First, the conditions for applying for a doctorate in the United States
(1) hardware conditions
1, bachelor or master degree
2.GPA: Generally, it is ideal to keep above 3.2, especially the professional GPA scores;
3. TOEFL or IELTS: TOEFL should be at least 95 points, and it is best if it can reach 100. IELTS should be kept above 7.
4. American doctoral and postgraduate entrance examinations such as GRE or GMAT: this is uncertain according to the requirements of the school.
(2) Soft background required for doctoral application.
1, basic literacy, creative thinking, understanding and interest in scientific research, professional ethics and ethical ability to overcome difficulties.
2. Journal papers SCI: Basic Research of Science and Engineering EI: Engineering Application Research IF (Impact Factor): IF> 10 is very high, if> 1 high author order: the first work is the most ideal, and the third work is of little significance.
3. Academic conference submissions, speeches, posters, presentations, conference papers
4. Scientific research experience The quality and depth of scientific research are far more important than the number of experimental methods, and it is very important to master experimental instruments.
Second, the process of finding a professor
1. Identify your research interests. Browse the top 30 schools and browse the "research area" on the department homepages of at least 20 schools.
2. Ask professors to refer to the profile of each laboratory professor on the homepage of each laboratory in a certain research direction, and read one or two articles teaching a certain project.
3. Find funds to find clues to the home page of the laboratory. Enrollment frequency+employment frequency of graduates.
Third, the process of magnetization
On the magnetic cover
Magnetization is usually divided into pre-magnetization and post-magnetization. The former is applicable to the application materials of American doctors before they are submitted, and its function is to determine whether their research direction matches the professor's current project and understand the enrollment situation of the professor; The latter means that after the application materials are submitted, in addition to determining whether your materials are complete with the admission Committee and the college, it is more important to keep in touch with the professor to improve your admission rate.
In the increasingly fierce competition for scholarships, it is best to start the pre-magnetic work six months before the formal application (that is, when the junior year starts), which will not only give you a preliminary understanding of the research direction of your favorite tutor, but also take the lead among many applicants.
Casing magnetic requirements
Understand the professor's information and research: how to determine the time point of magnetization.
If you apply for admission in the fall of 2023, then the pre-magnetization will be in August and September of 2022, which can ensure that the students who have been taught before have successfully recruited and are ready to reserve talents for next year's scientific research progress.
Before setting the magnetic field, you must know yourself and yourself, deeply understand the professor's research situation, the degree of correlation or combination with your research background, and convince the other party why you are a candidate. Generally, look at the faculty column first to get a general idea of what a professor does. Basically, read the professor's "recent" three papers and say that your interests or experiments are the same.
You don't need to add PS or CV to the attachment at the beginning. Change several letters and attach CV.
Magnetization should be justified
Advise foreign professors not to brag out of thin air, but to sort out their research work, focus on writing, and highlight their scientific research innovation ability and hands-on operation ability with some detailed examples. At the same time, I will show my future research goals and prove that I am a person with clear goals and perseverance. If you don't have much research background, don't set it up. It is not practical to say only some GPA, GRE or TOEFL test scores. Teach value matching, and people he is interested in can help him or be familiar with his work.
There is no uniform template for the style of magnetic cover, and everyone does it differently.
The language style of e-mail is neither supercilious nor supercilious. If you pander to humility blindly, it will give people an immature impression, and it will not conform to the tone of the relationship between teachers and students in the American concept. We should know the American style of doing things. These words are short, straightforward and unmistakable. Generally, the email is more than 200 words or even longer, and the other party thinks it is too long to read. The first magnetic letter didn't reply for a long time or was rejected by the other party. Don't be discouraged. You can politely ask this professor to recommend other professors to you. However, it is impossible to send the same envelope magnetic letter to two professors at the same time. You know, when people talk, two professors are likely to say your magnetic letter, and the result can be imagined.
Fourth, the doctoral admission process
Access test steps:
Hardware conditions: GPA (the average score of professional courses is more important) G/T score, undergraduate college background, audited by the Graduate Admissions Committee, with limited participation of professors. Review scientific research background: Resumes, PS, papers, conferences and letters of recommendation are reviewed by professors of the Admissions Committee in different directions, and interview invitations are issued.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) The process of applying for a reward.
1. Applicants for doctoral degrees should be clear about their professional direction. Undoubtedly, the students who apply for the full doctoral award want to continue their studies on the basis of the existing undergraduate majors and make greater progress in the research field. Then, applicants should have their favorite professional direction before applying. Because all doctoral programs in the United States are under one major, there will be many small directions. Only by determining your own professional direction can you pave the way for your next school selection and professor selection more purposefully. Therefore, on the basis of your favorite major, you can learn about the small direction of this major or the specific direction of interdisciplinary subjects related to this major.
2. Prepare your language test and GRE doctoral students, and your language test score will definitely be higher than that of the general master's application. In this way, in the language test and GRE test, try your best to play their own level. For applicants majoring in literature and history, they should try their best to get high marks in TOEFL writing, GRE Chinese and composition scores. For students who apply for physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics, it is recommended to take GRE Sub, which is more beneficial to your scholarship application.
3. Applicants for the full doctoral prize in primary schools initially choose their own schools according to their professional interests and existing conditions. Choosing a school does not necessarily depend entirely on the university rankings. A good university is not necessarily all majors are strong points. How to judge whether a university major is a strong point? On the premise of determining the professional direction, we can refer to the academic reputation, research results, teacher level, admission difficulty, graduate employment, starting salary and other indicators of the school in this professional field. It depends on whether your current education meets the admission requirements of the school.
4. Applicants for full doctoral awards from early magnetic and final confirmation schools can start looking for professors in research fields of interest to various schools after primary school. You can introduce yourself to the professor (including your current background, conditions, areas of interest, which part of the experiment you are interested in, whether you have similar research content to the professor before, and what methods you have used), indicating your willingness to apply for the award and so on. In fact, the purpose of the pre-magnetic field is to finally determine the schools to apply for, and to know in advance the enrollment situation, project funds and admission difficulty of primary schools in that year. Generally, after pre-magnetization, the final application school can be determined. There is no need to waste money and energy to apply for schools that are difficult to recruit students and recruit fewer international students.