Brown University Makes GRE Optional for 24 Ph.D. Programs

Students planning to apply for 24 of the Brown University Ph.D. programs are no longer required to submit Graduate Records Examination (GRE) test scores.

On Thursday, the university announced the decision to make the submission of GRE test scores optional to attract a diverse student body applying for doctoral programs.

It is particularly aimed at increasing the pool of low-income students and those from historically underrepresented groups in higher education.

Starting the 2020-21 academic year, the admission of students to the programs will now weight on factors like academic strength, research experience, transcripts, letters of recommendation, personal statements among others.

“This, in conjunction with a new transitional stipend for newly matriculating doctoral students and our fully-funded Ph.D. and MFA programs, continues our work to ensure that a Brown education is accessible to students from all income groups and that all graduate students can thrive on campus,” Dean of the Graduate School Andrew G. Campbell said.

Programs like American Studies, Biotechnology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Comparative Literature, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Earth, Environmental and Planetary Science, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, English, Neuroscience, Mathematics, Modern Culture, and Media among others will no longer require GRE score.

Last month, Princeton University made GRE test-optional for graduate admission from the next academic year saying that test was not the best predictor of academic ability or success.

Test Only Admissions Policies Would Make Colleges Less Diverse