Thank you for your response. Will talk to career development office at current school. Thank you for that idea.
The faculty at target institute was contacted. Faculty reviewed resume and called for interview and expressed interest and willingness to afford the opportunity. But admission was denied. This has happened in multiple institutions and both last summer and this year. Does professor have any say on candidate selection? The admissions committee (a generic email address) simply said that there were too many applications and they had to make a tough choice. In making that choice, they would have found some applications more appealing than others and I am trying to understand what factors were missing in ours so as not be make the cut. Any ideas on who can help with this?