PhdWannabee

Thanks ktau. This process lends itself to fatalism a bit too easily! And in a year where gradcafe seems a tad colder than years past, I appreciate your encouragement.

Poop. I had feared as much with my less-than-stellar interview performance, but I guess I have been eliminated. Congrats on staying in play Thees. Sweetnlow, I'm pretty sure initial decisions were made last Saturday, right after interviews (at least for my sub-discipline, as evidenced by all the interviewing faculty meeting RIGHT after I finished my last interview!). I would assume they would need to submit those offers to the Graduate School for approval, which may take a few days. The three acceptances to Emory GDR on the Results page are a bit odd though, as they were notified via email? And all reported around the same time in the same fashion? I suspect trolling .

Congratulations also thomasjnh! Should be a fun weekend...

I didn't apply to Duke, but many of my friends who have knew of the hard cap above 700. It seems to be well known by Duke's applicants, so perhaps they are a little more straightforward? If you read the threads, you will see that Duke uses a high cutoff to weed out the majority of applicants (of which they have MANY), so the result and forums are littered with rejected masses before any acceptances (most programs cut, admit, then reject, so very strange indeed). At Vandy, I was told straight up by two tenured faculty who sit on the adcomm that my 670 would not be sufficient for consideration. I called their bluff, and the results were predictable. I also knew of their cap from several friends of mine from my grad program who had moved on to study at Vandy (and actually used the MA at Vandy as a way to get around the cutoff!). You make a great point that subdisciplines might affect any selection criteria. I applied mostly to theology, PR, and philosophy programs so my experience is most directly related to those fields. For Chicago with 15-20 PR applicants, though, I wouldn't directly assume that PR professors where the ones reviewing these applications from day one. Many schools divy up applications randomly for the first cut, so academic preparation could be more "fairly" assessed, but also to spread out applications from the more competitive disciplines so everyone has to review X number of applications. As the second cut (the admission decision) is usually a roundtable discussion, presumably the PR profs would have read the application after it had been cleared in the first cut. But this is program specific. Ultimately, talk to a programs' professors directly. Find professors who used to sit on their adcomm to find out how the review applications. Talk to current students who might have knowledge of the particular intricacies of each program. This is what I did, and this is what I've learned from them. We should probably wrap up this post...the horse is no longer just dead, but vaporized. We could just talk about Ceza?

Good work Jacib; I think the blog you cited is a good reference. It seems to reinforce the importance of having a high verbal GRE score (670+), while leaving open the possibility of a cap at some schools at 700. Having a verbal of 670, 93% I can say this is good enough for consideration at most schools; last year I was accepted to 4 out of the 12 programs to which I applied. But at 2 of those schools (that I at least know of) there was a cutoff at 700, and the results were predictable. I can't underestimate how helpful reading through the religion/PR threads from 2008-9 and 2007-8. They are sizable, but the first night I discovered them I stayed up half the night learning just how arbitrary the process can be. The blog you mentioned certainly drew heavily on the gradcafe resources (which he specifically mentions in the section on "community". So given your last two posts (which seemed to make opposite conclusions), do you still think I'm exaggerating the minimum GRE requirements, since I'm clearly not claiming that all have a v700 cutoff? And on an unrelated point, they have rap in Istanbul? I just want to know where you're getting that information...

Wow...I'm a little surprised at how polarizing this topic is! Last year I applied to 12 programs, ten of which I visited in person. I spoke directly and honestly, and faculty where usually straightforward if my GRE was not up to snuff. You can read through last year's posting in results and in the various forums if you want additional corroboration. Ultimately I'm just trying to help applicants with what I've learned from last year; this way you can either improve your scores for these programs or spend your time more effectively on other applications. Ultimately, talk to the programs. You can deny caps at some programs until you're blue in the face, but don't be surprised when your sub-700 verbal scores lead to first-round rejection.

Definitely a pun, since most theology is pretty histrionic. Thanks for the ETS link...it was pretty interesting and somewhat metaphysical! The distinction between "observed score" and some kind of primordial "real score" is just fantastic. As far as percentiles, it is impossible to account for the changes in percentile and raw score correlation by appealing to variations in "level of competence", especially given the tremendous sample size of students who take each GRE. This would hold relatively constant over time. Your "raw score" is just that, raw, and the only standard that remains constant across disparate tests is how many people you surpassed on your particular exam. This number of people above and below your score is adjusted and updated (so it does change) but it is still the only number that can be compared across different examination groups. As for the hard caps, you argued that because some of the programs you talked to didn't have them (or didn't admit to them), that they likely do not exist. Don't conflate an existential claim with a universal one! Vanderbilt has a hard cap at 700, Duke's is even higher at 720-730. I suspect Chicago has one, but I was never able to determine where it fell. Most of the 12 schools I applied to last year did not have hard caps. Caps vary widely, but true hard caps exist at these aforementioned schools. Some have suggested that not advertising hard caps makes more money for the graduate programs through application fees. I don't know if this is the motive, but there is a disconnect between advertised requrements and actual criteria the adcomm will use to pare down the applicant pool. Such is this uber-fun process called admissions.

Mks114, there is no simple answer about your GRE scores; your scores are very close to mine so I feel I have some authority on this! Some programs have very high initial cutoffs based on the GRE, usually at or slightly over 700 for each section. For these programs, I would recommend meeting with faculty and asking them outright (we're all adults here) if your scores are sufficient for consideration. Most programs will be fine with your scores though, and they are far more interested with a well-written research project of interest to the faculty. The sad thing is that percentile is the only indicator that can be compared across tests, not raw score, so a cutoff of 700 actually varies widely based on how difficult the test was that particular time. Many humanities professors have not taken (or simply do not remember) any statistic courses that would have made this clear! But then again, who wants to go into science or math!

I am the lucky poster...I can't say I didn't cry a little and do some fist pumps upon hearing the good news! They may still be inviting folks, since the interview weekend isn't until February 5-6. I am interested in the other posting on the 15th about "budget cuts" reducing the interview weekend this year... anybody have any more info on that one? As far as details, Emory is my top choice; I didn't make the interview weekend last year, so maybe this will end up a success story? Livgreen, I hope you meant "fun" as sarcastically as possible...this process is sadistic!

How's everyone doing? Thought I'd jump back in the mess that is gradcafe. Here's my info: 1. Emory 2. Historical Studies 3. This is my second round, but I feel a lot better this go around. What did I change? Everything. Best of luck to everyone who is scampering around to make upcoming deadlines, especially as recommenders and programs start going on mental holiday through December and January. Good timing, right? Just take a deep breath. Hang out with friends. Drink a beer. Realize the world is not about to end.