As the 25Fall application season heats up, OSU has made a major announcement: it will no longer accept GRE at-home test scores!
Source: OSU official website
After discovering that some admitted MBA candidates had cheated on the GRE at-home test, Ohio State University (OSU) promptly revoked their offers and questioned the credibility of at-home scores.
Subsequently, OSU officially announced that its MBA program will no longer accept GRE at-home test scores taken after October 1, 2024.
Source: poets&quants
Since the GRE introduced at-home testing, proxy test-taking services have become rampant, leading to inflated scores. This has prompted many institutions to gradually stop accepting at-home scores, favoring or exclusively recognizing in-person test results. Is the at-home testing era really coming to an end?
Multiple Universities No Longer Accept GRE At-Home Scores
1. Columbia SIPA
Columbia SIPA announced as early as last year that it would no longer accept GRE at-home test scores!
Source: Columbia SIPA official website
2. Carnegie Mellon University SCS
In addition to Columbia SIPA, some programs at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science also do not accept GRE at-home scores or prefer in-person test results.
For the highly popular CS program and its Machine Learning track, GRE at-home scores will not be accepted unless the test date falls between January 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021, or between August 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022!
Source: CMU official website
Some programs, such as the popular MISM in Information Systems, have explicitly stated that GRE at-home scores are generally not accepted.
Source: CMU official website
Moreover, many other master’s programs still accept at-home scores but include a note “it is recommended that you take the GRE at a test center.”
Source: CMU official website
3. UIUC College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
The Department of Economics at UIUC’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has also specifically noted in its updated 25Fall application requirements that GRE at-home scores will no longer be accepted.
Source: UIUC official website
4. HKUST Business School
The MSc in Economics at HKUST Business School no longer accepts GRE at-home scores.
Source: HKUST official website
5. Nanyang Technological University
NTU no longer recognizes GRE at-home test scores taken after December 31, 2023.
Source: NTU official website
Take the GRE In-Person Whenever Possible
Many students previously believed that GRE score reports from at-home tests were indistinguishable from in-person tests, assuming universities couldn’t tell the difference—and thus held onto a false sense of security, thinking their at-home scores would go unnoticed.
However, starting this August, downloaded GRE score reports now explicitly indicate whether the test was taken at home. This means schools can clearly see if your GRE score comes from an at-home test.
As the 25Fall application cycle progresses, requirements may still be updated, but it is foreseeable that policies around at-home test scores will only become stricter.
Therefore, we strongly recommend students preparing for the GRE and other language exams to opt for in-person test centers whenever possible—it’s the safest bet.
ETS Cracks Down on Cheating
ETS has been intensifying its scrutiny of at-home tests and strictly combating unfair testing practices. Unfortunately, this has led to some innocent students being caught in the crossfire with their at-home scores canceled.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Several students have reported that ETS suddenly canceled their GRE at-home scores months after the test! The cancellation emails cited the use of unauthorized software. Yet most of these students insist they never used such programs during the exam. ETS appears willing to risk collateral damage to address the issue seriously.
Through detailed investigation, we found that some affected students had previously installed screen-sharing software like ToDesk or TeamViewer on their computers. Some also purchased related services from Taobao, allowing customer service to remotely control their machines to configure software.
Screen-sharing software is a favorite tool for proxy test-takers, so ETS remains highly vigilant against it. Even if such software wasn’t used during the test, residual system traces or files could trigger detection, leading to mistaken penalties.
It is evident that the declining acceptance of GRE at-home scores has been brewing for some time, and the trend is increasingly clear—with stricter review of at-home tests as well!
Thus, we strongly advise taking the in-person GRE exam! And never gamble with your future by resorting to risky shortcuts just to get a high GRE score!
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