我把全部的申请资料(CV/SOP/LoR)放在简单弄的git io上
有兴趣可以去 https://sendurlanter.github.io/cv/ 参考
以下我尽量简短的总结这次的申请 (毕竟我之前再爬文时也只看我要找的重要资讯)
[Program]
All ECE PhD, research area: wireless network/communication
[Admission]
UCDavis (1year Fellowship, RA+TA after first year, 2/10)
Virginia Tech (RA, 2/18)
ASU (RA, 1/30)
[Oral offer]
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RA, 1/14)
[Rejection]
KAUST (2/10)
这间ECE PhD申请要考calculus, linear algebra, probability, signal and system
但我那时有学校了就没准备
有兴趣的话我也有把题目放在上面的网址上
[Pending]
UTAustin, UCSD, USC, Columbia, UCI, NYU
虽然有些有跟教授聊过 但这个时间点我想应该凉了 有结果我再更新
[Decision]
UCDavis
[Background]
BS in Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University Sep. 2016 - Jan. 2021
Overall GPA: 3.3/4.3
GRE: 320 V154 Q166 AW3
TOEFL: 96 R29 L27 S18 W22
(我也不知为啥我口说那么低 这害我直接被GaTech寄信说我没达到他们口说19的门槛所以不考虑)
注: 因为觉得GRE寄成绩一次27很贵再加上今年大部分学校不要求，所以我在申请时只寄了2间
另外我的三围没达到很多学校direct PhD的要求，我想我说低应该没争议
[Publication]
以下是送出申请时的状态:
Journal:
二作, IEEE Transactions on Multimedia
三作, IEEE Access
三作, submitted to IEEE Communication Survey & Tutorials
Conference:
三作, IEEE GLOBECOM Workshop
一作, IEEE VTC
一作, IEEE 一个C级会议
一作, 国内会议
因为我想让投的文章都要在申请前有结果
所以大概都是那时候有啥conference就投啥
(TMM那篇我理论上是一作，变二作的原因有点黑暗)
我其实觉得我没做出什么真正的突破
大概都是survey看看现在有什么热门的问题
设计个model跟algorithm跟风发而已
但是没有这些就没办法弥补三围的不足
之后读PhD想做真正有突破性的东西
[Research Experiences]
专题生 at NTU, Sep. 2018 - Jan. 2020
Research Assistant at NTU, Feb. 2020 - present
[Work Experiences]
Intern at Foxconn Advanced Communication Academy, Sep. 2018 - Jun. 2019
Software Engineer (接案) at 一个学长的新创, Jan. 2019 - Jun. 2019
Summer Intern at 一个AI新创, Jul. 2019 - Aug. 2019
[Recommendation Letter]
1. Advisor
2. 一个跟实验室有共同计画跟发表的副教授 (他很雷 想知道黑幕可以问我)
3. 一个在实验室时还是PhD, 在我申请时找到教职的助理教授
4. 实习主管
[Interview]
UTAustin (1/4)
UCD (11/2)
VT (10/25, 2/9)
NYU (1/26)
RPI (11/21)
ASU (1/28)
把太细节的内容除去掉后
我面试被问最多的的问题大概就是:
why PhD?
what to do in your PhD?
what to do after PhD?
what related courses have you taken?
你偏理论还是实作?
你的强项跟弱项?
你GPA怎么这样 背后有啥故事吗?
RL/ML/FL的一些概念?
因为我的pub数>1 且主题都不同 所以教授通常都会挑他们有兴趣的一个问我这在干嘛?
时间大概都30m-1h 一些常见的问题可以先准备好答复 然后要尽量展现你的研究潜力你的想法
我也都会准备一些问题问
what's current projects and research trend in your lab?
what's your graduation requirement?
what skill or ability do you expect your PhD students to have?
If I were admitted, will I receive fundings?
... etc
我看有些人说要准备PPT报告你做过的东西，但我都没(毕竟东西满多的)
我觉得弄一个网站show你的研究比较有用
[选校]
Step 1. 我在五月时在US news上graduate通讯领域排名10~40的学校一间一间查
透过学校网页上faculty栏注明的research interest初步筛选出做无线网络相关的教授数>3的学校
Step 2. 5~10月有空时就一个个上候选教授的Google scholar看recent publication
把方向跟我差太远的排除掉(通常是以看title看不看得懂在干嘛为标准)
Step 3. 10月开始看二筛过的教授他们2020的publication 如果太少就排除 (这可能代表他们不太
收人)
有看到我能讲出一点见解的论文就挑2篇出来细看 接着以跟我的关联性做排序 一个一个寄信套词
基本上没回我的我就不会去申请了 因为我申请有金额上限
[套词]
联络教授是申PhD满重要的部分 特别是对于三围低的人
我的offer全是我有联络的教授给的
相反的 没有其他教授主动联络我(即使我有在SOP上提到他)
我"猜"是因为他们要找学生也是会从申请系统上成绩好的开始挑
所以我一开始就积极地增加曝光度
我总共寄了23个教授(包含我最后没去申请的学校)
共有15人回 其中大概一半是汉语拼音的教授
我的经验是大部分的教授对你有兴趣一天之内会回你
我只碰到一个例外是一个northwest的教授一个月后才回 但我最后就没投西北了
以下分享我其中一封套词信:
Dear professor XXX,
I am a research assistant at National Taiwan University (NTU) while pursuing
my B.S. in Electrical Engineering. My past research focus is on XXX. I have
long been interested in your research group and have listened to the
presentation of your group online at this year's GLOBECOM. Recently, I have
completed my application for direct Ph.D. at ECE department, USC. I would be
grateful if I could know whether you're planning to recruit new Ph.D.
students in 2021 Fall?
Having explored your Google Scholar and your website in detail, I found your
research on wireless network inspiring. Specifically, in your recent paper
"XXXXX", I think it is novel to consider the service placement problem with
binary tree and adopt Age-of-Information (AoI) as the timing metric. In your
other paper "XXXXX", a subtle resource allocation game is presented to reach
a decent tradeoff between isolation and efficiency in the network slicing
scheme.
I also found interesting in your recent studies on wireless scheduling and
collaborative sensing system. I am passionate about delving into further
research in these fields. With your guidance, I believe I can make
significant contributions. I have enclosed my CV to help you know my research
background better.
Also, you can see some animated demo of my past work via my website below:
xxxxx
Thank you for your time and consideration.
我觉得要注意的就是你有兴趣的东西写的越明确越好
反而对他论文的看法不用讲太多
点出你觉得的新颖点就好
可以在信最后附上你的网站或google scholar
这点就抓住教授的目光而言很有用
(有个教授面试跟我说他看到我的网站就对我印象不错)