Apping Fundae's

In this page I present all I know about apping for graduate education (Master's or Ph.D)  in U.S or Canadian Universities. It is a long, meticulous and often painful process, but is definitely worth it if you want a good graduate education in the engineering sciences.  On this page I have also provided the link's to some sample suck mails and statement of purpose that I have collected in the process of apping.

Academics

Fact of life - universities award scholarships based on academic performance as measured by the GRADES obtained in your undergraduate education (so if you think you are one of those people who have low grades but high fundaes wake up). So for IIT it is your CPI, and for other universities it is your aggregate percentage or whatever. People with lower grades getting schols in better universities are the exception, not the norm. Note that it is only the CPI of the last 3 years that is usually taken into account, since the application forms for the univ's have to be sent by the second/third week of December, by which time the results of the fourth year/seventh semester will not have come out (or can be conveniently neglect Universities know this and do not expect you to let them know your final year performance - they base their decisions on the first 3 years. So basically if you want a good graduate education at a well-known university, start mugging. This said, universities do see other things besides grades while awarding scholarships - it is just that they do not give them as much importance. Notable among these "other things" are:

Participation and/or winning of science/math competitions like the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), Indian National Mathematics Olympiad (INMO), Regional Mathematics Olympiad (RMO), Indian Physics Teachers Olympiad etc. If you have participated/won prizes in any of the above-mentioned or similar competitions, make sure you let the  universities know when the time comes. It would even help if you mentioned your IIT-JEE rank if it is relatively good (ie say you are in the top 6-7 in your department in terms of JEE rank or if you are in the top 100 overall).

Projects you have done:  this includes your main final-year project, your seminar (in IIT) as well as any vacation project or summer internship

(including, in IIT, your Practical Training) you may have done. In fact, it is a good idea to have a few good projects under your belt anyway - they serve the dual purpose of giving you some fundaes in the field you are doing the project in and giving you something that will look good on your resume. Be careful in choosing the kind of project you are doing and where you are doing it - it should be an enjoyable experience and not just something you are doing for resume or recommendation. Places I now that give interesting research-based projects are:

a.        IIT itself

b.        IISc - the Indian Institute of Science, Banglore

c .       TIFR - Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Pune and Banglore

d .      BARC - Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai etc.

I recommend doing projects outside IIT/your present institution (especially if you plan to do so in the summer after your first or second years) as it will give you a different perspective on research from what IIT manages to give you. Many of the above-m mentioned places have summer student scholarships, which will defer any expenses you may have while doing your projects. These projects are also usually sources for recommendation letters ("recos").

Standardized Exams GRE and TOEFL

To apply for engineering education in the US you need to give two exams - the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language). Both of these are conducted by the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

The GRE has three sections – Analytical writing, Verbal and Quantitative. The verbal section is the only one that requires real preparation - it tests your English language skills and is usually found to be rather tough among desi public. The other two sections are just practice. A score above 1400 is usually considered good - above 1500 is a bonus. Univs do not attach much importance to GRE scores, but a bad score (say below 1250) may seriously affect your chances.

The TOEFL is a very easy exam, and requires almost no preparation.

Choosing Field of Interest

Hopefully by the time the apping process starts you will have decided which sub-field of your department interests you enough for you to pursue your graduate education in it. It need not be too narrow, but there should be some choice made. Second fact of life - people working in some fields get scholarships easier than people in others. But it should not be the only factor in deciding which field you are going to work/apply in - otherwise you may end up doing an MS in something you do not like.  Applying in the field in which you did your final-year project will improve your chances, but that does not mean that your MS should be constrained by what you did in your BTP/Final year project.

Pre-Apping

This is what we affectionately call contacting faculty in the US univ's for admission and financial aid. It is a long and painful process and will eat up your time and concentration, but it is known to yeild often spectacular results. So here is a step-by-step guide.

Timing Start around the beginning of September at the earliest. Earlier is no point - the profs usually don’t reply till around 2nd week of October. But in case you are dying of nbd, you can go to the homepages of the entire faculty in all the univs you are likely to apply to and see who are suitable for you - as in who do the kind of stuff you want to pursue your MS in. Save their contact addresses, in fact their entire homepages for later reference - you will definitely need it later, and going to the univ page every time will be painful. Having a well organized app directory may make you less "cool" but it will save you a lot of bother.

