Cross-Apply North America 24Fall PhD in Humanities and Social Sciences (2) Experience Sharing

My personal background has been roughly introduced in the previous article. My majors span a wide range, including a bachelor's degree in business (Mainland Chinese), a master's degree in engineering (Australian master's degree), and a PhD in humanities and social sciences transferred to someone in the United States.

The GPA is 3.17/4.0 and 3.69/4.0 (WES) respectively. It can be said that compared with most students who see 3.7-3.9 or even full grades on the Internet, these scores are quite weak. People who apply for the PhD are originally grade-preferred. That batch, if not ridiculously low compared to mine, is mediocre anyway.

No GRE, no publications, no research experience. Even my master's degree was from Coursework. I didn't have a serious tutor or graduation thesis for my undergraduate or master's degree, so I didn't have much academic connection. More than one year of working experience in a major Chinese Internet company. In terms of language, there is no valid IELTS or TOEFL, but a very good PTE score (85/90).

Basic Background That's all. What kind of position does my background belong to? It's such that agents shake their heads after hearing this, and insiders from the US Master's School ask me to study for a second master's degree first and then apply for a doctorate. Originally, schools outside the United States are not highly recognized in the United States. I GPA is still low. When I first learned about the application, I did consult an agency. The agency I found would not accept my case at all, because in his eyes I couldn't apply at all.

Therefore, my experience is particularly valuable for novice applicants who are cross-major, have low GPA, have no plans to study for a doctoral degree in the past, and have switched to academia after working.

Since each school recruits only a few doctoral students a year, the academic circle is really small. Ph.D. students in every project in North America can find their profiles on the official website, and the number is very limited. Therefore, as a person who always publishes sensitive posts on the Internet, To prevent positioning, I will not reveal too specific school, major, project information and personal information in this article.

The offer I have received so far is from a school ranked in the top 100 overall and top 50 specifically. The school is small and beautiful, not well-known, but the program has a good reputation. Because my personal background is really weak, I can get this result. Although it is not a top school, I am very satisfied with the offer. The application season is not over yet, and I have received other interviews, but anyway, with the first offer, I have a guarantee, and I am very relaxed now.

Regardless of whether the result of my application can be evaluated as a success, at least I think it is meaningful to record what I feel and gain.

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Before talking about the standardized background, timeline and preparation materials, I think the first thing that other PhD newbies like me need to know is how to find their own research direction/research interests, and what they need to know about PhD. How is the learning model different from the past undergraduate and master's degrees?

At the undergraduate and master's level, we will choose a major, which will set up many related theoretical courses. We only need to attend classes and complete homework. For students in the same major, most people take courses, The homework assignments are all the same. Therefore, many people have the misunderstanding that they put too much emphasis on their major when studying for a Ph.D.

At the PhD stage, its learning model is subversive. You need to find a research topic of your own and break it down into many interrelated small topics. You need to find your own research field. This field may consist of some keywords and may be interdisciplinary. This is completely different from our past model of choosing a subject to take classes, because your research field may be the intersection of multiple disciplines, and it can be classified into this college/major or that college/major.

So how do we find this interesting topic? The first method is to combine your own life experience, your own knowledge reserves, the education you have received, the books you have read, the art you have appreciated, the careers you have engaged in... combined with your past thoughts and gains, and then think about it. This is similar to the brainstorming we did when we were working on various early ideas in an Internet company. We can list many topics that interest us, and these topics are usually closely related to our own identities and experiences. For example, as international students, we may have questions about cross-border migration, international education, employment difficulties, identity, cultural differences, etc. Interested, as women, we may be interested in feminism and gender inequality, as technology practitioners, we may be interested in the impact of emerging technologies on society... We can list all the issues of interest and think about our own from the beginning In life, in the inspiration of every breath, every plant and every tree, you can capture and decide what you want, what is the most important issue in the world, and the most worthy of investing several years of research.

Another more practical way is to browse the research done by scholars from major universities today. As I mentioned in my previous article, it was the first time I browsed the personal profiles of American scholars. The shock I experienced when viewing the home page. I looked at a lot of people, and then I realized, oh, it turns out that technology and humanities and society, two seemingly unrelated fields, can be combined to do research. I found that I am not the only one with cross-academic backgrounds, but many professors do the same.

