Department Admissions Standards and Statistics
The department makes special efforts to limit the size of its incoming graduate cohorts and thus a selection process is undertaken during the first couple of months after the application deadline. This selection process is carried out in order to limit the incoming cohort such that reasonable advising relations may be maintained, graduate seminars can be kept small, and adequate financial support can be provided to all students.
No one aspect of the application material is valued more than another; the Admissions Committee seeks to gain a holistic understanding of the applicant and therefore equally considers all pieces of the application. The department evaluates prior academic performance as indicated by undergraduate GPA and the results on the general test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). The Graduate School requires for admission a cumulative GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale). However, based on average scores received by applicants admitted in recent years, the department generally chooses students with an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.5 and with consistent and strong verbal, quantitative, and analytical GRE scores. Faculty members of the Admissions Committee also evaluate letters of recommendation, written works, and applicants’ statements of professional objectives. Written work is assessed according to the applicant’s ability to conceptualize and articulate questions of interest to social scientists, and will consider the level of abstraction, creativity, organization, sociological sophistication, and writing style. Additional considerations of the committee include the interest areas and strengths of our faculty compared to those of the applicant, and the quality and strengths of the applicant's undergraduate and/or graduate program(s). The following table summarizes GRE and GPA averages for selected incoming cohorts.
GRE/GPA Information |
||||
|
GRE |
GPA |
||
Cohort Year |
Verbal |
Quantitative |
Analytical |
Undergraduate |
1980 |
551 |
542 |
545 |
3.26 |
1990 |
555 |
641 |
N/A |
3.49 |
1995 |
609 |
650 |
702 |
3.41 |
2000 |
509 |
617 |
588 |
3.69 |
2005 |
574 |
710 |
5.1 (new scoring rubric) |
3.61 |
*Numbers in parentheses ( ) indicate percentage of students recruited from non-English speaking countries; those in brackets [ ] indicate percentage of students with USA under-represented status.
Admission to our program has remained competitive in the recent past. Roughly, 25% to 35% of those who complete applications are offered admission to the program each year.
Admissions Information |
||||
Year |
1990 |
1995 |
2000 |
2005 |
Completed Applications |
124 |
112 |
83 |
103 |
Offered Admission |
41 |
25 |
33 |
24 |
Entering in Fall |
14 |
9 |
9 |
8 |