Message-Id: <3.0.2.32.19970611000344.006dad60@email.rci.rutgers.edu>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 00:03:44 -0400
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
From: wayne brekhus <brekhus@rci.rutgers.edu>
Subject: Re: getting into Ph.D. programs
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My sense is that GRE's, grades, and good reference letters (especially from
people who are known where you're applying) are still the most important
considerations for most admissions committees.  Publishing is probably only
necessary if you need to offset lower test scores or grades with something.
 Bad enough that Ph.D. students have to publish what used to get one tenure
just to get a job, lets hope we're not moving towards those credentials
just to get into graduate school!

What counts also seems to vary more from school to school than one might
expect.  For instance, while it seems to be common for departments to want
you to already know your specialty when you come in, other departments are
more inclined to just take the "best candidates" (as measured by GRE's and
grades) regardless of what the candidate says they want to study.  Here
students are actually encouraged to sample around, find out what faculty
they work well with, what projects or classes interest them etc. before
they commit themselves to a specialty area. The rationale being that
students are more likely to make an informed decision about who they want
to study with and what they want to study after they've actually had a
chance to sample faculty and classes in their Ph.D. program, rather than
making the decision after only undergraduate experience, or master's work
at another school.  So in this context, having a clear research agenda
coming in isn't so important.  

Perhaps the only constant in graduate admissions is that GRE scores are
overvalued just about everywhere. Even though some department committees
know they're not especially accurate predictors of future success, they
still pretty much need a high incoming GRE average as this is one of the
main ways deans and administrators measure a program's "student quality."  

Wayne Brekhus     
Rutgers University
brekhus@rci.rutgers.edu