Some of the professors I encountered felt like celebrities because I had happened to read one of their papers once. Of course, this didn’t help me at all when it came to introductory courses where most of the material was memorization, but now that I’m taking upper level courses dealing with primary source material it’s finally beginning to pay off. But even now, those introductory courses are leeching my GPA, and are going to effect my graduate admissions process.
Admission to graduate school is easy to hack, especially if you know the people in the field. Decide now on a short list of people you’d like to be your advisor, and talk to your professors about them. Work your way up to emailing / calling them, but an introduction from a professor that likes you will go far. If a professor says “I want Ishaan to be my graduate student,” you will be admitted.
Seconded. This seemed outrageous and unthinkable to me before I was in grad school; now that I’ve been to grad school, I recognize it as obviously true.
Work your way up to emailing / calling them, but an introduction from a professor that likes you will go far.
Well-known professors get cold-emailed pretty frequently by prospective students, and are largely ignored. An introduction from a professor that likes you, in a related field of study, will get you pretty far.
Of course, you won’t get those introductions without having a professor that likes you; the easiest way to get a professor to like you is to demonstrate interest, and start to build expertise, in the field you want to do work in. Start reading papers, ask your professors questions about research, or just pointers to relevant research. If you want to do math or CS or theoretical X, make serious attempts at solving interesting problems. If you’re in a lab science, ask to help with relevant experiments at your university.
I did not do these things when I was an undergrad. Doing them would have made a serious difference; I’ve seen that difference in grad students since then. If you seriously want to do graduate research, this stuff is at least as important as your grades. It’s good practice and good signaling.
Admission to graduate school is easy to hack, especially if you know the people in the field. Decide now on a short list of people you’d like to be your advisor, and talk to your professors about them. Work your way up to emailing / calling them, but an introduction from a professor that likes you will go far. If a professor says “I want Ishaan to be my graduate student,” you will be admitted.
Seconded. This seemed outrageous and unthinkable to me before I was in grad school; now that I’ve been to grad school, I recognize it as obviously true.
Well-known professors get cold-emailed pretty frequently by prospective students, and are largely ignored. An introduction from a professor that likes you, in a related field of study, will get you pretty far.
Of course, you won’t get those introductions without having a professor that likes you; the easiest way to get a professor to like you is to demonstrate interest, and start to build expertise, in the field you want to do work in. Start reading papers, ask your professors questions about research, or just pointers to relevant research. If you want to do math or CS or theoretical X, make serious attempts at solving interesting problems. If you’re in a lab science, ask to help with relevant experiments at your university.
I did not do these things when I was an undergrad. Doing them would have made a serious difference; I’ve seen that difference in grad students since then. If you seriously want to do graduate research, this stuff is at least as important as your grades. It’s good practice and good signaling.