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Waiving the MPA Entrance Exam: Impact on Performance

Abstract For decades, graduate schools around the country have used various graduate entrance exams as one of the key factors in determining graduate school admission. Although many people would argue that these scores are good predictors of graduate student matriculation, the evidence is not conclusive. Hence, the purpose of this study is to assess the impact of waiving the graduate admission exam on graduate student performance in the MPA program at the University of Memphis, summer semester 2001 through spring semester 2004. We examine performance using three measures: overall MPA grade point average, substantive contributions in core classes, and writing skills. Using data collected from student files (1995–2004), we determined that the grade point average of students who received the waiver did not significantly differ from non-waiver students. On one of the two faculty judgment measures—writing skills—chi-square analysis indicated that non-waiver students performed better than waiver students, but the differences lost significance in the full regression analysis. Overall, the implementation of an entrance exam waiver did not adversely affect program quality while positively enhancing program marketing and recruitment efforts, as measured by an increase in the number of MPA applicants.