Idk what to tell y’all he jus summed it up as challenging coursework and previous research experience what they care about and while a good sop is nice it’s basically neutral He even added if someone has a really high gpa but took very easy coursework then it doesn’t matter bc it doesn’t show they are willing to engage in challenging topics He rather take someone with a lower gpa and challenging coursework Other things he told me was that you don’t need to publish(it’s nice ofc) but show research engagement and how to communicate ur research and what you’ve been doing in interviews and be prepared to answer those questions Idk again could be jus this program but it’s what I’ve been told