Investigating the Predictive Ability of Admission GRE Scores on Graduation GPA Scores of Domestic and International Students in Construction Management Graduate School Programs

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado GRE scores have been part of graduate admission requirements for both domestic and international students in some construction management educational programs in the USA because academic committees tend to believe that it predicts academic performance and success of students. This study assessed the predictive ability of admission GRE scores on cumulative graduation GPA scores of domestic and international graduate students. The hypothesis was that students who scored high in GRE would attain higher graduation GPAs and that there was no difference in performance based on the nationality of students. The independent variables were GRE verbal, GRE quantitative and total GRE scores while the dependent variable was the GPA score. SAS v9.3 statistical analysis software facilitated the analysis of the data obtained from three construction management graduate schools in the USA. The results showed weak predictive indices where GRE quantitative was the better predictor of GPA. Thus, the hypothesis of higher GPAs associated with higher GRE scores was weakly supported. In addition, the hypothesis of no difference in performance based on the nationality of the students was also supported. It was recommended that admission committees should re-evaluate requiring GRE scores.