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Hi guys! In this post I’ll be sharing with you my journey of applying to grad school.

Its July and you’re in your seventh semester. Coursework isn’t taking it easy on you and campus placement doesn’t seem to be your cup of tea. You feel you need to start thinking of what next as otherwise next summer is termed “unemployment” and not “vacation”. Days and weeks go by as you realize this inevitable truth until one day you decide its time to give some serious thinking about this issue. And so, you delve into thought for what seems to be ages and in a sudden moment of enlightenment you figure; I might as well keep studying. Why don’t I apply to graduate school?

Hurray! Your hardships have borne fruit. You are going to apply for graduate studies. So, now all you have to do is…. wait… what exactly? Where should you start? How should you decide on the universities? What all documents do you need for applying? Will you mess this up?

Everyone who decides to apply to graduate will pass through the above phase, a feeling of being overwhelmed by the things to take care of, a feeling of not knowing where to start and when to finish things. While the task is certainly not an insurmountable one, it sure helps to have some guidance along the way. I’ve seen a lot of people (including myself) who surf the net, enquire with seniors etc. to know when to do what and how it should be done. So rather than let you go through that, I’ve tried to make this a comprehensive guide which takes you through the entire application process. Being a long post, I’ve split it into two parts.

Before you continue reading, please take note of the following.

For convenience, I’ve assumed that you will be applying in the Fall Semester for which the application portals will open around October. In case you are applying in the Spring Semester, just offset the timeline appropriately.
The content of this post is more appropriate for candidates looking to pursue research for their graduate studies. While coursework based application is very similar, all the details within a section may not exactly be applicable.

Deciding on the type of graduate program

Before we have a look at the application process, its necessary to know the choices available for graduate studies. Every university will usually offer two types of graduate programs, Master’s (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

MS programs further fall into two categories, namely, Coursework based and Research based.

Coursework based. These only require taking up courses and confers an MS in the area of specialization after completion. The experience will be similar to your Undergraduate studies and may sometimes include a capstone project at the end. If you are interested in specializing in a particular area (e.g. VLSI in electronics) with the sole outcome of working in a company after graduation, you should go for this.
Research based. Its similar to the coursework, except that you would work on a research topic and submit a master’s thesis to graduate. In case you are not sure whether to go ahead to do PhD or work in a company, this is the type of MS to consider.

PhD, is a research intensive course which prepares you to be an independent researcher. This requires a considerable amount of time to complete under a professor who will supervise your work. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a Master’s to be eligible for a PhD (except in European universities). Most programs allow direct admission once you complete your Undergraduate studies, although its tougher to get in this way. At the end of this you can either go for a post doctoral position (if you want to enter academia) or you can look into research positions in companies. To know more about how a PhD will be you can check out this amazing article.

Notes & Tips

I’ve just suggested the most common opportunities after each degree. One might look into other creative ways such as startups etc.

Deciding on the School

The next thing to know is how to select the universities to apply to. The first and foremost rule is,

Look at the Research; Not just the Rankings.

Its a common misconception that schools with the higher rankings are better ones. This is not true because rankings take a lot of other factors into consideration. They can help give an overall picture of the value the degree from the university and opportunities for work after graduation.

If you are going for research, you should instead look at whether the faculty and their ongoing research pertains to your interests. For this, take the department of choice in your school. Search for faculty in your area of interest and check their personal pages. Some professors may have outdated web pages. So, go through their recent publications (last 5 years or so) to identify their current interests and if they are active in the field. You can use Google Scholar, DBLP, arxiv etc. for this purpose. The h-index and i-10 index can also serve as a rough guide to find active and renowned professors.

Academics aside, you should also look at other things like the finanical requirements and job opportunities. Ivy league universities incur a high cost as compared to public ones. The location of the university will also affect the cost. For e.g. in US, Texas universities are lower in cost compared to California ones. In case you are planning to work, job prospects are equally important. For this you should look at the companies which come for job fairs and ties/research grants professors have with the industry as these will help you land a job easily.

Another unsaid rule in the application process is,

Be Ambitious. Be Moderate. Be safe

That means, let’s say you apply to 10 schools. You must assess your chances of getting into a school based on your profile, profiles of people who got in last year and any other legit sources and segregate your schools into three categories, Ambitious, Moderate and Safe. Out of the 10, keep atleast 3 or 4 safe ones, 2 or 3 moderate ones and the rest can be ambitious. As they say, its better safe than sorry.

Application Documents

Alright, let’s get down to business. Every application will require the following documents to be submitted within the specified deadline. Some are more important than the other and so have been arranged in the decreasing order of importance.

Publications
Letter of Recommendation
Statement of Purpose, Personal Statement
Grades
Standard Tests
Resume

1) Publications

This is an optional, but if present, the most valuable part of your application. Having a publication is testament to your ability to do effective research. To make the point clear, if you have a publication, you have a flush. Royal or Straight depends on impact factor of the conference or journal.

In reality however, this is more of an unsaid necessity today in case you are applying for research based programs. Nowadays, even undergrad applicants have a publication or two under their sleeve which separates them from the rest of the crowd. Thus, the take away is that you should try and get a publication out of your research.

2) Letter of Recommendation

The second most important part of your application is the Letter of Recommendation (LOR). This is because it is the only way the graduate committee knows what ever you wrote is true. A good recommendation from a known professor in the field can even overshadow some deficiencies in your application. Every application requires this and usually ask for 3 recommendations (2 in some cases). Its best to split them in the following ratio.

