What the Faculty Naming Check Checks
This rubric looks at how clearly your stated academic or career direction connects to the people, research areas, resources, methods, or training structure you cite at a program. It supports both approaches: naming faculty, labs, or groups when you can explain the fit, or showing fit through program features without naming anyone. It also checks that your claims about people, programs, and contact are supported by what you actually describe.
What We Check
Whether every faculty member, lab, or research group the draft names carries a visible reason for being there.
Whether a draft that names no faculty still shows a reader why this program fits its stated direction.
Whether the program connections a draft claims agree with the direction it states and with each other.
Mistakes We Flag
- Names added only for praise
- Naming a faculty member, lab, or group as renowned or saying it would be an honor to work with them does not show why their work fits your own direction. Explain the relevant work and its connection to your questions, methods, results, or goals.
- A list of names with one generic reason
- Several names grouped under a reason that could apply to any of them can look interchangeable. Keep the people whose work you can discuss separately and give each a specific reason.
- Repeating the program catalog
- Listing courses, facilities, or research areas in the program's language does not explain what you would do with them. Connect the feature to a question, method, or goal in your statement.
- A fit paragraph that could go anywhere
- If the same paragraph could be used for another program by changing its name, it does not show a program-specific reason for applying. Identify a feature the program provides and explain how you would use it.
- Unclear or unsupported connections
- A cited person, resource, or program claim should relate to the direction you state and to the other connections in the essay. Do not imply contact, an agreement, mentorship, or acceptance unless you describe an exchange that actually occurred.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to name faculty members in my statement?
No. The rubric recognizes that programs differ: some ask applicants to name faculty, while others treat admission as applying to a department rather than to one person. You can show fit through research areas, resources, methods, or program structure instead.
If I name a professor or lab, what should I include?
State what the person, lab, or group works on and explain how it connects to your own questions, methods, results, or stated direction. Titles, rank, reputation, or praise alone do not establish that connection.
Can I mention rankings or reputation as a reason for applying?
You can cite program features such as an area, method, resource, or requirement, but ranking, size, or reputation should not be the only reason you give for applying.
Can I say that I have contacted a faculty member?
Only describe contact, correspondence, an agreement, mentorship, or acceptance when you can state the occasion on which it happened and describe the exchange. Do not imply an arrangement that has not occurred.
Review this one dimension of your own essay closely. Free lens feedback uses your draft as written and does not predict an admissions decision.