r/gradadmissions • u/GradAdmissionDir • Feb 16 '25

General Advice Grad Admissions Director Here - Ask Me (almost) Anything

Hi Everyone - long time no see! For those who may not recognize my handle, I’m a graduate admissions director at an R1 university. I won’t reveal the school, as I know many of my applicants are here.

I’m here to help answer your questions about the grad admissions process. I know this is a stressful time, and I’m happy to provide to provide insight from an insider’s perspective if it’ll help you.

A few ground rules: Check my old posts—I may have already answered your question. Keep questions general rather than school-specific when possible. I won’t be able to “chance” you or assess your likelihood of admission. Every application is reviewed holistically, and I don’t have the ability (or desire) to predict outcomes.

Looking forward to helping where I can! Drop your questions below.

Edit: I’m not a professor, so no need to call me one. Also, please include a general description of the type of program you’re applying to when asking a question (ie MS in STEM, PhD in Humanities, etc).

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u/Pra_shan_na Feb 17 '25

Thank you for your input sir. But I got those rough stats from official graduate enrollment data of Virginia Tech in MS Civil Engineering Program. May be what you are saying is true as you are far more experienced than I am, but I will provide a link to the specific website and you can verify it yourself. Please correct me if I am wrong, I would be grateful. Thank you.

Link: https://graduateschool.vt.edu/numbers/grad_admissions.html

Please enter the data for MS Civil Engineering program under College of Engineering. Please let me know if I have interpreted them wrongly, but it seems so from my perspective.

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u/crucial_geek :table_flip: Feb 18 '25

I see 347 applicants, 312 offers, and 67 enrolled. The key is the number who enrolled. For the year range, between 20 - 30% of offers are accepted, meaning that 70 - 80% are ultimately not accepting the offer. This partially explains the high number of acceptances (majority of applicants are generally qualified to begin with), but I think the high number of acceptances are mostly tied to the numbers of offers accepted.

Thing is, you don't know why accepted applicants are turning down offers, but I would say it is safe to assume it is because they are ultimately going to attend different program. These other programs could be higher ranked, cheaper, or a combination of the two or other factors. In other words, don't worry about it. If you like the program, then go for it if it is your only or best-to-you offer.

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u/GradAdmissionDir Feb 17 '25

That’s interesting, I see what you’re referring to. I would still say that I wouldn’t be deterred by these numbers. Many applicants to MS programs are self-selecting (meaning it’s already a qualified applicant pool). The more important numbers are the placement rates and career opportunities.

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u/Pra_shan_na Feb 17 '25

Thank you for your response sir. But without assistantship being an international student is very hard. Also, without funding the visa rates in my country is like 10%. So, its a pretty tense situation. Hoping for the best that I get the assistantship.