Home University (1) + Place of Internship (2)

The home university professor’s LOR should in general address your classroom participation, academic aptitude, co-curriculars etc. and hence is mandatory. The letter from your place of intern should showcase your research ability or project handling capacity. Its good to have at least one from where you interned. However, in the event you haven’t interned or you did only one internship, its fine if you get the remaining one from your home university as well.

There are two types of professors with regards to LOR. Those who draft their own and those who let you draft it!

The first category knows your work firsthand and will be able to give a true account of it. This is usually the best (and right) way given you had done commendable work under their guidance. If you haven’t then its best you Don’t ask these professors as there is nothing more fatal than a bad recommendation.

If you fall in the next case, there’s nothing to worry about. I wrote all three of my recommendations! You’ll just have to write your own recommendation but from the professor’s shoes.

Professors usually have a lot going on. They have conferences, research meetings, proposal submissions, teaching etc. This means that your LOR is not their first priority. Moreover, just like your request, they will receive similar ones from several other students. So inform them well in advance that you will need an LOR so that they accept and have ample time to draft the letter. Also, as the deadline approaches, periodically remind them to upload the LOR if they haven’t done so as there is a high chance they may have forgotten about it.

Another hurdle faced while getting LOR’s is the limit that a professor may put on the number of LOR’s that he/she can provide. There’s no way out of this but to intelligently split your sources as is beneficial for your application. For e.g. If you did an internship under a well known professor you can use their LOR’s for your best applications.

Notes & Tips

Note on LOR

For better idea on how LOR’s should be, have a look at this excellent article by Prof. Terrence Sim.
Some applications have a form based LOR to be filled. This can be quite tedious for the professor if they don't know you well. So if you are making the answers, tailor them accordingly and provide them to the professor.

Tips on Writing your own LOR

Its fine to praise yourself but don’t overdo it. You should be an exceptional candidate, not a flawless one.
Don't explicitly mention your weaknesses in the LOR.

3) Statement of Purpose

The Statement of Purpose (SOP) is basically your message to the graduate committee to let them know why they should accept you for their program.

The abstract flow of a good SOP will contain:

What are the problems you hope to address in your research.
How your research/ work has prepared you for this.
Why do you want to pursue graduate studies.
Why this specific program is apt for you.

Let’s look at each of the above questions. Each paragraph is about 150 - 200 words

A) Research Problems

Here, you have to describe in a paragraph the problems you hope to work on and why its an important issue. Don’t put any idea which comes off the top of your head. The problem must relate to your research experience in some way or the other. Also, the focus is on the problem and not the solution. If you are giving a solution (not necessary), make it abstract.

B) Your Research Journey

This is the easiest to write. You can get a paragraph for each internship you did. For each one you can touch upon the opportunity, describe the work you did there, its significance and what you learnt out of it. If this resulted in a paper or you are working towards it, you can incorporate that as well.

C) Reason for Graduate Studies

Nope. You are not pursuing graduate studies because you are “not sure of what to do”. Even if you are, that should read as “because graduate studies will give me the background necessary to tackle the problems I would like to address” or something in those lines. Basically, validate your reasons for applying, be it work or future research and how graduate studies will help you achieve that goal.

D) Program Specific Paragraph

To answer this you need to decide on the school and professors you want to work with as discussed earlier in this post. Based on that you should write why you would like to work with the chosen professors. Also, unique aspects of the program/ lab which aid your studies can also be included.

Apart from the above sections an Introduction and a final summary will together give you an SOP of about 1300 words (2 pages) which is more than enough for most programs. Once you are done, you will feel like this

Fret not. Even the greatest of SOP’s have gone through the above cycle. Take some time off and check your SOP after a few days to rewrite with a fresh perspective. Once you feel its ok, ask your seniors, friends etc. to give feedback for further improvements and in a few weeks you will have that “perfect” SOP.

Notes & Tips

Drafting an SOP was a grueling task for me and I found salvation in this post by Dr. C.W Fletcher. If you have any doubts as to why this is the treasure trove of SOP writing, I’ll tell you this; He was accepted into UC Berkeley, MIT and Stanford with this SOP.

Tips on SOP

Once you answer the first three questions you get a template which can be reused for other similar programs. The last question should be tailored specifically for each program.
There is no necessity to follow the above order. As long as the flow is maintained you can reorder the above sections. Other possible arrangements include B-A-C-D, C-B-A-D etc.
Some programs (e.g. Stanford, UC Berkeley) have a much lower word limit. So skim down your SOP if you are applying for these.
Be subtle in your vocabulary usage unless you are applying for a Masters in English literature.

4) Personal Statement

A Personal Statement is closely related to an SOP but with a focus on personal aspects that has molded you to consider graduate studies. Graduate programs will usually have students from varied walks of life. Your personal statement must show how you, with your unique background and life experiences, will be a valuable addition to the graduate community. To show this, you could talk about

Any barriers you faced during your education.
Experiences which had a profound impact on you.
Risks that you face in choosing this path.

A lot of students find it more difficult to write a personal statement compared to an SOP. In fact, sometimes people just resubmit their SOP’s (don’t do this!). The reason is because not everyone can think off/ may have situations of hardships that they overcame. I faced the same situation when I was writing my personal statement and what I did was to write out my entire academic journey with a personal touch. I talked about the decisions I took and the opportunities I got and their consequences in shaping my life.

Note

Notes & Tips

For more idea on what a personal statement should contain you can checkout this link.
Unless mentioned, if the application only asks for a personal statement, they mean SOP.

Thanks for reading. Hope you got some idea about these important sections. We’ll continue the rest of the application in the next post.

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