Ph.D. Abroad

Process and Strategy of Securing Ph.D. Abroad.

On this page, I will discuss the planning, strategy, and process for a PhD outside India.

§  Exams:  To secure a suitable PhD position in the USA/Europe, you must take an English language test, TOEFL or IELTS. After COVID, the GRE is not mandatory in most universities, but it can boost your application. Also, if you are not from a well-recognized institute, I suggest you take the GRE. For the GRE, you will have the subjective test and general test. See the departmental website for what they require.

A score above or equal to 105-110 in TOEFL is required if you are applying to top Ivy League schools. Otherwise, 95 is standard and covers schools ranked from 100 onwards. Have a look at the department’s TOEFL score requirements before applying.

§  Materials: One of the most essential documents in the application is SoP (Statement of Purpose). One also might need a Writing Sample of his/her project, any draft of a paper, a Diversity Statement, a Personal Statement, a Motivation Letter, etc. The word limit is sometimes restricted. In standard, it is 2 pages long with standard font size and border. You need to have copies of your SoP of different word limits and different lengths as required by your university. There might be a relaxation in the word limit of +5%, but I will not recommend you exceed the limit as they might use some software to review them, and the extra part might not be evaluated. 

Other than these, you will also need your bachelor's and master's degrees and transcripts compiled in a different PDF. If your master's degree is yet to be completed, add the transcript up to the current semester. In the USA, some universities also offer a dual degree program. Some students, after 4 years of bachelor of sciences, apply so they get their master's degree from there. You need to have a well-structured curriculum vitae. Use LaTeX template.  You will also need three recommendations from Professors in academia. Some universities might allow the upload of a Letter of Recommendation (LoR) from a job supervisor or internship supervisor outside academia. So, request the Profs well in advance as it will take some time to write the LoR for you. Also, make sure you have a Passport while applying, as some of the schools might need further processing. The academic grading scale in the USA is a bit different from that in India. They have a maximum GPA of 4. To convert your GPA, you can use the 'Scholaro' GPA calculator, but in the application, do not convert it on your own. Read the instructions carefully. The AdCom will covert your GPA according to their policy.

§  Timeline: The application window opens from October onwards and opens until mid of Dec (Most cases) or, at maximum, 1st week of January. Some schools might push it to Feb. Writing an SoP and other materials is a tedious job. It takes around 2 months. You need to motivate them that you are a good fit in that program. Mention all your experience (Not the one that you will write in your CV) in a well-structured manner and in a concise way, as you will have a word limit. You might need to consult your friends for proofreading. Make different copies for different universities and save them in a file. Otherwise, sometimes, during the upload of a file, there might be confusion if you have the same file name. 

§  Credit/ Debit card: You need to pay the application fee in Dollars or euros. You need a VISA/ Mastercard/ AmEx card for this. The average application fee in the USA is about 75 Dollars. For the University of California campuses, it is around 155 Dollars. Make sure to plan this spending well in advance. For TOEFL, you will also need around 15000 INR and will get 4 free scores to send. For others, we will need around 25 Dollars per university. You need to add the name of the University and the Code, and TOEFL will send the verified score to the University. The GRE general fee is around 22550 INR, and the Subjective is around 14500 INR.

§  How many should you apply?:  It depends. Statistically, if you apply more, you will have more chances of getting. But it might not be possible as one might have the money to apply but getting LoR is very difficult. I have applied to 8 universities strategically and got offers from 2 ( Fully funded with tuition and health cover). Some of my friends applied for 12 and got nothing! 

§  How to select the schools: No one can judge you better than yourself. You know your capabilities and limitations.
If you have a super rich profile, having two PRL, one Science, one Nature then go for Harvard, MIT, Chicago, etc. Also you need reco's from highly reputable academicians.
If you have CPI>9.5, one publication in any Physical Review and can have LoRs from well-known Profs in that field, then your plan could be (For 10 Apps),  Top 20: 1/2, Top 100: 4/5, Top 250: 3/4, Above 250: 1/2 ( For PhD, Supervisor matters most according to me).
If you have CPI>8, no publication but a good master's thesis or writeup of your work and not so-well-known Profs to write Recos, then for 10 Apps, 100-250: 3/4, 250-400: 5/6, Above 400: Rest of them. 

§  TOEFL Preparation: If you are from an English medium background, then you probably don’t need to work too much for these. But people from other languages, if you doubt your English, start as early as possible. I started (from Bengali Medium) from June onwards and took the exam in July. Many people prefer giving it in October, but the centres are very crowded at that time. For the speaking part, it creates lots of noise, and it’s very hard to concentrate. Also, during the summer, I got an offer where I could send my score up to 8 additional grad schools ( In the USA, graduate applications are known as grad school). I will suggest you plan to take your exam before September. Then, you will have some time if you do not get your expected score; you can give it one more time. There are plenty of YouTube videos which are freely available, you can start your preparation with those. I will not go to write further about how to ace your TOEFL as you can find many articles and videos. I can suggest the TST Prep TOEFL YouTube channel; it's nice! Select 4 free grad schools prior to the TOEFL application so that you can use these for free 4 score send.

