More Indian Students Are Taking Graduate Entrance Tests
The following article was written by Vimal Patel of The Chronicle of Higher Education about the number of Graduate Record Examinations taken by students in India, which increased 70 percent in 2013 from the year before. The article explores possible explanations for this high jump and describes how this trend may continue as US international students increase overall.
The number of Graduate Record Examinations taken by students in India increased 70 percent in 2013 from the year before, according to figures released last month. The G.R.E. is the entrance test used by most graduate-school programs in the United States.
The numbers, from the Educational Testing Service, a nonprofit company that administers the G.R.E., suggest that a recent surge in the number of Indian students entering American graduate schools may continue. A report released last fall by the Council of Graduate Schools showed a 40 percent rise in first-time graduate enrollments from India from 2012 to 2013.
The new figures from E.T.S. show that more than 90,000 G.R.E. tests were taken by Indian students in 2013. The number of tests taken in the United States increased 5 percent from the year before, while tests taken in Asia over all increased 35 percent.
The total number of G.R.E. tests taken worldwide last year was the second-highest in the 65-year history of the test, at 731,000, the company said. The highest number was in 2011, when more than 800,000 tests were taken.
Christine Betaneli, a G.R.E. spokeswoman for E.T.S., said the company expanded its reach in India last year by conducting more visits to campuses and student fairs. It also increased emphasis on social media engagement with Indian students.
“I believe that translated into increased awareness and knowledge,” Ms. Betaneli said. “But a 70 percent increase is enormous, and there’s probably a lot of factors that go into that jump.”
Rahul Choudaha, director of research and strategic development at World Education Services, a nonprofit organization that studies international education trends, said the increase in G.R.E. taking in India could be the result of “pent-up demand” from that nation’s poor economy in recent years. He also said an increasing number of business schools were using the G.R.E.
According to E.T.S., more than 1,100 business schools accept G.R.E. scores for their M.B.A. programs, an 8 percent increase from the previous year. The number of international programs accepting G.R.E. scores increased by nearly 12 percent, compared with 2012, according to E.T.S.
Debra W. Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, said she was not sure exactly what might be driving the increase in graduate enrollments from India that her group documented in a report in November.
“I don’t have any confidence in explanations about this topic,” she said.
Applications to American graduate programs from India increased 1 percent from 2009 to 2010, 8 percent from 2010 to 2011, 3 percent from 2011 to 2012, and 22 percent from 2012 to 2013.
“India has over time been much more difficult to predict than the patterns in most other countries,” she said.
When the council released its report in November, Ms. Stewart said that she had often heard speculation that a devaluation of the Indian currency, the rupee, could explain the increase, but she was skeptical.
“That can work two ways,” she said. “People can say the Indian economy is in trouble, and therefore people are escaping and coming to the U.S. in large numbers. Or they could say the Indian economy is in trouble, the currency is down, and therefore they can’t financially afford to come to graduate school in the U.S.”
Ms. Stewart noted, however, that Britain, which has traditionally drawn large numbers of Indian students, had recently become less attractive to international students because of drops in international-student funding and changes in immigration policies. That, she said, might be a factor making the United States more attractive to Indian students.