At this stage, you can collect some of the things you are interested in from a large number of professors and research fields, record them in tables, and then read their published papers one by one. You can get a lot of inspiration from these works, which will help you find own research interests. At the same time, in this process, you can also understand where these fields have developed today, what things still need to be explored, and what things have lost their research value.

Through reflection on my own identity, abilities, and interests, as well as reference to other people's research directions, I successfully found my own research topic.

The next step is to understand the doctoral programs offered by major universities based on your own research topic. Maybe the A major/college of some schools is suitable for you, while in other schools, your topic is more suitable for joining the B major/college. You can preliminarily screen the schools and projects. The screening method is to investigate the professors in their schools to see if there are any who have very similar research interests to yours and can guide you.

I also need to mention school selection here. My personal approach is to refer to a ranking standard, such as QS and US News, from the top 20 to the top 200, and search these schools one by one to see if they have opened colleges A and B, or whether they have opened colleges that may accommodate Other colleges where I research topics. If not, skip it. If there is, click in to see the project details, whether GRE is mandatory, whether TOEFL IELTS is mandatory, whether the undergraduate GPA is required to be higher than 3.3... If there is a suitable project, continue to screen for suitable tutors and finally select them. The schools and projects meet these conditions:

There is at least one professor who matches my research direction. TOEFL/IELTS scores are not required (PTE or Australian Master's degree exemption language can be accepted), GRE is not required, and GPA is not required.

There is another important shortcut when choosing a school, because if you choose purely according to my method, you will not know which programs are good and which programs are easy to get into. You can first search on all Chinese social media (Google Zhihu) Douban Weibo Xiaohongshu), have any doctoral students in professional fields written experience sharing posts? You can find many related sharings in most humanities and social sciences. For example, for the subject I want to apply for, someone has analyzed the classic school programs in the United States one by one, and what are the characteristics and advantages of each program. This way I can get a lot of information and save time.

When the application season came, my final school selection results were 20 programs and 18 schools. That is, I applied for two programs in two of the schools. This is a relatively normal number among all applicants. The number of applications basically ranges from seven or eight to more than 20, divided into sprint, main application and guaranteed applications.

Applicants who are relatively confident about their abilities usually choose a few schools to apply to, because they have very hard-core backgrounds and know which programs they can definitely get into. But for people like me, who have a weak background and great uncertainty, they can only cast a wide net, so from lottery to guaranteed, each level requires planning.

Regarding the choice of region, I would like to add something more. The last article " Cross-Applying for North America 24Fall Humanities and Social Sciences PhD - Motivation Sharing " mentioned the reason why I did not choose Australia in the end. In fact, I had a good chat with an Australian tutor at the time. She even They helped me find my second and third supervisors and introduced me to them. However, because my grades were not good and I had not officially published, I was rejected from the scholarship due to fierce competition. At that time, I customized a research proposal based on the tutor's research direction and my own interests. This material is exclusive to Europe and Australia and cannot be used in US applications. I spent a lot of time researching how to write it well. First, I looked at what others had written on social media to understand the format and routine of the material. But the most important thing was to write clearly what I wanted to do based on my own research goals. What. My RP received very good evaluations from the professor. Although it didn't work out in the end, I tried my best.

Now that I think about it, a bad thing turned into a good thing. If I had gone to the Australian project at that time, there would not have been a story about receiving a better American project offer later. The mentors and resources are unparalleled in every aspect.

The United States has the largest number of higher education institutions and has a lot of funding and academic resources. The reason why I didn’t choose Europe is because compared to the United States, another advantage is flexibility in research fields, because European job-based PhDs are not only highly competitive (hundreds of candidates can choose 1-2), but they are usually well-regulated. research topic.

