Graduate School

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Basics

  • GPA: US 3.0 average ; MPhil top 15%

  • IELTS/TOFEL

  • take GRE now than later (before expiration

  • extra curricular

  • Research

  • Full time work experience
    Drastically different Job experience helps u know what u lack
    Not required

  • PS motivation essay

  • Recommendation letters
    2 to 3 Profs, FYP advisor
    Boss in internship

    better recommendation is no rush

    ask prof A about UROP
    ask prof B about FYP
    and list what you have done

  • Timing
    For Overseas Dec

Selecting school

  • Academic strength

    ​ - not most important

  • Size of school

  • Location

    ​ extremely important - working possibility
    ​ Local a bit low rank > better school far away

  • Work permit / visa limitation

    ​ US hard

  • language barrier - considering EU schools

  • funding
    For US
    TPG Msc Including MBA
    RPG Mphil Phd 50% working, with payment from boss, requirement higher

    For UK
    Science PHD 3-4 yrs but have to pay

Changing fields
eg ECON phd

Rank - Reach - Possible - Safety

Personal Statement

DO NOT write our your life story
separate doc research plan for RPG
not necessarily account for the dream and future you promise

  • WHY you want them

    ​ school, prof, program, why is it UNIQUE

  • WHY they want you

Tips package

Before

  • Do well
  • Cultivate relationships for recommendation
  • Standardized tests
  • Relevant extra curricular activities, internships, research
  • Research for school choice

During

  • Plan time
  • Engage your recommenders early
  • Strategize and finalize school choice

After

  • Explore plan B
  • others…

Faculty Sharing

210211 Faculty Sharing & 201013 CBE alumni sharing

US

STEM 3yrs can work without working visa(using study visa)
H1B working visa
connect alumni
green card (lottery stopped recently)
networking important
CB2 national interest waiver(hk born only)

help to phd:- publication

Tennessee English is a different thing

our school sent 3 students to mit

1 year master

Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering are department are quite resourceful and rich. (But sometimes means that limited quota)

form of scholarship:

  1. 1 year without a topic
  2. 1 year TA before research
  3. direct graduate researcher

If MSc is affordable, it is also a good choice(either msc->phd, or find job with msc)

European

UK is similar to US

Continent quite different.

top application pool. local students don’t do phd.

our school very good chance

good ranking, international

MSc first tough: course + research

scholarship: no need to worry

phd application is more like job application.

不一定要看申请季和周期，看job vacancy（可能只有两三个月的时间）, start earlier, topic been fixed

europe phd is not program-based not

research experience to msc program

academictransfer.com

Master is still school based and student type.

local language is not that necessary especially countries above Switzerland

many Iran students(since they cannot go to US) with many academic output

MEng more internship (into industry)

early days

material science engineering is everything

PhD

1月-3月,及时约时间

30min-1h 教授面试：学术

POI，学生面试：宽泛，性格

前半程：学校问问题

后半程：自己问问题

  1. Introduce yourself/tell me about yourself?
    亮点，不要流水账，经历如何让你申请phd，如何支撑phd需要的知识，不要回答个人爱好（个人爱好->职业研究)

  2. What did you study

    介绍自己过去学过的课程技能研究方法，research method, critical thinking skill

  3. What are your research interest

    浓缩research statement，大胆说1-3个想法，说一些可能解决方法，可以很粗糙，可以不特定，creativity

  4. Why do you want to pursue a PhD degree

    对职业发展有什么道路，不要回答消极

    e.g. 目前知识水平不足以解释问题，想要解决问题

  5. Why did you choose us

    学校官网，学校所有信息，最新颖的点，找出这个项目最特别的点。地理no，教授教学资源ok

  6. Why are you a good fit for the program

    沟通技巧领导力

  7. What do you plan after you complete your phd

    phd学习如何帮忙达成职业目标

  8. Tell us a research project you are excited about. What do you think is the most important thing in this field today?

  9. How did you hear about this program

    Google搜排名no，paper搜索ok，认识教授ok，看教授演讲

  10. What have you been reading?

    最好是学术相关的书籍和paper（看是不是持续学习的人）

申请五阶段

  1. 9月前，准备考试，联系推荐信教授，了解项目
  2. 9-11月：套磁噢，提前发邮件联系和自己研究兴趣方向一致的教授，看两篇paper/教授，教授很忙要有心理准备，大概只有三分之一回复不要灰心，如果第一次没有理就过两周再发一次、持久战，利用学校资源，不建议太早（4月5月太早了）
  3. 11月-1月：提交申请（transcript, CB, Statement of Purpose, PS, Diversity Statement，忌讳错别字)
  4. 1月-2月：interview（注意时差），不陶瓷几乎不可能有面试
  5. 2月-5月：offer， funding, I20

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ei4y1j79w?

  • 欧洲phd更像工作申请，教授作用>>学校，没有固定申请季，收简历动机，硬件没有美国那么重要，面试最重要
  • CV
  • PS（不要千篇一律）
  • 推荐信不一定（而是reference list，有dr头衔的业内人士，业界大佬可能太忙不一定有作用）
  • 成绩单（教授对国内了解不深，qs top50而已，甚至清华北大都不知道）
  • 本科很难直博，必须要硕士学位

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1o5411L7aX?share_source=copy_web

英国一般没有奖学金