Admissions Committee Question

[yglesias]

If a professor that you want to work with is on the admissions committee that is reading the applications, does that give that applicant a better chance of being admitted than an applicant whose interests are similar to a professor who is not on the admissions committee and not reading applications? I would have to think it does…. Curious about your thoughts.

[TC3]

I've heard conflicting advice about indicating a POI. On the one hand, some have told me that it helps establish the "good fit" and "I've researched your program" aspects in a SOP, but on the other, there's the notion that it's better to establish these strengths through simply indicating one's interests and agenda that would end up being a good fit and appealing to one or more faculty members, as it's entirely uncertain if you'll end up working with that particular faculty member or even keep the same specific research agenda. I can see both sides. It would be good to hit the ground running in terms of a mentor relationship, but it would not be good to base one's interests and agendas solely on one or two people. I'd think, though, that if the POI were on the admissions committee, it would make much more of a difference, but then again, I've never been privy to the inner workings of admissions committees. It might even be as petty as a person on the admissions committee disliking another faculty member whom you've indicated as a POI. That's exaggerating, and it's an unfair caricature, but still, it indicates my overall stance on POIs: in theory nothing wrong with it, but in practice a labyrinth of second-guessing.

[greekdaph]

Depends, as do most things, on the particular school. Some programs admit the top candidates the committee designates no matter what those students want to study; in those cases, a committee member may be biased or may be just more able to accurately evaluate students who share their interests--a circumstance that can work both ways. Some programs, on the other hand, decide that there are particular fields in which they want to admit graduate students, then devise the committee accordingly--putting a medievalist on it, say, because they're looking to admit a few medievalists. And some programs pass off applications to professors who aren't on the committee and then base at least part of their decision on that professor's assessment.