最后我转铁kansas state univ 电子工程系的一个印度assistant 教授对陶瓷的看法和建
议。我也是最近偶尔看见他的这个网页的。有兴趣看原文的可以google他的主页。这位刚
刚博士毕业的印度年轻人意见很尖锐,很多地方语气甚至都不太友好。但是,认认真真地
看完绝对对你的申请道路有着非常非常大的帮助。
[ Last edited by genie05 on 2005-7-21 at 09:05 ]作者: genie05 时间: 2005-7-21 09:01:46
International applicants seeking assistantship/admission: please do not send
me emails blindly without reading this
Every day I receive emails from international candidates for information,
for advice, and especially requesting financial assistance. Unfortunately,
I delete most of them without even reading them carefully. I get so many
irrelevant emails that cannot reply to each. Extremely rarely has one
caught my attention. Please do not send me emails without reading this
first. I am only interested in corresponding to candidates who are
exceptional, and have a strong interest and experience in my immediate area
of specialization, and I highly prefer ones with a Master's degree.
For your benefit, I have included in this page, some writing tips, when
corresponding to me, and perhaps also in writing to other faculty members
in US Universities. When corresponding, do not mention your age/date of
birth, your gender, nationality etc. These are superfluous information.
I am NOT interested in: Extra-curricular activities, performance in high
school or before, TOEFL scores, hobbies, software skills,
UNIX/ORACLE/NOVELL certification and other items unrelated to my research
area*.作者: genie05 时间: 2005-7-21 09:02:05
I am SOMEWHAT interested in: Your awards/academic honors, academic records,
GPA, GRE score (2200+), experience.
I am HIGHLY interested in: Your publications, research interests (have
supporting evidence for your claim, don't just claim you are interested,
unless you actually have done some work in the area).
*(Incidentally, I do not know what NOVELL or Microsoft certification are.
Research is more concerned with things like advanced mathematical skills,
creativity etc. Too much software skill actually may even count negative in
my group).
Information I CANNOT provide
1. Chances of getting assistantship in the department (other than my own
available research grants - I do not have any right now, although not very
likely, it may change in future).
2. Deadlines for assistantship/admission.
3. Any information on admission procedures and policies.
4. Minimum GRE/TOEFL scores required.
5. How to get application forms.
6. Whether a decision for assistantship or admission was made.
7. Other faculty who would be interested in a prospective student's
background (you can easily see faculty research interests from the
department website).
8. When an admission/assistantship decision will be made.
9. Any other information, other than that below,
The only information I CAN provide
1. Compatibility of your interests/background with my own research area.
2. Possibility of getting research support from my own (not departmental)
funds. I am always trying to get external funding for my research projects.
3. Possible research areas you could work on with your background, with me.作者: genie05 时间: 2005-7-21 09:02:23
I know how interested some students are in coming to the USA for a higher
degree. I have written this as a useful guide for you. I have also written
this to let prospective international students try and focus their own
efforts properly, instead of wasting their energy sending me emails. Here
are two sample letters.
A sample letter that will never get the candidate an assistantship with me:
Unwanted email
Respected sir,
I am very interested in going to the US for higher studies. I am seeking
admission and financial assistance in your esteemed University. I am very
interested in artificial intelligence and computer architecture. I have
programming experience in C++, C and Java. I am also familiar with several
software packages in the Windows environment (MS Word, Excel Spreadsheet
etc.). I also have networking certification from NOVELL. My GRE score is
2050, and I got 99 percentile in the TOEFL exam.
I request you to spare a few moments from your precious time to go through
my attached resume.
Sir - if you are kind enough to offer me assistantship, I promise to work
very hard for you. I have a very good academic record since primary school.
Alternately, can you tell me what are my chances of getting assistantship
from your department?
Can you kindly inform me about the last dates for Summer term 2002 before
which I can apply?
Thank you for your valuable time,
Yours obediently
ABC
My comments: I simply delete these emails, which I consider garbage. The
person seems to be too obsequious and flattering. In the emails that I do
read (occasionally), I do a first scan for keywords like "precious",
"respected" etc. deleting the email if I find one. Obviously the person is
not professional enough. The person is interested in artificial
intelligence and computer architecture - these are quite unrelated areas,
making me think that he is trying to cover as many professors as possible
to get aid from any possible source. Besides, he does not have anything in
support of his claim (about his interest in artificial intelligence). He
emphasizes on his software skills, making me think that his goal is to get
a programming job in the US and higher studies is only to allow him access
to the US job market. His GRE scores are OK, but not exceptional. He asks
me to tell him what his chances of getting an assistantship are, elsewhere
in the department. I have absolutely no way of finding that out, and even
if I knew, I would not bother to reply back. He also asks me to give him
information about summer deadlines. How am I supposed to know that? (I
would typically expect that this information should be available from the
University web site, or from the grad school, but my guess is as good as
yours.) Finally, this letter is too generic. He probably uses exactly the
same format for hundreds of email letters to various professors throughout
the country, leaving no stone uncovered. I receive hundreds of email like
this. Regretfully, I cannot answer everyone, and these applications do not
interest me at all.
