The Graduate School has received many questions from programs interested in removing the GRE requirement in their admissions processes, in some cases due to the Covid-19 pandemic making access to testing difficult or impossible for students. At the same time, there are many graduate programs that are uncertain how they can review admissions applications without the GRE.

In this context, we held an online panel of faculty from graduate programs that have successfully removed the GRE requirement from their admissions requirements. This panel covered what led to the decision in the program to remove the requirement, what the process was for revising application review, and how things have been going in the program without the GRE.

Our goal was to help other faculty who are interested in removing the GRE requirement gain guidance from their peers about how they  might implement this in their own program at UW-Madison.

We were very grateful to be joined by the following faculty panelists:

• Emily Fletcher, Associate Professor, Philosophy PhD/MA
• Peter Lewis, Associate Professor, Biochemistry PhD/MS
• Tracy Schroepfer, Professor, Social Work MSW
• Christy Tremonti, Associate Professor, Astronomy PhD/MS

Associate Dean and Professor of Political Science Lisa Martin moderated the discussion. We were also joined by Alexia Rebne, Admissions Coordinator in the Occupational Therapy Doctorate program, to talk about their decision to use the holistic admissions tool “Kira Talent”.