Imagining the Committee

[lbp2488]

I keep having two daydreams about the Committee... in one, a professor runs in with my application, and as he bursts through the doors exclaiming "this is the one!" a shower of confetti explodes from the ceiling and a curtain pulls back to reveal a choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus as the dean wipes a tear from his eye.

 

In the other, the Committee has my application pinned to a wall and are throwing darts at it while laughing.

 

Thank you, Domino, for a much needed laugh. I completely relate.

[livenlearn]

I wish i hadn't read this post. Now i am depressed

[aecp]

Does anyone else engage in endless imaginary committee meetings, where you analyze your application as though you are the committee? I'm in the weird situation of having been on the committee of the department to which I'm applying, and I know the people and the process almost too well (I have seen the sausage being made, my friends, and it is ugly.)

 

So I sit almost every day since i hit the submit button and  play the committee in my head:

 

Does doobie make it past the first round?

158 applicants, 6 slots, 6 subfields

 

about 50 don't have the grades, gre's, sop to be considered, so they go (doobie is fine) (this is all sorted out in the first week of january)

 

108 to go, give them to two readers, who scale them from 1-4, 4 being the highest, based on 4 different criteria

readers are: professors, and sometimes two students, sometimes the dean (6-10 people)

these apps are read the second week of january

1. academic accomplishment (grades, GRE)

2. research potential (SOP, letters, writing sample)

3. leadership, extracurric (small part, but matters)

4. "personality" (Do I want to be stuck with this person for the next 6 years?)

 

I've got weak-ish grades in my MA but very strong in my BA and GRE, so maybe a 3 academically

In my own head I think I have research potential, but who knows what the committee will say? maybe if i'm lucky a 3.5

lot's of volunteering, particularly tutoring/teaching. maybe a 3.5 or four

personality gets tricky. the adcom REALLY knows me well--did I make a good impression? will this backfire? depending on who reads it, a 3.0 or a 3.5? could I dare hope for a 4?

 

at this point i probably average a 3.5-3.75, depending on how nice my two readers are (pure luck). then the office secretary puts together a ranked excel sheet, at this point NOT split by sub-field. bottom probably 25 people are almost automatically out, unless they are URM. 

 

it's now the first week of february, and the application goes to chair of subfield (in my case my POI, who is also my letter writer); chair picks the top 5 people for the subfield from the spreadsheet

 

committee has the first actual in-person meeting at this point (first week of feb, probably a friday) where they hash the top 30 picks and reduce them to maybe 10, maybe 15. This is where the politics starts, and the nitpicking gets ugly. This is where I'm afraid I will come under scrutiny for a few B's that I got in grad school. Granted these were in very, very tough classes (advanced coursework in the world's second hardest language) but in the face of 30 other perfect candidates this may be enough to sink me. I also have a few small-ish errors on my SOP; again, in the face of perfection, this might be the straw that breaks my back. This is where my prof will need to "fight for me on committee," where alliances are made and broken.

 

If i make it into the top 15 (about 2 for each subfield, give or take) now it comes down to the question of which subfield gets people this year (last year mine took two, so it does not look good for me) and which advisor gets a new student (mine took one three years ago, so maybe this year will be the year). This is all hashed out in the second in-person meeting, maybe the wednesday of the second week of february, and this meeting is a doozie. 

 

Then the chosen six go to the dean of the entire school, who (usually) rubber stamps the picks--unless GRE or GPA is super low (below 3.3, below 65%)

 

If you make it into one of the chosen 6, your POI will probably email you and let you know "congrats!" by the third week of february, at which point you have pulled out all of your hair and either gained or lost 15 pounds, give or take 5 pounds (ahem, cough cough, must stop eating Macdo as I cry into my SOP). And if not, the radio silence that lasts until march 1 is a good indicator that all of your hopes and dreams--at least for this round--are dead.

 

Please tell me you guys do this too?

many thanks doobieb for this detailed post.  I alwasy try and imagine this, but not knowing the selection process of the AdComm I am unable to imagine too much.  Your post I think is a good approximation of how most AdCmms work.

 

Please do share more on the dynamics of the actual in-face committee meetings i.e. after the shortlist has been made and they now meet to select the admitted candidates, how do they really determine who to choose?

 

Thanks again!

[livenlearn]

many thanks doobieb for this detailed post.  I alwasy try and imagine this, but not knowing the selection process of the AdComm I am unable to imagine too much.  Your post I think is a good approximation of how most AdCmms work.

 

Please do share more on the dynamics of the actual in-face committee meetings i.e. after the shortlist has been made and they now meet to select the admitted candidates, how do they really determine who to choose?

 

Thanks again!

you know doobied has never been on any adcomm right?

[ImpulsiveNixie]

I had no idea Academia.edu told you whenever someone searched for you. Ahhh....

Thank goodness for common names and not having a Facebook account. Lol that would freak me out too.

[ImpulsiveNixie]

I keep having two daydreams about the Committee... in one, a professor runs in with my application, and as he bursts through the doors exclaiming "this is the one!" a shower of confetti explodes from the ceiling and a curtain pulls back to reveal a choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus as the dean wipes a tear from his eye.

In the other, the Committee has my application pinned to a wall and are throwing darts at it while laughing.

That about sums it up... Hahahaha

[SunL1219]

This thread cracks me up. Makes me feel a lot better about this whole wait. And yes, the weight is coming on.

[faithfullywaiting]

Do they really google applicants? I really hope so because that would actually help my application 

[starofdawn]

I just Googled myself and found an old, embarrassing Facebook post from 2010 on the first page. Promptly removed.

[aecp]

I just Googled myself and found an old, embarrassing Facebook post from 2010 on the first page. Promptly removed.

How did you remove it?

