I've been thinking on putting this down for quite some time. These are just my own tips or me just ranting, but here goes:
For those who have funding, congratulations. For those who dont at this time, read on:
1. Now that you have admission, go to ur dept's website. See the faculty list and make a note of each professors specialization. After u do that, do some googling to see how many papers and stuff each prof has published. Then try to match ur interests with theirs and identify 2 or 3 professors you want to contact.
Side Note: Those with a "professor" title generally have more funding, but sometimes are not as enthused to hire brand new grad students. Assistant and associate professors have less money, but they want to become professors so they want to get the talent and get new grad students. This is just an observation and not a hard-and-fast rule.
2. Ok, so now u narrowed it down to 4 profs. But before u make the 1st contact, email the graduate secretary of ur dept. U can find the name and email of the secretary on ur dept website. These ppl can be very helpful. Also u wanna make good contacts. So when u email d grad secretary, introduce urself to her in a polite and professional email. Make sure u mention that u've received acceptance in the dept and wud like to email Prof XXX. Ask her when is prof XXX available and if he is in town. DONT use this same email to ask any other academic course questions like credits, internships, blah blah.
The reason to do this is to establish the communication so that when u come here, they can associate a name with a face. Also if u dont hear from a prof after u emailed them, the grad secretary can help u out, maybe ur emails were going to his junk mail.
3. So after u establish contact with the secreatary and know when can u email profs, u need to make a set of ur skills. Now heres the tricky part.
IF u were Prof. K, and u worked so hard to get research money from NASA and finally NASA gave u funds on the assumption that u will produce results for them in a timely manner. Prof K now needs to get new grad students to do this work, so what kinda students would you hire? How would u tackle when some1 whom u dont know much about contacts u from India asking for funding? U probably will say, "I need to know something bout this guy/gal. What are his skills....he may be gud in academics, but can he do research and is he a good presenter? Can he work in a lab? Is he a nice guy/gal to work with? If i use my money on him, can he do the job so that NASA is happy and gets me and my grad students more funding?Why should I take him when I can find some1 here whom I can see? If I read Jyoti's email asking to work with me, does she look like a serious, hardworking, and committed student with good interpersonal skills?
So this is generally what profs think. So YOUR JOB is to convince them that YOU are the best for it. The next few steps will talk bout what u need to do:
(a) List of skills: Make a bulleted list of skills and type it up neatly. Skills shud include Technical/Analytical, Computer, Work Experience(if any), Lab, communication, leadership, team building, awards and achievements. Growing up in India, I know my mother and probably urs too told u never to show off, but u got to do that here. Dont say "Oh, I dont have communication skills that I can list". But look back at ur college years---Did u present ur end-sem project, did u have group meetings (even with chai :D), did u use powerpoint to do presentations, did u communicate with diff people, did u coordinate things with the lab tech? All these things need to be part of ur skill set.
If u mentored (not ragged) ur juniors, this is considered v good in the US, so put that down. This skill set is useful during the SECOND OR THIRD EMAIL that u exchange wit the prof u r interested in.
b) U have to have, I repeat U have to have a resume!! This should be an academic resume tailored towards you getting funding. This resume is slightly , I said slightly different from the 1 u will use to apply for jobs/internships here.
The resume needs to state ur objective. For example: 'To obtain a research or teaching assistantship in the dept of aerospace engr in the field of structural dynamics'.
The thing is, resume is a formality here. Use the skill sets in part (a) to fill up ur resume also. Profs like resumes coz its easy to reference. But u wanna make sure that the resume describes u. So if u r in mumbai idling ur time away eating pav bhaji or bhel puri on the streets(that what I wud do in goa) , use some time to have some1 critique ur resume. Resume can be 1 or 2 pages or even 3. Try not 2 go more than 3.
So what goes in resume:
1. Name and email and address
2. Objective: 1 line or 2 line max
3. Education: List only where u did college, not XIIth. If ur % marks are good, add it in here, if u feel ur % doesnt show ur skills, dont put it in. If u have any academic honors, put it here.
