Thank you all for your thoughtful comments. I agree with all the sentiments expressed. I will get back to the graduate office and will let you know whether the proposal moves forward. Best, Victoria
> On Oct 15, 2021, at 7:01 PM, Emami, Azita <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks, Victoria. I hope no one in the grad office assumes that this is a > big step forward. There are many other actions that can reduce unconscious > bias, and most effective actions are hard, take time and require significant > resources. Changing the order is easy, but most likely not impactful. > > Azita > > >> On Oct 15, 2021, at 1:26 PM, Kostina, Victoria <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Dear EE faculty, >> >> The proposal below modifies the order in which faculty will see graduate >> application materials in the pdf file that is generated by the CollegeNET >> system. 6 options have already supported the change. Please let me know if >> you have concerns. >> >> Best, >> Victoria >> >> >> >> >>> Begin forwarded message: >>> >>> From: Andrew Thompson <[email protected]> >>> Subject: Graduate application format >>> Date: October 13, 2021 at 9:53:35 PM PDT >>> To: Graduate Office <[email protected]>, "Gilmore, Natalie" >>> <[email protected]>, "Dalton, Jacob R." <[email protected]>, "Chan, >>> David C." <[email protected]>, "Peterson, Darrell" <[email protected]>, >>> "Koehne, Tobias" <[email protected]>, "Li, Melissa" <[email protected]>, >>> "Austin, Joanna M." <[email protected]>, "Schroeder, Peter" >>> <[email protected]>, "Lapusta, Nadia" <[email protected]>, "Faraon, >>> Andrei" <[email protected]>, "Clemons, William M." <[email protected]>, >>> "Cai, Long" <[email protected]>, "Prober, David" <[email protected]>, >>> "Giapis, Konstantinos P." <[email protected]>, "Stoltz, Brian M." >>> <[email protected]>, "Siapas, Athanassios G. (Thanos)" >>> <[email protected]>, "Vidick, Thomas G." <[email protected]>, "Yue, >>> Yisong" <[email protected]>, "Ames, Aaron D." <[email protected]>, "Kostina, >>> Victoria" <[email protected]>, "Schneider, Tapio" <[email protected]>, >>> "Faber, Katherine T." <[email protected]>, "Graber, Thomas B." >>> <[email protected]>, "Wang, Lihong" <[email protected]>, "Lester, Henry >>> A." <[email protected]>, "Patterson, Ryan B." <[email protected]>, >>> "O'Doherty, John P." <[email protected]>, "Hirsch, Alexander V. (Alex)" >>> <[email protected]>, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >>> >>> Hi GSC'ers, >>> >>> At the end of our meeting today, I raised a question about whether it is >>> possible to modify the order in which application material is presented in >>> our online system (CollegeNET) and/or in a downloaded .pdf package. >>> Following literature on admissions best practices, it has been suggested >>> that reading personal statements and letters of recommendation prior to >>> receiving information about test scores, nationality, gender, race, >>> undergraduate institution, etc. can reduce unconscious bias. >>> >>> It appears that this change, if desired, would need to be implemented by >>> all options at Caltech. I propose the following order (but happy to have >>> suggestions for modifications): >>> >>> • Personal statement >>> • CV >>> • Letters of recommendation >>> • Personal Information >>> • GPA / Test scores / Fellowship applications >>> • Transcripts >>> >>> Natalie and Nadia, please advise how/if we can move this proposal forward. >>> >>> Thanks for your time, >>> Andy >>> >>> -- >>> -- >>> Andrew Thompson (he/him/his) >>> Environmental Science and Engineering >>> California Institute of Technology >>> MC 131-24 >>> Pasadena, CA 91125 >>> >>> e: [email protected] >>> p: +1 626-395-8345 >>> w: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~andrewt >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> eefaculty mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >
