Possible to find out who's on the adcom?

[gradcafe26]

Hi all, I was wondering whether it is possible to find out who's on the admission committee so that I can tailor my statement to each program accordingly.

This information is not open to the public in my university, but phd students here usually know which professors on the committee were interested in their profiles during the admission process. In other words, this information may still be out there even if it's not posted on schools' websites...

I've also checked previous discussions on this point on this forum, but opinions vary. Some people said it's a futile attempt, while some others said many programs just post it online...

Many thanks!

[silver_lining]

I accidentally found a few by looking at CVs of people that I want to work with (their CVs were recently updated). However, in my opinion, whether they are on the admissions committee or not is not of real value. You can't/shouldn't change your research interests based on the composition of the committee. If I am interested in IPE and person X does conflict, I will not suddenly say I want to study conflict. 

[gradcafe26]

Thanks for the input luckyducky. And yes of course you are right that you can't change your interest dramatically, but once you have a major puzzle in the statement there are many many ways to relate it to profs' current projects, either theoretically, substantively, or methodologically... So I'm talking about these micro adjustments here. It is my understanding that even if your POIs are not on the committee, your statement will be shown to them by the committee. But a precondition for that is that your statement needs to interest someone on the committee first... My field is IPE btw.

[tnk]

Seriously? Save some efforts. With the costs of figuring that out, do some other things instead. Admisson is not based on your fit with one certain committee member.

[TakeruK]

Yes, you definitely can. I know one of my previous institutions publishes all of their departmental meeting minutes, including the annual meeting where they decide which professor will serve on which committee for the coming year. The department even puts out print and electronic versions of these committee rosters. At that school, a graduate student sat in every major committee and also the main departmental meeting, so it's not like this information is always "secret".

 

But, like the others said, this information is pretty much useless for an application. To strengthen your SOP, you want to make sure you fit well with at least one professor in the department. It wouldn't matter if this prof was on the admission committee or not -- the role of the ad comm is to find fit for the entire department, not just students for themselves! You would be better off spending your time figuring out which member(s) of the department you would fit with the best, regardless of whether they are on the committee, and tailor your SOP to fit those people instead!

[RWBG]

 It is my understanding that even if your POIs are not on the committee, your statement will be shown to them by the committee. 

Not generally. At least not before decisions are made.

 

Don't worry about relating your work to professors projects: the committee wants to see that you can construct a compelling research agenda, and will draw their own inferences about how you fit with the department.

[silver_lining]

Seriously? Save some efforts. With the costs of figuring that out, do some other things instead. Admisson is not based on your fit with one certain committee member.

I agree with some of this, but if you are able to demonstrate "fit," wouldn't it help your application? 

 

 

 

Don't worry about relating your work to professors projects: the committee wants to see that you can construct a compelling research agenda, and will draw their own inferences about how you fit with the department.

In some of my SoPs, I can directly relate current/past projects of faculty members and some I can't, but I believe that I have a compelling research agenda (I hope so!) that relates to some Professors interests at each school. Isn't relating Professors projects to your own the best way to address the issue of "fit"? If not, what method do you suggest? 

[TakeruK]

I agree with some of this, but if you are able to demonstrate "fit," wouldn't it help your application? 

 

I agree --  but you don't have to demonstrate "fit" with a prof from the ad comm. You can demonstrate fit with one or more profs from the entire department. The role of the ad comm is to find candidates that will be a good match for the entire department, not just their own research group.

[RWBG]

I agree with some of this, but if you are able to demonstrate "fit," wouldn't it help your application? 

 

 

 

In some of my SoPs, I can directly relate current/past projects of faculty members and some I can't, but I believe that I have a compelling research agenda (I hope so!) that relates to some Professors interests at each school. Isn't relating Professors projects to your own the best way to address the issue of "fit"? If not, what method do you suggest? 

 

So, it's probably a good idea to talk a little bit about people at the department to show you've thought seriously about your application and what departments would support you well in pursuing your research. However, ultimately the assessment of fit comes from the admissions committee reading your application and deciding themselves whether or not your proposed work fits with the department. Some professor-based tailoring is fine, but it's possible to overthink the details. My department constructs a list of suggested contacts for each admitted student when setting up meetings for the visit weekend, and these lists tend to be only loosely correlated with the people the students mention in their statement. It's sort of this: show them that you fit by describing a compelling research agenda that suggests a promising scholar that would benefit from the training at the program in question - don't tell them that you fit by quoting some projects that you know some of the adcom professors have written. Also, given space constraints, you want your statement to be talking about other peoples' projects/ideas only as much as is necessary to convey something interesting about you.

[silver_lining]

Thanks, RWBG. 

[gradcafe26]

Thanks for all the responses here, especially RWBG.