[calliope_dogstar]

I discovered that there is an analytics thing with google. I have an exceedingly rare name, so just putting it in has me as the top three items. One of these is a page at my university, that I made using my university connected google account. I use analytics to see if anyone has been looking me up =_=

[nadiainpink]

After watching the movie Admissions, I can't get over the fact that so many people who are doing so well still don't have a chance to get into the school that they really want to get into. I know a lot of people who have had to settle for a program that was at the bottom of their list because they didn't want to have to apply for yet another year. I really hope I don't have to do the same!

[Jocko]

About that rubric: I had a bad undergrad GPA because I did care. I was at UW-Madison and had a 3.5 GPA. But my MA at Claremont was a 3.8 and my PhD work-- I went back to UW and made it to ABD, when I had serious health issues. I originally thought I'd go back to UW, but my advisor is gone and there is only one other professor I could work with (but her interest aren't a great match). At UW I had a 3.9. I also had a 169 Verbal GRE. But I wonder how they will view my leaving the PhD. Program at UW??? Anyone have any opinions on the GPA or not finishing my previous PhD. Work?????

[EngineerGrad]

Hi guys, have you read this article about the admissions process at Stanford? It was very interesting to read in detail from someone who actually participated in the process. Very glad that I found this article: http://nlp.stanford.edu/~rkarthik/DAGAP.pdf

[doobiebrothers]

you know doobied has never been on any adcomm right?

 

livenlearn--if you're interested about my bonafides as an admissions committee member, please pm me, but don't trash my thread. thanks.

Edited February 1, 2014 by doobiebrothers

[doobiebrothers]

Hi guys, have you read this article about the admissions process at Stanford? It was very interesting to read in detail from someone who actually participated in the process. Very glad that I found this article: http://nlp.stanford.edu/~rkarthik/DAGAP.pdf

 

this is great! thank you so much!

[gingin6789]

I've only started imagining the actual adcom meeting scenario because of some movie that was on the tv in the living room the other day.  

 

My gran was watching it, so the TV was on full blast so she could hear it properly.  I only heard a bit of dialogue before she decided to mute it so that she could hear my mom talking to her.  

 

I don't know what the movie was called, but this undergrad adcom was slashing through applicants' red file folders left and right.  Tina Fey was on the adcom. But, from what I could tell, Tina Fey actually saw an image of the applicant pop up as they were talking over their file, as if they were right there in the room with the adcom. Sometimes, Tina Fey felt sympathy and spoke up for them.  

 

I guess I imagine the adcom setting like that, and so I hope that I'm the type of applicant to not get slashed by the Tina Fey of the adcoms.  Nothing nearly elaborate as OP's scenario.  

Edited February 1, 2014 by gingin6789

[EngineerGrad]

I've only started imagining the actual adcom meeting scenario because of some movie that was on the tv in the living room the other day.

My gran was watching it, so the TV was on full blast so she could hear it properly. I only heard a bit of dialogue before she decided to mute it so that she could hear my mom talking to her.

I don't know what the movie was called, but this undergrad adcom was slashing through applicants' red file folders left and right. Tina Fey was on the adcom. But, from what I could tell, Tina Fey actually saw an image of the applicant pop up as they were talking over their file, as if they were right there in the room with the adcom. Sometimes, Tina Fey felt sympathy and spoke up for them.

I guess I imagine the adcom setting like that, and so I hope that I'm the type of applicant to not get slashed by the Tina Fey of the adcoms. Nothing nearly elaborate as OP's scenario.

The movie you are talking is Called Admission... Bad movie in my opinion. Enough to make you upset about adcoms too...

[gingin6789]

The movie you are talking is Called Admission... Bad movie in my opinion. Enough to make you upset about adcoms too...

 

Thanks for letting me know, EngineerGrad! I've only seen those five minutes ... yes, that's enough to make me uneasy about the adcom process.  I know it's just a movie, but still!

[unbrokenthread]

I keep having two daydreams about the Committee... in one, a professor runs in with my application, and as he bursts through the doors exclaiming "this is the one!" a shower of confetti explodes from the ceiling and a curtain pulls back to reveal a choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus as the dean wipes a tear from his eye.

 

In the other, the Committee has my application pinned to a wall and are throwing darts at it while laughing.

Truer words, yo. Truer words. Oh my gosh.

[KingKazama5]

Hi guys, have you read this article about the admissions process at Stanford? It was very interesting to read in detail from someone who actually participated in the process. Very glad that I found this article: http://nlp.stanford.edu/~rkarthik/DAGAP.pdf

Great read, thanks for the link!

[Loric]

At this point I'm pretty sure my committee members all have an email in their inbox re: my app and to finish the evaluation. They'll get to it.. Eventually.

I imagine whenever they get a reminder they go "meh, later..."

[geographyrocks]

I keep having two daydreams about the Committee... in one, a professor runs in with my application, and as he bursts through the doors exclaiming "this is the one!" a shower of confetti explodes from the ceiling and a curtain pulls back to reveal a choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus as the dean wipes a tear from his eye.

 

In the other, the Committee has my application pinned to a wall and are throwing darts at it while laughing.

I've totally had this in my head during my "up" moments. 

In my down moments, it's the same thing except the professor is saying "Oh, dear god!  We have to get this to the shredder immediately!"

I'm laughing while I'm crying. lol

[Boba felt]

i dreamed that the committee flipped through my app, saw my low GRE Q score, and threw the folder in the compost bin.  Then a big sandwich got thrown on top of it, and my resume was covered in mustard.  Damn my subconscious.  booooo!

[doobiebrothers]

I'm pretty much 100% sure my file has been read and the decision has been made by the adcom, and now I'm waiting for the dean to rubber stamp the yes's and the no's. I want to email my POI desperately, but what if it's bad news? better to have 10 more days of blissful ignorance.