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zapster

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Posts posted by zapster

  1. Your first point has to be about research fit...even if at a broad level, even better if you can identify specific themes. 

     

    Reference to resources has to be more specific - e.g. is there some cross-disciplinary group or a specific research centre or a collaborative network in your area? 

     

    Reference to faculty also should ideally be more specific - this is a good place to talk about the profs. whose work interests you and who you would want to work with.

     

    If the university is known for a specific ideological or methodological preference that aligns with yours, it may also be useful to highlight this. 

  2. 1. I'm afraid you have to put in the hours on this one. It's not as hard as it looks though, it is pretty easy to eliminate a large number of profs. if you know what you are looking for. Plus going through all their research is often very enlightening. Sometimes the stated research interests do not give a complete or accurate picture or may not have been updated in a while. I found reading the abstracts of the latest few publications of potential POIs to be the most rewarding process for identifying profs. I would like to work with.

     

    2. Yes do send your CV, but also send a much shorter summary of your key positives in the body of the mail - sometimes they might just be too busy to open attachments!

     

    3. What field are you looking at ?

     

    4. Contacting say around 2-4 profs. working in the same broad related area within a department may in fact be a good idea. If they have some overlap of interests it might actually increase your chances.

  3. Is it possible to get some sort of rank letter from your university - an official note demonstrating you are in the top X% could mitigate the risk of the adcom not being familiar with your GPA scale.

     

    Focus a bit more on refining your choice of schools and in turn tweaking your SOP so that the fit between your goals and that of the program are more clearly apparent. I do not know how specific or generic your SOP was, but if it was not very specific you may want to try focusing it a bit more. For the next 1 yr., try to work in more focused areas that will help you improve fit with your preferred schools.

     

    Did you contact any POIs at the schools you applied to. If so, dont be coy in asking them for feedback on what to improve / what was missing in your application. Even one or two relevant answers could help you a lot. Also ask them how your time now (next 1 yr) is best spent.

     

    Best of Luck !

  4. Depends on your field (for example, business pHD programs normally discourage students from contacting POIs), but unless the school specifically mentions this on the website, I think contacting POIs is usually very beneficial.

     

    You can attach a CV, but draft your mail assuming the POI will not open it, i.e. mention any critical (and impressive) information in the text of the mail itself. Short mail...too long and they might lose interest. Capture why you are interested in them (demonstrating you are familiar with their work), check if they are accepting students, and finish with a short profile that highlights your strengths.

     

    Hope this helps!

  5. Wow - thats a lot of questions !!

     

    It is ofcourse difficult to get a complete picture from a few paragraphs, so do ignore if I have misunderstood, but it seems to me that there are two separate issues here:

     

    The first is on whether you should in fact have expectations from friends on what is the 'norm' - i.e. would you have felt the same way about your friend, lets say, if she was not involved in the same research project as you or perhaps was in a completely different field. Would her go-getter attitude still be an issue? We all have our characteristics, and I believe you befriend (or reject) someone as a complete package - trying to cherry pick attributes or get people to change does not work (for me at least). So putting aside (for a moment) your concerns about the shared research project, can you accept your friend as she is - insecurities, competitiveness and all (and this may well be a two way thing, for example - and I'm speculating wildly here and do not intend to be offensive - would she view you as insecure on the academic front because you do not assert youself as strongly as she does?) - or does this still bother you. If so, maybe you two are not compatible in the first place.

     

    The second issue is relevant only if you believe that you are infact quite compatible. In which case, perhaps finding your own space and internal benchmarks on how you wish to be viewed academically/professionally may be the way to go. Perhaps you are reading too much into her behavior - not everything she does may be consciously directed towards going one-up on you? Personally, I think it would be unfair to expect someone to curb their own aggression/ambition to make me look better. I do hope you dont expect that. On the other hand, if someone is deliberately stepping on my toes - then it is altogether a different story. Which one is it ?

     

    Best of Luck !

     

    p.s. If you were looking for an idealogical debate about Collaboration vs Competitiveness istead, I have some thoughts on that too !!!!

  6. Have you considered approaching banks in Singapore ?

     

    Do not have personal experience with any of these, but some of the bank websites (e.g. DBS) do talk about giving education loans for University to International students in Singapore (guarantor required). Have no idea about the comparative interest rates in Singapore vs US though, so not sure which option will be less expensive.

