From: smitra@sophia.smith.edu (Sramana Mitra)
Subject: Sop
Organization: Smith College
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 00:00:23 GMT


To all those who wanted me to forward responses to my earlier posting:

Here's something concrete that I've got. Help yourself... The author is
Eka Ginting at CMU, who has very kindly mailed me a Tex file. Thanks Eka.

Sramana Mitra


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\begin{titlepage}

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\begin{center}
\begin{large}
{\bf The Quest into Your Dream Graduate School }

\vspace{1in}
Eka N. Ginting \\
\today \\

\end{large}
\end{center}
\vspace{1in}

\abstract{
This paper describes the components of the process of 
getting into graduate schools.
It describes various techniques applicable to the 
process of obtaining the necessary components,
and steps to enhance credentials quality.
It is based on the author's personal experience. 
}

\end{titlepage}
\begin{document}


\section{Who}

Is graduate school for you? 
There are many reasons why graduate school, be it a master program
or a Ph.D. program, should be the chosen path of your career after
finishing your bachelor's degree. These can range from the noble
long term goal of wanting to advance science or humanities through
cutting edge research ---
an advanced degree in the field, preferrably a Ph.D.,
is a necessity to understand the fundamentals and the state of 
the art of the field and to establish credibility among your peers --
to the more humane and cynical one of postponing
reality and the real world  because of your lack of courage 
or direction in life. But whatever the reason, or even if you haven't
found any reason, it is the sensible thing to do to keep the option
of graduate school open while you are working on your bachelor's
degree.

This rambling is written for the purpose of providing information,
for both classes of people: those who seriously want to continue
to graduate school, and those who want to keep graduate school 
as an option after their bachelor's degree commencement exercise.
It is written based on my personal experience in my quest to get 
into and to choose the graduate school of my dream, in the field of
Computer Science. As a standard disclaimer, 
the methods described below worked for me in my field;
the graduate schools that I had to choose from,
i.e. the ones that accepted, wined and dined me,
are all my dream schools,
resulting in a derivative problem of distinguishing which
of your dream schools is the one for you. But that's the nice part.
Once you get to that stage, life will look beautiful. I know.

\section{When}

The entire process of my quest to get into the graduate school of my dream
took about two years! Yes, that was not a typo: 2 years.
Read on, and you will understand why. The intensive part
of actually preparing the documents took at most 3 to 4 months, 
but the preparation to shape and define the plan for the 
quest and the finale  of choosing the school 
amounted to a total of 2 years.

\section{Where}

The quest for graduate school and its process can be 
viewed as a goal-driven process. To succesfully arrived
at your destination, you need to define clearly what the goal is.
This might not necessarily translate into one particular 
school, but it can also mean a set of schools with which you 
would be happy.
The problem of establishing a realistic goal is not an easy one.
I would like to emphasize the word realistic, because that is the 
key problem. If your goal is realistic and if you do the proper 
procedures to attain the goal, then, unless you were born with 
bad luck lingering over your shoulder, there is no reason 
why you should not arrived at your goal. 

How do you define a realistic goal?
First of all, you need to know who you are.
Are you an A student that always impresses even the smartest of
the faculty members of your department, or are you the type 
of student who always irritates your teaching assistants because
you keep on asking them to repeat the simplest of their
explanations? Unless you want to rely a lot on luck,
then there is an appropriate set of schools for your type.
These schools might not belong to your dream, but maybe
you should change your dream.

