Researchers sent identical application letters to over 6500 professors asking for graduate support. The only difference was the names on the letters were created to be obviously ethnic. What they found? It is not hard to guess. White males much more often
received positive responses. Women and and other minorities (including Asians) were much less likely to receive positive responses. There was also a higher bias in STEM than in the humanities.
We've got a ways to go, yet.
Best, Glenn
Glenn Dolphin, PhD
Tamaratt Teaching Professor
University of Calgary
Department of Geoscience
Earth Science 118
2500 University Drive NW,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 1N4
From: Julie Libarkin [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2015 3:16 PM To:[log in to unmask] Subject: Graduate student admission time...
All:
I am sure the rest of you are also either encouraging your undergraduates in their graduate school applications or reviewing applications to your programs (or both). Every year I have to argue with my colleagues about the value of the GRE as a predictive
measure of graduate student success. I found this NATURE article published in the summer of 2014, and thought some of you might be interested. I really appreciated the authors' discussion of diversity and STEM, and the role the GRE may be playing in limiting
diversity.
I would love to hear other people's take on this and experiences, as well.
Happy New Year!
Julie
Julie Libarkin
Associate Professor
Director - Geocognition Research Lab
Michigan State University
288 Farm Lane, 206 Natural Science
East Lansing, MI 48824
Affiliations: Center for Integrative Studies in General Science, Department of Geological Sciences, Cognitive Science Program, Environmental Science and Policy Program, CREATEforSTEM