Admission to graduate school in the U.S
I have received many emails from students all over the world, asking for advice regarding applying to graduate study in U.S universities. Many expressed a desired to go to the top U.S. schools. Most top schools in the U.S received a lot of applications to their graduate programs. Admission to these graduate programs is often handled by an admissions committee in each department, not by individual faculty or by the school. Each year, faculty let the admission committee how many new students they would like to take on in the coming year, and the general areas in which they want students (MS or PhD, special fields of study, or experienced). Each department will determine the dateline for application, although each school may have different date but traditional dateline often happens in December or January. Make sure you check the dateline on their websites.
When all admissions materials have been received, the school office will forward the application folders to the admission committee to review and make decision. Since competition is high, the sooner you get your application in the better chance you have. It is important to get your application in first where you can fill the application with the GRE, TOEFL score as well as GPA then have the official transcripts send in later. If the admission committee wants more information, they can ask you to submit additional thing later.
The graduate admissions committees review the admission folders based on two basic questions: (1) Can this person pass graduate courses without a lot of problems? For that, they look at past grades and test scores, especially in the core courses that related to the field of study. And (2) is there clear evidence that this person can do good research, (For Ph.D applicants) and not just get good grades? For that they look at publications, previous experience in research projects (at school, as a summer intern, or whatever), and the recommendations from professors in the field. If, before applying, applicants have the opportunity to work on research project in your university or in industry; it is a good idea to make the most of it. If you can work with a well-known researcher that makes it easier for admission committee to evaluate any recommendation they might write.
Another important factor in admissions, for students whose native language is not English, is whether the admission committee is confident that your command of written and spoken English is sufficient to allow you to function well in the courses and research projects. I have seen in the past, there were students whose English skills are marginal on paper (borderline TOEFL scores, etc.) and they quickly had trouble many courses then failed after admittance. That is why in some cases, admission committee may try to have a phone conversation interview with the applicant if they are not sure about the candidate's English proficiency.
Admittance to the Ph.D program is very selective, especially in top universities. If applicant come from a lesser-known universities or may not have a very solid background, it would be better to apply for a Master’s degree and try to do extremely well then apply to a Ph.D later. By working in the MS program, you have a chance to know some professors in the department and if you have solid grades to prove it, it would be easier to get selected to the Ph.D program then to apply directly. It is a longer path, but many have been successful in doing it.
Many students consider financial scholarship is the most important thing in graduate school. However students who indicate some flexibility and a reasonably broad range of interests will have a better chance of admission that student for who financial is needed. If the program does not have enough funding the year you apply, then they are unlikely to admit you, since you would have no alternative. So if that flexibility is there, do describe it in your statement of purpose.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
