1. How to apply for a full doctoral scholarship in the United States? Is it difficult?
Among the applicants studying in the United States, the most striking and challenging is undoubtedly the application for the doctoral award. The reason is spectacular, because once admitted to the doctor, there will be a scholarship, and generally it will be a full prize; It is challenging, because in the application process, in addition to the normal application, you must also apply for an award. This challenging process requires a perfect prelude preparation.
First, applicants applying for a PhD should be clear about their professional direction.
Undoubtedly, the students who apply for doctoral degree 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.
Second, prepare for your language test and GRE test.
Applicants for the doctoral degree must have a higher language test score than those applying for a master's degree. 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.
Third, primary schools.
Applicants for full doctoral awards 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.
Fourth, early magnetic trap, and finally determine the school.
After the primary school is selected, the applicants for the all-doctoral award can start looking for professors in research fields that are of interest to various schools. 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.
Note: What are the differences among professors, associate professors and assistant professors?
Professors in American universities are usually divided into three levels: professors or full professors, associate professors and assistant professors. Generally speaking, professors and associate professors have obtained tenure. Assistant professors don't have tenure. They have to engage in teaching and research for several years before they are eligible to fight for it. Tenure? . Assistant professors generally must have a doctorate in qualifications. In addition to teaching courses, you can also recruit master students, doctoral students, or postdoctoral students. His responsibilities and requirements are similar to those of an associate professor except that he does not have tenure and his salary is low. In essence, an assistant professor is a level in the professor series.
1) Professor: Generally, he is older, has experienced many letters, and has formed a fixed enrollment habit. Generally, if he is interested in you, he will reply in about a day. In this case, you have great hope. If he doesn't come back, you're basically hopeless.
2) Associate Professor: Be flexible and demanding. Of course, this type of professor has a high level, and proper self-expression is the key.
3) Assistant professors: Assistant professors generally have start-up funds, need people to work, and have not formed a fixed enrollment habit, so assistant professors are more likely to succeed.
4) Associate Professor: This type of professor has been transferred to another school, but the students have not graduated and have not followed, so they just hang their names and do not enroll students.
5) Honorary professor: retired, no enrollment. After excluding 4 and 5, it is suggested to sort the collective words: professors who have recruited students in our school >; Assistant professor > old professor > associate professor, of course, the above is only a rough ranking based on statistical results. In fact, most master students are brought by assistant professors, and doctoral students are brought by professors.
Fifth, improve your professional background.
For all-doctoral candidates, the promotion of professional background is mainly reflected in document writing. Document writing includes personal statement, resume and three letters of recommendation, among which personal statement is particularly important. Personal statement should not only be organized, but also reflect your personal information, background, etc. , but there are also bright spots. The so-called bright spot is the best side of your academic background or life. In addition, the requirements of personal statement should be finally determined according to the requirements of each school, even in line with the professor's research field. In this way, it is more conducive to your application.
Sixth, the application materials are complete.
In addition to the above preparations, the applicant should also prepare your undergraduate and postgraduate transcripts, translations of your published papers and so on.
I believe that with a well-prepared prelude to the application, the applicants for the doctoral award will be more smooth in the application process and achieve satisfactory results.
Of course, you can't go abroad without a full prize. How should I plan my sophomore year?
A: The United States is the most generous country in the world in granting scholarships. However, even so, the proportion of mainland applicants, especially mainland undergraduate applicants, who can get the full scholarship of American doctors every year is very small. Usually, applicants who can get the full doctoral award are always excellent in all aspects, especially the research background is very important. We suggest that applicants who are determined to win the Ph.D. award from famous American universities should plan at least from their sophomore year, and make corresponding preparations in terms of average grades, research background, and even contact referees. It is best to make clear one of your research directions after you have been exposed to some professional courses in junior year, and choose projects from this aspect to strive for the publication of papers.
