Application

This is the time of year in which we receive a lot of requests for advice on preparing your application. I’ve written on this theme in the past, and I figured it’s helpful to hear a variety of perspectives from time to time. As such, I’ve asked the rest of the Admissions team to chime in with their advice on various pieces of the application. We’ll start today with Yaritza’s thoughts on letters of recommendation

It’s around this time of year that it starts to feel like there’s a lot happening at once in our office. We’re currently working with students admitted for the January 2022 semester as they make their enrollment plans, and also beginning the process of reviewing applications received by last week’s Early Notification deadline (which I believe I’ve mentioned in this space two or three thousand times). The latter involves not just reading applications ourselves, but coordinating a large committee of current students and faculty readers, too. On top of that there are lots of remaining recruitment events on the calendar, and another application deadline – the “big one” – approaching on January 10th.

One common question we’ve heard in recent months concerns how the Admissions Committee will evaluate applications that show evidence of significant pandemic-related disruptions. None of us have avoided the upheaval of the past year, and it’s understandable that applicants might wonder if we’ll be able to evaluate properly their readiness for grad school given how weird academic and professional life has been in this era. The quick answer, with a tip of the cap to Douglas Adams, is a simple “don’t panic.”