Well, that's not what the rejection letter and the same person told me last year haha. Perhaps things have changed slightly. He (and my letter) told me that selected interviewees had significantly more experience than I did and mentioned nothing whatsoever about academics. I probably still have the letter somewhere....back home 1000 miles away. But he straight up told me during my file review that once you pass the grade eval, your hurdles are having competitive experiences, then having a good interview + competitive experiences to receive an offer. He actually talked to me for close to two hours about my application and pretty much told me exactly what I needed to do to get accepted this year (hopefully it works!), and we went over the process a few times. But like I said, always possible that they altered the process a bit since April.
But now that I think about it, I reread the wording
@plp13 typed up from her letter from last year too. I'm pretty sure that's the cutoff, so if you're higher than those numbers I think you might be able to stop worrying until the next batch goes out, when things are a bit more up in the air. I don't know how they determine the status of applicants who are high enough in 1 or 2, but too low in another.
