Need suggesions to figure out reason for phd application rejection

[sshine2468]

Hi,

 

I need help for getting a phd admission. I applied for Fall-2014 session in 17 US universities, but I did not get call. I am really puzzled regarding where should I apply and all. I need your advise for my next attempt. Following are my details: 

 

B.E. in ECE 72%

M.Tech. from IIT 7.9 cgpa,

4 years of work experience

GRE: 311 (V 149, Q 162, W 4.0)

TOEFL: 101 (Reading: 25, Listening: 26, Speaking: 22, Writing: 28).

2 conference papers both as the first author.

1 is pending patent, 1 rejected, both as the first author.
 

Apart from this I am suspecting that one of my recommendation out of three was not good. I got this by the incident that I gave 3 professors name as recommender in all universities except one (ASU). In ASU I replaced the prof under doubt with the 4th prof. I applied in 17 colleges. Out of all 17 I got admit only from ASU, but that too for MS without funding. So I am suspecting there might be something wrong with the 3rd prof. Below is the list of universities where I applied:

UC Berkeley, Cornell University, Purdue University WEST LAfyte, Stanford University, University of Texas at Austin, U California San Diego, UCLA , University of Michigan, north Carolina state university, Texas A&M University–​College Station (Look), University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of California, Santa Barbara, Arizona State University, University of Southern California (Viterbi), University of Minnesota, Georgia Inst of Tech, NUS.

 

Before applying I contacted several professors from all the above universities and got +ve response from many of them. But I am really puzzled regarding my rejection from all the above colleges. Please advise me on the following:

 

1. Is the university selection was not good?? Please suggest where should I apply?

2. Does my CGPA is too less to get admission?? 

3. Does my GRE/TOEFL score is too low to get admission?

4. May the negative recommendation (as I am suspecting) might be the cause of rejection from all above universities?

5. What would you suggest me to do next? 

6. Please suggest me European Universities where I should apply.

 

[bsharpe269]

What are your research interests? You applied to alot of schools (many more than most people) which suggests that you may not have narrowed down your list well based on your research goals.

 

Do you know what your research goals are and did you discuss them in your SOP? Are there many (at least 3) professors doing research similar to what you want to do at all of the schools you applied to?

[sshine2468]

Hi bsharpe269,

Thank you very much for your reply. Yes, I have narrowed down my research interest its "low/high power and novel device design" and I contacted only those professors who are having similar research interest also mentioned it in my SOP.

Yes, there are more than 3 professors with primary research interest as mine, wherever I applied.

[juilletmercredi]

If you didn't get accepted to the PhD program at Arizona State even with the third professor, I'm doubting that it is just your recommender.  I mean, it could be that, but I doubt that it was only that factor.  Why do you think one of your recommenders would give you a bad recommendation letter?

Could be research fit.  It looks like you applied to about 15 PhD programs, which is a lot, and I agree that that could potentially be indicative that your research interests are not narrowed down enough.  Perhaps you didn't write compellingly about them in your statement of purpose, or perhaps you didn't select programs at which there was someone interested in supervising someone with your interests.

I'm also not sure what a 72% or a 7.9 GPA are.  If a 7.9 is like a 3.8-3.9 on a 4.0 scale, then that's fine.  But if a 72% is anything like a 72% in the U.S. (which is a low C average) then that could potentially be the answer.

[bsharpe269]

Yes, I agree that it is hard for us to understand your gpa since foreign GPAs are done very differently than ours.

 

I would say that GPAs probably fall in about the following categories:

Top 15% of class, GPA will help your application

15-30% of class, GPA is neutral and wont help or hurt you

30-50% of class, GPA will hurt you but you can still get in with great research fit and experience

 

That is just my rough (and potenitally wrong) estimate and I have no idea where your GPA would fall on that scale.

[sshine2468]

Hi juilletmercredi,

 

If lees CGPA in bachelor and graduate courses is the reason so which universities can I apply?

In India though 72% and 7.91/10 are decent scores but while applying one has to convert these marks in 4.0 GPA which changes its interpretation.

Also from the replies of professors to whom I contacted they seemed pretty interested in my research and asked to put their names as proposed supervisor.

Feeling very sad whether will be able to get admit or not??

[hj2012]

I do some admissions consulting, albeit in an East Asian country, but I think many of the same rules will apply to Indian international students.

 

I would retake the GRE, as 162Q seems a bit low for an international student applying for engineering PhD programs, particularly the caliber of schools that you applied to. You want your Q score to be as close to perfect as possible.

 

Do you have any other reason for suspecting that the third recommender was bad? Honestly, the reason you listed didn't sound compelling.

 

If your written English in this forum is any indication, your statement of purpose was probably not as polished as it could be. Did you have it checked over by a native English speaker? If not, the admissions committees might have had a difficult time figuring out what exactly your interests were.

 

In the future, try applying to a wider range of programs in terms of competitiveness, and, as others have stated, focus on "fit" over prestige.

 

Good luck!