Do most admission committees read your personal statement prior to offering an interview?

[Colinoscopy]

As title states. I'm curious at what point in this entire process does the PS most often get reviewed. Thanks!

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[deleted972488]

This is likely highly variable across different schools.

 

[u_raptor]

As title states. I'm curious at what point in this entire process does the PS most often get reviewed. Thanks!

This is likely highly variable across different schools.

Definitely variable, even in the same school it seems. I know some schools do closed file as opposed to open file. At the school I recently interviewed at, one of the interviewers had read my PS and one specifically said they try not to read it before the interview. Just kinda depends.

 

[907914]

Definitely variable, even in the same school it seems. I know some schools do closed file as opposed to open file. At the school I recently interviewed at, one of the interviewers had read my PS and one specifically said they try not to read it before the interview. Just kinda depends.

Which is weird, because at that same school for me they said all three had seen PS, one had seen PS and WA, the other had full open file...so even within same school, it may vary by who is interviewing you.

 

[u_raptor]

Which is weird, because at that same school for me they said all three had seen PS, one had seen PS and WA, the other had full open file...so even within same school, it may vary by who is interviewing you.

The one thing we can know for certain is that we don't know for certain lol

 

[907914]

Do most admission committees read your personal statement prior to offering an interview?

The actual answer this is almost definately no. This is the wrong question and not how things work. The evaluators will read your application, summarize, score and classify. Based on this, the policies in place, and typically approval by a team, subcommittee, or full adcom. Usually most adcom members will not read the actual application before an interview is offered.

After applicants have completed the interview, does at least one member of the admissions committee read the whole thing prior to admissions decision or does the committee evaluate the applicant based on notes/scores/etc of the evaluators and interviewer(s)?