3. How can undergraduates find research opportunities and strengthen their research and academic background?
A: As an undergraduate, it is difficult to get research opportunities for scientific research projects, especially national scientific research projects, but such research experience is actually very important for applying for the doctoral award. We suggest that applicants should be clear about their research direction after contacting some professional courses, and try to contact higher-level research institutions such as Chinese Academy of Sciences through their own school tutors to find research opportunities. The most obvious and intuitive way to improve the research background and academic background is to publish papers. It is not easy for undergraduates to publish papers with a certain level independently. The safest and most convenient way is to publish a paper jointly with your tutor, or as the second and third author. Although this kind of paper is not as weighty as independent publication, it is the best choice for most applicants considering its feasibility. Research background and academic background can also be strengthened through academic international exchanges and participation in international conferences.
4. When is it appropriate to set magnets?
A: Magnetization is usually divided into pre-magnetization and post-magnetization. The former is applicable before submitting the application materials, and its function is to determine whether your 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 constant contact with the professor to improve your admission rate. In the increasingly fierce competition for scholarships, we suggest that it is best to start the pre-magnetic work six months before the official start of application (that is, at the beginning of junior year), so that you can not only get a preliminary understanding of the research direction of your favorite tutor, but also take the lead among many applicants.
5. Many universities in America are in financial strain. Are the chances of doctoral scholarships greatly reduced?
A: There is no denying that the financial turmoil in the United States has indeed had a certain impact on the issuance of doctoral scholarships, especially for undergraduate applicants who lack research experience. In order to break through the limitations of objective conditions, we suggest that applicants start planning and preparing for studying abroad as soon as possible under the premise of facing reality.
6. If you get good grades, you can definitely apply for a scholarship?
A: Not necessarily. The United States attaches great importance to the comprehensive quality of students from all countries. For all doctoral candidates, the school will strictly examine the applicant's personal statement, application documents, recommendation letters, resumes and interviews, and also attach great importance to the applicant's research experience and development potential. Scores are only one factor to measure students' learning ability. That is to say, American universities emphasize the all-round development of creativity, initiative, practical ability, team consciousness, social responsibility and personality development in addition to achievements. This is why some applicants can get it even if their grades are not very outstanding. Cattle? Because of the school scholarship.
7. What major is easier to apply for the full doctoral award? If it is finance, is it easy to apply for a full prize?
Generally speaking, it is a little difficult to apply for a full scholarship in finance, but a little easier in engineering.
PhDs in engineering are common in American universities, and few universities offer PhDs in finance. Even schools with Ph.D. in finance have high requirements for applicants' background. Most applicants are required to have many years of full-time working experience in the financial industry, and the training direction is mainly financial research, not financial practice. The direction of doctoral training in the United States is academic. If your interest is not academic, I suggest you don't consider applying for a doctorate. Master's education in the United States is a professional education, and most of them focus on the practical level. If it is because of the cost of studying abroad, you can consider applying for the full doctoral award. If you want to enter a good school and get a high scholarship, you need to have an excellent application background, including high GPA, TOEFL, GRE scores (finance can also take GMAT), and excellent academic background, such as having published papers in this major or having rich project experience. With the above conditions, it is more realistic to apply for a full doctoral degree. It has nothing to do with whether your graduation school is 2 1 1 university. Studying abroad is just the beginning, and career development is the longer-term arrangement.
8. If you go to the United States to study for a Ph.D. in biology, where will you spend the full bonus every month?
Generally, the real full prize refers to friendship, no need to help the professor work, and living expenses. Sometimes many people call TA (teaching assistant) or RA (research assistant) the full prize. They need help teaching or doing research. Professors can pay tuition and part of their living expenses every month. If they just need daily food, clothing, housing and transportation, they generally don't need to invest by themselves, and they still have a surplus every month. But when they first arrive in the United States, they need to take thousands of dollars with them in case they have not paid their living expenses, but they have to rent a house, pay a deposit and pay various fees.
Sometimes, some people or schools call tuition-free a full reward. They just pay tuition fees and need to invest in living expenses, depending on the local consumption level, generally ranging from 300- 1500 US dollars per month.
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