Investigating approaches to diversity in a national survey of physics doctoral degree programs: The graduate admissions landscape

Abstract

Graduate admissions play a critical gatekeeping role in the physics community not only because they select students who are allowed to begin their graduate studies, but also because they influence how students perceive graduate school, and in some cases whether or not they will even choose to apply. In conjunction with the APS Bridge Program, we conducted a national survey of graduate directors (and related faculty) of physics Ph.D. programs in the United States to explore graduate admissions practices. Our focus was on criteria used in determining admissions, mechanisms through which graduate applicants are handled, and how student representation considerations are incorporated into admissions (if at all). We report here on existing graduate admission practices in physics departments and highlight some critical issues for understanding barriers for diversifying graduate physics, including the use of GRE scores (and the relative importance placed on them). We find that the use of a minimum GRE score for admission, a practice in opposition to recommendations made by the tests designers, is reported to be used in many departments (more than one in three). We also find letters of recommendation to be highly valued in admissions decisions. Our data describe various initiatives at the institutional or individual level to increase gender diversity in admissions. A sizable number of departments also express a latent demand for greater numbers of students from traditionally marginalized racial or ethnic groups, but simultaneously report a lack of such applicants.

Using machine learning to understand physics graduate school admissions

“…Perhaps unsurprisingly, we find numerical measures are the most important factors for determining whether a domestic applicant will be accepted into this physics graduate program, consistent with findings that graduate programs with a large number of applicants use numerical measures as a first pass to evaluate applicants [3,5]. While we find no evidence of a minimum physics GRE score, we do find evidence of a "rough cutoff" as described in Potvin et al around 700.…”

“…Previous research into graduate admissions in physics has tended to take a broad approach, characterizing the graduate admissions process across the United States, both for master's and PhD programs [3,4] or focusing on a specific subset of universities such as elite universities [5]. These studies find that faculty consider numerical measures such as undergraduate GPA and GRE scores most important in the admissions process and have been conducted by either observing the admissions process or by surveying faculty about what they believe to be most important in the admissions process.…”

Analysis of Praxis physics subject assessment examinees and performance: Who are our prospective physics teachers?

“…As with efforts related to gender inequities, the culture of physics likely plays a large role in the success of underrepresented groups. For example, studies have noted that candidates' race or ethnicity are often not considered as part of the criteria for acceptance into physics doctoral degree programs [42], and this population of students is most likely to transition into future physics faculty members. It is possible that until the face of physics more equitably reflects the diversity of the population at large (which largely depends on current university educators), underrepresentation will continue to afflict the discipline at all levels.…”

Understanding the importance of graduate admissions criteria according to prospective graduate students

“…To address the lack of diversity in graduate physics nationwide, many physics departments are becoming increasingly interested in recruiting a more diverse student population [1,2]. In conjunction with the American Physical Society Bridge Program (APS-BP), many issues associated with graduate diversification have been studied, from an examination of current admission practices [3,4], an exploration of faculty mindset and its effects on recruitment [5], identification of programmatic structures and practices that support graduate students' entry [1,6] and enculturation [7]. Much of this work, including that of the current authors, has previously focused on faculty or departments to inform about institutional decision making and values [8,9].…”