My older child is a non-science doctoral candidate who has received some form of funding or other each year; he was only offered admission to graduate programs that were prepared to offer funding. I have the sense based on his experience that some schools only accept as many students as they can fund and that others accept larger numbers, either expecting them to leave after they get ther MAs or thinking that at some point if they show promise funding will be forthcoming. From what I have heard in the past several years about his graduate school colleagues and people he went to college with, practices and funding vary considerably by field and by school.
In my son's case recommendations from his undergraduate professors were probably key to his getting into graduate school. That is something college students probably need to be aware of when they consider what they would like to do after graduation; I suspect that graduate programs often work on a combination of old-boy (or girl) network AND appplicant qualification. In ny son's case, his overall GPA was adequate, his GPA in his major was very good but not stellar, and his GRE score was, again, acceptable but not stellar. He had a low percentage of success in his grad school applications but the ones that came through were good offers that clearly owed something to the graduate programs' belief that his professors would not put their own reputations on the line for an applicant whose potential they did not believe in. In short, I think arts-and-science graduate school admission may sometimes be more flexible and subjective than undergraduates expect.Last edited on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 05:09 pm by mattmom
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