GRAD ECHO

Your graduate admission cycles mostly start in December and extend to January. Considering this timeline, all your application content should be ready by at most the end of November. So, if you want to do any RAship, you need at least one year to make sure you have enough contributions in your RAships or other experiences to show in your application. Moreover, when you start writing your essays, you should begin in the summer before your final year, so you can get it reviewed by seniors and faculty members, and make relevant revisions to them.

Similarly, with respect to LORs, you should reach out to faculty members well in advance. Reach out to faculty members you know well and who have worked with you for a reasonable time or taught a course you've done well at. Generally, at least one of your LORs should be from your advisor who has worked with you for an extended time and has had close interaction with you. Detailed LORs for PhD applications can to be 4-5 pages long as they are evidence-packed and include a lot of specific experiences.

I would like to add that there are some essential differences between the experience of masters and PhD. Generally in the US, the PhD lasts around 5-6 years, the coursework is minimal but you are highly engaged in working on a single or multiple related research problems. You have regular interaction with your supervisor and research group. While this is a longer commitment, there is a lot of independence. There is also an inherent lack of structure as you are most likely working on problems that have not been solved yet. Due to this lack of structure, there is also a high level of associated uncertainty.

There is no guarantee that you can solve a problem in a given time frame. Had it been solvable in like 4 months, it would not have been a research problem. Many times it can take years to solve a single problem and this process requires perseverance. If you are someone who can see yourself enjoying this process, only then you should apply for a PhD. Some people even claim to understand themselves better after going through this process and it is through this highly invested nature of exploration that we are able to advance and aid the growth of knowledge in the world. If you prefer a more structured approach to how you explore what is important to you, then a masters with perhaps a year long thesis might be a better option for you. Only proceed with clarity about which process is better suited to you. Many of our students have also gone on to explore the industry to assess if they can work beyond academia and have returned to get a PhD.

Most faculty members have a website, but they might not have updated information on it regarding funding and whether they are taking MS students. So, you need to identify, given your research experience in a specific area, who are faculty members who might be interested in taking you as an RA and then reach out to them for potential opportunities.

Initially in my undergrad, I was more interested in humanities. I took many math, humanities, and social science courses. At one point I was even seriously considering further exploring courses on religion. Amidst such a diverse intellectual journey, a Computer Science course, “Discrete Mathematics”, piqued my interest and I found myself solving logic puzzles for hours on end, even seeking out extra problems to practice in my free time. This course had a transformative effect in igniting my passion for Computer Science. I encourage you to be open to the feeling of getting deeply involved with a subject you like, and actively pursuing it beyond the confined course requirements. Academic passions can arise naturally without much provocation, but it is important to invest your time in exploring them. For example, I realized that Computer Science was a field that I found more relevant by the day and I felt it had the potential to transform the world and it has. I encourage you to take such a leap with your passions as well. Find something that fulfills you, and it helps greatly to also find a way to contribute to your field in some way. It can be something deeply involved like solving a complex problem, but also something simple like explaining a basic concept better in a Youtube video. What matters is that you engage deeply with your field of choice and, in the long run, find it fulfilling enough to be proud of your career.

Another avenue I would like to share is that if you are not sure enough to commit to a field for 2 years, you can consider doing a research assistantship for 6-12 months to better assess if you can and want to delve deeper into a field with a master’s or PhD commitment.

I would like to address the concern regarding applying to program specialities based on admit chances as opposed to applying to programs of interest. I personally think students should apply strictly to programs they are interested in and are actually passionate about. In our conversations with colleagues who also serve as admission committee members for some of the top competitive programs like CMU, we found that having publications is not a hard requirement, even for PhD programs. In fact they shared that many students apply with publications in subpar journals which do not necessarily have expert reviewers. Such publications are not impressive and end up having little value for the admissions committee. Unless the publications are in top and respectable venues, they are sometimes not even counted in the evaluation process. The admissions committee needs evidence that you have trained in handling complex problems and can dive deeper into the subject matter to pitch and implement a solution to a hard practical problem. This evidence can come from your letters of recommendation from supervisors who can speak to your relevant problem-solving abilities. Your letters of recommendations are looked at carefully to assess how you are perceived by an academic, and how they attest to your ability to succeed in the graduate program.

Regarding the ‘profile-building’ aspect, I personally think this notion can confuse you because it implies you need to perfect all elements of your application. This can lead to loss in the quality or substance of your unique selling points. I think your focus should be, starting in your undergraduate, to try to best learn in your foundational courses and build a strong basis. Then you can proceed with more advanced coursework in your areas of interest moving forward. For example if your probability and statistics courses particularly intrigued you, you can take Machine learning, deep learning and generative AI courses to further build and explore your interest. Showcase that you followed and pursued your interests and committed to them, which can be done through good grades and your letters of recommendation. In fact, many times students have to go through long interviews for PhDs and Masters with funding and may be asked to showcase their technical acumen based on their course learnings through programming exercises and technical questions. It is therefore vital to cover your bases and have strong foundational knowledge in your areas of interest.

When you’re considering interdisciplinary programs you need to ask yourself if you enjoy this combination. A good way to get an answer to this is to take some courses from humanities and social sciences, such as economics and psychology, and other schools, to get a better idea of what you enjoy.

University selection, I believe, is also a crucial part of the process which you need to start well in advance. It is a fairly complicated process - what will be the right set of universities to apply to, given your profile. Here, you’ll need feedback from experts and experienced people who have seen similar profiles to see what will be your likelihood of getting into certain universities. Your set of universities should include places you have a good likelihood of admission and then safe universities and high-risk ones.