Read on Twitter
It's grad school application season. This year I'd like to highlight one of the many difficult and most ignored barriers to pursuing an advanced degree: the financial cost of applying.
a
with my perspective and some suggestions for departments to alleviate this barrier
1/
a
with my perspective and some suggestions for departments to alleviate this barrier1/
I applied to 8 PhD programs. The total financial cost to do this was over $1000. There were two major components of this cost: application fees and the GRE. I think to many profs this seems like a nominal fee for such a major career and life move...
2/
2/
and for many people, perhaps most who end applying to PhD programs, they are right. I think this is a big part of why this barrier is so invisible to so many. For me and many other students, these fees are not nominal. I promise you, they are preventing some applicants...
3/
3/
to your program. These fees combined with paying rent + sec. dep. before my first paycheck, I went into debt that I wasn't able to pay off until my 3rd year. I say this not garner sympathy, but to tell you that people like me exist in your program whether you know it or not.
4/
4/
So my first suggestion for programs: advertise your fee waiver. Any place on your application site that mentions a fee should also mention a waiver. It should be treated as just another part of the application instructions. Not some obtuse hidden form.
5/
5/
Which leads me to suggestion 2: Clarify how one applies for a fee waiver, and who qualifies. Instructions like "contact the graduate school" are vague and dubious, and make waivers sound like an administrative hurdle that is very non-standard.
6/
6/
I didn't even apply for fee waivers because I was worried schools might think I wasn't taking their application seriously. I know now this isn't at all true, but I certainly wasn't about to take any chances about a process I didn't understand at the time.
7/
7/
The GRE. A lot could be said about the GRE, but I'd like to focus on one aspect. The test costs $205 to take, and $27 to send to each institution (with 1 free). It cost me $394 to take and send my GRE scores to 8 different institutions, and this is without the subject test.
8/
8/
So suggestion 3: Drop the GRE requirement. Seriously, drop it. Ask critically, is this exam actually providing us with valuable information about the candidate, or are we just used to having it? How many admissions decisions would change if GRE scores were initially blinded?
9/
9/
I've gotten in many a Twitter argument about the GRE. I'm not interested in doing that here. Instead, I ask that you think about: Is the GRE requirement a net benefit your program? Would your applicant pool change without it? Your admissions decisions?
10/
10/
Your answer to these questions might be "I don't know, so why change?" Then I ask why is your baseline to require an expensive test of your applicants' knowledge/memory of high school level algebra and whether they bought a test prep book?
11/
11/
In summary: grad school applications are expensive. Many undergraduates have never earned a salary and have to find that money somewhere or not apply, for me it was a loan. Consider the financial barriers of applying, and what your institution and program can do to help.
end
end
I am genuinely touched by all the thoughtful responses to my thread. I'll highlight one of many examples of a particular blindspot of mine I left out: extra fees for non-US students. TOEFL, translations, exchange rates... https://twitter.com/theakozakis/status/1327203946281234432?s=20
