By Karteek Kunala
Alright, so you have decided to take the plunge and pursue a PhD. Choosing a university and major is an important criteria to define the career path you take after finishing your degree. Spend a few days thinking about what you want to achieve by finishing a PhD and where do you see yourself down the lane. Most people are not aware of how to look for one, which definitely was my case too!
In most of the cases a particular department's alumni (about 70%) are either in industry or academia, which should be one of your deciding factors while picking a university. It comes down to the connections and the funding sources of the department . If your department's (advisor’s) funding comes mostly from government funded projects, the connections are more inclined towards academia and a postdoc would be the easiest route to take. On the other hand if your department has good industrial funding and an Industrial associates group, most of the students end up doing a few internships during their PhD and choose to go towards the industry. You definitely have a lot of options after you graduate, but it is always better to pick the university knowing what you are getting into.
The process of searching for universities
Start with asking the professors, peers and alumni in your college to get a general idea of few universities for graduate studies. Try to find a niche area of interest if you can, but it is not necessary. For example, I have a background in physics and I was interested in specializing in the field of Optics and chose universities accordingly.
Ideally you have a general idea of what field (in broad perspective) you want to be in. Start with pulling out 10 publications from the last 2 years in the area of interest (Google scholar ftw :P ). One good metric should be the number of publications the department/professor has in one year and the collaborations they have.
Check the number of people who graduated from the department in the last 3 years and where they are now. This should give you an idea of academia vs industry. You can also try to contact them asking about their experience in the lab and if they have any advice for you.
The professor you want to join may or may not have positions/ funding in the group to accommodate new students at the time you want to join. So have a couple of options to explore in the same department or you can go interdisciplinary by choosing a professor from another department.
Let’s say this brings you to around 10 universities. Make sure you apply to them as early as possible. Depending on the country you apply to, some of them close the application 10 months prior to the academic start date. Subdivide your 10 universities into 3 categories : The best universities in the field ( at least 3), backup universities which you are confident you will get into ( maybe 2) and then the buffer list.
Another route to take is directly contacting the professor of interest at least 1 year ahead of joining. Don’t get your morale down if you get no responses from cold emails to professors. They are usually very busy and try to take students from departmental selections. Nonetheless, put your best foot forward while emailing professors and show your enthusiasm, always read few of the publications and stress on why you are interested and what you would like to work on (a broad perspective should do!). Having a reference or a common connection definitely goes a long way, so ask professors in your college if they know of any.
Insider knowledge/ What an evaluation committee looks for?
How do you develop the required skills?
A few suggestions for students that are thinking about applying to a PhD program (from a PhD survivor 😀):
Start the search process early as I am sure you have realized the amount of work that goes into each application.
If you have not yet, start creating a LinkedIn profile. This is the best way to make connections and reach out to people from various universities.
Think long term about why you want to do a PhD and where you want to go from there. It will help you streamline your process.
If you have a few months to spare each year away from course work, start by conducting small research projects with professors in your current college.
Start developing your writing and presentation skills that will help you ease the process of finishing a PhD.
There are definitely funding opportunities for students to apply that are not from the university. Stay tuned for more information on this …
Some websites we found useful to begin this journey :
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