§  Selecting School:  Based on 1. Location, 2. Weather, 3. Ranking, 4. Your research experience and CPI, 4. Your work and the ongoing work there, 5. Cost of Living, you can choose your Schools. Make a List in Excel with the required TOEFL score, Name of PI (Principal Investigator), Last date for applications, application fee, Fee waiver status, Reco status, etc.

§  Mailing the Profs: This is another important part of the grad school application. Before applying to a school, after selecting the PI according to your research goals, it’s important to verify whether he/ she is taking students. Otherwise, you might get admission but need to choose another PI or change the topic of your research. It’s better to be flexible, but still, if you want to be sure beforehand, Mailing is the best option. Sometimes, the PI can also recommend you to the admission committee (AdCom). It increases the chances of your admission. I had a chance to meet 2/3 before my Gradapps, and they shared their expectations from students and also about the school and location. Start the mailing process from August onwards. Try to mail in their time location in the morning, 6-8 AM. If you are going to mail with Gmail, there is an option for scheduling mail, but for webmail, you need to do this manually. Before sending mail, double-verify the name of the addressing PI and the institute name. You can add your CV with the mail. I have mailed around 40 Profs in the USA. Do follow-up mail after 2 weeks. You need to track all of these using the Excel file.

§  Time to Apply: Now you have the information about the Profs, your TOEFL score has already been sent to the respective schools, and your SoP and other documents are ready to upload.
It’s time to create your first account on USA Grad School Websites and start applying. Maximum University used the Slate portal for the application, so you will have the same kind of form types. Submit the documents and pay the fees, or Use the fee waiver code.

§  Application Fee Waiver: You can have your application fee waived. The information about this can be found on the respective school's website. Some might only allow their resident for this scheme. You can always write a mail to them and inquire about this. 

§  Time for Panicking 🫠 (Starts from Feb onwards): Most of the offers will come starting from February onwards, and if you are from India or the southern part of Asia, then the time difference is around 12 hours or so. You will get all the mail during the night. I will suggest you stay calm and accept the decision they are making. Never ever ruin your sleep. It is not the end of life. Have good food. Play music. Go outside. Talk with peers.

After getting offers,

§  Giving treats 🥳: It's another important part. Never ever forget to give food treats to your friends after getting the offers.   

§  Before accepting an offer: Contact PI for an online meeting and contact the group members. Go through the publication. Look into the diversity in group work. Also, consider, other than your preferred PI, how many options for PI you will have in that grad school. Read the offer letter carefully. See if the tuition and health insurance are covered or not. Then search for room rent in that location as it will take most of the part from your stipend. Then, take the decision wisely.

§  Departmental Open House: You can join the open house online, where the PIs will explain their work. You can also have a chance to meet your fellow mates who will join along with you. The last date to accept the offers is April 15 (Search April 15 resolution). But I will suggest you contact the Department to make sure the last date.

§  Start your new life: So, you got your dream university. Spend some good time with family and friends before leaving your country. After reaching your destination, get into your apartment, make new foods, and make new friends from all over the world. Enjoy every moment. Take care of your health, as it’s a completely new place. Make memories.

PhD in Europe  (Without  grad school)

§  There are some Universities in Europe where the intake is through grad school. But in most cases, you directly mail the PI and give an online talk on your master’s work or plan a visit to interact with group members and then decide. I have mailed around 75 Professors for PhD positions in Europe.

§  In most of the cases, your Master’s research and PI's research need to be matched. As the timeline for a PhD is an average of 3.5 years, grasping concepts from a new field and then doing research and making new results is quite difficult.

§  Funding: You can try for DAAD (Germany) or CNRS (France) funding; some Profs might have an open position funded by the university. In other Schengen countries, there are also funds from their government and industry.

§ Starting: Generally, the positions start in the middle of October. You need a work permit from the country you are going before you can apply for student VISA.

§  Opportunity: If you have a Schengen VISA, you can enter 29 countries without border control. Great opportunity 
to explore the world.

My Results: In the USA, I got offers from 'The University of Utah' with Potential Supervisors Prof. Oleg Starykh and Prof. Mengxing Ye and 'The University of Nebraska Lincoln' with Potential Supervisor Prof. Alexey Kovalev.
In Europe, I got an offer from 'The University of Luxembourg' from Prof. Dr. Thomas Schmidt. I will join his group, 'Theory of Mesoscopic Quantum Systems.'
Got an invitation for an interview from 'Johannes Gutenberg Universität of Mainz' from Prof. Dr. Jairo Sinova, founding director of 'SPICE'. Withdrawn as already accepted the offer from Thomas Schmidt.
And also some positive replies from 2 to 3 Professors. I Have not proceeded further as I have accepted an offer.
You can have a guess about my profile after going through my CV.

Best of Luck for your applications! Let me know if you have any queries or suggestions through the Google form I have provided as feedback (Click on the tab ➡️ Feedback). 

N.B. Do not follow my instructions blindly. The whole process is very dynamic, and each step can change when you are applying. It is always better to do the field study of your own first.  Some famous websites for grad applicants' profiles are PhysicsGre and GradCafe.

Disclaimer: The author does not take any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information provided in this article. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent any affiliated organizations. Readers are encouraged to verify facts independently before making decisions based on this content. The author shall not be held liable for any consequences arising from the use of this information.