A number of studies have examined the impact of changes in price on students' enrollment decisions at the undergraduate level, but little is known about the price responsiveness of graduate and professional students. This dissertation utilizes difference-in-differences and regression-discontinuity methods to analyze student-level data for admitted…

College and university admission testing requirements often serve as a barrier to many students seeking advanced degrees. Many graduate school admission boards/committees use the minimum testing requirement as a predictor variable to explain a student's chance for success in a program. Before the 2020 Fall semester, many graduate schools required…

Intended consequences of giving applicants the option to select which test scores to report include potentially reducing measurement error and inequity in applicants' prior test familiarity. Our first study determined whether score choice options resulted in unintended consequences for lower performing subgroups by detrimentally increasing score…

The purpose of this research was to examine whether decisions made at one stage of strategic and graduate enrollment management, the admission phase, depend on both applicant and faculty characteristics. Faculty participants (N=62) were randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes of a prospective applicant to their doctoral program. They then…

This meta-analysis assesses the predictive validity of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) across outcome variables, including grade point average, for graduate students. In addition to aggregate effects, this paper also assessed changes in observed effects over time as related to increasing diversity in the graduate student population and as a…

An analysis of 1955 physics graduate students from 19 Ph.D. programs shows that undergraduate grade point average predicts graduate grades and Ph.D. completion more effectively than GRE scores. Students' undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and GRE Physics (GRE-P) scores are small but statistically significant predictors of graduate course grades, while GRE…

Scores from the "GRE"® revised General Test provide important information regarding the verbal and quantitative reasoning abilities and analytical writing skills of applicants to graduate programs. The validity and utility of these scores depend upon the degree to which the scores predict success in graduate and business school in…

One argument for keeping the physics Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is that it can help applicants who might otherwise be missed in the admissions process stand out. In this work, we evaluate whether this claim is supported by physics graduate school admissions decisions. We used admissions data from five Ph.D.-granting physics departments over a…

Assessments consisting of only a few extended constructed response items (essays) are not typically equated using anchor test designs as there are typically too few essay prompts in each form to allow for meaningful equating. This article explores the idea that output from an automated scoring program designed to measure writing fluency (a common…

Purpose: Graduate admission has become a critical process for quality assurance in tertiary education. Hitherto, most research has investigated the validity of admissions instruments. However, surprisingly little work has been conducted on the overall organization of admission, which often remains "informal, ad hoc, and lacking in…

College students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often request and receive extended time to complete high-stakes exams and classroom tests. This study examined the performances and behaviors of college students on computerized simulations of high-stakes exams. Thirty-five college students with ADHD were compared to 185 typical…

Previous research on calculator use in standardized assessments of quantitative ability focused on the effect of calculator availability on item difficulty and on whether test developers can predict these effects. With the introduction of an on-screen calculator on the Quantitative Reasoning measure of the "GRE"® revised General Test, it…

This exercise aims to provide a hands-on, role-playing activity that requires students to evaluate the strengths and limitations of standardized tests in making admission decisions. Small groups pretend to be an admissions committee and review fictitious student applications containing both standardized test scores and other information admissions…

Extensive research has examined the effectiveness of admissions tests for use in higher education. What has gone unexamined is the extent to which tests are similarly effective for predicting performance at both the master's and doctoral levels. This study empirically synthesizes previous studies to investigate whether or not the Graduate Record…

Business and economics students performed significantly poorer than arts and science students on course tests and on the School and College Aptitude Test and the Graduate Record Examination. (PT)