The Impact of Academic, Sociodemographic, and Program Growth Factors on Admission Offers to U.S. Graduate Education Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders: National Trends in 2016–2020 Cycles

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of academic factors and sociodemographic factors on offers of admission to graduate education programs in communication sciences and disorders (speech-language pathology and audiology) in the United States. Method: A retrospective analysis of extant data from undergraduate students applying to graduate education programs through the Communication Sciences and Disorders Centralized Application Service (CSDCAS) was conducted. Descriptive, parametric, nonparametric, and multivariate hierarchical logistic modeling analyses were applied to data from 38,625 unique applicants across four consecutive application cycles from 2016 to 2020 to assess relationships between admission offers, and academic and sociodemographic factors. The academic factors included Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and grade point average (GPA; cumulative undergraduate GPA and cumulative communication sciences and disorders [CSD] GPA), and sociodemographic factors included race/ethnicity, age, disadvantaged socioeconomic status, first-generation status, and multilinguistic status. Results: The rate of receiving an offer of admission continuously increased from 59.4% in the 2016–2017 cycle to 75.4% in the 2019–2020 cycle ( p < .001). The significant predictors for admission offers across all four application cycles were GPA, GRE, and applicant age. While the odds ratios of GRE and age were relatively stable, the odds ratios of GPA had a decreasing trend. Bivariate analyses showed that students who were non-White, older, socioeconomically disadvantaged, first-generation, and nonmultilingual were significantly less likely to receive offers of admission than their counterparts, but the relationships between those sociodemographic factors, except for age, and admission offers diminished when all factors were considered in the logistic regression analyses. Conclusions: Academic and sociodemographic factors significantly affected the likelihood of obtaining at least one offer of admission to a graduate program in CSD at different levels. While the effect sizes were variable, these findings provide evidence-based guidance for admission committees seeking to improve the inclusiveness of admission processes and the realization of greater diversity across multidimensional domains (e.g., race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age).