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I hear all the time many myths about admission to P&S, so I thought I'd set the record straight once and for all.
So it's actually a misconception that Frantz hand picks the class. The way it works is that Frantz screens all candidates for an interview. Once someone has been selected for an interview, the admissions office staff randomly assigns them to one of the 30 committee members. In very rare cases, Frantz specifcally asks to interview someone after screening them, but maybe only one or two per year since he wants to interview an accurate cross-section of the entire applicant pool.
Each interviewer will not necessarily interview the same number of applicants. Frantz interviews the most since it's his full-time job, whereas the others are all busy faculty members. Then before the committee meeting in February, each committee member ranks their interviewees. Every year the number of students who are admitted in the first round is the same (250). If N students were interviewed, then 250/N is the fraction of interviewed students who are admitted. This fraction is then multiplied by the number of students each committee member interviewed to get a number, let's call it Q. Then the first Q students on that committee member's ranked-list are admitted.
Example: if Dr. Smith interviews 60 students and 1500 students are interviewed, then Q = 60*250/1500 = 10, so the first 10 of Dr. Smith's list of 60 students are admitted.
Frantz interviews the most, probably a few hundred, but he still gets the same proportion of admitted students as all other committee members.
After the first round, everyone is put on the waitlist according to the rank their interviewer originally gave them. Then it really does become Dr. Frantz's game. About 30 to 50 students (for a class of 150) will eventually be admitted off of the waitlist. The only way this happens is if the student expresses that P&S is his or her first choice. Dr. Frantz will frequently give waitlisted students a second interview if they ask for one, and then often even offers them admission during their second interview (I know of several current students who had this happen to them as well as others who received a letter later). Second interviews can often help waitlisted students because then Frantz gets to evaulate them himself, and it's unlikely that they can hurt. Frantz also likes to know that students who come to P&S have turned down other top schools. So if P&S is your first choice, and you've been admitted to Yale, writing a letter saying that you have been admitted to Yale but are hoping to get off the waitlist at P&S will probably help you.
So it's actually a misconception that Frantz hand picks the class. The way it works is that Frantz screens all candidates for an interview. Once someone has been selected for an interview, the admissions office staff randomly assigns them to one of the 30 committee members. In very rare cases, Frantz specifcally asks to interview someone after screening them, but maybe only one or two per year since he wants to interview an accurate cross-section of the entire applicant pool.
Each interviewer will not necessarily interview the same number of applicants. Frantz interviews the most since it's his full-time job, whereas the others are all busy faculty members. Then before the committee meeting in February, each committee member ranks their interviewees. Every year the number of students who are admitted in the first round is the same (250). If N students were interviewed, then 250/N is the fraction of interviewed students who are admitted. This fraction is then multiplied by the number of students each committee member interviewed to get a number, let's call it Q. Then the first Q students on that committee member's ranked-list are admitted.
Example: if Dr. Smith interviews 60 students and 1500 students are interviewed, then Q = 60*250/1500 = 10, so the first 10 of Dr. Smith's list of 60 students are admitted.
Frantz interviews the most, probably a few hundred, but he still gets the same proportion of admitted students as all other committee members.
After the first round, everyone is put on the waitlist according to the rank their interviewer originally gave them. Then it really does become Dr. Frantz's game. About 30 to 50 students (for a class of 150) will eventually be admitted off of the waitlist. The only way this happens is if the student expresses that P&S is his or her first choice. Dr. Frantz will frequently give waitlisted students a second interview if they ask for one, and then often even offers them admission during their second interview (I know of several current students who had this happen to them as well as others who received a letter later). Second interviews can often help waitlisted students because then Frantz gets to evaulate them himself, and it's unlikely that they can hurt. Frantz also likes to know that students who come to P&S have turned down other top schools. So if P&S is your first choice, and you've been admitted to Yale, writing a letter saying that you have been admitted to Yale but are hoping to get off the waitlist at P&S will probably help you.
