This Week in GRE & Grad Admissions: An ETS Data Breach, a STEM Admissions Squeeze, and What Retesting Actually Does to Your Score

Three things worth knowing this week if you're studying for the GRE or applying to grad school.

1. ETS Disclosed a Data Breach — Here's What It Does (and Doesn't) Mean for GRE Test-Takers

ETS — the organization that runs the GRE — disclosed that an attacker used a compromised login to access a file-transfer system between May 22 and September 18, 2026, copying student records tied to ETS's separate contract running statewide K-12 testing for the California Department of Education. ETS caught it on September 25 and disclosed it publicly on October 20. Important nuance: this breach hit California K-12 assessment data (names, DOBs, addresses, student IDs, demographic info), not the GRE test-taker database — Social Security numbers, passwords, and financial info were reportedly not exposed, and ETS has taken the affected system offline and rebuilt it with tighter controls. Still, worth knowing that the company holding your GRE scores and personal data just had a real security incident on one of its systems, even if this particular one wasn't the GRE pipeline.

Source: ETS Breach Exposes Millions of California Students' Records — eSecurity Planet



2. New Data Confirms It: STEM PhD Admissions Are Getting Tighter for International Applicants

A new AIP survey of 81 PhD-granting physics departments gives hard numbers behind what a lot of international applicants have been feeling: first-year PhD enrollment in physics fell 8% in Fall 2025 — the biggest year-over-year drop since 1994 — and for Fall 2026, more than 60% of programs reported fewer international applications and 55% made fewer international offers than the year before. One department chair reported international applications down over 30% at their program, and most departments don't expect to return to previous international recruitment levels even for Fall 2027. Chairs cited both visa/immigration uncertainty and tighter research funding (smaller cohorts, fewer TA slots) as drivers. If you're applying to STEM PhD programs from outside the US, this is the kind of program-level detail worth asking admissions offices about directly rather than assuming it's business as usual.

Source: Federal Funding and Visa Uncertainty Shape Fall 2026 Graduate Admissions in Physics and Astronomy — AIP


3. New Retest Data (From the ACT) Backs Up the "Just Take It Again" Advice

Not GRE-specific, but relevant: new ACT data shows about 1 in 3 test-takers retook the exam, and most of them scored higher the second time — averaging a 1.1-point Composite gain, with a 7-point jump in the share meeting college-readiness benchmarks. States running structured retesting programs (Tennessee, Wyoming) saw score gains of 4-6 percentage points at the population level. It's a different test, but the underlying mechanism — familiarity with format/pacing plus targeted practice on your weak areas — applies just as much to a second (or third) GRE attempt. If you've been on the fence about whether a retake is worth the fee and the extra study time, this is decent outside evidence that it usually pays off.

Anyone here retaken the GRE and seen a similar jump? Curious what your prep looked like the second time around.

Source: 1 in 3 ACT Test-Takers Retook the Exam — and Raised Their Scores — Higher Ed Dive