Here in California, things are expensive. Gas seems to cost a dollar more per gallon than anywhere else in the country. Housing? 💀💀💀 Even fast food is getting ridiculously pricey. And as you may have noticed, once prices for something go up, they're kind of like the new normal. We get used to a $\$8$ burrito, then a $\$10$ dollar burrito, then a $\$12$ dollar one. Add guac? Forget about it.

You may not have noticed, but grades, both in American high schools and colleges, have been going up as well. 

 

source: https://heri.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/DATA-TABLES-TFS-2023.pdf

This is a bonkers chart if you think about it. Last year, 86% of freshmen rolled into college sporting an A average. Are high school students just getting smarter over the years, or are grades somehow going up? The issue isn't unique to high school, either - check out the below chart from Yale:

 

source: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/11/30/faculty-report-reveals-average-yale-college-gpa-grade-distributions-by-subject/

This is another crazy chart. Even one of the best-regarded universities in the world seems to have issues with giving students grades below an A in many subjects! The problem isn't unique to Yale - Harvard, for example, has similar stats. Why the hell are teachers giving students such high grades overall?

My basic take is that it's two reasons:

1. Teachers have good intentions and want their students to succeed later on in life. They know a student needs a high grade to get into college or graduate school in the future. Even in STEM subjects, teachers now commonly allow test redos and extra credit to help students bolster their grades.

2. Teachers are scared of students and administrators. Grades in the U.S. aren't anonymous - the teacher who gives a low grade may have to face the ire of the student, his parents, and the school's administrators, all of whom can make the teacher's life harder if they don't like the grade. At colleges, for instance, administrators are keen to keep their average graduation rate high, or their institution will drop in college rankings. Plus, with grades creeping up over time, it gets harder and harder to be the maverick teacher who actually gives fair grades.

So why does this matter? In his excellent essay, Yascha Mounk - a professor at Johns Hopkins - makes the case that students need to know whether they're doing good work or not. A grading system that obfuscates that by throwing out A's like candy at Halloween makes that more difficult.

Furthermore, grade inflation is kind of a nightmare for college and graduate school admissions. Programs need to know if the students they accept can do the work, and GPA isn't a great signal of that anymore. 

This is where the GRE - and other standardized tests - come in. "But Vince - don't you have a vested interest in promoting the GRE? After all, you sell test prep services, right?" Sure, that is my background, and just like anyone, my opinions certainly may reflect my biases. But I invite you to use common sense.

If you're reading this, you're probably not immersed in the test-prep and admissions worlds like I am. The trend has shifted from the "anything goes" days of COVID, where many schools were desperate for applicants, to current times, in which competitive programs are realizing many of the students they admitted can't do the work.

Imagine one of these programs has two applicants, both with very high GPAs, great work experience, well-written admissions essays, and glowing recommendations. One has a 323 GRE score, and the other... oops, the other didn't submit a score, because the program is test-optional. Do you think the program will assume the student without a score would have gotten a high score on the GRE if he'd taken it? Or do you think they will assume the opposite?

Admissions deans are well-aware of grade inflation trends, but also cognizant that part of their job is to attract as many applicants as possible to give their administrators more options to select a potentially successful class - as well as to bring in more application fees. It's in their interest, sadly, to downplay the role of GRE in admissions to attract applicants who don't take the test. 

Do students with test scores really have an advantage, though? Colleges have been slow to admit it, and some have outright lied about it, but it's becoming increasingly clear from the statistics that colleges have released (since test-optional became a thing in 2020) that they admit students with test scores at much higher rates. At Yale, for example, students with test scores were admitted at three times the rate of those without. These stats are for competitive colleges - I'll leave it to you to decide if competitive graduate programs are acting similarly.

So, should you take the GRE? Yes... if you can at least get a decent score. And that's where things get complicated. What is a good score? Hopefully, the programs you're applying to will actually tell you, but they might not so they don't scare you away from applying. My basic take is that you need to find out the average GRE score of accepted or enrolled students in that particular program. I personally recommend calling the program to find this out, since people often reveal more via actual conversation than over an email.

If your GRE score is at least close to the average or higher, you probably should submit it. Again, what is the program going to assume your score would've been if you don't send it? So even if the score is a bit below their average, I think it looks better than no score at all, which might make them assume the worst.

Disclaimer: I'm not an admissions expert, and this is just my two cents. Always consult an admissions specialist in your field before making decisions like this.

The Bottom Line

With increasing grade inflation, GPA has become a weaker signal that students are capable of doing graduate-level work. The GRE isn't perfect, but it's a standardized test, and schools will increasingly rely on objective measures like it to make admissions decisions.