Who reads what?

[relatively prime]

Does anyone know if all the members of the adcom read the PS and LORs of every interviewed applicant... or do only the interviewers? I'm afraid that only my interviewers are going to read my PS and LORs.... which seems unfair. How can adcom members who haven't read my PS or my LORs vote on if I should be admitted? If they don't read these things then all they're basing my acceptence on is my stats and whatever my interviewers decide to tell them.

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[Cacophony]

It varies from school to school. You need to ask/email the admissions office for details, but for most of my interviews, the person I met with hadn't seen my application let alone the personal statement.

And I don't think any of my schools have the interviewers read LORs.

 

[relatively prime]

Originally posted by Cacophony

And I don't think any of my schools have the interviewers read LORs.

Uh... then who reads them? Nobody?

 

[Cacophony]

Depends on the school and how their committee is set up. All schools have their own mysterious method.

At a lot of schools the interviewer writes a report/letter based on their impressions of you. Like another LOR for your file.

 

[TroutBum]

Hey, I think it does depend on the school. I think for most schools, the interviewers are not voting members of the adcom, but they provide additional info to the adcom on your behalf, based on their impression of you in the interview. So, I believe in those cases the adcom members read your LORs and PS. At other places, I think the interviewers are voting members and they would read everything too, unless they only conduct blind interviews like some schools do. And then in some other places, interviewers would read your LORs and PS to get a bit of background for the interview, but they might not be the ones who take them into account when making admissions decisions.

That's what I had always thought, but if I'm wrong lemme know.

 

[siempre595]

I'm pretty sure your interviewer (unless closed file) will at some point read everything. Most of mine have actually commented on the letters and asked about stuff in my personal statement. At one of my interviews, she actually had the letters out and highlighted on her desk (this woman was prepared!). I'd imagine the adcom's read more of the stuff when they are unsure how to vote on an applicant.

 

[pocwana]

don't adcoms decide who will get interviews before the interviewers are determined? i mean, not every school bases the invitation of an interview solely on numbers, so someone else besides the interviewer must have read the PS, LORs, etc...

 

[batman123]

At least at Mt. Sinai the interviewers read your recs; my second interviewer there told me my recs were good, and we ended up discussing a philosophy class which one of my recommenders taught.

 

[tatabox80]

Originally posted by relatively prime
Does anyone know if all the members of the adcom read the PS and LORs of every interviewed applicant... or do only the interviewers? I'm afraid that only my interviewers are going to read my PS and LORs.... which seems unfair. How can adcom members who haven't read my PS or my LORs vote on if I should be admitted? If they don't read these things then all they're basing my acceptence on is my stats and whatever my interviewers decide to tell them.

I agree RP. I know that my interviewers read my personal statement at my recent interivew and that one in particular was extremely impressed with my ps and said that he looked forward to meeting me based on my statement. I think it is kinda unfair. Especially if you were very nervous or stressed during your interview. I know I was and I think it might have hurt me....I got waitlisted Well, hopefully my letters of intent can convince them other wise. By the way RP I'm in your spanish class! Do you know who I am now?

 

[DALABROKA]

At some schools (e.g.. KU) one interview is conducted by a voting member of the adcom. They are assigned your file and, following the interview, act as your representative at the adcom meeting. They put together a synopsis of your file and present you to the adcom for consideration. Following the presentation, the adcom votes for you on a numerical scale. If your cumulative total is high enough, you are accepted.

At most of the places I have gone, the interview was conducted with open files by voting members of the adcom.

As far as deciding whom to interview, some schools categorize the applications. All applicants that have a certain MCAT and GPA get automatic interviews. Then there is a middle of the rode group that have acceptable, but not great numbers. Those in this group are over-read by a member of the admissions committee and the applicant is either interviewed, put on hold for an interview, or the file is sent to the dean of admission (or some other administrator) for final review prior to rejection. The final group is comprised of the applicants that have unacceptable numbers. These applications go straight to administrative review. This is where the dean might see a diamond in the rough and send the file to the adcom to interview the applicant. This is the type of system that they use at KU, and I would speculate a similar system is used at many other schools.

DALA

 

[Bonds756]

Originally posted by DALABROKA


As far as deciding whom to interview, some schools categorize the applications. All applicants that have a certain MCAT and GPA get automatic interviews. Then there is a middle of the rode group that have acceptable, but not great numbers. Those in this group are over-read by a member of the admissions committee and the applicant is either interviewed, put on hold for an interview, or the file is sent to the dean of admission (or some other administrator) for final review prior to rejection. The final group is comprised of the applicants that have unacceptable numbers. These applications go straight to administrative review. This is where the dean might see a diamond in the rough and send the file to the adcom to interview the applicant. This is the type of system that they use at KU, and I would speculate a similar system is used at many other schools.
DALA

This is about what I think, although I don't know how much time the dean/director of admissions has to find the diamond in the rough applicants who get overlooked based on numbers regardless of ECs (unless there is some kind of "connection"). And while most people with very high numbers probably get automatic interviews without having to read about their ECs, I bet who ever is reviewing the file scans through the whole application quickly to check is everything is copasetic.
So they are important and the admissions committee looks at all personal statements and ECs of everyone they accept. But they probably don't look at them for everyone they reject.

 

[odelay]

for me, one of my interviewers had not read a thing, even though it was open-file.

and the other interviewer had POURED over EVERYTHING.

so i'm guessing the interviewers have certain duties, assignments, or responsibilities - and prepare some sort of brief report based on the meeting. and how THEY prepare for the interview (be it by reading your file or by going in cold turkey with the questions to keep everything standardized) could be by their own personal preference. at least, that's how it seemed like to me.

i wanted so badly to ask in one of my interviews just exactly how the process worked, but didn't want to bore them by pegging at tiny details like that. oh well.

 

[Adcadet]

here's how it works at U of MN:
You are given an interview based upon your completed application, including LORs. Your interviewer only gets to see your post-secondary experiences and personal statement. He/she then writes a letter to the adcom, which sees everything.


And at Wake Forest:
you get an interview based upon your entire application I think. Your interviewers (3 of them, usually including one who is actually on the committee) know nothing about you except your name. At the end of the day they meet and write up a report with the adcom member.