<p>A friend’s son wants to get his PhD in chemistry. He graduated last May and took off this past year to apply to grad school. He graduated from college with a low GPA and did not participate in any internships as an undergrad. He now brags that he is being “wined and dined” by numerous universities who want him. They are paying to fly him across the country, put him up in hotels, and pay for his meals. Is this customary?</p>
<p>It varies by field and program, but that was my experience, yes - schools know that seniors and new graduates are generally cash-poor, and if they have the money to offer an assistantship or fellowship they will usually budget and offer to pay for a visit. Please note that these are often tied together - I was accepted at two schools, and only the one that was offering me money paid for my trip, meals, and hotel, the other one I had to work out on my own. Note also that engineering and the hard sciences are relatively well off financially, so English majors may have a very different experience.</p>
<p>Yes, most schools will buy plane tickets and reserve hotel rooms for you, or will reimburse (from my experience, $500). This is from an engineering perspective.</p>
<p>They can probably pay for it by all the application fees… 1000 students paying $70 can easily pay for 50 admits to fly out…</p>
<p>Thanks for answering my question. Well, it seems that this is a customary practice. My friend boasts that her son is “brilliant” and this is the reason they are paying for his interview trips. This may or may not be the case. However, given the fact that he graduated with a low GPA and did not participate in any internships as an undergrad does not seem to make him a highly desirable candidate for grad school. How important are GPA and internships? Could the fact that he is an under-represented minority from a low-income family have anything to do with this?</p>
<p>Most important is demonstrated ability to perform good research in the future or background knowledge that a professor thought was particularly relevant. It’s standard practice to pay for visits though, so it’s not like that person is special out of the entire admitted student body. Of course, that he was accepted meant there was something good in the application.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should be denigrating this person’s application by attributing it to a URM admit, since this isn’t undergrad admissions. Being URM is good for fellowships that cater specifically to the underrepresented though.</p>
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GPA is pretty important, as every graduate degree has an academic component and past academic performance is the best predictor of future academic performance. It is not, of course, the ONLY factor, but you will see very very few 3.1GPA students getting admitted to top-10 graduate programs.</p>
<p>As to internships, it is almost apples and oranges. Internships are about preparing you for industry, and often had little relationship to either academics or research, the two primary components of a graduate degree. I expect that a large number of graduate admits lack internships, but very few lack undergraduate research experience.</p>
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As awvvu noted, these are not generally factors in graduate admissions outside of fellowships. The most likely answer is that (for whatever reason) he resonated with one of the professors sufficiently to overlook his grades. Another possibility is that the school is simply not very competitive - a 3.1 in engineering/hard science is not unreasonable for schools ranked in the 20-30’s, and schools at that level certainly have the kind of funding that lets them “woo” students.</p>
<p>That having been said, there are fellowships out there that cater to specific demographics, and I know some of them have a hard time attractive eligible students. The fellowship that I was offered was limited to US citizens, and the previous year (at least) they had been unable to even find someone to give it to. So it is possible, however unlikely.</p>
<p>“I expect that a large number of graduate admits lack internships, but very few lack undergraduate research experience.”</p>
<p>As an undergrad, his mother said he was expected to either do research or work as as intern each summer. He chose to do neither and stayed at home (and couldn’t be bothered to work). It seems to me that an applicant that refused to participate in research or work as an intern does not show a high degree of motivation. That is why I am puzzled as to why at least five colleges have invited him to be interviewed. As you mentioned, perhaps he has been offered a fellowship for his URM demographic and they are having a difficult time finding qualified applicants.</p>
<p>If he’s been invited to interview at 5 programs I’d say he’s doing something right. Perhaps you don’t know as much about him as you think you do?</p>
<p>I’d say mind your own business if the only reason you’re asking is because you doubt his credentials.</p>
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<p>It depends on the quality of the schools. I’ve seen people with 2.5 GPAs and no research get into graduate programs. But those programs, as you would expect, are borderline Top 100 - Top 150 programs.</p>
<p>Minority status can affect admission in some schools, but it’s not necessarily the “typical” minority categories you would expect. In some fields, if you’re a US citizen you receive a substantial benefit because of the lack of US citizens in PhD programs.</p>
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<p>Or because the funding sources make it far easier for a program to pay for a US citizen than an international student.</p>
<p>But I agree that the topic is completely ridiculous. As someone said, mind your own business. This site isn’t here so that you can make sure your neighbor has diminished bragging rights at your next book club meeting. Did his minority status help his chances? Maybe. We have no way of determining that. Did it give him a free ride for whichever program he wanted? Of course not. There are plenty of minority students applying to PhD programs. Their first priority is always going to be selecting students who will successfully complete the program. That isn’t going to happen if they select someone who is completely unprepared and totally shocked when they realize how much work is involved.</p>