Hugo85

'Please provide us your personal statement why you think you deserve the X Award. Please limit your statement to 500 words' No where does it ask for a Statement of Purpose, so I assume this is it. However I simply cannot only talk about my interests and future perspectives as I have to prove that I deserve the award. I should obviously explain how my interests, past publications and experiences tie-in with the proposed subject, but how do I tie this in to why I deserve this award? I am really not sure how and to what extent I should be selling myself. I'd appreciate some guidance as I don't want to sound like a shamwow advertisement, yet I don't want to undersell myself. Hugo

Considering a credit card usually have pretty steep interest rates, I'd say that would be a good idea Estimate how much you'd be in debt with a nice apartment versus a bad one versus with a roommate. You will have to pay back 3-5 years of extra rent plus compound interests. if it's feasible and you don't mind finishing your PhD with a car's worth to extra debt then by all means go ahead.

Hello, I'm currently in the process of applying for PhD and most of the universities I intend to apply to require 2 Letters of Recommendation. First letter is undoubtedly my current supervisor. Second letter can however be from my current boss at work from whom I should get a good recommendation or from a professor with whom I took 2 classes and has asked me to use my work as an example for her class. I feel that both these options have their pros and cons and am unsure which one would send the better signal. I would much appreciate the input of others who may be more aware of the intricacies of the system.

Hello, I already have an offer from my current supervisor which I can postpone until I get my answer from the one program which I am waiting on, it is in Asia so I assume they work differently from their US counterparts. I would really like to get into this program and results should have been out yet so I assume I am on some sort of waiting list. However since the time of application I have gotten an internship (now 4 months of experience) in a mildly related field and submitted a conference paper that got past the abstract check and is awaiting final review. At the time of application I had no relevant work experience and one journal paper under review (now undergoing corrections). It seems like these new points could help tip the scale had they been in the application from the start, but being pushy trying to add them in this late in the application process might not be feasible or even viewed positively by the admission comitee. I am not sure what I should do in this position?