Resume After you have decided on a tentative list of universities and prof’s in those univs you have to make your resume. Make sure you include all the studgiri you have done/think you are going to do. In IIT people include their seminars, Btp’ s, any course/lab projects worth mentioning, their summer training projects, their GRE and TOEFL scores, their department rank ... Ask some suitable senior to give you his resume for guidance and after you have made a draft show it to seniors for pointers and stuff. Make sure your resume does not sound bombastic - do not claim to have done more than you actually have - IITians apparently do enough  work at the undergraduate level anyway. Also, limit it to at max 3-4 pages - no one wants to go through an encyclopedia detailing your greatness.

Make sure you mention the professors (in IIT) you are working with – US profs you send your resume to may know them and effective matchmaking may take place. Also, it may be possible that you are apping in slightly different fields in different univs - in this case reorder your resume and emphasize- deemphasize appropriately. If you have a good department rank, flash it prominently. And DO NOT make your resume in MS Word or other such editors - plain text is the way. It may restrict its looks, but the prof’s there may not even bother to open an MS word document. Avoid long paragraphs - use points. I could go on and on, so I won't - just keep your mind open when writing your resume and make sure you get it properly reviewed by kindly souls willing to undergo the torture.

Sucking So time has come to start sucking - what do you do? Make a "Suck Letter" - a covering letter of sorts that briefly details the field you are interested in, and why you would like to work with the particular prof you are sending the mail to. Include things like your rank (if good) and GRE and TOEFL scores, but dont make it a second resume. Limit it to one screenful AT MAX - prof's there get pained by hajaar mails from all over the world and do not REALLY care about you. Send to one prof from each univ and wait for a few days - say 4-5. Avoid sending emails around weekends - they pile up in the prof's inbox and chances are he will just delete it in the rush to clear his inbox. Profs who do reply usually do so in 2-3 days at max. In the event of no reply or unfavorable reply, suck someone else. Sending 20 mails a week and not even getting one reply is often the case - keep at it.

Post -Apping

 Recos - This is probably the most important part about filling out forms - each university requires 3 "Letters of Recommendation" from "people who have known your work". So basically you have to get three letters of praise from profs who have seen you work (say your BTP guide, seminar guide, summer training guide, etc etc). Profs here will all know about this - if you think a prof is happy with you, just go and ask him (or her) to give you a reco. Each univ has a Recommendation Form (usually downloadable) which the prof’s have to fill. Take your recos well in time as profs often do it at their own leisure and you do not want to miss univ deadlines. Some people send more than three recos - don’t know if that helps, but if all are reasonably good it will definitely not do any harm.

Statement of Purpose For some strange reason univs want you to tell them why you are interested in pursuing a graduate education, what you hope to achieve from the same, your career plans and your qualifications (in brief - this is NOT another resume). Ask seniors for their Sops.

Filling the Forms - Fill them, of course. Nowadays all universities have online application.

 Include any certificates, reprints of publications or any other such studgiri you have referred to in your resume. Make sure you send your resume too.

Sending the Packets - Courier them - don’t be penny wise and pound foolish and send them by post or something. Put your email ID on the cover. Two/three people sending to the same univ often send their packets together - do this if you want, no harm. Also, univs ask for things to be sent separately to the Graduate Office and the Department. Send them both in separate envelopes in the same packet if required, with a covering letter stating clearly what are what and whose. 

Relax: For sometime at least.

Post-app Sucking

After you have sent your app packets, send emails to Prof’s who replied positively to you before apping informing them that you have sent your app packet and that they should see it. Also send mails to profs who have NOT replied to you earlier, telling them that you have applied and that could they please look at your application? Make sure to include your resume in such new contacts, and mention important things like department rank and stuff in the main mail itself. Be careful to not suck more than one prof at a time in the same univ - wait for 4-5 days for each fellow to reply. This process can start in say late Jan. It can be pretty painful - just go about it bravely.

Be patient There is nothing more to do. Just wait for the schol's, admits etc to pour in, hopefully. If you get admit to a particular univ but the financial aid decisions are not yet made, don't lie back to smell the roses – start sucking prof’s there ASAP – prof’s often prefer admitted candidates.