NWFreeheel11

This happened to a friend of mine last year:
 
Due to a lack of same sex graduate student hosting options, my friend (he) was placed with a female host during interview weekend. Turns out, the girl was an ex-girlfriend that he had a traumatic break-up with 4 years prior and they had not spoken since.

I worked as a recruiter at a "top" tech start-up in silicon valley for a while after graduating while I was doing research at Stanford. 
 
Let me tell you: NO ONE CARES IF YOU HAVE AN IVY NAME ON YOUR RESUME. Unless you were coming straight out of undergrad, I would never even look at the school. I have met a ton of very "dumb" ivy people, and some brilliant "nowhere-state" folks. 
 
From a recruiting perspective, it is actually a hesitation for me because many of those type (not all of course) come with arrogant baggage and are miserable to talk to. Also, if you are talking to someone in the US who has never heard of UCLA, then walk out. The same goes for anyone international who has never heard of ETH. You don't want to work for them. 

Hi Everyone, I am a PhD student in biomedical data science and wanted to give you all some food for thought during this stressful time of applications. 
If you are applying to graduate school, you most likely have never truly failed anything in your life. Yes, a course may have turned out poorly, you were rejected from X school, or your GRE/MCAT didnt turn out as well as you would have liked. But, in reality you have never TRULY failed. This, my friends, should be the most encouraging thought you can have. 
If you apply to reasonable schools for your profile, YOU WILL GET IN SOMEWHERE. Applying to graduate school is a crap shoot sometimes, but one or many schools will accept you and you will find a great program to go to. When I was applying, I was rejected from most of the "safety" schools I applied for and was accepted to one of the best schools in my field. Like I said, a total crap shoot, but IT WILL WORK OUT. 
Interviews SHOULD BE FUN. If your interviews aren't fun, you're doing it wrong. Use them as a time for travel, to talk to smart people about topics you're excited about, and to meet dozens of people who share your interests. Laugh, learn, and just have fun. Just remember to stay professional while you do it. The easier you are to interview, the more the interviewer will like you. 
Have patience, have confidence, and know that you have never truly failed anything in your life. Grad school applications will be no different. You will learn, succeed, and thrive. 
Merry Christmas and safe travels to your interviews!

Hi Everyone, I am a PhD student in biomedical data science and wanted to give you all some food for thought during this stressful time of applications. 
If you are applying to graduate school, you most likely have never truly failed anything in your life. Yes, a course may have turned out poorly, you were rejected from X school, or your GRE/MCAT didnt turn out as well as you would have liked. But, in reality you have never TRULY failed. This, my friends, should be the most encouraging thought you can have. 
If you apply to reasonable schools for your profile, YOU WILL GET IN SOMEWHERE. Applying to graduate school is a crap shoot sometimes, but one or many schools will accept you and you will find a great program to go to. When I was applying, I was rejected from most of the "safety" schools I applied for and was accepted to one of the best schools in my field. Like I said, a total crap shoot, but IT WILL WORK OUT. 
Interviews SHOULD BE FUN. If your interviews aren't fun, you're doing it wrong. Use them as a time for travel, to talk to smart people about topics you're excited about, and to meet dozens of people who share your interests. Laugh, learn, and just have fun. Just remember to stay professional while you do it. The easier you are to interview, the more the interviewer will like you. 
Have patience, have confidence, and know that you have never truly failed anything in your life. Grad school applications will be no different. You will learn, succeed, and thrive. 
Merry Christmas and safe travels to your interviews!

Hi Everyone, I am a PhD student in biomedical data science and wanted to give you all some food for thought during this stressful time of applications. 
If you are applying to graduate school, you most likely have never truly failed anything in your life. Yes, a course may have turned out poorly, you were rejected from X school, or your GRE/MCAT didnt turn out as well as you would have liked. But, in reality you have never TRULY failed. This, my friends, should be the most encouraging thought you can have. 
If you apply to reasonable schools for your profile, YOU WILL GET IN SOMEWHERE. Applying to graduate school is a crap shoot sometimes, but one or many schools will accept you and you will find a great program to go to. When I was applying, I was rejected from most of the "safety" schools I applied for and was accepted to one of the best schools in my field. Like I said, a total crap shoot, but IT WILL WORK OUT. 
Interviews SHOULD BE FUN. If your interviews aren't fun, you're doing it wrong. Use them as a time for travel, to talk to smart people about topics you're excited about, and to meet dozens of people who share your interests. Laugh, learn, and just have fun. Just remember to stay professional while you do it. The easier you are to interview, the more the interviewer will like you. 
Have patience, have confidence, and know that you have never truly failed anything in your life. Grad school applications will be no different. You will learn, succeed, and thrive. 
Merry Christmas and safe travels to your interviews!