4. Technical Experience: Now heres where u put ALL ur academic projects pertaining to the prof u r seeking funding from. If the prof has worked on actuator technology, and u've done a project in the same, put it here. U need to put what YOU did in the project rather than describin the project. For example:
ARL Structural Health Monitoring and Assessment Project
Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802 8/2005 – present
• Conducted experiments to analyze embedded functions by introducing structural
• Engineered experimental setup and data acquisition.
• Analyzed development of embedded functions sensitivity methods.
• In process of compiling report for presentation at AIAA Student Conference 2006.
As u can see in d example from my resume, I'm not giving too much details bout the project, but rather what I did. The details of d project will b talked bout later!
So aftr u've done technical experience, the next section is Work experience if u have any. Again work is very diff from academia. So u wanna make sure that the skills u learned at work r gonna help u in grad school.
For example, One of my friends workd 2 yrs and bcame Asst, manager for her division in mahendra, so she told the profs that she has the ability to do multi-tasks and stick to her deadline and thus she wud be good at doing research under him.
(5) The last section of ur resume can include any other academic honors that u didnt mention in the education section. This is also a good place to put ur computer, software and other skills in 1 or 2 lines per skill. Dont do too much detail, the SKILLS document that we talked bout b4 will take care of that.
(6) References: Available upon request.
Make sure u have at least 3 references, their full name, title, and contact info. No profs will contact ur recommendors but u may never know if they have a connection and that might help u.
Ok so we got
(a) Skills document --- 2 or 3 pages
(b) Resume
(c)
The last thing we need is a TECHNICAL SUMMARY of all our pertinent Projects.
Note that this section needs to be tailored to each prof that u r contacting. In this section u can do 2 things
1. Make a ppt of about 3-4 slides summarzing ur project. If u have figures and tables and results, put it here. Make sure the slides are to the point. If it was a paper that was published, say so.
2. Write a paragraph or 2 on each project. If it was presented, say it was!! It doesnt matter if it was presented to even 2 ppl, it still was presented.
At this time, any projects that u've done, take a print-out of the abstarct or the full project paper if its small enough (less than 20 pages). Like I said b4, think of all the projects u did from ur 4 yrs in college.
Awrite, now we got Skills set, resume and technical summary of projects. I think we are ready to move on. Now in USA, even if u d smartest kid in ur class in india, over here no 1 will give u anything unless u make an attempt. That being said, the guy who tries his best gets it. Everythin here is based on merit and showing that u r a good guy/gal to work with.
NOW you can email the profs. The magic formula (ok, its not magic) is to structure ur email as:
-- your name and ur qualifications
--- u show that u've read bout ur professor's research and what papers he has written
-- u show how ur skills match up those of his research.
The First email!!
The FIRST EMAIL THOUGH SHOULD BE SHORT!!!!!!
Just introduce urself, and talk bout ur research interests and ask if he/she wud like to see ur resume and skills.....See the example below.
First email example:
****************************************
**
Hello Dr. XXX
My name is XXXXX and I have accepted the offer to join the dept of aerospace engineering in Fall 2009. I am in the process of completing my Bachelor of Engineering in XXXX Engineering from XXXX
My interests lie in the field of structures and structural dynamics. My entire undergrad was geared towards this aspect of aerospace and I am in the process of completing my final year project in structural heath monitoring of composite structures.
I have read some of your papers on health monitoring usin Lahm waves and was really interested in how to apply them in this field. I noticed u have a lot of ongoing projects in this field and I wud love to be a part of them and do my research under you.
My resume is attached for your reference. I also have a set of my skills as well as a description of all my technical projects. Please let me know if u would like to see them. I sincerely believe that I can make a valuable contribution to your team based on my experience and academic profile, and more importantly , my interest in this field and dedication to my work.
I hope you will take the time to review my resume and I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for your time
Sincerely,
XXX
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. Its hard to generalize this answer. But part time jobs can pay for living expenses, not for tuition fee. Like I said before, you can only work 20 hrs a week while school is in session. I would suggest taking a loan for your education anyway. If u get funding well and good.