Graduate
Admission Decisions:
How
to Get into the Graduate School of Your Choice
Notes
by Dr. John V. Richardson Jr., Associate Dean
UCLA
Graduate Division
The following advice is based on my personal experience having been an
information studies graduate student at Vanderbilt University and Indiana
University as well as having served on, and chaired, admissions committees over
a couple of decades. However, I want you
to know that it does not represent official UCLA University policy or UCLA
Graduate Division regulations in particular—it simply means that I have
observed and made the decisions I am talking about.[i][1]
By way of background, you should also know that no single factor
determines one’s admission status; in other words, a high GPA or a low GRE
score alone will not make or break the admissions decision. In best practice, the faculty admissions
committee (note the composition of the committee changes every year) considers
a variety of factors and may give more or less weight to each of the following
based on the particular discipline.
Admissions decisions are necessarily subjective to some degree. They represent qualitative judgments about
your likely success in graduate school.
There are some concrete things that you can do to show why you think you
will be a success.
First, you want to present the best case.
You want to make it easy for the admissions committee to say yes. If there are pre-requisites, then you should
fulfill them before you apply to the program.
This effort shows the admissions committee that you are committed to
this course of study. Do not rely on the
committee giving you a provisional admit or making exceptions just for
you. Finally, you should meet all of the
admissions deadlines for application and requests for financial support.
The following list is a set of common components of an application and is
used by the admissions committee to making its decision.
1. Personal Statement
· Do not
summarize your life; rather, tailor it to the program
· Why do you want to undertake graduate study at this particular institution?[ii][2]
· Whom do you wish to work with; have you read any of their work? Do they share your interests?
· Have you made
any personal contacts? Have you already
visited their program?
· Why is this particular program the right fit for you and your
interests?
A. You want a faculty member to see your application and think about
working with you. Without this kind of
internal support, your application may simply languish.
B. Share with
the admissions committee your personal experience and/or travel that reveal the
unique characteristics that you would bring to the program. For example, first generation to attend
graduate school, study abroad in your area of
interest, or relevant summer jobs.
Compelling stories are always worth reading.
C. Spell check,
grammar check, and proofread your personal statement, and all application
materials, again. Have a family member
or friend check it as well. Appearances
do matter, and as they say, you only have one chance to make a good first
impression.
D. Type the forms
and word process the admissions documents and personal statement. Purple flair penmanship is not valued in many
fields of academic endeavor.
E. Is it clear
what your abilities, career goals, and interests are?
F. Your goal in
this personal statement is to convince the admissions committee that graduate
study in their department is the logical next step in your academic career.
2. UGPA
A. Most
institutions have stated minimum standards or cutoffs. For instance, a 3.0 UGPA from reputable
(read, accredited) institution of higher education is a common minimum.
B. Of course,
higher is better. After all, almost all
graduates already have at least a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. At Harvard, the average outgoing UGPA is
close to 4.0, according to a recent issue of the Economist.
C. If you have
an honors degree or made the Dean’s List, mention it and why it is
relevant. What inspired you?
D. Of course,
some universities are more demanding than other institutions. So, rather than comparing
apples to oranges, many admissions committees like to see GRE scores as well.
3. ETS GRE
A. The GRE scores (reported in percentiles)
allows an admissions committee to compare apples to apples since a GPA from one
school isn’t necessarily the same as another (as mentioned above, Harvard’s
UGPA is close to 4.0)
B. Once again,
the higher the better (a percentile rank reveals your rank out of 100
applicants; I’d like to see 85 or higher…)
C. Before taking
the GRE, take a prep course to minimize your test anxiety and so you do the
best you know that you can. I know they
say you cannot study for it, but you can prepare for the structure.
4. LETTERS OF
RECOMMENDATION
A. The ideal letter is a good recommendation from a
writer who is known and well respected by the admissions committee. Other academics who know your work are also
good. Otherwise, how can the committee
evaluate letters from someone whom they do not know, even if your writer says
you are outstanding—what does that mean?
Benchmarking it helps the reader.
B. Candidly
speaking, I have rarely seen a letter that did not rank the applicant well
above average (why would you ask someone who did not like you and your work to write
a letter in the first place?)
C. Frankly,
letters of recommendation are the least helpful component of the process, in my
opinion.
5. TOEFL
A. International
students contribute to the diversity of graduate education. However, the faculty wants to be assured that
your language skills are strong enough for you to succeed in the classroom as
well as form personal relationships with your peers. So, how good is your reading comprehension
and language facility with the technical terms of the discipline?
B. The TOEFL
score is one indicator of English language skills; the IETLS is another.
C. Personally, I
would like to see TOEFL scores above 625 for admissions to graduate study, but
that is just my personal opinion.
6. RESUME
A.
Prepare a brief (i.e., maximum of two pages)
B. Include
current contact information
C. Include only
your relevant experience (e.g., waitress at the Blue Plate Diner probably isn’t
relevant unless you are applying to the Hospitality Program)
7. SAMPLES
A. Do you have relevant
papers?
B. Have you
already published something? Even a book review?
While I really do not like to think of this process as a game, I can see
the point that some make (see link 8 below).
I do think that you should be aware of the social and intellectual
networking dimensions in this decision-making process. As the author in link 7 says, the process is
completely different from undergraduate school.
Nonetheless, this way is the way it is—the way things should be is
another discussion. Whether it is the
right way to select an applicant, I will defer from answering in this
document. Here, I simply want you to
know how it works in many places.
Alternative Strategies:
1. If your UGPA (e.g., less than 3.0) and GRE (e.g., less than 85
percentile) scores are low, consider taking graduate courses via concurrent
enrollment in Extension. In this way,
you get to know the material and the instructor gets to know you. It also provides you with the opportunity to
show that you are capable of and serious about graduate study. You might just find a champion on the faculty
who will support your admission to graduate study.
2. Always have a fallback school
in mind. Check the US
News and World Reports rankings (if they exist for your program) or
better, watch for the new National Research Council rankings (they are more
reliable and much more valid).
Because disciplinary and university practices do vary, you might want to
read Jim L. Turner, Matthew Miller, and Claudia Mitchell-Kernan’s “Disciplinary
Cultures and Graduate Education,” Emergences 12 (2002): 47-70 as well as
check out these other disciplinary or university specific links (selected from
about 1,390,000):
Last updated: 25 April 2003
To suggest items to improve this document, I would appreciate it if you
would email me: jrichard@ucla.edu;
I regret that, in general, I do not have the time to answer specific questions
about your particular case or about the specific process at universities other
than UCLA.
[i][1]
Any one who is involved in this process has to admit
to making errors, if they are honest. Of
course, we want to admit those students who should be admitted and reject those
who should be rejected. However, we make
Type 1 and Type 2 errors—we accept those who should not be and reject those who
should be admitted. One can ponder how
to improve the process…
[ii][2]
See the