Graduate Application Steps
I’ve written this article to summarise the essential steps that a student applying for graduate programs would generally go through. I draw from my experience with making PhD applications in 2019. These are applicable to a majority of the programmes offered by the US. For Europe and other places, there might be some differences but the procedure will be similar. It is advisable of course, to confirm the exact steps to be followed as per the application requirements of the specific programme you’re considering. Secondly, quite a few of these steps (writing an SoP for example) might be new for you. Thus the more you read, the better informed and better acquainted with these procedures you will be. Proactively surf the internet to find out extensively about each of such steps and various opinions on what to do and what not to do. For a compilation of such resources, see Kalpesh Krishna’s blog post. To read about some more experiences of graduate application, look at these blogs written by a few students in the department of electrical engineering at IIT Bombay.
I have listed these steps in the order and timeframe which I followed, you are free to choose otherwise. Typical PhD application deadlines for the US are between 1st to 15th December.
| Timeframe | Step |
|---|---|
| May, June | GRE and TOEFL |
| Mid-September to Mid-October | Shortlisting programmes and professors |
| Late October | Letters of Recommendation |
| Late October | Resume/CV |
| November, December (sans Christmas holiday season), January | Emailing |
| Early November | Listing Programme Requirements |
| November - Deadline | Statement of Purpose |
| Deadline | Submitting the Applications |
| January - April | Interviews |
Let me begin by explaining why I chose to go through these steps in the order specified. I studied for GRE and TOEFL in May and June since that was the time of my summer vacation and I had no academic coursework to look after. I appeared for both exams in the first week of July. I began browsing through the PhD programmes offered by various universities and the professors affiliated with those departments, in September after my mid-semester exam, since by then I had sufficient clarity on what fields I was already interested in or wanted to explore. By mid-October I’d shortlisted my own set of names, after which I began discussing these with senior students in my field and professors I knew. It was during this time that I asked my professors whether they would write letters of recommendations for me. Simultaneously, I made the first draft of my CV so that I could begin emailing professors, enquiring if they have open positions. From November, I first listed the exact requirements of each programme so that I would get ample time to prepare for anything unorthodox, and then began writing my SoP which went on till the applications deadlines.
GRE and TOEFL
To keep the length of the current article short, this part has been delegated to a different article.
Shortlisting Programmes and Professors
Visit the websites of various universities and browse through the list of professors in your departments of interest. A few sources to get names of universities and professors are
- QS World Rankings
- Your advisor’s university and advisor, and the university and advisor of the advisor’s advisor and so on
- Places where eminent researchers in your field work
- People whose papers or books you regularly refer to
This process is a stale, tedious drag which will tax your focus and determination. A little company helps in such times to relieve the weariness and offers empathetic reassurance of it indeed being mundane. Tabulate your findings in a spreadsheet, and once you are satisfied with your initial shortlist (I think about 10-12 should be a good number for this) start speaking to people. Ask for opinions from professorsand senior students you know who work in the field and you can approach for advice. They will give you their opinions about the places and people you have chosen, and may make new suggestions as well, according to which you can suitably modify your list. I think a final number between 7-9 is fine. More on shortlisting will be discussed in the next section on letters of recommendation. This list that you make might be modified somewhat as you go along, if you receive new suggestions that are really good, or if some professors are not taking students, or a any other reasons.
For people interested in applying to control theory, be sure look at
| University | Programmes and Departments |
|---|---|
| CalTech | CMS |
| Cornell | ECE, MAE |
| Princeton | MAE |
| Queen’s, Canada | Control group in the mathematics department |
| UCB | EECS, ME |
| UCSB | ME, ECE, CCDC |
| UIUC | ME, ECE, AE, CSL |
| University of Michigan at Ann Arbor | AE, Robotics |
| UT Austin | AE |
This is not an exchustive list, and is stated in a loosely alphabetical order. Use it as potential starting points in your search, but make sure you explore each mentioned item thoroughly, so that you do not lose out on any information. I may have missed certain departments or research groups in the universities mentioned, or missed universities themselves.
Letter of Recommendations
Applications to engineering programmes in the US, for both master’s and PhD, typically require at least 3 letters of recommendation. Some allow for more. For these letters, ask someone who you have interacted extensively with, and can advocate your excellent character and ability. Preferably, choose someone you have conducted research with or performed well in multiple courses with. Since the letter writing process is thought and effort intensive, make sure you ask them at least a month or month and a half in advance.
