I present graduate admissions research at the MIDAS Data Science Summit!

Nicholas David, Prof. Wenhao Sun, and Prof. Dallas Card were awarded $75,000 from the Michigan Institute for Data Science under the Propelling Original Data Science (PODS) Grants. The project awarded is titled “Machine-Processing of Graduate Student Applications for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”.

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Project Summary: Every year the UM College of Engineering receives tens of thousands of graduate applications, which faculty reviewers initially down-select using numerical indicators of merit such as GPA, test scores, and undergraduate school prestige. Unless an applicant meets a pre-defined numerical threshold, richer portions of an application—such as letters of recommendation and statement of purposes—may remain overlooked. This project aims to use Natural Language Processing methods to process graduate student applications and identify ‘hidden gem’ applicants, who are exceptional students from underrepresented or less-privileged backgrounds but have a strong propensity for PhD research.