Admission Mix

I was thinking to write on the subject for a long time as I wanted to keep my readers abreast about the research being done by us on “Admission Decision Process”

From my experience I think the following five factors are largely responsible for an admission decision in your favor. And all of these can be controlled by you.I call these as Admission Mix.

1.Your Undergraduate GPA and it’s Pedigree.

2. GRE score

3. Recommendations

4. Essay

5. And compatibility of your research experience or publications with the research being carried out by the Graduate Program

There are some external factors beyond your control which also influence the admission decisions.

1.Availability of research funds with the department.

2.Diversity of the candidates. All admitted candidates will not be from the same region.

3.Credentials of other applicants or your competitors.

Although TOEFL score is required from the International applicants this generally does not influence the admission decision. A candidate is expected to provide a certain minimum TOEFL score and if you meet that provision then only your application shall be considered.

On observing these statistics I conclude that

1. GPA is most important for being considered by a Top Program.

2. GRE comes next especially your Quantitative score.

3. Your strong GPA can compensate for your weak GRE score.

4. Maybe your strong GRE covers your weak GPA in some cases but I cannot say with certainty that it does so in all cases.

5. For a top program you must have at least 2-3 years relevant research experience.Data about this shall be provided at a later date.

6.Lastly a Top School will favorably consider your recognition through a published paper.

I would like to hear from you regarding this ongoing research.