PSB 67(3) 2021
Opinion: It’s Time to Eliminate Standardized Tests for Graduate School Admissions A colleague of mine just sent me the link to this article from Science, by Natalia Aristizábal (June 3, 2021): “I bombed the GRE—but I’m thriving as a Ph.D. student” (https://www. sciencemag.org/careers/2021/06/i-bombedgre-i-m-thriving-phd-student). I have been arguing for years that the GRE is discriminatory, and my colleague, who is the chair of our department, heard my pleas to eliminate the GRE requirement from our programs. He organized a committee to investigate the issue and, unfortunately, they decided to keep the GRE requirement with some assurance that it would not be the defining criteria for admission to our programs. I have my doubts. I would like to share my story of how I circumvented the GRE requirement while getting into a Ph.D. program at a prestigious university in upstate NY in 1971. I am dyslexic and consequently I read very slowly. I have never done well on standardized tests because I cannot finish these tests in the By Professor Lee B. Kass Cornell University, Plant Breeding & Genetics Section lbk7@cornell.edu; and Division of Plant & Soil Sciences, West Virginia University lee.kass@mail.wvu.edu
time allotted. I always score way below my intellectual level. I applied to a Ph.D. program without submitting my scores—stating that I had not yet taken the exam. I was accepted provisionally because I had transferred all excellent grades from a master’s program at another school. The conditions were that I would take the GRE and submit the scores at a later time. I had no intention of doing that and each time the advisor of the program asked for my GRE scores I told him I was planning to take them. This went on for the four years I was in my Ph.D. program. Finally, they stopped asking, especially because I had excellent grades in the courses I was required to take and I had passed my oral comprehensive exams for the Ph.D. I submitted my thesis, defended by oral presentation, and applied for and was accepted to a research fellowship at an esteemed University in the UK. Ironically, that University did not recognize American Ph.D.s—they only honored degrees from two other UK universities—and when I arrived they awarded me a Master’s degree based on my Ph.D., so that I could do research and teach in their programs. When I returned to the states and obtained a teaching job at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, I always gave students as much time as required to complete their exams. If we had to vacate the classroom before they were done, I would take the students to my office or my lab to finish their
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