First and foremost, confirm with your letter writers the list of the people and places you intend to apply to. Discuss your university shortlist with them. Once they approve of your shortlist (or at least, the part for which they shall be one of your letter writers), confirm that they have agreed to write letters for you in each of those applications. These extra steps will circumvent any confusion or potential discomfiture at a later time. They might ask you to send them a list of deadlines and give you specific instructions on sending reminders to make sure that all letters are submitted successfully, make sure you adhere to it.
They might additionally ask you for your SoP and CV. If you have these documents ready, you can produce them immediately, or discuss a timeline with them on how you would be revising your drafts and at which stage of the draft would they like to see them. Look at these posts for more views on this topic (the last three links are taken from the appendix of the first)
- Prof. Philip Guo’s views
- Prof. Scott Klemmer’s views
- Prof. Julian McAuley’s views
- Prof. Prof. Shriram Krishnamurthi’s views
Resume/CV
Most CVs I saw when I was making mine were 3-4 pages long. Mine as well was 4 pages long. For those universities which imposed a page restriction I had to shorten it. For attaching your CV (recall, attach it as a link) in your email, you could prepare a short CV which the professor can quickly go through at a glance. Or you could include two links, one to a shorter version and one to a longer version so that the reader has a choice.
Emailing
In an email you basically introduce yourself and your credentials, express interest in the recipient’s research and enquire if they is willing to offer you a position. Do NOT have high hopes about receiving a reply since the recipients receives a lot of such emails everyday, and it says nothing bad about your credentials or strength as an applicant.
Time of Emailing
There are two good time periods for sending emails to professors. One is before you submitting your application, and one after. In the former case, assuming you receive you guard against applying to people who aren’t taking students at all, or if your profile matches their interests they may encourage you to apply which is a positive sign indicatin that they’ve noticed you. Even if they don’t reply, reading your email might be enough for them to notice you (I did get offers from professors who didn’t reply to my emails). The second good time is after you submit your application. You could inform them that you have successfully completed your application. This may get them to notice you and have a look at your application. I emailed them at both times, the first time asking them if they have positions and the next time politely informing them of having completed my application.
Avoid the time from 18th December (a week before Christmas) to 7th January (a week after new year), since this is typically holiday time. You can adjust both dates as you feel fit, but that is what I followed.
Content
I would suggest that you keep the email to three paragraphs. In the first paragraph, give a two line introduction of yourself with your department major and minor, academic performance index (CPI/GPA/CGPA), professors you’re currently working with, and other such details. In the second paragraph, mention the titles of your projects and the names of the professors and one line on relevant contributions (or link to publication or reports if any). In the end, express what work of the professor you are interested in in by citing the areas, and in special cases one or two representative publications, and enquire politely but formally if they have positions available. Sending an email before submitting your application ensures that you don’t apply to professors not taking students, assuming of course that you receive replies. Include a link to your CV (and not the CV as an attachment). More on the CV in another section below. Keep the email as short as possible, assuming that they are going to spend anywhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes in reading it. You can find many other suggestions and tips across the internet on sending such emails. Additionally, keep the subject line crisp and to the point, indicating the position you’re applying for.
Graduate Students
You could email graduate students who are a part of the professor’s group as well, asking about the group culture, the professor’s research directions and advising style, the overall experience of the student in the programme and other such questions.
Brahmastra
If one of your recommenders writes an email to a professor you’re applying to, advocating you, that would offer a very strong boost (though of course, its not a 100% guarantee that you’ll get through) to your application.
Listing Programme Requirements
This is a subtle but important step. Create accounts on all university application portals and carefully peruse their applications requirements. Some universities may have offbeat requirements, for example, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor asked us to like send an official (from the registrar’s office) hard copy of the transcript along with a special application form before the application deadline. Fill up as much information on the application forms as possible to save time later.
Statement of Purpose
To keep the length of the current article short, this part has been delegated to a different article.
Submitting the Applications
Carefully check all your details. Make sure you have attached the correct SoP, CV and other supporting documents.
For more applications in the US, you will require an international credit card which can make payments in USD. For other applications, find out in advance if you require an international credit card and make sure you have one (either your own, or belonging to someone who you know) available when you submit the application.
Interviews
To keep the length of the current article short, this part has been delegated to a different article.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all my family members, relatives, friends, seniors and professors for their help during my PhD application period. I would like to specially thank Karan Chadha (who was one amongst those) who suggested quite a few the ideas presented in the articles on graduate applications to me. My thanks to Riya for reviewing the article.