The difficulty of defining your realistic goal 
stems from the fact that you don't really know yourself.
I am willing to bet you either underestimate 
or overestimate yourself; the probability that you have the
precise knowledge of what you are worth, intellectually, 
is relatively infinitessimal. Additionally, even if you know your 
worth, you might not know how to map this information to the set
of schools that you can consider as your realistic goal.
Nevertheless, do not despair; there is a solution to this problem:
there are people surrounding your academic life that can
function as the reflecting wall that will bounce of information to 
help you locate your position.
Ask your professors about graduate schools in your field:
which ones are strong, which ones are to be avoided,
which ones you should be willing to kill for, 
where they graduated from and what they thought about their schools
and their schools competitors, etc. When I come to see a professor
to talk about graduate school, unless he/she really has no idea of 
who I am and how good/bad of a student I am, he/she, when answering
your questions, will direct you to graduate schools that he/she 
thinks matches your ability and level of competence. Or you can
ask the question directly: given your area of interests,
or lack of focused interest, which schools you should consider applying.

One thing you have to remember is that these professors also 
suffer the same problem as you, that is they also tend to either
underestimate or overestimate your ability or the quality or 
the difficulty level of the graduate schools. This time, you can
resort to the law of large numbers: average them out.
So, if half of your Computer Science professors tell you to apply to 
Carnegie Mellon and the other half tell you to apply
to Washington State University, you maybe safe to assume 
that University of Arizona or University of British Columbia
are a good middle ground. 

Graduate students in your department are also a good source.
They have done it; some of them will still remember 
their strategies of defining their goals. 
Your boss and colleagues at work might have something to add, too;
a friend of mine told me that the personnel department
of the company he used to work for classified and ranked schools for the purpose
of recruitment. The emphasis here is that I rely more on 
information that I gather from people related to the field,
rather than something that Peterson's Guide or Newsweek 
magazine's ranking of the best schools in Computer Science.

The conclusion is that after some conversation with your professors,
your academic advisers, graduate students in your department, and
other people in your academic environment, you should be able to 
partition your dream schools into three sets: one set of schools 
that should stay as your dream schools (i.e. that to which a 
doctor would say, "Let us pray for a miracle."),
schools that have a good chance of admitting you (i.e. if you apply to 
five of these, two or three will probably accept you),
and those that will definitely accept you (i.e. you apply to 
100 of these, 99 accept you and 1 puts you in their top priority 
waiting list). One of these three partitions might be an empty set;
if it is the stay-in-dream set, good for you; otherwise, study harder
and pray harder.
This task is more of an information-gathering nature, not 
something you can get out of your Computer Science 211 class.
Talk and listen to people; and do it often. In my case,
it took me over six months, maybe even a year, to really come up with 
10 schools that I wanted to apply to, 7 belong to the second set, 
3 to the third.

\section{What}

There are many factors that the people of an admission committee will be looking
for in your application:
\begin{itemize}
\item
Transcript
\item
Graduate Record Examination: general and subject test
\item
Letter of recommendations
\item
Statement of purpose
\end{itemize}

An ideal application will have the following characteristics: 
a transcript that shows that you have taken relevant classes with 
grade point in the perfect 4.0 or A range; 
a GRE score in the 99th percentile for all three fields of the
general exam and the subject test;
a set of colorful recommendations from reknown and highly respected
people in your field,
stating about how impressed they are with your intelligent or other
tenets of yours;
and a brilliant and strong statement of purpose,
indicating that you have the most powerful background an undergraduate can 
ever have.
If your credentials have the above characteristics, then
worry not, my dear fellow, you can apply to any school you want 
with a high chance of getting accepted.

But let us go down to earth to people like us, people  with less than perfect
credentials, and see what we can do to improve our credentials.

\subsection{Transcript}

A perfect transcript would show a good list of relevant classes,
broad as well as in depth coverage of 
materials in your field, with a solid A grade point average.
Grade point is a factor, but NOT THE factor; 
weakness in grade point can be compensated by 
a listing of advanced classes.
If, beginning in your junior year, you carefully plan 
your schedule to ensure breadth and depth, 
there is a good chance that your transcript will have 
the necessary strength to convince those people in the admission
committee.
There are lots of books that talk about improving your
grades, and just as many that tell you how to study more
effectively. I am just going to repeat one important message:
interact with your professors. I cannot overemphasize this;
take advantage of their vast resource of knowledge and
their availability.

