Yeah, admissions is complicated. And writing “you likely won’t get accepted to EAG if you don’t look impressive enough” is a vast simplification. In reality I imagine that it is some nebulous combination of traditional impressiveness, EA-specific impressiveness, and potential future contribution (all from the perspective of the admissions team). But like many things in life, I’m guessing that the decisions often come down to judgement calls, rather than strict and clear decision tree.
In a vague parallel to university admissions, there isn’t a simply standard or algorithm (such as “a function of high school grades and standardized test scores”), and instead it is really a judgement call for each individual applicant. In another parallel to university admissions, sometimes the star trombone player is graduating and the school really needs a good trombone player. I imagine similarly, there are priorities for EA conferences that aren’t transparent/visible to the public: maybe the person doing X will be resigning soon, so there is a big push to nurture more talent doing X to find a replacement.
Yeah, admissions is complicated. And writing “you likely won’t get accepted to EAG if you don’t look impressive enough” is a vast simplification. In reality I imagine that it is some nebulous combination of traditional impressiveness, EA-specific impressiveness, and potential future contribution (all from the perspective of the admissions team). But like many things in life, I’m guessing that the decisions often come down to judgement calls, rather than strict and clear decision tree.
In a vague parallel to university admissions, there isn’t a simply standard or algorithm (such as “a function of high school grades and standardized test scores”), and instead it is really a judgement call for each individual applicant. In another parallel to university admissions, sometimes the star trombone player is graduating and the school really needs a good trombone player. I imagine similarly, there are priorities for EA conferences that aren’t transparent/visible to the public: maybe the person doing X will be resigning soon, so there is a big push to nurture more talent doing X to find a replacement.