No GRE required!! What you make of it?
Certification: Test Prep GRE - Graduate Record Examination
More and more lately, graduate school admissions teams have opted to make GRE score reporting optional rather than mandatory. This means that a student applying for admission does not need to submit his or her GRE scores to the university if they don’t want to, but they may submit them if desired.
A person might choose not to send GRE scores for a number of reasons. The most obvious would be if a student did not receive the score they were hoping for, or their score is lower than they think the admissions team will accept. Not sending n their GRE scores allows the other elements of the student’s application to shinewithout the potential cloud of low GRE scores raining on their parade.
Another student might not submit GRE scores simply because they haven’t taken the test. If a person is only applying to one school (though I wouldn’t recommend that) or all of the schools they hope to attend don’t require GRE scores, then there is little point in taking the test(s). Most students entering graduate school have very little income and large amounts of debt. Each GRE costs roughly two hundred dollars and quite a bit of study time. Many students on a tight budget would jump at the chance to skip it altogether.
Another reason someone might not submit their GRE scores is that they don’t feel the test is an adequate measure of the skills required for the program to which they are applying. The GRE General Test measures mathematical ability, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Individuals going into Studio Art or Anthropology or foreign language studies will acknowledge that those skills are important, but they will also point out (and rightly so) that there are far more important skill sets to have in their field that are not measured by the GRE.
Some subjects have managed to side-step this issue by requiring subject-specific GREs. This allows for standardized assessment of those skills specific to the field that student wishes to enter. The downside to this is that students may have to pay for and take multiple GREs when only one is really seen as important by the program they are trying to get into. This is one reason why other fields have found ways of assessing skills specific to their field without a single standardized test.
Still other applicants might not submit GRE scores on principle, if given the option. There are many people who do not agree with standardized tests, because they don’t feel it is possible for a standardized test to measure intelligence of skill in a completely objective, unbiased way. Even the IQ test is fraught with problems in what it defines as intelligence, and academics have published on this subject for decades. Since those taking the GRE are becoming academics in at least some capacity, they are usually aware of the debate surrounding standardized tests as a whole.
Personally, I wholeheartedly approve of universities offering the option to not report your GRE scores. AS a scholar, I understand the desire to have a standard measurement of students, no matter their background. Different undergraduate programs assess students differently, and admissions teams want to make sure they are making faiar judgements of every applicant.
I also understand the debate of what to assess in the GRE general test. Because each student takes generally different courses as an undergraduate, the GRE General Test should only assess commonalities in each undergraduate program. Those commonalities are often known as Gen Eds or some other ‘core class’ terminology. You can’t assess every student on their knowledge of chemistry or art history or a foreign language, because not everyone takes those classes in college. The GRE measures mathematical skill, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills because those are skills that are fairly universal to all graduate programs.
At the same time, I am an archaeologist, and my friends are chemists, artists, biologists, sociologists, and musicians. There are many skills required in our fields that are (dare I say it) more important than and not measured by the GRE General Test. While I understand the desire for a standard measure of all students, I would hope that my admittance to a graduate program wouldn’t hinge on my GRE scores. And while I personally wouldn’t choose not to submit my scores based solely on principle, I certainly understand the objections to standardized tests and the reasons for not participating in them.
I also happen to be one of those poor, debt-ridden graduate students who will opt out of paying for anything if given the choice.
The beauty of the optional system is that it accommodates people who want to report their scores (because it matters for their field, because they did well, because they took the test and may as well report the scores) as well as the people who don’t. At the same time, it accommodates and respects all of the reasonswhy each individual want to report or not report their scores and acknowledges a person’s right to do so.
Some students might argue that if reporting scores is optional, then the GRE becomes inherently less important. I would disagree, because the GRE has always had different levels of importance depending on the school and the program. Giving the option to report scores simply decreases the paperwork for those programs and universities that don’t place as much importance into the test. The optional nature of reporting scores does not make the GRE a waste of time. The GRE does assess certain valuable skills that are necessary for success in graduate school, and it is important for universities and programs that wish to see that assessment to be able to do so,
But a system that forces a choice in either direction – either dictating that everyone must report his or her scores or no one may report GRE scores – automatically excludes certain individuals and disregards their opinion. In so doing, the system inevitably creates a situation in which certain people will become angry at the test before they even begin studying. The optional system is open, accepting, while a mandatory system either way is closed, excluding. It is better, then, to have the open system that allows the student, the program, and the university a choice when it comes to reporting GRE scores.