I have even received emails from students asking me to evaluate their
chances of getting admission, based on their GRE scores, TOEFL scores and
GPA. Here is an example:
Highly undesirable email
Respected Sir,
I am applying to a few US Universities for higher studies, including your
esteemed University.
I am a fourth year electronics engineering student at XYZ University,
India. My undergraduate GPA is 3.2/4.0. I obtained 2000 in my GRE
examination (V: 500, Q: 800, A: 700), and 456 in the TOEFL.
Can you spare some valuable time to assist me in determining what my
chances are for assistantship in your department and in other Universities?
I will appreciate any help from you.
Sincerely,
PQR
My comments: This letter is at least as bad as the previous one. It too
looks excessively obsequious and unprofessional with words like 'respected'
and 'esteemed'. I will not respond to queries like this, even if I could
possibly "detemine their chances". As I mentioned earlier, my mailbox gets
flooded with these queries such as this each week, and I have no time to
respond. But more significantly, I do not have the slightest way of knowing
this, not even in KSU EECE department, leave aside other Universities. You
are much better positioned to do that, based on your own peers'
experiences. Take an example, how much information can you, as a student,
give me about the criterion for promotion from associate professor to full
professor in your University? Likewise, I have no idea what policies
graduate schools in the US follow to admit/denying admission to prospective
students. I barely know the format of the GRE exam, leave aside TOEFL. I do
not have the slightest idea how to distinguish between a 'good' TOEFL score
and a 'bad' one. Besides, I know that most Indian Universities do not
follow a GPA system. His "GPA" is most likely inaccurate, obtained by
applying some arbitrary conversion formula devised largely to scale up the
overall percentage score. Use GPA to fill in the official admission form,
if you please, since there is no space for marks, but do not give that
information to me unless your University actually follows a 4 point GPA
system. (Unfortunately, I cannot distinguish a good percentage score from
an average one either.)
I have even received letters with personal items unrelated to the
profession - something which I consider to be highly negative (examples -
"I looked at your family pictures in your homepage", or "I am from the same
part of the country as you are" etc.).
Now, here is a letter that would DEFINITELY attract my attention:
Excellent email
Dear Prof. Das,
I am applying to KSU (amongst other places) for a Ph.D., and I am very
interested in your research areas. I would like to explore the possibility
of doing my research with you, with financial support.
One possible area that would interest me a lot is in applying Tikhonov
regularization to your problem in computational neuroscience, since I
understand that neural data can be very noisy, and yet sparse. Alternately,
I am also interested in applying evolutionary algorithms to your genetic
neural network parameter estimation. One of my other interests in in
parallel processing. Are you considering parallel implementations for any
of your optimization/estimation algorithms? Considering that the projects
that you list in your web site would probably be very computationally
intensive, that may be a worthwhile strategy to pursue.
I presented a paper entitled "Hybrid Gradient Descent Based Training of
Probabilistic Recurrent Networks" in the International Conference on Neural
Networks and Image Processing, Bangalore, last year. It is a reviewed
publication. If have attached a copy of the article in pdf format.
If you have available funds, and are interested in my application please
let me know soon.
XYZ
My comments: This is a straightforward letter from someone with a genuine
interest in my area. He is an exceptional candidate. He has evinced a keen
desire to learn, and already has considerable mastery over my area of
research. If I have any funding available, I would definitely try my very
BEST to get this person. This person may have an MS degree, while many
applicants have only a BS degree.作者: genie05 时间: 2005-7-21 09:02:41
Here is a letter from a fresh undergraduate that looks very good:
Good email
Dear Dr. Das,
I recently applied the Ph.D. program in your department at KSU.
I looked at your home page, and your research areas were very interesting
to me. I also read your research article that appeared recently in the
journal "Signal Processing & Data Mining (note: this is a hypothetical
journal)". I am very interested in your idea of applying independent
component analysis to data mining. My own undergraduate project was in a
closely related area and should be of interest to you. It was entitled
"Applications of LVQ algorithms to speech recognition". Furthermore, I
recently joined XYZ labs in Mumbai, (India) as an assistant scientist, and
I my work is in designing neural network algorithms for knowledge discovery
applications.
My GRE score was 2270, and I also took the GRE engineering subject test
with a score of 96 percentile. I stood first in the the University in my
batch (245 students).
Please consider me for any financial assistantship that you may have. I
have attached a 5 page postscript format curriculum vitae.
Sincerely,
ABC
My comments: I would try to get some funding for this candidate, although I
strongly prefer students with an M.S. degree.
