been less work investigating practices within physics graduate programs beyond admissions.…”

Rubric-based holistic review represents a change from traditional graduate admissions approaches in physics

“…For example, prior work has shown students from groups underrepresented in higher education (e.g., first generation, low income, Black, Latinx, Native) suffered a grade penalty relative to their more privileged peers with students from minoritized racial groups suffering the largest penalties [11]. Other work has shown that the General and Physics GREs are biased against women and students from minoritized racial and ethnic groups [2,12] as well as against students from smaller or less prestigious universities [13]. Furthermore, the high costs associated with these often-required tests, despite limited evidence that these tests serve a predictive purpose [2, 14,15], prevent some students from applying [16,17].…”