Graduate school admissions processes often fail to identify all the relevant factors that might predict success in graduate school. The aim of this conference is to identify some of the most promising ways to increase fairness in graduate admissions. The goal is to develop more holistic evaluation strategies. Factors to consider in admissions include research opportunities, or lack thereof, application process mentoring, and life challenges. Some undergraduate institutions, and some minority-serving institutions, cannot provide the research opportunities to help their students be competitive applicants for research oriented graduate programs. In addition, the over-reliance on standardized tests often exclude under-represented scholars. More holistic application processes might identify graduate school applicants who have learned time-management processes via maintaining school, work, and home responsibilities. This project will survey graduate programs, followed by a two-day virtual conference, with an emphasis on understanding the undergraduate research pathway for psychology students. Results regarding how to make the application process more transparent and efficient will be disseminated. In addition, practical tips for increasing research experiences and collaborations across diverse minority-serving and research-intensive institutions will be developed.
When the diversity of the academy does not reflect the diversity of the general population, there is a tremendous loss in innovation, perspectives, and potential knowledge generation. In 1993, the American Psychological Association resolved to “place a high priority on issues related to the education of ethnic minorities.†More than 20 years later, African Americans, Latinx, and Native Americans remain underrepresented in all levels of academia. Within higher education, admissions practices that rely heavily on standardized testing can perpetuate that under-representation. Standardized tests advantage students with financial means who can afford to take the test multiple times or pay for expensive preparatory classes. Many universities are temporarily waiving standardized testing requirements due to barriers related to the COVID-19 pandemic. That provides a window of opportunity to reimagine graduate admissions. The goal of this project is two-fold. Scholars and administrators involved in the admissions process will work to develop an alternate system of graduate admissions that utilizes multiple possible predictors of graduate school success. This will be accomplished through a virtual conference, in which data regarding current admissions practices will be evaluated. Second, recognizing that undergraduate research experience is critical to not only graduate admissions, but also success in graduate school, this conference will develop a regional partnership to increase the number of high quality research opportunities available to underrepresented students, particularly those at minority-serving institutions with fewer research resources. This will be done by facilitating connections between R1 institutions and regional and minority-serving institutions, using the conference as an initial launch.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
