{"id":75,"date":"2013-07-31T18:59:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T13:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/?p=75"},"modified":"2019-12-15T08:33:24","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T03:03:24","slug":"how-do-us-universities-decide-on-who-to-to-admit-for-phd-programs-and-offer-scholarships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/?p=75","title":{"rendered":"How do US universities decide on who to admit for PhD programs and offer scholarships?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a question I hear often from young undergraduates preparing to study abroad. I do not claim to be the expert but here is my take on the topic.<\/p>\n

In the absence of any outstanding factor tilting the selection process, here is my list:<\/p>\n

First level of screening:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Bare minimum (note: not cutoff) scores in TOEFL and GRE<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Second level of shortlisting (in that rough order)<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Reputation of undergraduate school\/college\/ university at the university (often based on good or bad experience with previous students they have taken or reputation or renown etc; can also depend on personal experiences of members of the admissions committee may think; note: admissions committee can include Indians) — this is the reason IITians may do better than others.<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Class rank and performance (and so toppers may get preference here)<\/li>\n
    3. Reference letters and SOPs \u00a0(SOPs with clarity of purpose, and alignment of goals and program chosen may score high; references that are aligned to SOP may work better)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Third level:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. If everything else is similar, then they are likely to use test scores. (Note: The test scores universities quote may be what people who got in scored but it may not be that they used a cut-off to screen candidates.)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        But there can be outstanding aspects that may give somebody an edge. These outstanding aspects keep changing with the times and are often specific to universities. Some examples:<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. A reference letter from somebody who is known to and respected by the admissions\u00a0committee.<\/span><\/li>\n
        2. Outstanding initiatives, experiences and achievements aligned to the SOP. (Ex: International awards, outstanding research work and indication of leadership potential)<\/li>\n
        3. A very strong reason to be at that university and strong reason for the university to bring you in to strengthen their important program.<\/li>\n
        4. A reference by somebody respectable from the department itself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Needless to say, something done extremely poorly can also change the process and tilt it to the wrong side — for example, extremely poor test scores, poor english skills etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          This is a question I hear often from young undergraduates preparing to study abroad. I do not claim to be the expert but here is my take on the topic. In the absence of any outstanding factor tilting the selection … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career","category-for-age-18-25"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77,"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.premnath.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}