Graduate and professional education play an increasingly important role in economic inequality and elite formation in the United States, but sociologists have not subjected stratification in and through graduate education to the same level of scrutiny recently applied to undergraduate and sub-baccalaureate education. In this review, we discuss how prominent stratification theories might be extended to studies of the role of graduate and professional education, and we review research about stratification at junctures along student pathways into and through postbaccalaureate education to the labor market. Especially in doctoral and professional education, we find persistent stratification, including pronounced educational inheritance and disparities in participation and degree attainment by race/ethnicity and gender. We propose future directions for inquiry, highlighting unanswered questions and conceptual issues concerning how the field of and pathways through postbaccalaureate education contribute to social stratification.

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This work aims to understand how effective the typical admissions criteria used in physics are at identifying students who will complete the PhD. Through a multivariate statistical analysis of a sample that includes roughly one in eight students who entered physics PhD programs from 2000-2010, we find that the traditional admissions metrics of undergraduate GPA and the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) Quantitative, Verbal, and Physics Subject Tests do not predict completion in US physics graduate programs with the efficacy often assumed by admissions committees. We find only undergraduate GPA to have a statistically significant association with physics PhD completion across all models studied. In no model did GRE Physics or GRE Verbal predict PhD completion. GRE Quantitative scores had statistically significant relationships with PhD completion in two of four models studied. However, in practice, probability of completing the PhD changed by less than 10 percentage points for students scoring in the 10 vs 90 percentile of US test takers that were physics majors. Noting the significant race, gender, and citizenship gaps in GRE scores, these findings indicate that the heavy reliance on these test scores within typical PhD admissions process is a deterrent to increasing access, diversity, and equity in physics. Misuse of GRE scores selects against already-underrepresented groups and US citizens with tools that fail to meaningfully predict PhD completion. This is a draft; see the journal for the published version.Additionally included in blue text are several responses to queries about this work.

Professors play an underexamined role as gatekeepers, and their understandings of merit have significant implications for racial equity and diversity in graduate education and the professoriate. To understand faculty reliance upon admissions criteria that undermine espoused diversity goals, this study examined decision making in 10 highly selective doctoral programs, including the meanings faculty associate with common admissions criteria. Through 86 interviews and 22 hours of admissions committee observations, findings reveal that conceptions of merit changed throughout the review process. Privileging diversity among those who made the short list marginally affected outcomes because the initial standard-a very high quantitative bar of conventional achievement-excluded many students of color. Implications for reframing merit and reforming graduate admissions are discussed. Vivek (committee chair): He grew up in a yurt in the Himalayas, was raised by his mom and grandma after his father died at an early age, and the next neighbors were two mountains over. He then found his way to a major US research university and has since started the only organization for the discipline in the Himalayan region. William (assistant professor): But do we think he can succeed? [long pause] Vivek: He's the most amazing case we've ever seen. Harold (professor): He would bring some personality to the department. I commit to look after him and fund him through the prelims.. .. He presents himself as quite intelligent. Ryan (graduate student): Excellent idea to give him a chance. 1

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