Next, I will introduce one by one how I prepared for each link, including:

- Standardized scores (GPA/GRE/WES)

- Language (TOEFL/IELTS/Duolingo/PTE)

- Writing Sample/Publication (Conference/Journal)

- CV (academic experience/work experience)

- Recommendation letters/online application system (how to contact past teachers)

- Set the magnet (be sure to set it yourself, you will learn a lot of useful information)

- SOP (how to organize your experience and form a persuasive story)

- PS (how to reflect on your personal life and relate it to research)

- Application fee (how to apply for exemption)

I will also share other experiences about applying for the Expo, including:

- Qualitative and quantitative research (I was born for qualitative research)

- Application timeline (what to do when)

- Agency and DIY (it is not necessary to find a full package, you can find language polishing)

- State of mind and emotions (confused/confident/anxious stage)

- Standardized scores (GPA/GRE/WES score certification)

As I said before, there is no regret medicine for GPA. It has been so long since we graduated and we can’t do anything. Only students who are studying for undergraduate and master’s degrees can still be saved. Fortunately, American universities usually don't have such a strict GPA standard. Although some colleges clearly require 3.3 or above, you can also send an email to ask, and the secretary will tell me: If you are excellent in other aspects, you can make up for it.

When your GPA is not high, it is actually beneficial to take the GRE to prove your learning ability. However, it should be noted that many top schools currently do not accept the GRE at all out of fairness considerations, because some students from less developed areas may not be able to afford such examination and training expenses. Well, I am this kind of classmate from an underdeveloped area, and I agree with this concept. You will find that in contrast, many state university programs require the submission of the GRE. I think if you have a strong desire to apply for the PhD and have enough preparation time, you can try to take the exam.

But what was my situation at the time? I decided to apply for the IPO in June, and the application system of major schools opened at the end of November. There were only a few months in total. I didn’t want to waste my energy on standardized tests, whether it was GRE or language. Because I need to improve my understanding of the knowledge and results in the research field, I think this matter is much more important. In addition, taking the GRE test does cost a lot of money, from training to testing, and you may not be able to get the ideal test in one go. So after comprehensive consideration, I decisively gave up on the GRE. I gave up on all the schools that mandated the GRE.

WES score certification is a transcript evaluation agency for converting non-U.S. academic qualifications into U.S. GPA. Many students have started preparing for this long ago because the process is very cumbersome. You need to register a WES account first, then contact China Xuexin.com according to its guidelines, check the contents of your transcript one by one, and pass the review of Xuexin.com, and then pass the review of your transcript by WES. The whole process It takes 1-2 months to get it done.

I personally did not prepare for WES at the beginning, because none of the programs I applied for clearly mentioned that it was required. Most of the programs required that after admission, I would submit an official transcript that has been evaluated by an institution like WES. But on December 1st, I suddenly found that a 12.15ddl project I applied for required WES... To be honest, I was quite dumbfounded at the time, because it was impossible to make it in time. So I negotiated with the school to submit the WES certification results late, and immediately started working on the certification. Finally, I got the WES report and handed it in at the beginning of January. Recently, I successfully received an interview from the school, so it seems that it did not affect subsequent admissions. The lesson from this incident is to carefully check the requirements of each school and try to avoid my situation. Because I applied for quite a few programs, I discovered after I submitted my application in December that I had a certain degree of confusion/misunderstanding in my previous interpretation of the requirements of two or three schools in the application program.

- language

All schools in the United States require international students to submit language scores. The most recognized test is TOEFL. Every school accepts TOEFL, followed by IELTS. Most schools accept IELTS, followed by Duolingo, and finally the last. It's PTE.

Unfortunately, the only valid language score I have is PTE. And the purpose of taking it is not to apply for a PhD, but to apply for Australian PR. For experience sharing on the PTE exam, please see the previous article " 2w+ words super detailed PTE eight-explosion experience sharing ". My PTE originally had other purposes, and I accidentally used it to apply for the exam. It can be regarded as giving full play to its effectiveness, so that such a high score will not be wasted. After all, a language test is only valid for two years, and after two more If you study for a Ph.D. in 2010, you will have to retake the exam. So from this perspective, applying for 24fall PhD is the right time and place for me.

However, the language policies are different for each project. You need to check and record them one by one and make response strategies. For example, if you have a degree from an English-speaking area, some schools can automatically exempt you, while some schools require you to actively apply for an exemption; some schools require that only those with an undergraduate degree from an English-speaking area can be exempted; some schools allow any degree, and some schools require you to apply for an exemption actively. It is stipulated that students must study abroad for more than 2 years. In short, for my own case, most of the projects can actually exempt me from language. In the small number of schools that must submit language, I can find some projects that accept PTE. Then these schools will eventually become my target schools.

