Edit: This blog post was written a month after I finished my grad school applications for fall 2018. This is mostly targeted to Indian students but others may find it useful.

I realized very late that I should apply for higher studies. I messed up a lot in the process. I was also not sure of how to best utilize time. Big credit to my brother Rohit who knows 10x more than me even today. If he writes a blog, I’ll delete mine. Anyways, I am compiling some of MY experiences in the hopes that it’ll help fellow juniors who are in a similar mindset. Feel free to drop comments and message me if you feel otherwise or would like to add something to this. Let’s get started, shall we?

  1. It’s not that difficult! There is this common perception among students that applying for higher studies is a full time job and will take away your entire final year semester. False! False! And false! In the summers of my pre-final year I was confused about going for higher studies or sitting for placements. Almost everyone told me that doing both will be a disaster and I would end up ruining both. Believe me when I say this I not only did both (I applied, results don’t matter :/) but I had plenty of time to do other stuff like take up a research project apart from my masters thesis, already had a couple of courses as well and first year students to mentor. In the meanwhile I was watching Rick and Morty and ctfo with friends. I am not bragging and obviously I am not telling the tense moments. But hopefully this article will make it even more easier for students like me to take up both options and take a call in April? (or just realize that research was not your thing)

  2. You’ll spend 80% of the time on searching for perfectly aligning research groups and corresponding with them (not on SOP, not on CV, definitely not on getting recommendations) You heard that right. If you think choosing colleges is that easy, it isn’t! Simply thinking that you’ll apply to the top 10 US colleges doesn’t break bread. You need to atleast know which groups work best in your research domain (if you don’t know what that is see the next point). Make sheets, write names, ask seniors who applied in similar domains and most importantly mail them. Yes, mailing professors is important. People will tell you that doesn’t matter because they aren’t on admissions committee, blah blah blah.. Shut these voices out. They don’t know what they are saying and you don’t have to explain them either. For starters, make 4 columns. One will have the name, other will have specific research interests, third his website and the forth one will have a research paper which does exactly what you want to do (or in most cases is your expertise).

  3. Don’t fuss on your research interests. Make one for the process! I wasted a lot of time convincing myself that I am working on something that I won’t want to continue working in. Doesn’t matter. Choose your expertise area by looking at “research projects” you have done and see what you can do. A lot of times observing what other professor in your domain are doing can shape your interests and give you more idea about your research interests (funny but true). You’ll also find a lot of research keywords common across multiple pages of professors - Use them in your SOP. Professors read SOP and seeing relevant keywords will surely make you prominent.

  4. Do research BUT at known places or under known professors (even if that means compromising your interests) You might have heard that so-and-so prof’s students go to MIT, Stanford etc. I am not saying that these students go purely because of their guide, but that does play a major role. The point is, people in the US who are going through your applications don’t know shit about you or your college or your professor (Harsh, but true). Definitely helps if you are from IIT. Definitely helps if you have done an intern at Microsoft or IBM research. Definitely helps if your thesis guide has student professors in other universities. Definitely helps if you interned in a US college (even if you did nothing). These things MATTER. They serve as calibration points. If you think I am making this up, go read this. It’s written by a CMU prof who sat on the admissions committee.

  5. You can save a lot on application fee I have seen a lot of students (read as me and my Gareeb dost) cut down on the number of universities they apply just to save money. That’s the worst thing they could do. Multiple programs at the same university. Fee waivers. Gre waivers.

  6. Your SOP need not be a story (and definitely not how you became interested about computers when your father bought a home pc) I have seen people write bull shit on their SOP just to convince the committee that they were passionate about their research from the very beginning. Frankly, no one believes you or gives a shit either. Get down to the damn point in your sop. State your research projects and talk about a couple of technical things you did. Profs read the SOP. You don’t have to be a storyteller to ace this. That said, do talk about the learning from the project. Working in a team, building research aptitude, structured approach. Give examples if possible and if you have space. Don’t brag a lot and don’t make it longer than 1500 words. Keep it around 900-1300 according to your work. A crisp SOP will have a lasting impact than a long one talking how you became a superstar from nothing (which even we know is alien shit).

  7. Make a website. Upload stuff regularly. Make a blog (lol) guys. You don’t even need to know HTML for this. WordPress pr 10 min lgega. My friend did it on the night of 15 Dec. I didn’t coz I was lazy. We both got fucked. Point is, it is easy, not that you’ll wait as long, because you need relevant content as well . Problem is, if you are a regular engineer, you probably don’t remember what you did, when you did and definitely how you did. You have no documentation, nothing to refer. How the fuck do you think you will write about the project, leave alone show someone you had done it. Only solution is to upload codes and reports on github REGULARLY. This shit helps and will makes your job a lot easier. Also a good place to show your publications (if you have any, jokes on me).PS: If you’re a CS student and you don’t have a website, you rather not apply to grad schools (quoting a CS professor)

  8. Don’t apply to safe schools. Sit for placements (only for PhD students, MS students usually will get in a top school) This is my personal opinion. I’d rather take up a job than go to a school ranked below IITB just for the heck of it. PS: even if you’re interested in research, I highly recommend becoming an RA in one of the reputed IITs(not sure if that’s possible for outside students) or best take up a MSR job (not easy, but since when was it easy to get into a top school). Publish. Apply next year. Get into dream college. PhD is your last degree. You better make it an icing on the cake.

Misc : Georgia tech requires SOPs to be of 4000 char including space. Also please mention why Georgia tech is better than other colleges (search for online videos of their professors talking about GA tech) MS CS at UT Austin has a 2 step process. Don’t fool yourself by the 15 Dec deadline. Assume 10 Dec as the deadline. Read more on their page Wisconsin Madison lets you apply to upto 3 programs in one fee. Yum. UMD gives away fee waivers pretty easily. NYU too UT Austin and Wisconsin have really less tuition fee. You may want to apply for a MS as well if money was the only issue :D