A lot of my juniors have asked me for advice on how to apply for graduate school in the United States so I decided to put all of the information I give them publicly available here. Disclaimers aside, all of this advice is from my personal experience and describes what the process looked like for me. This is not the only way you can get admission into a grad school. Further, if you have specific questions that I do not address here, please reach out and I'll do my best to answer your questions! :)
My first advice to any student planning to apply for a PhD would be to think it through and explore what it really entails.I understand that this is not a very encouraging note to begin with, but getting a PhD is a huge commitment, and before you dive in head-first, it’s a good idea to test the waters. While the idea of grad school might sound all fun and rewarding, we should know that it requires some serious work, and research can be sometimes a bit dull -- reading tens if not hundreds of papers is not something that everyone enjoys. Read a few papers, try to understand them, see if you enjoy doing that, and then proceed.
If you made it through the first paragraph, still wanting to go for a PhD, you have passed the first barrier! :) Another thing to be really sure of is to know what area interests you the most. Computer Science is so, so vast and offers so much variety in the areas you can have your research in. Make sure to be at least familiar with most, if not all, the areas that could be of your interest and make a list. Go through the list once or twice, revise, and narrow it down to two or three areas for you.
Before you apply for a Ph.D. program, make sure that you are aware of the requirements that have been set by the university you are applying to. Be aware that most universities in the states have two different types of requirements: university level and department level. It is important that you browse some universities you plan to apply and see what departmental requirements have been set. Most of the documents required by the universities are common, but every university has one or two specific documentation requirements at departmental level. Once you have checked the requirements make sure you are eligible to apply to that department or program by viewing their eligibility requirements. If you find yourself eligible then you can now begin the process further.
You can apply for a PhD without having a supervisor in advance. However, it’s always a good idea to see what kind of research is happening in the department and whether or not it’s a good fit for you. Another benefit to having a supervisor in advance is that it majorly increases your chances to get into the program, as there’s someone available to guide you already.
Browse the department’s website and find a potential supervisor. This is one of the most challenging parts. The professors are sometimes (read: often) to the maximum capacity and some might only be just hiring one student. That makes the process a bit hard. Professors sometimes post on their websites about research opportunities; you should definitely look out for that.
Once you find a professor who has common research interests with you, start reading their research, their bio, their past and current projects, and how (and if) it all aligns with your goals. After you have read their research papers and all the things mentioned above, make sure you write down what you have learned from their papers because after reading 5-6 papers, you will not remember the bits and pieces.
Once you have done your homework of reading the profile and papers, constructing an email should be fairly easy. You will now know if the research is of your interest, and if it is, it should be easy and fun to write an email. In your email, you should:
1. Introduce yourself. Start with a sentence on the purpose of the email, write briefly about your school/education and interests. If you want you can add a quick line mentioning your GPA and test scores. Briefly explain how your experience makes you a fit candidate. Shortly mention if you have had any prior experience (so they know your relevance) Address how your goals align with their lab’s. (Something that struck you when you were reading their papers? Maybe you’d like to work on a specific on-going project or its extension?)
These three things in your email should get you a fairly professional, strong email. Make sure to avoid these fatal blunders: Having a bizarre/empty subject line. “Prospective PhD student” or something along that line is fine. Having grammatical/spelling errors is very off-putting. Be sure to proofread your email quite a few times. Misspelling the professor’s name, or worse, having some other professor’s name. It’s understandable that you were using the same template to email multiple professors and forgot to edit the name, but it’s not acceptable :) This one is not a fatal error, but use a decent email address.
2. Attach your CV/Resume with the email. At most, attach your transcript too, but do not attach all the certificates you earned in your entire life. Do not attach your GRE or IELTS/TOEFL scores and do not spam their inbox with a bunch of useless attachments.
3. Once you have sent them an email, wait for about a week to receive a response, if you don’t hear back, send a follow-up email. If they refuse or still do not respond, do not be disheartened and continue the process again. Constructing a CV/Resume and having the experience Before you send an email, it is important to have a good resume. If you intend to apply for grad school and are still in your undergrad, ensure you start accumulating experience very early on. The more the experience, the better the CV. However, even if you don’t have much relevant experience, make sure your CV accurately defines you and highlights your potential, capabilities, and achievements. You must have done something to be introduced to the field.; mention those things on your resume. BYU has some excellent resume resources that you can find here.
