Changing landscape of GRE (2025):

The ones who are seeking admission in the graduate admission cycle for 2025, a must question for all the prospective students: How important is GRE? Is there increase in number of universities asking for GRE, after pandemic era flexibilities?

Let’s talk about the current trends.

Post covid, there has been a significant change in the admission of many graduate programs, certain universities adopted a test optional or even the policy to waive off GRE. This was certainly to adopt methodology of holistic application review. The question that comes in the mind of students is, if this trend is getting reversed as the normalcy has returned in 2025.

The Current Scenario:

On the basis of information available for the Fall 2025 admissions cycle, it shows that the current scenario remains quite varied:

• There are number of universities that still maintain test optional policies for the number of graduate programs. This states that while you can submit your GRE scores to strengthen your application, but that is not compulsion from the side of university. Universities like Columbia, Cornell, and the university of Pennsylvania follow the test optional policies.
• On the other hand, for numerous programs in STEM, GRE is used to assess quantitative reasoning skills and provide measure to test applicant based on diverse academic backgrounds. The top tier universities like MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkley, list out specific GRE score expectations for the technical disciplines.
• GRE score is encouraged for those, whose various aspects of the application form are less competitive. A strong GRE score can increase the weightage of your application and can help you to et admitted in top tier institutions.

Holistic review of the candidate is still the need of the hour, universities are seeking beyond test scores and GPA, in order to evaluate applicant’s research, LOR, and work experience.

Factors contributing to the current state of GRE 2025

Following are the list of factors that contribute to the present state:

• Covid had huge impact, while the disruptions caused by pandemic have lessened, the lessons about the holistic review seem to have long lasting impact on some programs ‘admission procedures.
• Different programs have different significance related to GRE. Fields related to quantitative aptitude place more emphasis on maths section, while the focus of humanities is on verbal one.
• The elimination of GRE has broadened the applicant pool, which is a huge attraction for talented students who might face barriers in terms of standardised testing.
• To evaluate the non-cognitive factors and assess the applicant’s potential, holistic indicators are put to testing.

What do You need to do?

Being a prospective graduate student in 2025, here’s are some important guidelines:

1. Do check the official website for the program you would like to seek admission in, look for the specific policy as per the GRE scores if its optional, recommended, required or not accepted.
2. In case the test is optional, understand the why behind it. This would surely help you to understand as which aspects of application will they be emphasizing more.
3. The universities which have GRE as optional, and you have strong scores, it would be advantageous to submit them. And in case your GRE scores are not as strong, focus on accentuating other aspects of your application.
4. The universities which require GRE, dedicate full time to prepare for them efficiently.
5. Follow on the holistic approach, apart from GRE policy, focus on all the components of your application- the SOP, LOR, resume and transcripts as strong as possible.

Conclusion:

In order to conclude, it can be stated that there is not any clear trend of reversal of GRE (as of May 2025) across all universities. The admission trend remains diverse with some universities seeking test optional policies while others recommend GRE. The applicant needs to do thorough research on the specific programs on target and tailor the application strategy accordingly. Do not forget, a strong application process which accentuates your strengths and experiences, is going to be your ultimate source of success.