\subsection{Graduate Record Examination}

If I remember correctly, the people administering GRE admitted
that, for the general test,
some amount of studying before taking the test could actually
improve your score by over a hundred points. So study.
Pick up one of the books about GRE to get to know the 
test --- there are hundreds of them. I personally like
the Princeton Review book, but I don't advertise for them.
Identify your weaknesses; if you think you can't add four digit
numbers, practice. I ended up memorizing half of the roots
of words in Baron's GRE book. Do at least one practice test
to make sure you get the feel of the exam; some ideas might 
reveal themselves when you do the practice --- I ended
up reducing over 50 \% of the questions in the analytical part
of the GRE to graph theoretical problems.

For the subject test, nothing can work better than a solid 
and broad knowledge of your field.
If you have only taken a few classes within your field,
you might want to reconsider taking the test. 
But there are always some good introductory or 
overview books about the subfields of your field ---
the existence of which, again, you can find from
your professors, TAs, etc.
One advice that I received and regretfully ignored:
Do not take both of them on the same day!
Yes, people have done it (I have done it) and survived,
but unless you enjoy the idea of overheating your brain 
with a potential of damaging your score,
you would be better off by taking one at a time.

\subsection{Letter of recommendations}

Most graduate schools want at least three letters of 
recommendations, from your employer or 
preferrably your professors.
Here, the interaction you have with your professors
will generate the most gain: 
they will have known you by now.
It would be easier for them to assess your ability and
your level. Remember the professors that you ask about
which graduate schools you should consider?
Those who suggest that you should apply to top  schools
must have thought highly of you; it is only logical if
you ask a recommendation from them.

There are several strategies that I implemented on my own 
quest. One thing you have to remember is that letter of 
recommendations carry a lot of weight; I mean, a lot!
So, the first thing is that you have to assess how much
impact a letter from a particular person will have on a 
particular university. Is professor X known at all at
university Y? Is he the type that always writes
colorful recommendations so that people who know him 
doesn't put any weight on his recommendation?
Or is she a genius who is so stingy with compliments that
when you secured even the slightest one
you are guaranteed to stand out among the crowd?
How do you know and find out this information?
Same answer: talk to them. Cross check them.
Professor X, a graduate of university Y, is a good 
starting point for a recommendation for that school,
and can provide cross information about who else in 
your faculty  has connections with that school.

The next  thing is that you need to find out, approximately,
what the professor is going to say about you. 
Since recommendation is usually confidential, 
I don't mean that you sneak into his office or into 
his computer account to try to read what he writes
about you; I am talking about talking to him directly,
maybe half jokingly, or inferring from his assessment about
you. Or maybe you are close enough
that he basically asks you to write one for yourself
and he will simply sign it. 
Broadness is also important. If you are a Space Cadet major,
a brilliant recommendation from an Underwater Basket Weaving 
professor will tell the admission committee
that you are not the type of student that is stuck 
in the world of Space Cadet --- that you are balanced.

A certain planning is definitely required here, 
to map who you should ask for a recommendation for which school.
Having the same people covering for all schools is okay,
but if you have more resources, if there are more
professors that you can ask recommendations from, you should
determine the degree of significance of the professors
in relation to the schools that you apply. In my case,
I had two professors covering all the schools, and the third
or the fourth recommendation 
(Oh, yes, you can send them more than what they ask ---
if they ask for three, four is still okay)
came from different 
professors, depending on the schools.

\subsection{Statement of purpose}

Now that people have talked about you, this is your chance
to talk about yourself.
This is also an important factor for the admission committee,
so DO NOT wait until the last minute and think that you can
spend half an hour writing a page or two about yourself.
You can, but it is not going to be a good one.