I recommend that fresh BS students who wish to apply, do the following:
Decide on what area you are really interested in. Be very specific about
what you want. Then first spend a few months researching material in that
area. Look at conference and journal papers. If you do not have access to a
decent library, then surf the web, and read as much on the subject as
possible. Even try and present a paper at a national conference, perhaps
with a University professor there. When you are finally ready, start
getting information about faculty interested in that area and write to them
only. This is the only way you ever stand a chance for a research
assistantship. I think it is very unlikely that a professor in the USA
would take you blindly based on your GRE scores, your undergraduate record
and a few letters of recommendation.
If you are not willing to do this, then focus on a teaching assistantship
only. For teaching assistantships, you should not even be sending emails to
various professors, but only to the department chair/graduate
coordinator/graduate advisor. Individual faculty members have no control
whatsoever in deciding how teaching assistantships are going to be awarded.
For these positions, your undergraduate performance, GRE scores, etc. count
a lot.
Here is a letter from someone from a country where English is not spoken:
Another excellent email
Dear Dr. Das,
I studied at a famous University in Beijing, PRC in Electronics Engineering
in 2001. I intention is to travel to US for a Ph.D. I find your area very
interesting such as neural networks and genetic algorithm. I published a
paper in fuzzy logic after research in my university. This paper is in
Chinese. But I submitted another English paper for a conference last month.
It is application of neurofuzzy system to 3 joint robot arm control. My GRE
score is 2100, (Quantitative 800, Analytical 800, Verbal 500).
I am very interested in Kansas State University. Do you have assistantship
available in next semester to teach a Ph.D. student in neural network
application to pattern recognition or sensor fusion? Please see my resume
if I am suitable for you.
Thank you,
JKL
This letter looks exceptional. I receive many letters from candidates from
Asian countries where English is not emphasized. That is no consideration
from my point of view, as long as you qualify for grad school. A lack of
English should not discourage someone from applying. Students from several
countries with bare English capabilities have known to be highly successful
in the US because they are so hard working and sincere that they more than
compensate for this minor disadvantage. I will only care about things such
as your mathematical skills, and research record. This person's GRE
analytical and quantitative scores are excellent. But most important is the
fact that he has two publications, even if one is in Chinese. I will give
credit to this student for writing a paper in English, even if he is not
fully comfortable in that language. It shows how dedicated the person is. I
certainly would like to have this person in my research team.
I have heard that there are agencies which send out emails for you to
various professors in the USA. In fact I and my colleagues have received
exactly the same generic email several times, with only the names changed.
Such an email can only have a NEGATIVE impact on your chances. That is a
total waste of money and a very bad idea.
Finally, don't be discouraged if you cannot make it to the USA. With
economies in India and China skyrocketing, I expect in about a decade, the
job prospects in these countries could even be better than in the USA. Even
today, I am pleasantly surprised to see engineers, software personnel,
doctors, scientists and managers in India enjoying more or less the same
lifestyle that one does in the USA (and probably better off than their
counterparts in some other countries like Britain). I am sure the standard
of living in some other Asian countries, such as China is excellent too.
One last word. If, and only if you get my attention (which is extremely
rare), I will keep in touch with you, push hard to increase your interest,
try my best and do EVERYTHING possible to get you. Currently I do not have
much funding available (or have not updated this page), but I hope that
will change soon.作者: genie05 时间: 2005-7-21 09:29:48
IMONG动作挺快么。嘿嘿。作者: lalala 时间: 2005-7-21 10:43:08
不错作者: genie05 时间: 2005-7-21 10:48:11
我们团队的李冰(2003 University of Viginia EE全奖),能去UVA,很大程度是因为套辞。和他面谈过的教授给他的一封email内容如下:
The most important element Professors usually look for is the potential of the student. So, if you can communicate with a professor about your major professionally, that would help. English is of course important for doing so. If there are classes/seminars by American professors, try to attend. This way, you will learn what is going on in research in the field. You will also learn some jorgans, etc. If you have the opportunity to participate in some professors' research project, that would help you gain understanding of the field. Once a professor is convinced that you have potential, he will find the money for you. If a professor is looking for students but could not be convinced which one is better, then, personal connection would help.
---------------<<留美申请白皮书>>
excellent post, thanks a lot作者: yangyang27909wy 时间: 2005-11-1 13:51:36
顶顶顶作者: dandan5304 时间: 2005-11-6 13:47:04
受益匪浅
超赞作者: polymath 时间: 2005-11-6 13:51:09
收藏下来慢慢看!:D作者: Hellraiser 时间: 2005-11-6 15:39:58
老实说我陶瓷的效果不明显.基本是发10收1 吧.
不过有的老师确实非常认真的回复我.我觉得还是值得的
我发现一开始我认为中国老师会对中国的学生的陶瓷特别感兴趣是严重错误的.因为他们自己清楚自己对于中国学生的吸引力所以根本不发愁和我们类似的生员,所以他们的回复通常非常敷衍有时候甚至只有一句 i encourage you to apply, but the application for PhD programs is extremey competitive.到是一些老毛子感情浓郁.有一个甚至给我回了1000多字.作者: Sophiallw 时间: 2005-11-6 17:18:24