4 ms·
Not really answering the specific question you've asked... but all the same it could be useful. A 'top graduate school' is actually somewhere that probably get
by Irishsteve 14y ago
Not really answering the specific question you've asked... but all the same it could be useful.
A 'top graduate school' is actually somewhere that probably gets a large number of applications from students (Stanford etc.)
That means when you apply for a phd in that school, you are really trying to appease the admissions department, you may not be allocated to a 'phd supervisor' yet.
But if you find which area you'd like to go into and the various 'leaders' in that field, you will probably notice they are not aligned to a 'top graduate school' and possibly deal with admission enquiries directly. (To quantify a leader check someones h-index score on google scholar then take with big pinch of salt)
What's different in this case is that they will most likely appreciate any additional work you've done which shows how interested you are in that particular field.
An admissions department on the other hand will probably look for GRE, GPA, awards, scholarships as ways to differentiate people.
- xijuan 14y agoThis is a very good answer! I also want to add. Reference letters are extremely important! If you can get top researchers/professors to write you an awesome reference letters, your chance will be increased greatly! Another way is to contact the prof you are interested in working with directly and try to work with him/her. Many profs like to accept students who have already worked with them
- impendia 14y agoI'm pretty sure this is false. In math, anyway, graduate applications are evaluated by math faculty.
- Irishsteve 14y agoActually I made an assumption which was wrong to do. But in my experience, students approach the PI directly, and the PI makes the decision themselves. There is no formal application process. This is in non 'top grad schools' but the PI would have 40+ h-index
- impendia 14y agoI'm pretty sure this is false. In math, anyway, graduate applications are evaluated by math faculty.