InstinctVegeta

Hi All, I am going through a lot of graduate schools faculty lists and trying to find which professor has done research which I find interesting. Till now, I am able to obtain only a handful of such professors. Some professors have a good bio on the university website but have no footprint of a research paper anywhere. And in some cases, the name itself is so common that I find myself sifting through other lecturer's work. So would it be a good idea to start up a chat in order to get more details in their research area, assuming that I would be aiming for that university also? Thanks.

I don't see that as a possibility. But if someone more qualified than me can give their advice it'd be great. In my experience of college hunting, having this kind of break will not ruin anything. Your profile otherwise looks strong and you should be able to get into good grad schools. But again, see if someone else (maybe with a similar situation) replies to this post.

First off, I want to say that your question warrants a lot of people coming and saying that do your research. And they will be correct. I don't have any suggestion but I would like to help you in some other way though. Hope it helps. I daresay that your profile looks like my profile from 4 years ago. If I had the knowledge of posting in forums like these, I might've been better off than I am now. Your GPA is low, and given that you have 2 semesters (worth of studying) remaining, I am guessing you won't be having much opportunity to improve that either. So here are my two cents in order to save your sinking boat when you go for graduate application in a year or so. First of all, you do have enough time to make good relation with your faculty. DO THAT! When the time came for 'Letter of Recommendation', I have suffered a lot because of this. It is a key part of the application. I think I can understand (being third tier college from India and all), that being in good terms with the professor can look trivial but it is very important. Next, you have to show that you are a scholar in some way. If we assume that the GPAs are out of the equation, focus on research papers. They are pandora box of knowledge and will increase insight in your area of interest exponentially. It might be boring to read, but you have to push through. Start collaborating with your current professors and get'em published. Lastly I would like to say that start interacting with professors in your prospective colleges. Go through the research that they have done and maybe they can advise you to to the adcomms when the time comes. I'm currently in this process right now. Apart from these, if you have researched enough (which you should before posting anything), you would know that SOP is the deciding factor when the adcomms want to know more about you. So make a draft of it, review it, add more details to it and keep revising it until you have a final one. Best of luck!

Thanks _kita Also I should mention that this question is a little premature for me right now since I'm still trying to find out a suitable professor with similar interest.

Hi, First post here. I am currently having low GPA but strong work experience. I have seen from my colleagues and fellow applicants that having job experience would count to next to nothing while applying for universities. I have given up on ambitious universities and some of the safe universities as well for now. It has been twice that I've applied and have got zero acceptance till now. Going through different forums and after a lot of google searches, I am seeing the only way to strengthen my application is to start communicating with a professor and try to show them that I'm worthy of selection. But how do I kick-off a conversation is my question? Do I dive into the topic which they are working (and interests me) or is it a necessity to have a paper published on that topic by me? Thanks