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The applications are going
to be a pain. You should probably start filling
them out rather early, as often they will ask for
information you may be surprised for (the
applications have been known to ask for not only
a list of all of your classes but the books that
the classes require as well). The application
will probably consist of several pieces. First,
they'll want to know some basic information
(name, school, gpa, etc), then they'll want
transcripts, GRE scores, and letters of
recommendation. The part that will be the most
work will probably be the statement of purpose.
In your statement of purpose you are supposed to
show them that you can write, you have done
research, and that you have an interesting idea
for what you'd like to research in the future.
The statement of purpose
is an extremely important segment of your
application, and it's very different from
anything that you have to fill out for
undergraduate admissions. Because of this you may
want to consider starting to write it early;
perhaps even over the summer before your senior
year. One issue that you should definitely be
aware of is that people are going to really want
to see you have a definite course of research in
your statement of purpose. Now Phil Agre advises
you to hedge your bets and include statements
like "one area I'm interested in" and
so on, but I'm not sure this is the best course
of action.
My advice is unless you
know what you want to do, pick two or three
different topics that you're interested in write
up something short about each of them. Then let
them sit for a day or two and see what you feel
good about. Definitely ask a professor to read
over them for you if you have someone who would
be willing to do so. If you don't feel
comfortable asking a professor (or don't want to
bother her/him too much), ask other people to
read them for you in addition. Graduate students
who have been at school for several years may be
a good choice.
If you know other people
who are applying to graduate schools, even if
they're not in your area, something that really
helped me was to sit down with them and read over
each other's essays. This forces you both to make
sure that the idea of your research is clear
enough (they don't need to understand everything,
but they shouldn't be completely lost), but since
you are doing each other favors, you may not wind
up feeling as indebted to them, and both of your
essays will improve.
Finally, as a general
note, be very careful about how the universities
want their stuff sent in. Some schools will
request that you have all of your supporting
material (such as letters of recommendation) in
the same envelope that you send in your main
application. This means that since most of them
will be due during winter break you need to make
sure to get transcripts and letters returned to
you before break.
Letters of recommendation
are extremely important. Hopefully you have a
number of people who know would be willing to
write you recommendations, but make sure that you
include everyone. If you are applying for grad
school in AI, and you did some research for an AI
person, even if it was long ago and you don't
consider it to be relevant, get a recommendation
if you think that the person likes you at all.
If you don't have any
faculty member who you feel knows you really
well, there are a number of ways that you can go
about trying to change this. The earlier you
start, the more options you have.
One option is to do research
at another university. The best time to do this
is probably over the summer. Ask professors for
internship programs that they know about,or check out our advice on the
matter. Having done work at another
university shows the institutions you're applying
to that not only do the people in your department
like you, but others do as well. It can also help
because the more people whose names are
associated with you, the better. On a similar
note, don't have more than one letter of
recommendation from industry, because their
recommendations aren't going to mean as much to
those who are reading them. Remember that the sub
field that you are going to work in is probably a
pretty small world (much smaller than you'd
think), and these people are all going to know
about each other.
Another option is to take an independent study
with a professor. This guarantees that at least
one person will know about your ability to do
independent work
Once you've chosen people to ask for
recommendations, my advice is to ask them early.
Don't wait until you have all of the forms filled
out; ask them before hand if they'd be willing to
write you letters of recommendation, and then
give them the forms when you have them ready.
It is a good idea to give them a general idea
(or refresher) about what you have been up to,
even if they know you very well. To that extent,
you should have a copy of your transcript and a
copy of your resume for them. Many people will
request this explicitly.
Some schools, in case of real
financial hardship will agree to waive your
application fees. In most cases this will involve
your parental contribution being zero (or close
to). Some schools refuse to accept waivers in any
case. This is unfortunate but true. One method to
apply to schools more cheaply is to apply for
fellowships; sometimes if you apply and apply
early enough, you might get places that are
excited enough about your applying for these
fellowships that they will offer to waive your
application fees.
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