Kaplan Test Prep Survey: Graduate School Admissions Officers Say Competition Remains Fierce

Despite the recently reported drop in GRE administrations in 2012, competition to get into America’s top graduate programs remains as fierce as ever, according to Kaplan Test Prep’s 2012 survey of graduate school admissions officers.  As you may know, every year Kaplan surveys admissions officers at top graduate, business, law and medical schools to give students, advisors and admissions officers the most up-to-date and accurate information on the admissions process. Here are some highlights, with some commentary below each question:

Compared to the 2011-2012 admissions cycle, how would you describe the 2012-2013 admissions cycle?

• Much more competitive: 16%
• Somewhat more competitive: 24%
• About the same: 60%
• Somewhat less competitive: 0%
• Much less competitive: 0%

Note that, even though GRE administrations and grad school enrollments are somewhat down, competition hasn’t lessened. There is still a large number of grad school applicants relative to grad school seats. That reality is unlikely to change.

Out of every 10 applicants to your program, how many on average apply while still undergraduates?

• Less than 1 in 10: 6%
• 1 in 10: 3%
• 2 in 10: 9%
• 3 in 10: 7%
• 4 in 10: 11%
• 5 in 10: 21%
• 6 in 10: 7%
• 7 in 10: 11%
• 8 in 10: 8%
• 9 in 10: 6%
• Almost all: 9%

Compared to 4 years ago, has this proportion…

• Increased significantly: 4%
• Increased slightly: 17%
• Stayed about the same: 55%
• Decreased slightly: 5%
• Decreased significantly: 0%
• I don’t know/was not here 4 years ago: 19%

The overall shift here is toward younger applicants. Most programs are seeing the same proportion of undergrad applicants as previously, but a substantial percentage of programs (17%) are receiving more undergrad applicants than before. Two possible explanations both concern the job market. There may be a greater level of “avoidance” than before: perhaps the still shaky job market has convinced undergrads to stay in school and ride out the storm until more job opportunities are available. Or, undergrads may simply perceive a grad degree as more necessary to their career path. Either way, the job market will remain competitive, and graduate degrees do, in general, give an edge in employment.

Have you ever Googled an applicant to learn more about them?

• Yes: 16%
• No:: 74%
• Not sure: 11%

Have you ever visited an applicant’s social networking page like Facebook to learn more about them?

• Yes: 15%
• No: 75%
• Not sure: 11%

(Asked only of those who answered “Yes” to the previous two questions) Have you ever discovered something online about an applicant that negatively impacted their application?

• Yes: 12%
• No: 75%
• Not sure: 14%

Over the past few years, we at Kaplan been getting a lot of questions about the role of social media in the admissions process, particularly as it’s become such a part of the daily routine for college students and young professionals.  Social media is currently something of a wild card in the graduate school admissions process. Reading the results, we conclude that social media is not usually a factor in admissions; admissions officers are usually too busy to do additional research of a candidate on social media. However, enough admissions officers do check profiles that isn’t important for every candidate to have a clean, protected, professional social media presence. Remember that the Internet has a long memory.

For more more complete results, click here.  And by all means, feel free to share the link with your students and fellow advisers.  An educated graduate school applicant is almost always the most successful graduate school applicant.

What do you think of our findings? Does anything surprise you? Anything you’d like us to consider asking graduate school admissions officers in our 2013 survey? Sound off below!

*About the survey methodology: For the 2012 survey, admissions officers from 94 of the top 200 graduate programs in education, engineering, psychology and public administration—as designated by U.S. News & World Report—were polled by telephone in August and September 2012. Percentages are rounded to the
nearest whole number.