Undergraduate THU EE major, GPA 90.x, and then only went on to study as a graduate student for one year. For various reasons, he left school voluntarily. The application will be completed in the next 2008-2009 school year. During the period (08.8-08./KLOC-0.2), I worked as an intern with my teacher in the Geophysical Laboratory of Petroleum University (actually trying to compile miscellaneous programs), which was considered as the only professional-related scientific research experience.
English test scores IBT 104 (oral 22), GRE 600/800/5.0.
I think my main advantage is good grades in basic courses (mathematics/physics/scientific calculation, etc.). ) and my previous computer skills.
Application result:
10 Geophysical Doctor Program
Quotation (in chronological order):
Austin -JSG(2. 18), CWP CSM(2.27), professor o-marford (3. 10), Utah (professor Jerry. Chuster (3.7)-> professor zhdanov), Stanford -SEP (accepted) (3. 13)
Reject:
TAMU University (2. 14), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3.23), University of California, Calgary (5. 1)
Withdraw:
University of Houston (withdrawn after advertisement), UT Dallas
Application process and school impression.
I have done my GT before, and T's spoken English is a little lacking, but I feel that it is not a big problem, so I have no worries about the English exam. In September, I began to practice, reading books while watching the program to supplement the theory (the eyes of the masses are discerning, and I strongly recommend Yilmaz's book "Seismic Signal Analysis", which is comprehensive and easy to understand, and deserves to be a best seller of SEG). I spent the rest of my time reading the posts on the forum and my choice of schools (not "choosing schools" because the circle is too small, there are. Because there are not many programs I can apply for, I reviewed and analyzed them later, and the number of applications was around six. I was very depressed at that time and reported 10 in one breath (there are very detailed posts on the introduction forums of these schools, so I won't gild the lily).
June 1 1 collate information (PS, RL, etc.), fill in the online application form and deliver it to meet the deadline of Su 12. 15. Most of the deadlines are from the beginning of June to the end of February. Of course, if you don't want financial aid, you can submit it later. Send materials (UPS, DHL) immediately after the online application is completed. There is basically no ceramics. I was just getting started at that time. It is estimated that it is very difficult to establish them, and it is not easy to obtain materials. I don't have time to write to harass the professor.
I think I started a little late and ended in a hurry. For example, Su's application materials almost arrived on the deadline, while Austin has two deadlines, and the one of 12. 1 belongs to Fellowship. I couldn't reach it at that time, so I had to meet the second deadline (1. 1), and I only had a chance to get the teacher's RA this time. If PS and RL are prepared in advance, the schedule will be more leisurely. In addition, we should also consider the delivery time of UPS and other express delivery (normally 3-4 working days, but there are also abnormal circumstances, such as the envelope I sent CSM was detained at the customs, and then I met the recipient during the Christmas holiday, and the first delivery failed, and the last delivery was three weeks later). Therefore, the application and engineering design are the same, which will certainly help to leave more margin. Whether it's sending goods or distributing goods, I suggest that you don't covet to save money in this respect. The application fee of 100$ is almost paid, and I don't care if I pay one or two hundred more. If it's surface mail, it will take two weeks to a month, and it's not convenient to confirm the other party's receipt of the mail. The quality of postal service is really flattering. In terms of delivery, many school materials are sent to graduate schools at first, and then sent to various departments for review after they are collected. If the official delivery report issued by ETS is not provided, the materials are likely to be delayed in the research institute, and this situation is not worth the candle. Finally, I want to remind you that you must confirm that the other party has received the delivery point sent by ETS, and ask for a resend immediately if you find any problems. ETS guys charge 20 yuan for sending points by ordinary mail, and they are likely to lose their letters, so my application for UT Dallas is basically invalid.
As for CV/PS/RL, I don't think there is anything extraordinary. Only write true feelings; In short, don't blow these materials too much, or the telephone conversation will be serious. If Americans attach great importance to credibility. RL, I can't find Niu tui, two undergraduate teachers and practice instructors (associate professors) in Tsinghua. There is no problem without academician recommendation.
