As the Chair-Elect of the GRE Board and a Grad School dean, I want to encourage everyone to remind their graduate admission committee members to view and use GRE scores as only one component of a student's overall application package.
to explicitly encourage holistic application review. These guidelines state:
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Regardless of the decision to be made, multiple sources of information should be used to ensure fairness and to balance the limitations of any single measure of knowledge, skills or abilities. These sources may include undergraduate grade point average, letters of recommendation, personal statement, samples of academic work and professional experience related to proposed graduate study. A cut-off score (i.e., a minimum score) should never be used as the only criterion for denial of admission or awarding of a fellowship.
Use of multiple criteria is particularly important when using GRE scores to assess the abilities of educationally disadvantaged applicants, applicants whose primary language is not English and applicants who are returning to school after an extended absence. Score users are urged to become familiar with factors affecting score interpretation for these groups. See the GRE® Guide to the Use of Scores (PDF) for more information."
Please encourage colleagues on graduate admissions committees to view GRE scores as only one component of the total application package.
Those interested in some of the psychometric research associated with the GRE General Test might be interested in:
Thanks!
Jackie
