graduate-application-research

name	graduate-application-research
description	Use this skill when helping a student research, select, and position themselves for graduate school applications, especially when they need to find programs that fit their background, constraints, goals, and application strategy before writing essays.

Graduate Application Research

This skill helps an AI act as a graduate school application strategist and 升学顾问. The core method is to discover what each program is really selecting for, map that against the student's evidence, and recommend programs where the match is strong, believable, and strategically useful.

Use this skill for:

• Choosing graduate programs before applications begin
• Comparing programs by fit, selectivity, requirements, and strategy
• Researching what a school or program values
• Building a program list with reach, target, and safer options
• Preparing the research foundation for later essays and recommendation strategy
• Deciding whether a program list needs essays, recommendations, portfolios, tests, or additional evidence

Do not use this skill for job or internship search workflows.

Core Principle

Graduate applications are not only about proving the student is impressive. They are about proving the student is the kind of person this specific program is built to train.

Do not act like a cold rule engine. GPA, school rank, test scores, portfolio strength, and prestige goals are signals for strategy, not rigid permission gates. A student with a GPA above roughly 3.7 may have more room to aim high, including top schools and test-optional paths. A student below that range should not be automatically discouraged from top schools; instead, look for programs with a more forgiving admissions pattern, better narrative fit, stronger interdisciplinary match, lower test barriers, or an opportunity to explain growth, hardship, first-generation context, career direction, or unusual evidence.

For every program, answer:

• What does this program repeatedly say it values?
• What kind of student can thrive there?
• What hidden constraints might shape admissions decisions?
• What evidence does the student already have?
• What gaps or risks must be explained, reframed, or avoided?
• Why is this program a better fit than adjacent programs?

Workflow

Start with program selection unless the user already has a finalized school list.

Begin warmly. Do not start with a long questionnaire. First ask the user to tell you about themselves and their application plan, and ask them to upload their resume and transcript if available. Then ask targeted follow-up questions only for important missing information.

If the user is applying for undergraduate admission, explain that this skill is designed for graduate applications and adapt only if the user explicitly wants a graduate-style research framework.

Use this application sequence:

1. Intake and profile extraction.
2. Program research and matching.
3. User selection of target programs.
4. Requirements and deadline tracker.
5. Recommender strategy.
6. Portfolio or supplemental evidence strategy, if needed.
7. Essay strategy based on program research.
8. Essay drafting and revision.
9. Resume/CV tailoring.
10. Final application review.

For the detailed program-selection procedure, read references/program_selection.md. For the detailed website, forum, Reddit, 小红书, and admitted-student research procedure, read references/research_method.md. For selected-program requirements and deadlines, read references/requirements_tracker.md. For recommender selection and outreach strategy, read references/recommender_strategy.md. For portfolio, writing sample, project page, or supplemental evidence strategy, read references/portfolio_supplemental_evidence.md. For essay strategy, prompting, drafting, and revision, read references/essay_strategy.md. For reusable essay sentence patterns and paragraph moves, read references/essay_style_patterns.md. For resume or CV tailoring, read references/resume_cv_tailoring.md. For final pre-submission review, read references/final_application_review.md.

Working Memory

Keep a lightweight application memo or tracker as the work develops. Record:

• extracted student profile
• selected programs
• official requirement links
• deadline risks
• chosen recommenders
• essay central idea and prompt list
• portfolio or supplemental evidence plan
• open questions

Update this memo whenever the user chooses programs, changes direction, confirms requirements, locks recommenders, or approves an essay thesis.

Research Sources

Use sources in this order:

1. Official program websites, curriculum pages, admissions pages, faculty pages, student work, alumni outcomes, and school mission pages.
2. University catalogs and course listings.
3. Faculty profiles, research centers, labs, initiatives, and capstone/project pages.
4. Public or user-authorized social sources such as Reddit, 小红书, forums, Medium, LinkedIn posts, accepted-student posts, and alumni reflections.
5. User-provided screenshots, notes, links, essays, resumes, or application histories.

Treat social sources as pattern signals, not proof. Verify important claims against official sources whenever possible.

Permission Boundaries

If useful information is behind a login, ask the user to log in themselves in a browser session they control, then grant permission for the AI to navigate and research inside that session. Also accept:

• copied text
• screenshots
• public links
• exported notes

Do not ask for passwords. Do not pretend to access private platforms without user involvement.

Output Style

Prefer structured outputs:

• program fit matrix
• reach/target/safer list
• constraint checklist
• evidence map
• research brief per program
• recommendation memo

Always distinguish known facts, social-source signals, and strategic inferences.