It's 65438+ the beginning of October, and I will continue to study and teach myself. During the Spring Festival, there was no update for more than a month. Later, I tried to send a few tc letters, but it didn't work at all. However, some people sent me an offer later, so the fact that tc was not ignored does not mean that it will be rejected in the future.
Let's describe the application process by school:
TAMU: The earliest reply came from Dezhou Agricultural Machinery, and I remember the date very clearly-1February 4. I just opened Gmail this morning and saw its email. There is not even a polite word in it, "XXX, your application was rejected by the admission Committee." I was in a gloomy mood and couldn't help moaning: Valentine's Day, can't you give some good news ... PS wrote the direction of the automatic earthquake process that I wanted to go to Dr. Ikle, but later I didn't know the specific reason. But according to the information on the Internet, it enrolled students in China this year. So I personally estimate that maybe they don't like foreign professional background. TAMU's petroleum engineering is very good (second).
MIT: When most schools received my news in early March, I asked Xiaomi about the situation and was told that he was still on trial. At that time, I guessed that he was put on wl. A few days later, I sent a letter asking about a college student who went last year. He told me the truth well. Most of ERL (Earth Resources Laboratory) admissions are for undergraduates in the United States, and the only one for China people is a graduate student from NTU. If he decides to go, my hope is slim. Sure enough, I received an email on the 23rd, Rej. As an institution that cooperates with Northrop to develop the world's most advanced strategic bomber B-2 for the US military, MIT is worthy of the title of "the world's top science and technology school". In this major, it is the alma mater of Jon Claerbout, the founder of Dr. SEP; Moreover, GAG existed in the1960s, and trained the first generation of exploration seismologists. Of course, the legend about MIT is far more than that. Its fair application fee of $75 is absolutely reasonable for countless people to experience this complete life one after another.
Ucalgary: Cruise of Ucalgary:Ucalgary famous, but former director Robert has moved to Houston. This program is very unpopular for applicants who want to change their major. In addition, the most expensive application fee (130CAN = 106USD), I think it is unwise to make up the application from a personal point of view. After submitting the materials, Xiaomi sent me a letter on February 10, saying that BEcause my degree is be instead of BS, according to the regulations, I can only apply for the engineering department. Seeing this reason, I'm a little unaccustomed. I thought such pedantic rules would only be met in China. . . So I wrote to verify that I was only interested in Cruise, not in their engineering school, and temporarily rejected her proposal. Unexpectedly, a week later, she wrote to me saying that the materials were incomplete, and I received the report card but couldn't find the diploma. So I sent another letter and played a few rounds. She finally replied that she had found it. After two months, there was no news. Until the International Labor Day, a rejection letter lay quietly in the mailbox I rented. Cruise does enroll students from China, but he may not like non-professional courses very much. As far as I know, there is a UA Semsic group in Canada, but I don't know.
U Houston: UH, the overall reputation is average. However, the reputation of its petroleum-related majors far exceeds its comprehensive ranking. For example, Sheriff, the author of Exploring Seismology, is a professor at Hugh University, and the above-mentioned director Crewe was also dug up at Hugh University. When I received the advertisement, I didn't pursue the scholarship further because I had confirmed that there would be an offer from Austin.
Utdallas:
Due to the delivery delays mentioned above, I didn't arrive at the department until mid-March. Later, Xiaomi also informed me to submit the recommendation form filled out by the recommender. Because it is not mentioned on its website, I only sent a letter of recommendation from the teacher. If you want to apply, remember to ask Xiaomi in the department for this form in advance. It was late at that time, so I quit, so I didn't have a chance to further confirm the admission opportunity. But George Memekan is also a great boss.