What is a statement of purpose anyway? Basically it is a 
short paper in which you are trying to describe to the admission
committee people about yourself. There are two common components
of a statement of purpose:
\begin{itemize}
\item
Your past and present: any backgrounds relevant to your graduate study.
This could include a partial listing of the classes
you have taken, your work or research experience,
awards (a Nobel prize or a Turing award will be a big plus),
what you are currently doing, etc.

\item
Your future plan: why you want to continue to graduate school,
what kind of specialization you do or might want to do,
why you are applying to the school, and sometimes why 
you think they should admit you, etc.
\end{itemize}

A good time to start writing a statement of purpose is after
you get all the application forms from the universities.
Each will tell you what they want to see in your statement of
purpose, so what you do is take the union of what they want, and
start writing.
 This way you ensure that you cover everything 
they ask for, and additionally, use other schools'
requests to determine what information is relevant.
I first started writing two drafts: one with a very humble and modest
tone and one with a total bragging (basically spanning the 
spectrum of most humble to most arrogant tone of describing yourself).
My first draft is a splice and merge of the two.

After you write the first draft, have somebody proofread it.
Utilizing his remarks on your draft, rewrite the statement of purpose.
Repeat this process, with various types of proofreaders
from various disciplines, until the day you have to mail
your application. 
On my statement of purpose, I started in the middle of August,
and did not stop until mid December, spending an average of
half an hour to an hour every day. I had at least fifteen 
people proofreading it, ranging from an English sophomore
major in a free writing help session provided by the student union
to a couple of friends who were also applying to graduate schools,
from a Chinese to an Economics to a Biochemistry major;
I have eight Ph.D.'s in my list of proofreaders,
five from my field, Computer Science, one of whom is the 
chairman of the graduate admission committee of my school,
a Germanics professor, a Political Science professor,
and a History Ph.D. The remarks I got ranged from 
"You are blowing the whistle too hard here" to 
"Don't be too idealistic; it's eye glazing" to
"You are using too many I's here." (I actually reduced
the number of I's from 26 to 12 in my final draft).
By the time I am ready to send my statement of purpose,
I knew every single comma in the text;
if you woke me up in the middle of the night, 
I could recite it flawlessly.

These are some DO's and DON'T's for your statement of purpose
that I got from my two-month process:
\begin{enumerate}
\item
Do tell them about your accomplishments --- this is not 
the time to be modest.
\item
Don't blow the whistle too hard; don't use too much spice
on the description of your accomplishments.
\item
Do have an idea about what you want specific subject you want to study.
It shows that you have knowledge of what is going on in your field.
\item
Do not be too specific, closing your options.
It shows that you are naive, because chances are you are going to change
your mind.
\item
Do specify your future goals.
\item
Do not be too idealistic about your goals.
\item
Do spell every word ocrrectly and 
write every sentence syntactically and grammatically correct.
\item
Depending on your fields, do not try to impress
the reader with big words; eschew seskopedalianism.
\end{enumerate}

In short, spend some time writing your statement of purpose,
aiming at one that shows your strength and your solid and broad
knowledge, without excessive bells and whistles.
This is an advertisement you write to sell yourself to
the admission committee; a good ad will clearly focus
on the strengths of the product, without boring or 
intimidating the potential buyer.

\section{What's Next}

Send your applications to the correct addresses.
Make sure that you apply by their deadlines.
Most schools have two deadlines, one if you are applying
for financial aid, and one if you are not.
Make sure that your checking account has enough
money to cover the registration fee ---
they will not be pleased if your check bounce.
Your application package will indicate when you should
expect to hear from them. A couple of weeks prior
to that, give them a call, to indicate that you are really
interested in that school.

