katalytik Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I got in touch with a prof. who i have been working with at UMichigan. My program is health services organization and policy (applied for a Phd). He said they have an initial screen which includes the following: 1. GPA 2. GRE 3. Undergrad institution name (i.e. cachet of university I guess) 4. Work experience the profs only see the apps after each applicant passes the screen. anybody else offer any more details about other schools? so i am not so sure that many schools view that "every applicant gets a review" is what we think it is. the "review" is often simply a set of numbers and a name of the undergrad university. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dzk Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 It's program dependent. Every program has a different way of handling things. I can name you other programs at Michigan that don't look at GPA/GRE until late in the process. You'll never know what is going to happen unless you have inside information, like yourself... and it can even change from year-to-year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacib Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 It's program dependent. Every program has a different way of handling things. I can name you other programs at Michigan that don't look at GPA/GRE until late in the process. You'll never know what is going to happen unless you have inside information, like yourself... and it can even change from year-to-year. dzk. you have inside information. i can smell it on you. share. please? No but seriously, I am curious: do you know, when GRE scores are used late in the process, what they are used for? A tie-breaker? Funding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dzk Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 No but seriously, I am curious: do you know, when GRE scores are used late in the process, what they are used for? A tie-breaker? Funding? For the programs I'm applying to? Generally speaking, they just want to make sure their average is high enough to look good (and appease their sources for doctoral training grants). I guess you could call that a tie-breaker, but it's not quite that simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlee306 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 When I spoke to the director of my top program, she informed me that they look and consider every applicant. That relieves me b/c if they had a screening system with GRE scores, I'm sure I would be out before they would get a chance to see the rest of my awesome application! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katalytik Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 Just to add more intelligence my program got 30 apps with 25 passing the screen. so i guess the screen is probably not as rigid as we may think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digits2006 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I really hate these cuts. I believe that there are great students out there with average GRE and GPA. Anyone can stay in their room 24 hours a day and make a 4.0. But if people are actually doing research and other thing, their GPA will be lower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlee306 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I really hate these cuts. I believe that there are great students out there with average GRE and GPA. Anyone can stay in their room 24 hours a day and make a 4.0. But if people are actually doing research and other thing, their GPA will be lower. I agree 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katalytik Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 wanna be clear..... the program gets about 150 apps for about 7-8 slots. only 30 finished the application complete step and got screened. im sure other programs are just as competitive. im still waiting to hear if my app is complete, let alone go through initial screen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modernity Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I really hate these cuts. I believe that there are great students out there with average GRE and GPA. Anyone can stay in their room 24 hours a day and make a 4.0. But if people are actually doing research and other thing, their GPA will be lower. I agree with this... but I can also see the other side of it. I would say most of us on these boards (partly for the sheer fact we are on them and doing serious research) are very serious applicants. I would also bet that there are people out there that are not very serious about grad school but apply anyway just to "see" if they can get in, or they have a rather obtuse understanding of grad admissions (I know I was pretty clueless). With the economy being as poor as it is, I am sure there are people out there that are like "Well I did really like history in undergrad 10 years ago!" While for some people this may be a sincere epiphany...for others its a mid life crisis,their parents want them to go, or they don't know what else to do. If they have a 2.5 GPA, 800 on the GRE, went to BA's For Sale University, and/or a look at their SOP can tell the adcomm there was no effort in it... I can understand the culling. However, I know some schools have very high cutoffs, and I think it is a bit ridiculous- people can make mistakes and still become excellent in their field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 wanna be clear..... the program gets about 150 apps for about 7-8 slots. only 30 finished the application complete step and got screened. im sure other programs are just as competitive. I'm curious, you mean that out of 150 people who pay the application fees for a program, only 30 actually send a complete application? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joro Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I'm curious, you mean that out of 150 people who pay the application fees for a program, only 30 actually send a complete application? I actually did that for 3 schools. Yes yes...shame on me, but after applying and getting ready to send off the supplemental materials I realized that these 3 schools were either too expensive or not worth attending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katalytik Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 no i believe what it means that 30 apps out of about 150 complete apps are ready to be screened. the deadline is Jan 15, so i think the majority of eventually complete apps are not complete yet. once complete, they get screened, and the remaining ones go to adcomm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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