UT Austin: This is the first invitation I received and the last time I declined it. 2. 18, I received a letter from Dr. Sergei Formel, saying that I have a good background, and he wanted me to work in his group (Computational Geophysics) as an RA. Russian Sergei also graduated from SEP that year. He is very capable and good at programming. He and paul savoie of CSM are regarded as two new stars in academic circles. Moreover, I later asked the students in Austin that he was still very diligent, but he was very kind to the students and had a good time without pushing them. Jackson Geological College is one of the best local colleges in the United States, and it is one of the best in terms of scale (after the death of the oil tycoon named Jackson, he donated more than 200 million yuan to the college), level and connection with the oil industry. As Sergei told me in his letter, in Austin, due to the huge scale of the department, students have the opportunity to jump out of the small direction of their own research and extensively cover all aspects of the oilfield, plus its good industry reputation and adjacent energy sources. Moreover, tutors generally support students to go to the company for internship during the summer vacation and help them absorb the reserved talents, because many research projects are funded by these oil companies.
It should be said that after Austin's offer was officially received, I decided that the application had been successful. This helped me to wait for the final news from Stanford with a very relaxed attitude, and the final balance was between these two offer.
CSM:CSM is short for colorado school of mines. It is also an engineering primary school with a comprehensive scale of about 100, but it is really an old and strong school in the exploration field. It is generally known that MIT-CSM-Stanford ranks in the first echelon, which shows its high level. Its CWP (Wave Phenomenon Center) brings together six very powerful facilities. Personally, CSM is actually stronger than MIT/SU in research strength. Its deadline is 1. 15. I sent a ceramic letter before, but I didn't reply. However, in February of 17, Professor Green Dave Hale wrote me an email saying that he was interested in my background and wanted to make a phone call. I was very excited when I received this interview. Dave was also an early disciple of Jon of SEP. He turned to be the chief scientist of Landmark for more than ten years. Later, CSM called him back as a green professor (green profession is a very important reputation in the energy field, and Jon's title in Su is also a green professor). What is rare is that although he succeeded, he is still very active, and a lot of coding work will still be demonstrated by himself. In his early days, he wrote a lot of codes for famous software packages such as earthquake Unix and SEPLib, and later returned to the mine. Because of his preference for Java, he wrote a set of Mines Java Toolkit, which provided a software platform for many students of CWP. Dave is an ideal tutor, both in guiding students and in personal communication in the future. Very efficient. I received the email in the morning and called that night. I think everyone knows that I haven't learned much in my major, so I won't ask many questions in this respect, and I have no special preparation. As I expected, the conversation took place in a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere. Basically, we didn't talk much about geophysics and asked some behavioral questions. "What will you do if you don't even apply for a project this year?" I was deeply impressed. And for example, "How did you come up with the idea of changing this line?" Later, it was even more divided. Asked where I learned the American accent, I said that I just watched Friends, and after watching it again and again, I learned it, which made both sides laugh. Later, I tried to bring the topic back to my major. I talked about Su's code of positive boundary absorption of seismic waves, which was written by Dave Hale and was an improvement of the original paraxial approximation method. But I haven't started pmp to publish an article "Talking about the River", but his old man waved his hand and said, "I won't write code for Sue for many years". I don't remember the algorithm I made before. The passion revealed in his speech is impressive. He talked about the code he wrote and said, "I love coding, and I hope my work can be made public-that's one of the reasons why I returned to acadmia." Similar to other engineering fields, the vast majority of graduate students majoring in petroleum are international students, and perhaps less than one tenth of them are Americans. However, if Americans are willing to study for a doctorate, they will eventually achieve great success. I think this is the realm of Americans, and their motivation for doing research is much simpler.
About ten days later, I received an e-mail, and Dave kindly reminded me that China students who took the WP exam first should know more about the situation. Dave studied physics as an undergraduate, and he is an avid programming enthusiast. What he is doing now is far from DMO and other seismic processing technologies, mainly using image processing/vision/computational geometry to solve related problems in the field of ground objects/masonry (due to his rich experience, the specific topics are very diverse and divergent). I think that's why he likes to recruit students with EECS background. Later, I mainly considered Colorado's dry climate and relatively high altitude (about 1600m), (I have been tortured by its climate in Beijing in recent years, and Denver is drier than Beijing, which is really hard to accept ...), and the research direction (I really want to jump out of my familiar vision/graphics, but because these experiences have been selected by my teacher, it is really a bit. But on the whole, CWP strongly recommends the application.
