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[floopydrive]

Is it usual for the admission committee to accept candidates that a strong individual professor [say a former chair] requests to be admitted [he also promises to fund the candidate with an RA because he feels that there is a match of research interests]? The candidate's application is not entirely meritless but just that there might be stronger candidates present.

How often do such cases happen?

[katherineparr]

Sounds like you are not in my field, but anyway:

Happens with some frequency, esp. if the professor controls his own research money. At my grad institution, admissions decisions frequently veered in the direction of individual professors' preferences.

And, honestly, there is often a pool of equally qualified candidates from which to choose. So any professor who singles out one person and says "I want her" for a legitimate reason (like the one you give) gets that student without any fuss.

[kr4453]

What if the single professor is, say, the DGS of the program? Does that hold more weight?

[typoqueen]

I would have to say that it depends completely on the field and the admissions process at the individual institution.   It seems to me that in the sciences, promises to fund students mean more than in the humanities.  There are also questions of the prestige and personality of the person writing the recommendation.  Are they merely writing a letter of recommendation or are they campaigning hard for that particular student? And are they that professor who for whatever reason always gets what hu wants?

In my particular department nothing is certain.  Sub-faculty select students and a committee comprised of a select few from the entire department whittle down the pool to a list of X many.  This list then goes to the Dean who has been know (despite considerable backlash from the department) to deny entrance to certain students.

In short, you can't be certain.  But it can't hurt you to have a strong rec letter from faculty who really want you. 

TQ

[kr4453]

The DGS didn't write a letter for me, but I established a good relationship with her and when she was invited by my thesis adviser (one of her former classmates in grad school) to give a lecture, she came uncharacteristically. She abhors upstate New York yet still came in mid February, and she has a reputation for being unfriendly and was very warm to me. I don't know if that matters since she didn't write a letter per se, but I left with the opinion that she thought well of me. Does that matter? It's also a small department...

[typoqueen]

Sure it matters.  It's good to have as many of the faculty members on side as possible.  Her status as DGS may help you if the DGS plays a strong role in admissions or if she is particularly well respected.  If you made a favorable impression then this a positive thing that can help your application. That said, there are other important factors at work some of which are beyond your control.

TQ