Admissions
I have been sitting in on the admissions meetings for the architecture department all week.
We go through all the materials that students submit for consideration: portfolios, transcripts, essays, and recommendations.
Our faculty always take recommendations with a grain of salt.
For one thing, students coming from Europe always have worse recommendations and we always have to think of their ratings has being a few points higher than stated because European instructors have a much harder time giving out praise than their American counterparts.
Having studied in Europe and in the U.S., I can vouch that this is true; Americans are much more comfortable celebrating the successes of others and prefer to motivate via carrot than via stick.
We go through all the materials that students submit for consideration: portfolios, transcripts, essays, and recommendations.
Our faculty always take recommendations with a grain of salt.
For one thing, students coming from Europe always have worse recommendations and we always have to think of their ratings has being a few points higher than stated because European instructors have a much harder time giving out praise than their American counterparts.
Having studied in Europe and in the U.S., I can vouch that this is true; Americans are much more comfortable celebrating the successes of others and prefer to motivate via carrot than via stick.
Comments