It almost seems like it is entirely the program that decides whether you get accepted or not, where in undergrad you had to make a conscious effort to try to get into the university AND the program. Am I right in any of this?
Short answer: absolutely. For most (US) undergrad, admissions is evaluating a group of relatively undifferentiated 18 year olds. For most grad programs the people making the decision are evaluating field-specific differentiation to determine ability / suitability.
Longer answer: for most (US) undergrad applications, the university admissions office decides who is accepted. For some programs the program decides (either separately or in conjunction with the university); common examples are engineering, architecture, CS, BME, dual degree programs.
In most other countries undergraduate admissions is a straight numbers game: you have the right marks or you don’t, and there are no other elements (LoRs, ECs, etc).
In the UK, admissions is by department/program, because you study a set program and they want to be sure that you are able for the subject. At the extreme end, Oxford and Cambridge give specialized admissions tests by subject, and use intensive, academically based interviews with subject-specific professors as the final step in the selection process, making the process more similar to US grad school admissions.
For most grad schools the decision is at the school/program level, but there is often a university level admissions office to handle the paperwork (esp for Masters programs and ‘professional’ programs such as medicine and law). For grad programs that require specific talents (music, art, theatre), and all PhD research degrees, the actual admissions decision is typically by the program/department, as they are the ones with the expertise to make the decision.
What I’m confused about is the fact that my university application has options to send in purpose statements and LORs but I know my program also requires these. Should I be sending two LORs for each school, one for the school, and one for the program? Should I be tailoring my mission statement to depend on whether it’s the school application or the program application? If only the people at the specific program are going to be reviewing it, then can I skip the LOR and purpose statement parts of the app, because I know I’m going to have to submit it during the separate program application?
Graduate school admissions are far less standardized and can differ greatly between schools. With undergrad, all applications generally go through the “office of undergraduate admissions” or something similar. With graduate schools they may go straight to the department, to the office of graduate admissions, both, or something else entirely.
This depends on the school and their requirements. EVERY school will have specific requirements listed on their website for how you complete the application; review those carefully and follow them, and you should be good.
Very generally speaking for U.S. admissions, for academic programs - MA/MSs and PhDs - the university application is applying to both the university/school AND the department/program, but the department/program is the one making the decision about whether or not to admit you. The graduate school/university is involved only to the extent that they verify you are actually eligible to study for a graduate degree at the school. So they may have veto power in certain situations, but usually they defer to the faculty to pick the best students for their own programs.
For professional programs - MPH, MPP, MBA, etc. - there’s usually an admissions office at the school (e.g., School of Business, School of Public Health, etc.) that handles admissions for those programs. So admissions professionals are the ones reviewing your application, not faculty members.
So let’s say you are applying to an MA in sociology. You will use the application that they link to from their website. It is very likely that there is ONE application for all the MA programs across the university. This preserves uniformity and branding. However, you are still applying for the MA in sociology, so you need to provide whatever they say and no more. So you don’t need to provide a separate set of LORs for the university or a separate statement - if your program requires 3 letters of recommendation and one personal statement, then all you need to send is 3 letters of recommendation and one personal statement. But don’t skip them, either - the university will send the entire packet straight to the program, so do what the application asks you to do.
To that end, you should be tailoring your personal statement to whatever you’re applying for. If you are applying for an academic program like an MA in sociology, then tailor your statement towards the department and the faculty in the department. But that doesn’t mean you can’t mention features of the university and school as well that appeal to you, as long as they are relevant to studying sociology. If you are applying for a professional program like an MPP, your statement will be tailored towards the school and the program as a whole, but that doesn’t mean you can’t mention specific departments and professors as they make sense.
The tl;dr is do what the application asks you to do. Read the website and follow the directions.