Grad School Application Plus Plus

Presented by: Antara Titikhsha Barua

Instructor of Computer Science at AUW

Email: antara.barua@auw.edu.bd

1

My Background

• Conducted research for consecutive seven semesters.
• Research Areas: AI in Medicine and Healthcare, Computational Neuroscience, Computer Vision and Medical Imaging.
• Was an exchange program student at Cornell during senior Fall
• Was an AI Engineer Trainee at a startup
• Was a guest student at Yale University in my last semester.
• Did my senior thesis incorporating AI in Medical & Healthcare and Computational Neuroscience.
• Graduated with a BS in Bioinformatics and double minors in Computer Science & Mathematics from AUW in May, 2021.

2

Dilemma(s)

• Should I apply to graduate school before/right after my graduation?
• Should I spend a year/more than a year at industry before heading to grad school?
• MS vs PhD – what is right for me?

MS → Make you lucrative at job market

PhD → If you’re interested in solving challenging problems – whether in academia or industry.

Some amazing blogs on MS vs PhD:

​

​

→ only for CS/technical grads:

​

​

https://www.shreya-shankar.com/new-grad-advice/

​

​

​

→ Also for CS people:

​

https://huyenchip.com/2018/10/08/career-advice-recent-cs-graduates

​

​

3

• My suggestions apply for only US and Canada.
• Most of the MS programs in US are not funded, but Canada has good MS programs with good funding
• PhDs are well funded in both US and Canada.
• The suggestions/tips covered in this presentation are for PhD application.

4

Some Notes …

Whether You Choose MS or PhD…

• Ask yourself which areas make you excited to work on.
• Research on schools/programs that best aligns with your interests.
• Short list universities → i) check requirements e.g courseworks, gpa requirement, test score requirements, how many LORs, SOP and additional essays etc.

ii) check funding options

• List the names of the faculties with whom your research interests align.

5

Application Materials That Can Get You in

• SOP
• LOR
• A well written CV

6

SOP

• SOP length: max 2 pages
• Start early
• Spent 3 - 6 months
• Ask for feedback
• Work on feedback
• Describe your main project in depth
• Why is this problem interesting
• Is there any computational challenges? If so, describe
• What is your research contribution? Particularly highlight it when you were a part of a research group.
• What did you learn/gain from this project? New skills? Discovered new interest?
• What are you excited about researching at X school?

7

SOP Continued…

• Your opening paragraph should be informative and clearly (and briefly) communicate why do you want to pursue a Phd?
• Opening sentences of each paragraph should be informative to catch attention of the reader.
• Concrete examples → don’t tell, show!
• Answer so what questions.
• Your SOP should be school specific

8

SOP Continued…

• Why X school?
• Why Professor A,B,C and lab P,Q,R
• Which goal do you want to accomplish in graduate school?
• What is your future research question?
• What is your long term career goal after PhD?
• Don’t make your SOP a list of works, which can be found in your CV.

9

LOR

• Pick up professors who know you well – can talk about your strengths and weaknesses
• Your LOR should include:
• Your strengths
• How did you grow as a researcher
• Which challenging courses you took
• Which project challenged you the most and what you learnt from it
• Your uniqueness that makes you good fit for X school

10

Questions???

11