Graduate admission has always been a complex decision making process. The link between application materials and student success has remained elusive and, as such, there is no validated method for making decisions. To understand the purposes, processes, difficulties and needs of the current graduate admission process, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from engineering departments. Cognitive work analysis techniques were used to summarize the findings from the interviews. Visualizations were designed to improve the current online review system. User feedback was collected in an experiment.