FAQs [beta]

Author: Chirag Nagpal
chiragn at cs dot cmu dot edu
@nagpalchirag

Introduction: Why this FAQ?

I have two primary motivations for this FAQ:

• As an undergrad, I came from a relatively unknown school and did not receive as much exposure as students from some of the mainstream Indian colleges (Read: IITs, BITs, IIITs, NITs), and hence had to figure out the labyrinthine pathway to Top Graduate Schools moslty on my own. Through this post I hop to alleviate this roadblock students from non-mainstream colleges face while applying for internships and graduate studies, and help build a level playing field for all.

• I still get multiple emails from undergraduate students seeking clarifications from mainstream as well as not-so mainstream schools especially those who are in there First/Second year inquiring about this tortuous journey. A lot of them are from Army Institute of Technology and I feel obliged to reply to them. Through this page I hope to alleviate some of there inquiries without having to respond individually.

Disclaimer

• All Opinions expressed on this page are personal. They do not reflect the official views, policies of any individuals or institutions I am affliated with.
• This Page is not complete and will never be. I keep updating it once in a while. In as much this page will always remain Beta

Internships

I am an undergrad and looking for internships in India

Note: I assume here your from a Circuit Background (CS, IT, ECE, EnTC, EE etc.)

I am in my First Year …

• Please work with a Faculty Member at your own university.

• Please work with a Senior Undergrad/Grad Student at your own university.

  • Ensure this student has Good Prior Research Experience
  • Student has atleast one foreign internship in a top 25 university
  • Student has atleast one publication.
  • Student is already admitted/applying to top universities for MS/PhD

• Please Apply to Prof. Dhananjay Gadre

  Try taking part in his initiative Texas Instruments Centre for Embedded Product Design aka. Centre for Electronics Design Technology Winter/Summer Internship Programs.

  This place is Magical. You will learn a LOT, especially from a systems perspective. Being good at systems is an important skill for researchers in CS, IT, ECE …

I am in my Second Year …

• All Of The Above +

• Please apply for INSA/NASI/IASc Summer Research Fellowship Program

  (Note: Above Link maybe dead/broken please google for the right page)

  This program is a serious, intensive research oriented program which will allow you to be at India’s best Research Insitutes. Make the most of this program, its literally a once in a lifetime opportunity.

• Please apply for TIFR/NCRA/IUCAA

  Same as above.

I am an undergrad and looking for internships at CMU

Interested in working at …

• Auton Lab

  Send me a mail at the email address at the top of this document if you are interested in the work I am involved with in particular or the Auton Lab in General. If there is a strong match, I will get back.

• Robotics Institute

  Send mail directly to concerned Professor/Scientist and also Grad Student.

  ALSO, Please apply to the Robotics Institute Summer Scholars Program (RISS)

• Language Technologies Institute or ANY OTHER XXX Department/Lab/Institute at CMU

  Send mail directly to concerned Professor/Scientist and also Grad Student.

What should I write in the mail …

• Please appreciate that professors receive hundreds of mail seeking internships and cannot respond individually to all.
• Be short and succint and clearly mention you skillset and overlap with the labs research.
• Please read latest 2-3 (Minimum), Papers from the concerned Lab/Professor/Student you are mailing and clearly mention how you can contribute by building on from there.

• Please make sure your mail is well drafted including.

  • A salutation, Dear Prof. XYZ, works well
  • Your Full Name at the end.
  • Sent from your official Departmental ID
  • Includes your Current GPA and Relevant Research Background
  • You full affliation, including
    • Year in Undergrad program
    • Undergrad Major
    • Undergrad School/College/University

Would I be funded? …

• Depends on various parameters including …

  • Your Skillset
  • Current Research Funds with the concerned Professor
  • Weather you individually set up your internship or come through established program like RISS.

• How good is the Funding …

  If you are funded, generally you can assume minimal expenditure from your side. Again depends on the parameters above.

