Graduate studies, and in particular doctoral ones, pursue the development of scientific researchers able to make original contributions in a specific area of knowledge. However, attrition rates indicate that achieving this goal is not easy. The available evidence indicates that there are behavioral factors, positive and negative, that influence…

For its 16th annual Application Trends Survey, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) gathered and analyzed data from a total of 641 graduate business programs located at 306 universities worldwide to understand application volume, the applicant pool, and special efforts being made to attract candidates to graduate management programs.…

The facial neutrality of academic predictors (GPAs and Miller Analogy Test scores) are examined relative to admission decisions for applicants varying in national origin (i.e., African American, Asian, Hispanic and Whites), sex of applicants (females or males), and consistency of faculty decisions for a particular doctoral program in educational…

We investigate graduate school outcomes for students who entered economics Ph.D. programs in Fall 2002. Students in Top-15 ranked programs and those with higher verbal and quantitative GRE scores are less likely to have dropped out, but no more likely to have graduated. Those with undergraduate degrees from Top-60 U.S. liberal arts colleges and…

A study at one university found that traditional admission criteria for a graduate microbiology program, undergraduate grade point average, and Graduate Record Examination scores, were not good predictors of student potential as a researcher, as measured by faculty ratings. (MSE)

Performance of limited-English speaking graduate school applicants on the Prueba de Admision para Estudios Graduados aptitude test is compared with Graduate Record Examination results, and the validity of the two tests as predictors of academic success for bilingual doctoral students in the New York University Puerto Rico program is examined. (MSE)