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MEMO: Comprehensive Evaluation of Applicants for Graduate Admission

Office of the Dean
Graduate Division
University of California, Berkeley

January 2, 2008

To: Deans, Professional Schools and Colleges, Department and Group Chairs, Graduate Advisers, Chairs, Graduate Admission Committees, Equity Advisers, Admission Graduate Assistants
From: Faculty members of the Graduate Affirmative Action Advisory Committee (GAAAC)

As a new admissions cycle begins, we faculty members of GAAAC congratulate those departments and admissions committees that have updated their graduate admissions procedures in the direction of a comprehensive review approach. Such an approach avoids over-reliance on GRE scores, especially in the preliminary stages of assessment, in determining a candidate’s worthiness for admission. Instead, comprehensive approaches infer an applicant’s potential for success from more reliable indicators such as the applicant’s general academic record and record of special achievement, letters of recommendation, statement of purpose and writing samples, research experience and drive to succeed, and his or her personal circumstances and goals.

The Graduate Council has discontinued requiring the use of GRE scores in assessing applications for graduate admission, allowing individual departments to determine the weight appropriate in using GRE scores. This accords with a number of studies that cast doubt on the reliability of GRE scores as predictors — either positive or negative — of success in graduate degree programs.

We encourage those programs in which GRE scores still figure prominently as a criterion in graduate admissions — especially in the preliminary selection and de-selection of applicants — to move toward similarly comprehensive approaches to evaluation. We invite those departments presently unable to implement comprehensive evaluation to consider de-emphasizing GRE scores in favor of a relatively comprehensive review in those cases in which the applicant’s scores clearly contrast with other aspects of the academic profile considered for preliminary review.

Our experience strongly suggests that more comprehensive approaches to reviewing graduate applications bolster sound admissions standards and help Berkeley to recruit and retain a more diverse and predictably successful graduate student body, in turn sustaining our national and international reputation for academic excellence and diversity.

Please let us know if we can assist you in any way as you discuss and implement admissions criteria for the coming cycle.

Sincerely yours,

Carlos Fernandez-Pello, Associate Graduate Dean, Mechanical Engineering

Robert Allen, African American Studies and Ethnic Studies
Patricia Baquedano-Lopez, Education
Gibor Basri, Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion
Clair Brown, Economics
Judith Butler, Rhetoric
Claudia Carr, Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Lydia Chavez, Journalism
Meg Conkey, Anthropology
Laura Enriquez, Sociology
Louise Fortmann, Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Mary Kay Gaillard, Physics
Evelyn Nakano Glen, Ethnic Studies
Ronald Gronsky, Materials Science and Engineering
Angela Harris, Law
Tyrone Hayes, Integrative Biology
Charles Henry, African American Studies
Abdul Janmohamed, English
George, Johnson, Mechanical Engineering
Caroline Kane, Molecular and Cell Biology
Elaine Kim, Ethnic Studies
William Lester, Jr., Chemistry
Jabari Mahiri, Education
Carolyn Merchant, Science, Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Jennifer Miller, English
Deborah Nolan, Statistics
Jeff Oxendine, Public Health
Jeff Romm, Agriculture and Resource Economics
Herbert Simons, Education
Stephen Small, African American Studies
Z. Renee Sung, Plant Biology
Andrew Szeri, Dean, Graduate Division
Khatharya Um, Ethnic Studies
Steve Welter, Science, Environment Science, Policy and Management
Hertha D. Sweet Wong, English