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[mfaer]

I recently applied to several PhD English programs, and I'm currently living in the "dead period" between now and late February, early March.  I've already applied, so I no longer have applications to distract me, yet I know it's too soon to hear back from schools.  In short, I’m a mess as I think non-stop about who is reading my application at the moment, if anyone. 

Anyway, since January 15th is the deadline for most schools, I'm just curious how different admissions committees go about processing applications.  I'm sure it varies by program and field. 

[dr_seuss]

Files come in during December and early January.

Committee gets a note from committee chair announcing that all files are in.

Committee members individually look at all the applicant files, over the course of a week, and each person makes a list of definite admits, maybe admits, and rejects.

We meet as a group.  Committee chair gives us a sense of the budget situation and how many students we be allowed to admit.  In the past few years the budget situation has been bad and we've only admitted as many people as have graduated or left the program.  We then give our top picks, with each committee member responsible for a particular subfield.  So Bob picks the best two or three students who want to study Triangles, I pick the best few who want to study Squares, and so on.  We negotiate and put all the students into one ranked master list. 

We immediately admit a few students -- say, between five and fifteen -- and immediately eliminate anyone who is definitely not competitive.  We keep a huge middle portion of the list in reserve, because if we get more money from the university we will admit more people on the list.  And so it goes...

[mfaer]

Wow, so basically it is one giant crap-shoot! Gulp.

Thanks for the info, Dr. Seuss. 

[sleepdeprived]

Ditto what Dr. Suess said, except we get several hundred apps so before the committee starts going through the pile the appointed member of the committee goes through and "weeds" the ones that don't meet minimum GRE and GPA requirements.

Sorry if that upsets you, but it's true.  The committee ends up seeing only about 40 or so applications at most. 

[mfaer]

No, I can understand why some of the applications might be weeded out; makes sense, considering the number of available slots versus qualified applicants, even after the folks with low GRE's and GPA's are eliminated.

[dr_prephd]

Not that this makes you feel any better, but if I remember correctly, I got rejected from first choice sometime in March and then I didn't hear anything from 2nd choice until sometime in May or June, and didn't know for sure I was in until late June or early July. I can't remember the exact timeline now (less than a year later), but man, was it painful then. Good luck with the wait, it is excruciating. Work on writing an article (or a story or a book). It will keep you busy.

[miss_m]

Both of my grad institutions had the weeding out based on GPA/GRE done by the grad admissions office before the apps even made it to the department.  So, the committee didn't even see those apps.  Then, the rankings seperated by program--MA apps weren't compared to Ph.D. apps 'cause they weren't a contiguous program, etc.  Then, the first round of funding offers in phone calls followed up by letters.  One school gave acceptances to the second tier at that point with a note saying "information on funding would follow," which basically meant you were waiting to see if someone else turned them down.  At my other school, though, they only accepted folks they could fund, so the second-round folks had to wait until April/May to get accepted or not.  (I know this because a colleague and I had applied to some of the same programs, and when I accepted my offer from the school I am now at, she hadn't heard anything yet.  About a month later, she got an offer letter, too, and accepted.  It was awkward.)

OP, I know the waiting is awful, but don't lose hope.  You will keep hearing from the programs for several months--whether accepted or rejected--and those letters (and phone calls) come in all sorts of orders.  Good luck!

MM

[dubitocogito]

What about applicants who boast a high GPA and a low GRE (or vice versa)?  Or, in a case like mine, an applicant with a very high master's GPA and GRE, but with a low undergrad GPA. 

Is one sub-par component sufficient for immediate rejection, or are both elements necessary? 

Of course, I'm especially curious how applicants who clearly have progressed in wisdom are received, especially during the early stages, and I believe there are quite a few "splitter" applicants who wonder whether a single element can sink an application.

Any comments are very much appreciated.  Application limbo is terrible and honest insight is soothing, even when not encouraging.

[dr_seuss]

What about applicants who boast a high GPA and a low GRE (or vice versa)?  Or, in a case like mine, an applicant with a very high master's GPA and GRE, but with a low undergrad GPA. 

Is one sub-par component sufficient for immediate rejection, or are both elements necessary? 

