Selecting Universities

Posted by the Monk as Uncategorized

How do you go about selecting universities for a PhD app? To a large extent, the first thing to do is ignore the rankings within the top 25 and focus on the research that is being carried out in your field of interest. If you’re applying after your B.Tech, you will not be expected to be very specific in your field of interest; for example, it will be enough to mention operations research, with applications in supply chain management as your field of interest. You can, if you want, go on to add that you would prefer to work specifically in the use of RFID in SCM. The next step would be to find faculty working in this area in each university you’re interested in. This is the hard part- you will need to trawl the webpages of each university, find faculty you’d like to work with and shoot them an email giving them a little information about your background, describe relevant research experience only, express interest in their work and request them to get back to you if they like your profile. Oh, and also enclose a copy of your resume.

Faculty who like your profile are almost certain to get back to you, and if they are particularly encouraging, go ahead and apply to that university. A word of caution, though, before applying: best to email students from that university, tell them about your correspondence with that professor and ask them about your chances given the situation and your profile. If the reply is positive, then I suppose you can go ahead and apply. Finally, I suggest applying to 8-10 universities, with the usual division into ambitious, moderate and safe apps.

The previous sentence was a little misleading, in that almost no university can be described as a ’safe bet’ for a PhD app. To a large extent, your admit chances depend a good deal on luck or, in other words, being in the right place at the right time. This is because the PhD admit decisions are generally made by:

a.) Comparing your profile against those of the pool of applicants in your area of interest.

b.) Since most PhD admits generally come with funding, it involves economic commitment by the department on the student’s behalf. Therefore this decision depends on whether the professors you’re interested in need PhD students in the first place, they like your profile, and if the above two criteria are satisfied, they have the funds to support you. In some cases, especially if the student has applied directly after his/her B.Tech, the PhD admit may not come with funding. In this case, you’re expected to land there, demonstrate your capability and your commitment towards a PhD, and then start working with a professor who’s willing to take you on board his research team.

Alright, let’s move on to selecting universities for an MS app. I expect junta interested in apping would have identified an area within their B.Tech stream that they would like to specialize in. The thing to do now is to compile your resume- if not in the exact format, at least a draft or a two-page document that consolidates all academic information (your CGPA, your area of interest, research experience, test scores, programming languages and software applications known, academic honours, etc). Now, based on your research interests, take up the US News rankings, look at the top 30 or so, and select about 15-20 universities, after making sure they have a reasonable amount of research being carried out in your specialization. This can be done by looking up the websites of the concerned department, identifying professors working in your area of interest, and reading through their recent publications.

While faculty are much more likely to reply to prospective PhD students, it doesn’t hurt to follow the same procedure for an MS app as well. You never know, you might get lucky, and be able to secure some funding before you land in the US. In case you do not receive a single encouraging reply, just email current students at the university and ask them to a.) evaluate your chances of getting an admit, b.) secure funding after a semester or so of studying there, and c.) the internship/job scenario, in case you do not plan to continue for a PhD.

So, finally, based on the replies you get, whittle your list of 15-20 down to around 8-10, adding and deleting universities from the list as you get your replies. And then app. :)

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May 23, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized 

Comments

One Response to “Selecting Universities”

  1. Msk on May 23rd, 2008 6:05 pm

    Are we supposed to mail to profs for MS degree also or only for PhD are we to contact professors ?

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