GRE Not Required for Fall 2021 English Graduate Admissions

In light of the Covid-19 crisis, Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has announced that individual departments are permitted to make the GRE optional for graduate admissions for 2021. Given this decision, the Department of English will not require the GRE for this year’s MA and PhD applicants.  

Fordham’s English graduate program is one of many in the country to go test-optional for fall 2021 admissions. Adjusting the application requirements is one way universities across the nation are working to make their programs accessible to students who have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. But the national trend of making GRE scores optional in fact began several years ago, led in part by graduate programs in the sciences, as a 2017 article in Physics Today pointed out. This national trend – sometimes referred to as “GRExit,” has led to the development of a database, appropriately named “GRE Not Required,” that keeps track of graduate programs in the humanities and sciences that have moved to make the GRE optional for applicants.  

“Our graduate admissions process is holistic - we don’t rely very much on GRE scores,” said John Bugg, Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department, “so we really welcome this decision from the Graduate School.”