As of 2024, the admissions committee no longer has access to applicant race/ethnicity information.

Fall 2024 Memo:

In order to foster a more diverse graduate student body, a member of the DEI committee is appointed to the GAC, charged with ensuring we have a fair and equitable admissions process. 

  • The sector admissions meetings are where we have to pay most attention to our efforts to diversify the grad student population, but also in the initial GAC reads.  
  • The grad program administrator assigns all folders from Black, Hispanic, female candidates and other candidates we want to recruit to two regular GAC members and one of the DEI committee members, so these folders get three initial reads. 
  • The DEI members of the GAC read their folders more or less as normal, paying careful attention to Black, Hispanic, female candidates and other candidates we want to recruit. 
  • We do not evaluate these folders in a substantially different way than normal, but the DEI committee member keeps a separate list of those candidates who we think might not necessarily be at the top of the candidate pool, but are strong. 
  • At the respective sector admissions meetings, the DEI members work to ensure we aren't admitting weaker students. 
  • If there is an argument to admit a candidate from lower down the overall pool of candidates, there needs to be a very strong reason in the room, why that weaker candidate should be admitted over someone off the DEI lists. 

Fall 2020 Memo:

As part of an ongoing effort to increase the diversity of our graduate student population in AeroAstro, the following efforts, both new and ongoing are happening as part of the Fall 2020 cycle:

  • The women/URM "high speed lane" at the GAC level remains in effect, where these candidates are moved forward to non-GAC Faculty  review more quickly
  • Sector-level Admissions meetings review of our portfolio of Admits&Waitlist at the end of each meeting to focus on women/URM in this context, also remains in effect
  • Recruitment efforts in conjunction with Office of Minority Education and OGE Diversity Initiatives are ongoing by the Grad Administrator, including sending admissions materials to conferences and reaching out to contacts obtained at conferences and via national databases with program information

  • We have recently added our AeroAstro Diversity Statements many places in our materials and online, including on the AeroAstro website, and the Graduate Application itself
  • New for the 2020 cycle - Over the summer our recommended GPA and GRE score range were removed from the AeroAstro website, deemphasizing the message that only top scoring students would be admissible to our Graduate Program
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