Europe: Support the University of Oklahoma. Oklahoma is the petroleum center in the midwest of the United States, and its School of Geology and Geophysics of ConocoPhillips is still very influential (I remember fenixchow, a student in the edition at that time, told me (at the end of 2008) that he was only in the first year of his master's degree and had already received several offer for summer internships, which was quite cool). Kurt Marfurt has also worked in this industry for 20 years, especially in the field of seismic attributes. Very good.
Utah Jazz: Utah Jazz's goal is Jerry's UTAM. He sent me a letter in March, telling me that he was going to transfer to KAUST this year (yes, it is the King University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, which is very, very rich, and the treatment for graduate students is to control computers and give me an allowance of 30 thousand yuan a year), asking me if I was interested. When I first read this email, I was really ambivalent. "I can't come, but I am longing for it." The Arab world can get four LP's. Although I don't think there will be such an opportunity in the future, even if I just think about this place in the world, I will feel that life has become better. Unfortunately, without pork, half the fun of my life would be gone-_ _-. Perhaps it is more appropriate for Hui students to apply.
Stanford -SEP
Stanford's most famous major is EECS. As the engine of Silicon Valley, its schools are deeply influenced by information science. Coincidentally, the directors of two laboratories in Stanford, SEP and SWP, are both from electronic engineering backgrounds. Jerry Harris of SWP finished reading Dr. EE of California Institute of Technology in one breath. Professor Harris explained this way: "I used to study electromagnetic waves, but now it has become seismic waves." 1 (video conference using Skype) receives interview notice from SEP boss at the end. So I got a general understanding of the interview form through China students. They told me nicely that Biondo mainly examined the experience written on the candidate's resume, and especially reminded me to pay attention to the fluency of English expression. This way is very lucky for me, because my knowledge is very limited. If the interview is given to me by the other party, it is easy to lead to areas I don't understand. Therefore, I specially did an exercise before and prepared a manuscript that can be spoken for more than half an hour continuously, hoping to control the initiative of the topic on my own side within the limited interview time. 2./kloc-On the morning of 0/8, the other three people (mainly Biondo) had a 40-minute conversation with me. The preparation in advance is effective, and the process is basically the same as I expected. I only remember that I kept saying that the other party asked questions before I spoke, so naturally they didn't have much room to ask questions freely. Finally, the conversation ended happily in one of my self-deprecating jokes, and it felt good. I waited for almost three weeks because I had to wait for another candidate's interview. On March 10, the email from the department arrived and the plan was successful. Of course, on the whole, I don't think the interviewer can leave a good impression by talking too much. This is just a strategy I chose according to my own conditions.
Finally, regarding the choice of Offer, I later wandered between Austin and Stanford. In fact, the mentor's factors are similar, and they are all alumni; September; However, I learned that the Ph.D. in SEP is very difficult to study, and few people can graduate in less than 6.5 years these years. I'm a little unsure about this. Later, I consulted many people, especially the China students and predecessors there; The teacher of Normal University also told me that if you want to go back to China in the future, there is no doubt that Stanford's name will be much louder. It's true to think about it. Fake names are useful. In the cognition of domestic leaders, it is estimated that all other schools are "foreign universities" except Niu Jian and HYSPM. Finally, I gritted my teeth and decided to go to SEP, and I went to the 30-year-old doctor.
Summing up my interview experience, I think that no matter what the other person asks, one of the core purposes of the interview is to examine the interviewer's English expression. Accurate and fluent English expression is definitely an important condition for getting good results in the interview. I suggest you practice your spoken English more. Of course, your accent is mainly American. During the interview, prepare actively and do more rehearsals. Btw, I find the atmosphere in the English corner of NPC is very good every Friday. If some students have no chance to practice or can't talk, it should be good to practice there.