Spring 2014 Physics Colloquium
January 24; PAS 224, 3pm
Casey Miller
University of South Florida
Using Minimum Acceptable GRE Scores Negatively Impacts Diversity in Physics (and the rest of STEM)
The National Academies have suggested that increasing diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math will be critical to the future competitiveness of the US in these areas [1], and both the
National Science Foundation [2] and the American Physical Society [3] are taking this seriously. In this talk, I will discuss several opportunities that may help move toward meeting this goal, and, importantly,
the potential benefits to programs and individual investigators willing to take on these challenges. The most universally applicable and implementable actions regard perturbing graduate admissions policies and practices [4],
and employing key features of successful Bridge Programs into graduate programs [5]. Despite the prevalet use of minimum acceptable scores by admissions committees, there is no correlation between GRE scores
and research ability. I will remind the community that the use of minimum acceptable GRE scores for admissions is in opposition to ETS’s Guide to the Use of GRE Scores, and I will present data showing that this practice
will have (has had?) a negative impact on diversity in graduate programs. I will conclude by discussing non-cognitive competencies and their role in student selection processes.
[1] National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, “Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads,” The National Acadamies Press (2011); http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12984
[2] Joan Ferrini-Mundy, “Driven by Diversity,” Science 340, 278 (2013).
[3] http://www.apsbridgeprogram.org/
[4] Casey W. Miller, “Admissions Criteria and Diversity in Graduate School,”APS News, The Back Page, February 2013. http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201302/backpage.cfm
[5] Stassun, K.G., Sturm, S., Holley-Bockelmann, K., Burger, A., Ernst, D., & Webb, D., “The Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program: Broadening Participating of Underrepresented Minorities in the Physical Sciences. Recognizing, enlisting, and cultivating ‘unrealized or unrecognized potential’ in students”, American Journal of Physics 79, 374 (2011).