Admissions process

[jaejin]

I was wondering if anyone had a good understanding on the process/steps adcoms take to evaluate candidates.

 

If anyone could provide some insight I'd greatly appreciate it!

[avflinsch]

Step 1 - gather all of the applications, and weed out the ones that are totally unsuitable
Step 2 - figure out how many slots you have available, call that number N
Step 3 - take a random 2*N of the applications and walk up the highest staircase in the admin building, anyone not in the random sample gets reject letters
Step 4 - chuck the random set of applications down the stairs -
applications that land on the top step - get full funding and a livable stipend
applications that land on steps 2-4 get admitted, but no funding
applications that land on steps 5-6 get waitlisted
all other applications in the random sample get no response at all

 

[DBear]

This is a really broad question @jaejin and would really depend a lot on each program's practices. Also, different departments in the same school may have different procedures as well. 

I have been asked this question a lot by my friends in Korea as I have attended school in the U.S. I think they are curious mostly because they are accustomed to college entrance procedures in Korea where the steps are clear when it comes to choosing students: 1) Choose students who pass the "cut line" score for the national standardized test 2) choose only the top scoring students 3) look at other info, interviews, essay exam scores 4) quantify everything and admit only the students with the top scores

Generally speaking, for a hypothetical program that gets more than 300 applicants, they may first screen students that have an excessively low GRE scores and/or GPA. They might have additional criteria such as whether your previous degree is from a certain field. Or if you have a high enough TOEFL score if you are an international student. However, after the initial screen, in general admissions committees do look at all your materials comprehensively and holistically - which means that just because you have really good GRE scores, it's not going to be okay that your SOP does not effectively communicate your research interests and aptitude. On the other hand it means that maybe if you don't have the highest GRE score of all the candidates, you can still have a good chance of getting in. How a program prioritizes candidates will vary, however. Some departments may try and distribute students equally among possible sub-fields or projects etc. So that's where fit comes in. If they only have 5 openings for students that want to study Apples, you many not get in even if you are the top 6th candidate if you end up somehow ranking 6th among the students that said they want to study Apples. 

I was talking to a friend yesterday who already attends a program that I applied for. The friend gave me feedback on my SOP and also gave me good tips about graduate studies in general. The tips were so helpful that I got into 3 programs, but I didn't get into the one the friend is attending. I thought this was funny and told my friend this, and my friend said that admissions really are mysterious. 

I think you want to know how your SOP would be weighted against your other materials and what role GRE plays in all this. Unfortunately, even if programs have such a formula for grading applicants, this is not open to people to know. Perhaps if you knew someone on the faculty of the programs you are applying for, they may tell you which component is more important etc., but in my interaction with students and faculty the only common denominator is the emphasis on "fit" and this is not something that can be quantified or even estimated... it really is a mystery...

[Triangular]

....you actually had me going for a moment there. The waiting is that bad! lol

[jaejin]

_{@DBear Thanks for the response!!} 

 

_{I appreciate it!!}

[jaejin]

5 hours ago, Triangular said:

....you actually had me going for a moment there. The waiting is that bad! lol

@Triangular the waiting sucks... are you in school in florida?

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@DBear I should really pick your brain about the SoP  

[DBear]

@GreenEyedTrombonist I'm positive yours is already awesome! But if the time comes, I'd be happy to share feedback! I became completely neurotic and literally had 10 people look at mine (and still there was a typo in two of them) so I have collected many useful tips! I still have hope you won't need them!

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@DBear I definitely think my SoP ended up being the weak part of my app so I could definitely benefit from some tips.