Why this shift is happening now
The clearest evidence of this shift is in testing requirements themselves. In graduate psychology programs, GRE verbal score requirements dropped from 15% to 5% of programs between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 admissions cycles. GRE writing requirements fell from 9% to 3% over the same period. Both figures come from survey data reported by the American Psychological Association's Monitor publication. Similar declines showed up across quantitative and doctoral-level requirements in the same survey.
This isn't universal. Business schools have mostly kept the GMAT or GRE requirement in place, a pattern we cover in detail in our guide to which tests you actually need. But across many research-focused master's and PhD programs, especially in the sciences and social sciences, the test score has changed role. It's gone from a gatekeeping requirement to one input among several, or been dropped entirely.
The shift away from test scores is real but uneven. Check your specific program's current policy rather than assuming a field-wide trend applies to your application.
The six factors one graduate school names explicitly
Most universities describe holistic review in fairly general terms. Virginia Tech's Graduate School is unusually specific, naming six factors directly on its official admissions guidance, beyond grades and test scores:
| Factor | What it captures |
|---|---|
| Community involvement / service | Sustained contribution to a group or cause, not a one-off event |
| Leadership | Taking initiative and responsibility for an outcome |
| Barriers overcome | Social, economic, physical, or other obstacles navigated |
| Personal / professional ethics | Integrity and judgment, often shown through specific decisions |
| Achievement relative to opportunity | What you did with the resources actually available to you |
| Research and scholarship | Direct engagement with the field beyond coursework |
Virginia Tech frames the intent behind this list directly on its own page: applicants are "more than your grades, GRE score, or where you went to school." The goal of holistic review, in the school's own words, is to approach admission "from an inclusive perspective rather than exclusion process." The exact six factors are specific to Virginia Tech. But the underlying categories, contribution, leadership, resilience, integrity, and scholarly engagement, show up consistently across other universities' published holistic-admissions frameworks, even where the wording differs.
Where GPA and test scores still decide the outcome
Holistic review doesn't erase the academic bar. It changes what happens after you clear it. Most programs still use GPA, and test scores where required, as an initial screen. An application below a program's practical threshold often doesn't get read closely enough for community involvement or leadership to matter at all. Holistic factors do their work in a different pool: applicants who've already cleared that first bar, compared against each other. They don't rescue a weak academic record.
Two areas keep test scores load-bearing regardless of the broader trend. MBA and other business master's programs largely still require the GMAT or GRE. And some STEM PhD programs, particularly lab-based sciences and engineering, still use quantitative scores as one signal of readiness. That's true even where the university's general policy has gone test-optional, because a specific research group has its own technical demands.
Treat GPA and test scores as the entry ticket, not the whole show, and treat the six softer factors as what actually separates similarly qualified applicants once they're both in the room.
How to actually show these factors in your application
In my experience, the applicants who benefit most from holistic review do one thing deliberately: they map their own experience against these categories before writing anything. They don't just hope the right details surface naturally in a first SOP draft. A few practical patterns:
Where each factor actually shows up
- Leadership and community involvement read strongest in the SOP and, where relevant, a recommender's letter, backed by one specific, concrete example rather than a list of club memberships.
- Barriers overcome is the factor applicants most often under-report, either from modesty or from assuming it's irrelevant to an academic application. If it shaped your trajectory, it belongs in the narrative, described plainly rather than dramatized.
- Research and scholarship is best shown through direct engagement, a project, a publication, a specific method you used, not a general claim of "strong research interest."
- Ethics and achievement relative to opportunity tend to come through indirectly, in how a recommender describes you and in the specific choices you highlight in your own narrative, rather than being stated outright.
This is also where a strong SOP does real work beyond describing your goals. We cover the structural side of that in our guide to writing a standout SOP. The strategic side happens before you draft: decide which two or three of these six factors you can actually back up with specific evidence. Build the narrative around those, instead of touching all six thinly.
Common mistakes applicants make
The most common mistake is treating the SOP as the resume restated in paragraph form: achievements listed without connecting any of them to a specific holistic factor a committee is looking for. A close second is over-claiming, describing oneself as a "natural leader" with no concrete example a reader can picture. Committees reading hundreds of files a season notice the difference between a claimed trait and a demonstrated one immediately.
The opposite mistake also happens: assuming a genuinely difficult personal circumstance is "not academic enough" to mention, and leaving it out entirely. If it shaped your academic path, either by testing your resilience or by explaining an academic gap, it's exactly the kind of context holistic review exists to capture.
Frequently asked questions
What do graduate admissions committees look for beyond GPA and test scores?
Virginia Tech's Graduate School names six factors explicitly in its official holistic admissions guidance: community involvement and service, leadership, barriers overcome (social, economic, physical, or other), personal and professional ethics, what an applicant has achieved relative to their opportunities, and research and scholarship. Most US graduate schools with a holistic review policy evaluate a similar mix, though the exact factors and their weighting vary by program.
Are graduate programs really making the GRE optional?
For many fields, yes. In graduate psychology programs specifically, GRE score requirements dropped sharply between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 admissions cycles, according to APA Monitor reporting on survey data. The shift is uneven across disciplines, though: business schools largely still require the GMAT or GRE, and some STEM and professional programs have kept testing requirements even as others dropped them.
Does holistic review mean GPA doesn't matter anymore?
No. Holistic review means GPA and test scores are no longer the only factors, not that they've stopped mattering. In practice, a low GPA can still keep an application from being read closely enough for the other factors to matter, even at programs with an explicitly holistic policy.
How do I show leadership or barriers overcome if I've never held an official title?
Leadership in a holistic review context is usually read as taking initiative and responsibility for an outcome, not necessarily holding a formal title. A specific, concrete example, organizing something, supporting someone, solving a real problem without being asked, carries more weight than a vague claim of "leadership skills" backed by a club membership alone.
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Sources & further reading
- Holistic Admissions (official) — Virginia Tech Graduate School
- Datapoint: Graduate psychology programs rely less on standardized tests — American Psychological Association Monitor