We will use a 4-step process to review applications:
- Eligibility Screening: An initial screening will the self-reported demographics and undergrad transcripts to ensure eligibility.
- Nomination Process: Next, the research statements and personal statements will be separated from the rest of the application and sent to a subset of SROP Faculty Members who are serving as reviewers. Applications will be reviewed by two reviewers each. Faculty reviewers read both statements and make a binary yes/no rating as to whether they wanted to “nominate” the student for the full program, based on whether they felt inspired by the statements.
- Stratified Lottery: A random lottery will be used to select the 15 funded spots from among the nominated applications, stratified by priority groups. Within domestic applicants, Indigenous applicants get the highest priority, then Black applicants, and then all BIPOC applicants. If there are remaining spots, then we will extend the lottery to the international applicants. Please see this longer description of why we prioritized Indigenous and Black students and domestic applicants.
- Mentor Review: The selected applicants will be matched with SROP Faculty, trying to give each student their top-ranked Faculty Mentor. We try to maximize the student’s ranking while keeping the distributions across our sites in mind. Once the selected students are matched with an SROP Faculty Mentor, then the Student’s research statement, personal statement, and letters of recommendation will be shared with the faculty member. The Faculty Mentor reviews the materials and affirms their willingness to mentor the student.
| Step in Selection Process | Application Components Used in this Step | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eligibility Screening | Demographics, Undergrad transcripts |
| 2 | Nomination Process | Research statement, Personal statement |
| 3 | Stratified Lottery | Nominations, Demographics |
| 4 | Mentor Review | Research statement, Personal statement, Letters of Recommendation |
Decision letters will be sent on April 10, 2023. All students who passed the initial screening will be given access to the Application Building Program, The Application Building Program provides online content during the 8-weeks of the program that will help develop application materials for PhD programs.