Weight bias found in grad school admissions

Graduate school applicants with a high body mass index (BMI) were less likely to be accepted after an in-person interview, especially women, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity.

Researchers at Bowling Green State University followed 97 people who had applied to psychology graduate programs at more than 950 U.S. universities.

First, their letters of recommendation were analyzed for positive and negative statements.

"One of the things we suspected was the quality of their letters of recommendation written by their undergrad mentors would be associated with the applicants’ body weight, but it really wasn’t," said study co-author and PhD candidate Jacob Burmeister. "It may be that letter writers come to know students well and body weight no longer played a factor."

Researchers then tracked students' application processes, including whether an interview was conducted, and if so, whether it was on the phone or in person.

"When we looked at that we could see a clear relation between their weight and offers of admission for those applicants who had had an in-person interview," Burmeister said.

"The success rate for people who had had no interview or a phone interview was pretty much equal, but when in-person interviews were involved, there was quite a bit of difference, even when applicants started out on equal footing with their grades, test scores and letters of recommendation," he said.

The results also showed the weight bias was stronger for female applicants.

"We might expect psychology faculty to be more aware of these types of biases. Thus, the level of bias found in this study could be a conservative estimate of the level of bias in the graduate admissions process in other fields," Burmeister said, adding that research into other fields was required.

"We know that these kinds of biases are pretty common and even somewhat acceptable compared to other biases," Burmeister said, "and there’s not much legally forbidding it."