After sending your application, there are a  couple of 
strategies that you can do to increase your chance of 
getting accepted. The idea is to let the people 
of your dream school know of your existence, beyond the piece of 
paper that has your name and address that is stuck in a
yellow folder approximately two third down the 3 foot pile 
of application folders they received. You need to get
name recognition. There are a couple of ways of doing that:
\begin{itemize}
\item
Ask a professor who has connections with your dream 
school to "advertise" you and your interest in that school.
Collaborations among professors from different universities
are very common, so one of your professors might have a colleague
in your dream school. Or your future "academic grandparent"
(your adviser's adviser) might be a faculty member of 
your dream school.
One implied, yet necessary condition for this is that you are close enough 
with the professor to be able to ask him to do this favor ---
I'll leave it to your social judgment.

\item
Find out about faculty members in your dream school and
what kind of research they are doing. Read some of their papers
and write them letters expressing your interests about
their research projects and your desire to join 
their teams. You have to do your homework here to be able
to show that you actually know what the faculty members'
research interests are and that you have read and understood
some of their papers.

\item
Arrange for a visit before they make a decision. Usually good 
schools will invite you to visit them, all expense paid
if it is not a poor state school, after they admit you.
But your willingness to invest your own money to visit
will give them a good indication that you have strong interests
in their school.
Try to get to know some professors on your visit; 
or if charm is your middle name, you might be able to secure
an adviser right away, guaranteeing your acceptance.
\end{itemize}

\section{Finale}

Congratulations! You got accepted into more than one of your dream
schools. You just derived a problem of a different class.
One word for those who do not fall into this category,
i.e. if you get accepted to only one of your dream school,
or if your preference order of the schools is clearly defined,
congratulations and good luck in graduate school;
if you do not get into any of the schools that you apply to,
either bad luck, if you believe in it, or whatever the reason,
well, maybe next year.

How do you choose the right one?
At this stage, you are going to have to repeat the process of
information gathering from your faculty members:
which school they think is the best for you and why, taken into account
their knowledge of you and your interests.
Gradually, this information will help you 
define what you are looking for in a graduate school, if
you haven't.
Various factors can enter into this equation:
\begin{itemize}
\item
Academic quality of the schools, which can vary depending on who you 
ask and your fields of specialty.

\item
Costs/financial aid and its terms:
some school might offer you a fellowship, while
others might offer you a teaching or research assistantship;
some guarantee it for one year, some for the entire time of your study.
Or if you are paying the cost yourself, 
how much the tuition and fee of one school can be very important.

\item
The city:
Do you like the avant-garde environment of 
Berkeley or do you prefer the yuppie, country club atmosphere
of Stanford? How about a quiet little town of Ithaca
that goes dead when students leave town for summer?

\item
The school system and environment:
Do you want an environment that promotes independent work or one 
in which faculty members and students work closely?
How do you like one that relies heavily on courses and courses,
pretty much an extension to your undergraduate life, during the
first two years of the program?

\end{itemize}

These factors, and others, will help you construct a partial or a total ordering
of the schools that accept you.

The next logical step is to visit the school,
trying to test your hypothesis of whether this school
has what you want from a graduate school --- your dream school
might turned out to be different from what you expect.
Talk to students, talk to professors, talk to everyone.
Open your eyes and observe.
How do you like the students? Are they happy? What's the suicide rate
of the department? Or, to be less radical, the drop out rate 
and why?
Are the doors open? Do you find people talking in the hallways, or
are they stuck in their corner office? 
Are the professors approachable? Or,
because the astronomical cost of living there,
or whatever other reasons, do they have to become consultants 
outside of school, giving their students approximately an hour every six 
months? 

Use this information to update your preference order,
and then decide. There is an element of speculation here,
but it is inevitable. If, after gathering all this information,
you still can't decide between two or three schools,
toss up a coin or write a random generator to help you decide.

To wrap it up, applying to graduate school is a tedious and demanding
process. It is only natural ---
a Ph.D. program is very likely to be the most significant 4 to 7 years of 
your education, and the time, money, and energy you put into it could be the largest
single investment you ever make. 
I hope you find the information in this  rambling useful. 
Good luck.

\end{document}