Some schools also stipulate that if you want to be a teaching assistant after admission, you must have an IELTS 7/7.5. In fact, my PTE score is quite high, equivalent to an IELTS score of 8, but my principle is not to take a separate language test for a certain program before admission, unless it admits me, and then requires me to take a language test to meet the TA's requirements, then I can accept.

For those schools that exempted me from language scores, I also submitted my PTE in the supplementary materials section. After all, we have taken this exam and the score is so high. It makes no sense not to show it, although it will not be used for admission. The deciding factor, but since it is there, it doesn’t hurt to send it to them.

- Writing Sample

Every school will ask you to submit a writing sample, which is equivalent to your work and represents your writing level. Generally, everyone will choose one from their undergraduate and master's thesis, or one from past published papers.

But for me, as I wrote in " Cross-Applying North America 24Fall Humanities and Social Sciences PhD (1) Motivation Sharing ", my undergraduate and master's thesis are just a matter of course, and they are weakly related to the research I will start in the future. , so I decided to write a paper from scratch and use it to show my academic level.

In fact, this decision was challenging for me at the time. It had been two years since I graduated and I had not done any serious academic writing for two years. So during my master's degree, I could write a paragraph in an hour. It now takes me three hours, and the quality is not as good as before, and my proficiency in using English logic in my mind is not as good as before. Academic writing requires finding a feeling. Obviously, I did not find that feeling very smoothly at the time.

I consulted a lot of experience and information, including how to choose research methods and how to conduct a study. During my stay there, I completed a research in two months and presented it in the form of a thesis. During this process, I read a large number of papers by American scholars in the field, became familiar with their research and methods, and considered how to use them for my own use to discover a new conclusion.

It has never taken me so long to write a paper. Before I started writing, I took a lot of notes and summarized the research results of others. I scoured social media for all my experiences and reflections on academic writing in this field.

During that time, while I was traveling, I went to the yoga studio to attend Pilates classes every day. On the way to the Pilates class, I sometimes suddenly thought of a new idea. For example, my "discovery" part could be Such a logical discussion...

I knew that I had to complete this paper before September, and I had plenty of time, because starting from September, I had to focus mainly on getting magnets with professors, and I could no longer take care of this paper.

I ended up finishing the paper around the end of July. I revised and revised it repeatedly and showed it to several people to ask them to give me some opinions. These people all met on social media. The opinions they gave me were general academic writing experiences, rather than opinions specific to my research content and research findings. Nonetheless, it is still inspiring to me.

To what extent do we need to write the Writing Sample? I think it is to write it to the point where you think it can represent the highest level of your academic writing. The reason why I want to write a paper specifically for this required document instead of using the papers I wrote during my master's degree is because I know that those papers in the past cannot represent my highest level.

I also spent a lot of energy researching which good international conferences/journals were worthy of submission in my research field. I thought that if my paper could be published, my entire application background would be improved. . But I was very unlucky. The conference I submitted for was canceled, and I couldn't find a suitable conference after that, because I found that many scholars wrote papers based on the topics of conferences/journals, unlike me who wrote papers first. Write an article on a custom topic and submit it for submission.

If this matter is delayed again and again, it will be settled. Regarding which conferences in each field are worthy of submission, some doctoral students have compiled and posted them on their social media accounts. Since I haven't successfully published an article yet, I don't have any experience worth sharing in this regard. I don't want to spend too much energy studying the methods of each conference and journal, because this matter has nothing to do with the academic itself. .

After I finished writing this paper, I contacted a professor at the University of Melbourne and asked him for revision suggestions, but he told me that he could ask his students to help me revise it, as long as his name was added to the author column of the paper. . At that time, because the conference I was about to submit was about to end, the cooperation could not be completed, and the teacher never responded to me. Later, when I asked him for a letter of recommendation, he ignored me.

My personal opinion is that as long as your article is hard-core enough, then whether it is published or not is just a matter of choice. The key is to ensure the academic quality. Later, I took my article to a UW doctoral student in the humanities and social sciences for his advice. He commented that it was well written, and he said it was "better than the Writing Sample I submitted at the time." This gave me a lot of confidence and allowed me to move on to other things.

(All content is published on the official account Yintianmei)