MSinUS: Part 2— SOP, LORs and applications
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Step — 3: Start researching more on Universities
I’ll brief out 3 things I had done before finalizing my universities (more useful for Thesis MS)
1. Cold Messaging in LinkedIn
Messaging a stranger (who’s in your dream university) with your queries is the most common way. Unfortunately, you can expect the least response from this method (in my case, the success rate is ~5%)
Example Template: “Hello XXX. This is Srinath from India. I completed my Bachelors from NIT Calicut and am currently interning in IISc Bangalore while preparing for Masters. I am planning to apply for XXX university and my research areas lie in XXX. While checking through the profiles, I came across your (website) and your work is pretty cool. I would like to ask few questions regarding the university. Please do connect. Thank you — ”
Tips:
- Make your message more clear and attractive (my example might not be the best one out there but can be used as a basic skeleton)
- Don’t overwhelm them during your first discussion
- Don’t ask questions which a simple Google search can answer
2. Websites of Professors labs (useful for thesis MS)
Just go through the Professor’s websites and check if you can find anything interesting (message/mail them if you can)
3. Your Alumni
The easiest one is, if there’s any senior from your college/school in your dream university, ping him/her. Ask whatever questions you have irrespective of how foolish it might look because it’s first time. The chances of expecting a reply is pretty high.
Non Thesis/PMP students can use previous average package statistics as a parameter while applying.
Step — 4: Arrange materials (SOP, LOR)
Letter of Recommendations (LORs)
- Second most important piece in your application, first one is SOP
- Usually you need 3 LORs (2 from academia, 1 from industry). Widely varies based on your work-ex, areas of interest. Make sure there are 3 people you can vouch on (searching for 3 people to get LORs proves to be difficult)
- Make sure you don’t get “did well in class” (DWIC letters) recommendations. It can hurt your application.
Eg: “Srinath attended X, Y courses during his bachelors in NITC. Srinath is very attentive in class and answers questions. He does his assignments with atmost care and never misses any class….”
While this letter seems okayish, try to replace Srinath with your name. The letter is still valid. Basically, it doesn’t say anything personal.
The catch is, LOR should say something about you from your faculty’s (or manager’s) perspective. They can share some personal anecdotes etc; which will be unique to yourself (and that projects a positive vibe on the admission committee). The catch is, in most of the cases, you can’t see your LOR. So, make sure to ask those faculties with whom you have close relationships.
Note: Few people asked whether a letter from Professor carries more weight than an Assistant Professor? Personally, I believe that a detailed, story-telling LOR from an Assistant Professor is far better than a normal, DWIC LOR from a Professor. So, don’t give too much importance on the faculty’s designation
Statement of Purpose (SOP)
- The single most important piece in your application.
- Your SOP should convey a story on behalf of you — While your LOR conveys a story about you from your Professor’s perspective, a SOP should be more clear and personal. You can include anecdotes, quotes, metaphors (or don’t include any of these). It’s completely your wish on how to proceed with your SOP. Whatever you do, make sure it conveys something on behalf of you (that doesn’t mean you need to exaggerate or become a movie-writer)
- Personally, I didn’t write any metaphors or quotes (though I wrote my SOP in the form of a story on my life-incidents on how research inter-weaved during my Bachelors)
Resume/CV
- While the format of resume is not very important, the content has huge weight (unfortunately, can’t change instantly)
- You can prepare from Word Document or Overleaf. It’s entirely your wish (I personally prefer Overleaf)
Here’s my resume. Overleaf provides templates and all you need to do is replace with your personal details.
Step — 5: Apply
- You will be spending ~₹10k/university and on an average, students apply to 6–8 universities. So, make sure you have ₹1 Lakh with you (just to be on safe side)
- Just a reminder, most of the universities have deadlines around December — January (incase you are planning for Fall).