Grad schools apps are tough, but it’s easier when you have the resources to guide you through the process. In the spirit of helping others navigate this process, I am sharing some of the resources I’ve found helpful when I applied, along with some of my own advice. Hopefully this will be of help of some others out there!

The following resources are aimed at CS PhD applications. Applications for CS Master’s and PhDs in other areas are a bit different, but some of the resources may still be helpful. Enjoy, and good luck with grad school apps!

Overview of admission process

  1. Paper on admission process, by Karthik Raghunathan, 2010.
  2. Whole process of applying to PhD, by Mor Harchol-Balter, 2014.
  3. Admission process from a faculty’s point of view, by David Andersen, 2015.
  4. FAQ about the whole PhD process, by Shriram Krishnamurthi

Statement of purpose

Resources

Here are some resources I’ve found to be helpful, along with my notes on them:

  1. Many good SoP examples: https://cs-sop.org/
  2. Advice from MIT
    • Explicit section titles can help make it easier to read.
    • First paragraph: what drives you?
    • Last paragraph: future goals / where do you see yourself in 10 years - 2/3 sentences.
    • Experiences should be concrete with actions.
    • Transitions between experiences: description of what those experiences mean to you.
    • School fit par should: 1) Read program website and match their language and vision 2) Point out potential future projects with professors.
  3. MIT: what professors look for in grad students
    • Should have a strong or novel view that articulate a clear vision – Leslie Kaelbling.
  4. PhD apps FAQ from Noah Smith 2007
    • Distinctiveness: start new trends.
    • Awareness: critical thinking and skepticism about the field.
    • Curiosity: clear and bold research questions, and the steps needed to answer those questions.
    • Forward thinking:
  5. Nathan Schneider’s take on SoP
  6. How to write a bad SoP

My advice

The numerous resources already have great advice on how to write a good SoP, so I’m not going to repeat them here. Instead, I’ll share a few points (not meant to be comprehensive) that I’ve found to be valuable in retrospect.

  • I’ve found Nishanth Kumar’s example SoP and advice (tldr: make SoP research-dense and skimmable) to be very helpful when writing my own.
  • Your main goal is to articulate what research you want to do and have done and convince your readers (professors) that you are passionate about it. So keep these things in mind when writing: What drives you? What is the big theme you want to work on in grad school? How does it relate to the projects you did during undergrad?
  • Each paragraph should be action dense: what is the goal of the project, why are you interested, what’s your contribution, and what’s the outcome (doesn’t have to be a paper).
  • For each professor you want to work with, point out your interest in one or two big themes in their lab (to show your understanding of how your interests intersect) and relate that to a specific work (to show you have read their papers; and do actually read them!).
  • Make it easy to read fast: bold important keywords.
  • Don’t worry too much about the choice of essay style (e.g. whether to have subheadings). Everyone have different preferences, and to be honest they don’t matter that much. Focus on the content.

Choosing an offer

The following resources contain some good questions to ask grad students on visit day when you are choosing a school.

  1. Choosing a Ph.D. program in Computer Science, by Rachel Pottinger
  2. How to pick a grad school for a PhD in Computer Science, by Vijay Chidambaram
  3. Whole process of applying to PhD, by Mor Harchol-Balter, 2014.
  4. The Definitive ‘what do I ask/look for’ in a PhD Advisor Guide
  5. How to Choose Your Grad School, by Tim Dettmers

Also, if you believe in rankings, there is a system that combines several major rankings for CS schools.