LOR and other questions from international student

[NZGirl]

Hi everyone,

I applied for one PhD program last season and was rejected. It was the one school which I had my heart set on and honestly believed that I would be best placed. Apparently the selection committee did not agree with me on that but hey, I' m going to try again anyway. I have since figured out that I should have applied to 5 or more schools. I have a few questions about this (I am from New Zealand, we have about 4 universities in the whole country and the application process is not really competitive so bear with me).

1. I'm not sure what professors in America are like, but our professors (at least at my university) are not particularly receptive or accustomed to writing LORs for graduate programs. I get the feeling that they think I would be better off just staying in NZ. The letters of recommendation I have from last year are excellent but I cannot imagine that these people are going to write me 5 more references so I can apply to other programs. Do you guys just get one reference and change the name of the school or do you get different references for each school? Also, do the professors have to submit the references themselves or can I do it for them? Does anyone have any strategies for dealing with this situation?

2. Do you guys write different essays for different schools? The school I applied for was the school that I honestly believed to be the best fit for me based on my research interests and learning style. My essay was obviously specific to the school I applied to, I just re-read it and it wouldn't really make sense if I changed the name of the school. Does everyone write generic essays or do you spend months and months writing different essays for each school?

3. More an observation than a question, this is an expensive process! I'm off to do a GMAT course (because apparently this is more important than I realised and my low score pretty much meant I shouldn't have bothered applying last season) which will cost me about $4000 (no GMAT course in NZ so have to go to San Fran for 7 weeks), then$70-120USD per application on top of that (that's a lot of money in NZ!).

I would appreciate any advice people are willing to give me.

Thanks in advance

[csKid]

1. Professors usually write LORs, for all students they worked with. It is incumbent upon them to do so, and encourage their students to continue studies. I'm also from foreign country and they do write LORs for students, because they respect students who choose education over jobs. If you tell them your interests along with reasons for pursuing a phd (A copy of SOP for that school), it will be easy for them to relate their experience with you. One of my profs. was not sure, what to write exactly. She told me that she was going to project me great, academically, and talk about the courses I did with her. Though I agreed to her, I gave her this link.

http://www.cs.brown....d-School-Recos/

But giving a link might not work for you. What you do is make a packet to each professor with,

1. The names of the schools

2. Their deadlines.

3. Courses in which you're applying, if they are different.

4. Some links on how to write good SOPs for your program.

Professors can only submit LORs. Some universities accept paper LORs(hard copies) which are letters in sealed envelopes from your professors, which you're not allowed to fiddle with. You can courier them together, but not allowed to open the seal.

2. Yes, People write different SOPs for different schools. There is lots of advise on writing SOPs in other forums. It differs with programs. Usually, it is strongly advisable to apply to schools with research areas that align with your interests. Finding 5 schools with similar interests would not be much trouble if you go through few schools in your field.

In applying to schools, applying to schools in which you have seniors from your school will significantly improve your chances, since the adcom know about the quality of people from your program. Also, write details of how your school/program is ranked in your country if they do not know about your current school.

On writing SOPs for different schools, generally people reserve the last paragraph for writing about why they want to join that school in particular, and rest remains the same for all schools.

3. Application to US universities is a costly process. My applications took more than 2 months of my gross salary. Some people pitched in when I needed. If you want it badly, you can afford it, and will do the right things, and do a lot of research before clicking the submit button. If you think your financial state is keeping you from applying you can mail or talk to graduate admissions office, and they might consider your case specially, and waive the application fee.

One idea to cut down on the fee is to take online coaching

Hi everyone,

I applied for one PhD program last season and was rejected. It was the one school which I had my heart set on and honestly believed that I would be best placed. Apparently the selection committee did not agree with me on that but hey, I' m going to try again anyway. I have since figured out that I should have applied to 5 or more schools. I have a few questions about this (I am from New Zealand, we have about 4 universities in the whole country and the application process is not really competitive so bear with me).

1. I'm not sure what professors in America are like, but our professors (at least at my university) are not particularly receptive or accustomed to writing LORs for graduate programs. I get the feeling that they think I would be better off just staying in NZ. The letters of recommendation I have from last year are excellent but I cannot imagine that these people are going to write me 5 more references so I can apply to other programs. Do you guys just get one reference and change the name of the school or do you get different references for each school? Also, do the professors have to submit the references themselves or can I do it for them? Does anyone have any strategies for dealing with this situation?

2. Do you guys write different essays for different schools? The school I applied for was the school that I honestly believed to be the best fit for me based on my research interests and learning style. My essay was obviously specific to the school I applied to, I just re-read it and it wouldn't really make sense if I changed the name of the school. Does everyone write generic essays or do you spend months and months writing different essays for each school?

3. More an observation than a question, this is an expensive process! I'm off to do a GMAT course (because apparently this is more important than I realised and my low score pretty much meant I shouldn't have bothered applying last season) which will cost me about $4000 (no GMAT course in NZ so have to go to San Fran for 7 weeks), then$70-120USD per application on top of that (that's a lot of money in NZ!).

I would appreciate any advice people are willing to give me.

Thanks in advance

Edited May 4, 2011 by rejectMeNot

[hahahut]

First, we have EIGHT universities!

Five schools aren't that many at all. I think everyone you ask would be fine with this. In theory, it is good to customize your SOP and LOR. But I doubt any professor actually does it (at least not mine). As everything is online now, it is pretty much just copy, minor modification, and paste for them. I did give my LOR writers a list of my schools I would apply rather than assuming they would be happy to do all of them. But none of them had problems with my list.

I don't think it worth to go to US for a GMAT course. There are a lot of materials available online and in libraries. If you are still in university, their libraries should have more related studying materials. If there is a book you really want, but you cannot find in a library, you can actually request the public library to purchase. I got a book for GRE's AWA section this way through Auckland City Library.

[canberra]

Make sure the LORs refer to actual work/projects you have done. Bland statements such as, "S/he is proactive and takes initiatives" are useless compared to a statement such as, "When confronted with such-and-such a problem, s/he did such-and-such a thing without being told."