- #1
Dishsoap
- 1,017
- 310
Greetings fellow PFers, and happy Thanksgiving,
I learned recently about the quantitative portion required by many institutions when a letter-writer submits their letter for a student's graduate school application. Apparently it's typical for a professor/advisor to have to answer how their student ranks in various categories (top 1%, top 5%, top 20%, etc.), which I never knew about.
My question is this: how much is this considered? I have worked under some big shot professors who undoubtedly have many exceptional students to brag about, and in some of the categories I worry that I may only be top 20% or so. Had I known about this part, I might have taken fewer risks with regard to graduate school applications. I'm a good student/researcher, but probably not exceptional. Will this mean that I'm automatically cut off for some exceptional universities? Do all systems do this, or only a couple?
Thanks :)
-Dishsoap
I learned recently about the quantitative portion required by many institutions when a letter-writer submits their letter for a student's graduate school application. Apparently it's typical for a professor/advisor to have to answer how their student ranks in various categories (top 1%, top 5%, top 20%, etc.), which I never knew about.
My question is this: how much is this considered? I have worked under some big shot professors who undoubtedly have many exceptional students to brag about, and in some of the categories I worry that I may only be top 20% or so. Had I known about this part, I might have taken fewer risks with regard to graduate school applications. I'm a good student/researcher, but probably not exceptional. Will this mean that I'm automatically cut off for some exceptional universities? Do all systems do this, or only a couple?
Thanks :)
-Dishsoap