Of course, I'm especially curious how applicants who clearly have progressed in wisdom are received, especially during the early stages, and I believe there are quite a few "splitter" applicants who wonder whether a single element can sink an application.

Any comments are very much appreciated.  Application limbo is terrible and honest insight is soothing, even when not encouraging.

Well, I think this depends in part on the competitiveness of the program and the applicant pool in a given year.  My program (in the humanities), which is not a top-tier program but is reasonably respectable, would not reject an applicant on the basis of his or her undergraduate GPA.  If you have an excellent graduate GPA from a good program and good GREs, we'd tend to assume that you are bright (based on the GRE scores) and that you got your act together in grad school (based on the grad GPA).  It helps if your bad grades are from courses that have nothing to do with your proposed field of study, as sometimes happens.  That said, your undergrad GPA might be more of a factor in applications to highly competitive programs, where they need reasons to weed people out.  But for us, what really matter are:  writing sample, letters of recommendation, preparation and fit for proposed program of study.  Grades and GREs matter too, but less so than the other factors.  Hope this helps, and good luck!

[prof_mom]

We also weed out people who do not meet our minimum criteria on GPA, GRE and/or English speaking tests.

One school gave acceptances to the second tier at that point with a note saying "information on funding would follow," which basically meant you were waiting to see if someone else turned them down. 

The funding information coming letter does not necessarily mean one is second tier. Even our top candidates get a letter that says information on funding will follow. We don't usually know how many people we can fund until March, but we want to send letters out to our top candidates before that date.

[leopard]

From what I understand of my program's admissions, a small committee performs the initial review and then sends a smaller pile of apps to professors they think would work with the students. Those profs suggest accept or reject and then the small committee reconvenes to make the final decision based on the aggregate recommendations from other faculty.

[slac_vap]

At my grad school, an appointed grad student (that was me one year) had the task of weeding the 200+ applicants down to 40 or so on the basis of GRE scores, GPA, and completion of prereqs.  I remember thinking that the applicants would be horrified if they knew that the application they had completed so diligently was being reviewed by a lowly grad student like me while I sat on the couch in my pajamas eating Fritos. 

After the pile was weaned, the files were sorted according to which faculty member that applicant might fit with the best.  Then the faculty reviewed the files, fought over how many students each faculty member would be allowed to take, scheduled interviews with their favorites, fought some more, then made offers.

What about applicants who boast a high GPA and a low GRE (or vice versa)?  Or, in a case like mine, an applicant with a very high master's GPA and GRE, but with a low undergrad GPA. 

Is one sub-par component sufficient for immediate rejection, or are both elements necessary? 

Of course, I'm especially curious how applicants who clearly have progressed in wisdom are received, especially during the early stages, and I believe there are quite a few "splitter" applicants who wonder whether a single element can sink an application.

Any comments are very much appreciated.  Application limbo is terrible and honest insight is soothing, even when not encouraging.

In my program, it would have been automatic rejection.  The only exception to this would be if a student had forged a relationship with a faculty member before the apps were due (even if just through email contact); then, rarely, that faculty member might try to rescue the applicant's file from the reject pile.

[dubitocogito]

Thank you, dr_seuss and slac_vap!  I'll post how it actually played out next month.

[a_salika]

Life can hold lots of surprises. A few days ago I was contacted by one university that is willing to ship me from overseas to attend the recruitment weekend, meaning I am in the serious candidate pool. They told me that the entire application pool this year had lower GRE scores than previous years, which is why the more important parts of my application received attention.

Also, just heard from my top choice R1 first-tier university, I was contacted by a prof in the department, the official acceptance from the grad school will come later.

My GRE scores sucked, I got 600 quan and 580 verbal, thank God the committees realized that I have a whole lot more to offer than my GRE scores. I had a decent but not amazing undergrad GPA and a really high grad GPA as well as a lot of other important activities on my CV. All that worry was for nothing really, I feel a lot better now!

Good luck, try to forget your applications until you get that phone call, email, or fat letter in the mail.

[dubitocogito]

Wow, Salika, congratulations!  And thanks for the encouragement.  Hope things continue to work out so well.