Hi Everyone, I am a PhD student in biomedical data science and wanted to give you all some food for thought during this stressful time of applications. 
If you are applying to graduate school, you most likely have never truly failed anything in your life. Yes, a course may have turned out poorly, you were rejected from X school, or your GRE/MCAT didnt turn out as well as you would have liked. But, in reality you have never TRULY failed. This, my friends, should be the most encouraging thought you can have. 
If you apply to reasonable schools for your profile, YOU WILL GET IN SOMEWHERE. Applying to graduate school is a crap shoot sometimes, but one or many schools will accept you and you will find a great program to go to. When I was applying, I was rejected from most of the "safety" schools I applied for and was accepted to one of the best schools in my field. Like I said, a total crap shoot, but IT WILL WORK OUT. 
Interviews SHOULD BE FUN. If your interviews aren't fun, you're doing it wrong. Use them as a time for travel, to talk to smart people about topics you're excited about, and to meet dozens of people who share your interests. Laugh, learn, and just have fun. Just remember to stay professional while you do it. The easier you are to interview, the more the interviewer will like you. 
Have patience, have confidence, and know that you have never truly failed anything in your life. Grad school applications will be no different. You will learn, succeed, and thrive. 
Merry Christmas and safe travels to your interviews!

Hi Everyone, I am a PhD student in biomedical data science and wanted to give you all some food for thought during this stressful time of applications. 
If you are applying to graduate school, you most likely have never truly failed anything in your life. Yes, a course may have turned out poorly, you were rejected from X school, or your GRE/MCAT didnt turn out as well as you would have liked. But, in reality you have never TRULY failed. This, my friends, should be the most encouraging thought you can have. 
If you apply to reasonable schools for your profile, YOU WILL GET IN SOMEWHERE. Applying to graduate school is a crap shoot sometimes, but one or many schools will accept you and you will find a great program to go to. When I was applying, I was rejected from most of the "safety" schools I applied for and was accepted to one of the best schools in my field. Like I said, a total crap shoot, but IT WILL WORK OUT. 
Interviews SHOULD BE FUN. If your interviews aren't fun, you're doing it wrong. Use them as a time for travel, to talk to smart people about topics you're excited about, and to meet dozens of people who share your interests. Laugh, learn, and just have fun. Just remember to stay professional while you do it. The easier you are to interview, the more the interviewer will like you. 
Have patience, have confidence, and know that you have never truly failed anything in your life. Grad school applications will be no different. You will learn, succeed, and thrive. 
Merry Christmas and safe travels to your interviews!

Hi Everyone, I am a PhD student in biomedical data science and wanted to give you all some food for thought during this stressful time of applications. 
If you are applying to graduate school, you most likely have never truly failed anything in your life. Yes, a course may have turned out poorly, you were rejected from X school, or your GRE/MCAT didnt turn out as well as you would have liked. But, in reality you have never TRULY failed. This, my friends, should be the most encouraging thought you can have. 
If you apply to reasonable schools for your profile, YOU WILL GET IN SOMEWHERE. Applying to graduate school is a crap shoot sometimes, but one or many schools will accept you and you will find a great program to go to. When I was applying, I was rejected from most of the "safety" schools I applied for and was accepted to one of the best schools in my field. Like I said, a total crap shoot, but IT WILL WORK OUT. 
Interviews SHOULD BE FUN. If your interviews aren't fun, you're doing it wrong. Use them as a time for travel, to talk to smart people about topics you're excited about, and to meet dozens of people who share your interests. Laugh, learn, and just have fun. Just remember to stay professional while you do it. The easier you are to interview, the more the interviewer will like you. 
Have patience, have confidence, and know that you have never truly failed anything in your life. Grad school applications will be no different. You will learn, succeed, and thrive. 
Merry Christmas and safe travels to your interviews!

I can answer definitively yes to this. I worked at Stanford for two years with a professor I was very close with. He told me that if there are two candidates who are equal in research and publications, they will always hire the person with the better pedigree because it makes the school look better and helps them be more competitive for nearly everything. 
 
Of course, if there is someone who has better research/publications, they will always win because all that REALLY matters is research performance. But all else considered equal, the better name degree wins. 

I worked as a recruiter at a "top" tech start-up in silicon valley for a while after graduating while I was doing research at Stanford. 
 
Let me tell you: NO ONE CARES IF YOU HAVE AN IVY NAME ON YOUR RESUME. Unless you were coming straight out of undergrad, I would never even look at the school. I have met a ton of very "dumb" ivy people, and some brilliant "nowhere-state" folks. 
 
