Best plan of approach to a PhD program?

[totesmcgoats]

Hi Everyone,

So I'm about to graduate from a program in Canada that is essentially a triple major between electrical engineering, physics, and math (math counted as a minor degree). I have only made the decision to want to pursue a research environment (particularly a PhD) late in my second last year after working in a research lab and finding the aspect of research in computer engineering/applied math (particularly machine learning, AI, and digital logic) absolutely exhilarating. Unfortunately, my performance in the first 3/5 years in my undergrad have been less than stellar (~75% cumulative GPA).

I've been trying to develop a strong background in research by obtaining research experience (I have currently one 3rd author journal publication and am working on another) and in by performing much better in my last two years (my 4th year GPA is around 85% and my final year GPA is around 92%, GREs were Q170, V160, 4 in writing). I have been able to perform better in advanced versions of previous courses I have performed poorly on (e.g. 80% in control systems and 100% in advanced signals and Shannon theory). As it stands, when I graduate, my cumulative GPA will be around 80%.

I would very much like to pursue a research-based graduate degree (especially with several groups in computer engineering/computer science at top universities such as Stanford, Berkeley, Washington...), however, I am not sure what my best form of approach is. I understand that I will be shadowed by my previous poor performance and as much as I am confident that my final year is the most representative of my ability, hiring committees are likely to choose the student with a 90% average consistently than one who has climbed up to 90+. So, I was hoping to gauge a few questions for any opinions:

• Should I aim for top tier schools immediately? Or should I try to gather more research experience to "prove myself"? Or should I aim to pursue groups in other schools?
• Will admissions consider that my program is particularly strenuous? (consistently 8 full courses a semester, compared to the 6 or 7 that regular engineering programs or the 4-5 that computer science programs require)
• Should I retake my GRE? Particularly to get a higher score in verbal and writing?
• How should I approach potential supervisors explaining my passion, target research area, and justification of my potential without sounding like I'm giving excuses for my past performance?
• What are my chances in general? I know it is getting more and more competitive and wanted to know how bad of shape and if it's a good idea to do post-bac work to improve my profile.
• I've had internships at a research engineering company (did a bunch of data analysis) and one in software, would this help me at all?

Any advice or opinion is greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!

[AkashSky]

Admission to graduate school really boils down to these three main things:

1) Research Experience

2) GPA+GRE (Note that gre is generally given much less weight)

3) Written Documents (Letters of Recommendation+ your Statement of Purpose+Personal Statement)

 

How many years of research experience do you have, and more importantly, will you be able to get strong letters from it?  Ideally, you have three letters from three supervisors that you have conducted research for (this WILL make your application very competitive since few people have ALL their letters from research super visors).

I don't know if 80% gpa is good or bad, but there is really nothing you can do to impact it significantly anyways so I say don't worry about it.  Your GRE seems fine enough to where you do not need to retake it.  (However, from this I assume that you are international, which means that its going to be extremely competitive if you are applying to US institutions.  I suggest trying to find information about how many international students a school accepts and focus on private institutions).

 

Start writing your statement of purpose ASAP.  You need to make sure that all of your required writings that you submit are absolutely perfect and convincing.  Make sure to get as many people to read your statement of purpose as possible, and make sure to use your schools career center if available.

 

As for your questions,

1) You should apply to a range of programs.  Just because schools are top tier doesn't mean you can't get in.  If you are a good research fit (more so than the other applicants,) you will be accepted.  Don't look at rankings only, look at research fit.  Are the professors their doing research that genuinely interests you?  Then apply to that school. 

2) Your strenuous program will not have any significant impact on your application.

3) No.

4) Professors of Interest for graduate schools?  Read a few of their papers, and write out a tailored email to them stating your interest and that you want to talk to them.  There are many other guides online for this.  Just google search it.

5) Low if you are international and applying to US.  I've seen post of international students applying to like 20 schools.  Make sure to look at a lot of programs.

6) Yes, internships will most definitely help if they are related to your field.  Almost all the applications I submitted last month had a section to mention work experience if relevant to the field.