Azhir Mahmood  🚀 🤖 🧬 🧠 🪐

I’m not saying @fadeladib is descriptively wrong, but prescriptively, this is wrong. Letter of rec and grades serve only to raise red flags, and otherwise tell me nothing about an applicant. For @ucl_dark applicants, @_rockt and I don’t even read them or ask for them. (1/2)https://twitter.com/fadeladib/status/1353020072885940224 …

The research proposal and the ability to justify/defend it + explain how you’d go about it is far more important. Being able to critically discuss relevant work in that area comes second. These are (some of) the skills you need to do a PhD, not knowing the right people. (2/2)

This seems to be where admissions might and probably should differ, probably because it's MS/PhD vs PhD (after MS). Assessing students based on proposals heavily emphasizes their background and research they've been exposed to, but LoRs/grades demonstrate potential 1/2

I don’t really agree. Students will select referees who will give a good reference. American referees will typically write deeply laudatory letters, whereas other countries’ don’t have this habit and it’s therefore hard to calibrate.

I agree that US letters are more laudatory than UK. Reviewers who have served for years know that and calibrate to it. It is hard to calibrate, which is why I agree that interviews are important

UK profs are slowly playing catch up here, but surely you agree that calibration is hard, and that this leads to systemic (if involuntary) discrimination against applicants from less economically favoured countries where faculty may be even less prepped on how to “play the game”.

100%, and I see that US committees are trying to implement new approaches each year to reduce systemic involuntary bias, but more needs to be done, and we're far from being there yet