The Dean for Graduate Education has assembled a Committee on Graduate Admissions (CGA) with the motivation, charge, process and membership detailed below.

Motivation

During the 2011-2012 academic year, the Institute began a transition to an all-electronic graduate admissions software platform developed by Professors Frans M. Kaashoek and Robert T. Morris in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). A project team consisting of the EECS faculty developers, Information Services and Technology (IS&T), the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE), and the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education (DUE) was formed to carry out implementation of the transition. For the fall 2011 admissions in-take, ten graduate programs were included in this transition: Biology; Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Chemical Engineering; Chemistry; Civil Engineering; Computational and Systems Biology; Engineering Systems Division; Mechanical Engineering; Microbiology; and Physics. Enormous improvements and relief have already been realized for these graduate programs. In addition to the new graduate programs being transitioned, Mathematics, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Computation for Design and Optimization, and EECS, have continued to utilize the EECS platform, which they had in place prior to AY12. As recommended by the Task Force on Improving Graduate Admissions Processes, the Dean for Graduate Education has assembled a Committee on Graduate Admissions (CGA) whose charge is detailed below.

Charge

The CGA will serve as the primary Institute body for review and oversight of the graduate admissions transition to the EECS platform. The CGA will periodically review, discuss and provide feedback and recommendations to the project team on the all-electronic graduate admissions system including, for example; individual graduate program transitions, customization, maintenance, enhancements, integration with Institute enterprise systems, and student information privacy considerations (in consultation with relevant committees such as the Committee on Student Information Policy).

Process

The CGA will coordinate meetings between transitioned departments to exchange information on the transition and also will carry out research by interviewing the transitioned departments individually.

Reporting

The chair of the CGA will meet with the graduate admissions project team biannually (2012-2013) to report out their findings and provide recommendations.