Typical physics Ph.D. admissions criteria limit access to underrepresented groups but fail to predict doctoral completion

Casey W Miller; Benjamin M Zwickl; Julie R Posselt; Rachel T Silvestrini; Theodore Hodapp

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aat7550

Typical physics Ph.D. admissions criteria limit access to underrepresented groups but fail to predict doctoral completion

Sci Adv. 2019 Jan 23;5(1):eaat7550. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat7550. eCollection 2019 Jan.

Authors

Casey W Miller¹, Benjamin M Zwickl², Julie R Posselt³, Rachel T Silvestrini⁴, Theodore Hodapp⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, 85 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA.
² School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, 85 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA.
³ Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, 3470 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
⁴ Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, Rochester Institute of Technology, 85 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA.
⁵ American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA.

Abstract

This study aims to understand the effectiveness of typical admissions criteria in identifying students who will complete the Physics Ph.D. Multivariate statistical analysis of roughly one in eight physics Ph.D. students from 2000 to 2010 indicates that the traditional admissions metrics of undergraduate grade point average (GPA) and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Quantitative, Verbal, and Physics Subject Tests do not predict completion as effectively admissions committees presume. Significant associations with completion were found for undergraduate GPA in all models and for GRE Quantitative in two of four studied models; GRE Physics and GRE Verbal were not significant in any model. It is notable that completion changed by less than 10% for U.S. physics major test takers scoring in the 10th versus 90th percentile on the Quantitative test. Aside from these limitations in predicting Ph.D. completion overall, overreliance on GRE scores in admissions processes also selects against underrepresented groups.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.