  7. Anybody else notice how lots of professors and staff in academia like to sign their emails with "Best".

     

    No no I'm not reading much into it. Its just one of my pet peeves that I've noticed is ubiquitious in academia.

     

    I see no harm in it, but ofcourse you are entitled to your opinion - would like to point out though that this is definitely not unique to academia. May not be as all-pervasive, but there is a large chunk of corporate / industry population out there 'besting' it out....just saying :)

  8. I just keep feeling like I don't know enough to contribute to the study design. She's basically come up with everything and I just keep going "that sounds like a great idea!"

     

     

    Sometimes, helping people reflect and bounce off their own ideas is as important as coming up with something original. If you initially feel like contributing originally is a bit of a stretch, you might be able to still prove extremely useful by helping her analyse and introspect her ideas in greater detail. Perhaps take some time to think about her ideas and schedule some sessions to discuss these. Discussing these may also help you understand the process by which she comes up with such original ideas.

     

    I mean, I'm reading up on the subject, but I'm just having a lot of trouble coming up with something original, and I feel like I keep doing that just for the sake of being original and it's not necessarily helpful. 

     

    Are you at least discussing with her the ideas that you originate, don't dismiss them as unhelpful yourself; sometimes your own ideas may not seem great to you, but someone else can reword them with a wonderful perspective. Don't be shy or apprehensive of sharing your ideas, even if you don't land up using most of them initially.

     

     

    I just really want this girl to know I care about the subject and I really want to learn more, but I just feel lost and like I don't know as much as I should given that I got into a PhD program...

     

    Remember - you get into a PhD program because you have the potential to complete it, not because you should know everything now. Treat this as a learning experience and never get your confidence down. Best of luck !!

  9. viz. CogPsych vs CogSci: Cognitive Science is a broader, more interdisciplinary field that along with Psychology, encompasses areas such as theory of the mind and philosophy, computer science and artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, etc.

    1. SOP - Both my positive and negative feedback from POIs and Univs. first spoke about my SOP and the fit (or lack of it, accordingly).
    2. Academic Background - Relevant courses taken seemed to matter far more than the actual GPA in my case, at least as per feedback I received.
    3. LORs - Quality of letter and how well the letter write knew me seemed to be more important than who (as in, how well known or in what position) wrote them.
    4. GRE/TOEFL - I think these mattered more being an International student than it would for domestic students.

    Did not have relevant research experience and was not requested to submit writing samples, so cannot comment on those.

  10. I seem to flit between reading articles by great authors in my field and sitting back in awe at the scope of their knowledge and their intellectual ability (and feeling very dumb and insignificant in comparison) and feeling as though being an academic (in this field) is almost too easy. I'm 23, and will get my PhD at 24, and think to myself that by the time I'm 50 will I just be bored with academia?

     

    Perhaps you need to counter one with the other? Draw up a long term coherent and connected research agenda that is aspirational, motivates you to look forward to a bunch of things that seem really vast in scope and sophistication but allow you to fit your current research work as something that is just the starting point for that agenda. Once you are able see how your current work might fit into a much larger maze, it can provide you both direction and the motivation to zing along ! best of luck.

  11. To extend upon what TeaGirl has said....it is usually a good idea to develop and rely on a strong internal sense of evaluation or self-appraisal rather than an external one. One way to do this is to realise that opinions on what is good or bad are just that - opinions, and hence subjective. It is important that you value your own subjective perspective and opinion above that of others - else you will always come across someone in whose (subjective) opinion, your work could be better (read 'different'). If you learn to thus trust your own instinct you will always know whether or not you have passed your own internal benchmarks. Not to say you should ignore constructive criticism from others - but use that to reassess and recaliberate your internal benchmarks as you deem fit.

     

    Now for the warm and fuzzy stuff!

     

    Remember - Walt Disney was first told that "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas", Marilyn Monroe was told by by modeling agents that she "should instead consider being a secretary", Van Gogh sold only one painting in his entire life and almost starved (ok - this one is not exactly inspirational!), Einstein was once touted as mentally handicapped, and Elvis was told "You ought to go back to drivin' a truck". Luckily for them, some people since thought otherwise.

     

    Best of Luck!

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