Grad School Applications

I am an undergrad and applying for MS/PhD in CMU or XYZ University

Note: This section would mostly focus on application particularly in CMU, but should generalize to other Top Schools.

Congratulations!

Seems like you had a wonderful time building your profile with relevant projects and internships as an undergrad!

Now to the most important part, applications for Grad School!

Statement of Purpose (SoP)

• A reasonably important part of your application. From admits comittee perspective the SoP makes it easy to make out between a student whos ready for independent Doctoral research versus more closesly mentored Masters research.

• Most students find it hard to start writing an SoP. Please take cues from some SoPs available online to get a taste of how to structure yours.

• Remember, your SoP is NOT your Resume or CV. Please don’t just spend time mentioning what you already have done. Focus more on what you WILL do once admitted to the concerned school.

• Focus on how what you want to work on, ties with research being done at the university

  • Name Professors/Groups you’d like to contribute to.
  • Cite papers/studies that motivate you.
  • Explicitly mention the skill-set you bring in to the group.
  • A large number of students request me for my SoP. Currently, I am not very comfortable sharing my SoP (This is may be subject to change in the future)

• I am willing to review your SoPs if you so desire. I have in the past reviewed multiple SoPs of my friends and acquaintances who have been admitted to good schools subsequently.

  • Please give me a couple of weeks to get back with my comments.

  • Inorder to make the reviewing smooth, I request if you could please send you SoP as

    • a Google Doc if using Word format OR
    • an Overleaf if using LaTeX.

    and share it with me.

Resume/CV

• I personally feel the CV is as important as the SoP (if not more) for the admit process. (This opinion is controversial)

• Please typeset your CV in LaTeX. It looks nice.

• Please do not exceed 2 pages on your CV. Make sure there is enough real estate on your CV and its not too stuffy or hard for the reader to make out what you want to convey.

• A lot of People add a line at the beginning usually titled Objective. Please avoid this. It will save you space and also prevent redundancy from your SoP.

• I do understand that some people might find it difficult to stuff there entire undergraduate career in just 2 pages. There are some tricks to do this

  • Use Legal Paper (its longer than A4/Letter)
  • make the Text 10pt / 11pt
  • where necessary, make the URLs clickable hyperlinks.

• For some idea on how to draft your CV, you could look at mine here

• As with your SoP, I am happy to review your CVs

  • Please give me a couple of weeks to get back with my comments.
  • Inorder to make the reviewing smooth, I request if you could please send you SoP as
    • a Google Doc if using Word format OR (I take that you used LaTeX)
    • an Overleaf if using LaTex.

Letters of Reccomendation (LoR)

• You need Three LoRs for most MS/PhD programs.

• Have one from a senior faculty member from your college (Ex. Head of your Department)

• Other two should ideally be Professors whom you worked with during your internship(s).

• Try to get one from a Professor from the university you apply to.

  For this you need an internship at the same university. Please check the Internships section to get an idea as to how to do that.

  Note: Now do you appreciate how important it is to start your profile building journey early? Late bloomers typically loose out crucial time in the beginning of there undergrad and repent later.

Test Scores

• TOEFL : Anything above 100 should be Fine. Higher is always better.
• GRE :
  • Quant: Aim for a perfect score. Its not very hard. Anything above 166 is good enough to be honest.
  • Verbal: Aim for a perfect score. Its very hard. Anything above 160 is good enough to be honest.
  • AWA: Aim for a perfect score. Its very hard. Anything above 4.0 is good enough to be honest.

Please take both Tests, atleast 6 Months prior to your application. Thus if you apply in Fall 2018, most deadlines would be around November 15. You should have your test scores latest by May/June 2018

I want to Contribute to / Express Gratefulness / Disagreement with this page.

• Thanks! and Most Welcome!
• Please email me with your suggestions. I will incorporate them with due credit.
• I might move this markdown to Github at some point to allow people to collaborate more naturally, if required.