From a recruiting perspective, it is actually a hesitation for me because many of those type (not all of course) come with arrogant baggage and are miserable to talk to. Also, if you are talking to someone in the US who has never heard of UCLA, then walk out. The same goes for anyone international who has never heard of ETH. You don't want to work for them. 

For anyone wondering, BU committee meets on Monday and send intivtes on tuesday.

For anyone wondering, BU committee meets on Monday and send intivtes on tuesday.

For anyone wondering, BU committee meets on Monday and send intivtes on tuesday.

This happened to a friend of mine last year:
 
Due to a lack of same sex graduate student hosting options, my friend (he) was placed with a female host during interview weekend. Turns out, the girl was an ex-girlfriend that he had a traumatic break-up with 4 years prior and they had not spoken since.

This happened to a friend of mine last year:
 
Due to a lack of same sex graduate student hosting options, my friend (he) was placed with a female host during interview weekend. Turns out, the girl was an ex-girlfriend that he had a traumatic break-up with 4 years prior and they had not spoken since.

This happened to a friend of mine last year:
 
Due to a lack of same sex graduate student hosting options, my friend (he) was placed with a female host during interview weekend. Turns out, the girl was an ex-girlfriend that he had a traumatic break-up with 4 years prior and they had not spoken since.

This happened to a friend of mine last year:
 
Due to a lack of same sex graduate student hosting options, my friend (he) was placed with a female host during interview weekend. Turns out, the girl was an ex-girlfriend that he had a traumatic break-up with 4 years prior and they had not spoken since.

I would like to ask everyone in this topic, and this forum for that matter, one question. This is not meant to be facetious at all, only reassuring. Its actually something that I ask myself quite often when I am stressed about something. 
 
So, lets set the premise: everyone here is applying to graduate school. Mostly PhDs, but definitely a mixture of other things as well. So we all share high aspirations and motivation, and that is what has been pushing us to want to pursue DOCTORAL degrees in our respective fields. 
 
When was the last time you failed at anything? Seriously...anything at all? And if you have, what are the lasting repercussions of that failure?
 
I mean actually failed, as in, you were completely and totally unable to do something after trial and error/practice/repetition.
 
Given the people who are here, I would assume that the answer to the above questions(s) is NEVER/NONE. 
 
No matter how much work needs to be done, you have always finished it, you have always succeeded with it, and you have moved on to the next greater challenge. The majority of you have > 3.5 GPA, which means your academic average is > 87% perfect. The remaining < 13% has all been what has made you try harder and aspire for more. 
 
So I would kindly suggest to breathe, relax, and remember that it is more than likely that you have NEVER failed at anything you have EVER attempted; there is NO reason to believe graduate school will be ANY DIFFERENT. 
 
Cheers!

Regardless of how much higher the standard is for international applicants, the only way to see if an applicant meets that standard is to look at his or her credentials.

There is no proof that the international applicants aren't given a quick look over to see if they are missing a generational candidate. There is no proof of the contrary either, as the definition of "review" seems to be vague, but the educated side of me wants to appeal to the better case scenario  where they do give them a quick look over, because why would i think about something miserable when there is no proof of the situation being miserable in the first place?

All right at least we know what the point of contention is. I disagree that international/domestic status is a "credential" similar to GPA or GRE. I realize that international applicants are held to a much higher standard than domestics for many graduate programs. But in my view there is a big difference between being held to a higher standard, and being automatically disqualified without review because 12 "good enough" domestic applicants are available. No matter how much weight you give to residency, you cannot conclude that a domestic applicant is "better" than an international applicant without looking at the international applicant's credentials.

So remind me why we were discussing the distinction between the department knowing ahead of time it would not evaluate the international applications, and not knowing until after going through the domestics? Seems to me you're changing the scope of the debate. I don't know what exactly you're trying to change it to. Now you're saying that all applications are evaluated. If that was the case, what would there be to debate?

The number of rhetorical fallacies you have been displaying is amusing. If you read the email, as some have suggested that you did not, the representative did say that international applicants would be reviewed. You're trying to set it up that other people are arguing that it's okay to reject applications without review, when people are actually saying that international status is an acceptable criterion to use in the decision making process, contingent on the realities of the education system we have.

The representative never said that international applicants weren't reviewed.
 
You have brought up good points, regardless, and perhaps you might gain some ground next time if your insights weren't littered with immature piths. 

There is no rejection without review. In a way, that is a perfect way to end this whole thing. Let's assume the Wisconsin representative gave false information, and that truly all applications get reviewed every year. Then there is nothing to disagree on. Perfect.