Hi everybody! My name's Aileen, I am a fifth year biomedical engineering
student here at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor. Very happy to be here
today to start my first vlog video and big shout out to the creative team at
school of information for giving us a great platform for us to voice our
opinion from a diverse background. So let's get started!
First of all I am
originally from Beijing, China. After I turned 18 I moved to the US for a
college degree at Washington University in St. Louis for a biomedical
engineering major, and after that I decided to further my education and
pursue a PhD degree, also in biomedical engineering.
So today we're going to talk
about how to get into Michigan graduate school, and for this I'm wearing my
Michigan shirt today. So for myself I entered the graduate degree program as a
Master's student in 2015, and after that I immediately applied to be in the PhD
program, so I do have experience of both. So today we are going to focus on the
application process for both Master's and PhD programs.
So speaking of GPA, here is one example from myself. So like I said before, I did my
undergrad at Washington University in St. Louis, and here is what I used when I
applied to be a PhD student here. And you can see that zooming in
I got a GPA of 3.65 when I applied. And breaking it down, you can see there are
some As and some B's and there's even one withdrawal from a theater class that
I could no longer fit into my schedule. So here I want to say that having a
withdraw is totally fine if the class is not related to your major, so that's
easily justified. So for international students I want to talk a little bit
about writing. So you can see that here when I first started I took a
Fundamentals of Academic Writing when I was a freshman. I got a C+, so this
definitely does not make me look great on transcripts. But what I did was I kept
taking writing intensive classes and I kept improving, so by the summer of
my junior year I took a technical writing class and I got an A+. So this
definitely demonstrates my progress in that effort in improving my
communication skill as a international student, and I really can't emphasize
this enough, and that is showcasing your communication skills in writing, in
expressing yourself through conversations or presentations, is so
important, especially if your native language is not English. So for people
who have GPA of below 3.5 you still have a very good chance and this is the case
where you really need to build your other aspects of your portfolio by
providing a very strong publication record, a strong network with the
professors at University of Michigan, so that they can vouch for you. And finally
I have seen people get into a Michigan PhD program with a GPA below 3.0. So if
they can do it, you can also do it!
So statement of purpose is a roughly one thousand word essay describing your
previous research experience leading up to where you are today and your
overarching goal of pursuing a graduate degree here at the University of
Michigan. So in this essay there are actually a lot of
things you can talk about, and there are no set of rules saying that you have to
structure your essay in a very specific way. So you can talk about your previous
relevant research experience, you can also talk about class projects that
spark your interest in a specific discipline, and you can also talk about
or start with a personal story that inspired you to pursue a certain degree.
So there are many ways of writing it. And the bottom line is that the entire essay
needs to be coherent and the connection between paragraphs need to make sense.
Don't be scared to cut out experience that's not relevant to your story. So for
international students please make sure there's no grammar mistakes, because that
reflects the lack of attention to detail. So make sure that you put it through a
grammar checker or have an English speaker actually looking at the essay
for you a couple of times so that you don't come off as a sloppy person. And
finally make the school specific, and that is to spend a couple sentences
talking about why you're interested in this school specifically and this is so
important because this tells the admission officer that you actually did
your research.
So personal statement is a Michigan specific essay that gives you an
opportunity to tell the admission committee your unique background that
led you to Michigan. You can write anything you want that's relevant but I
recommend not overlapping with statement of purpose because this is a great
opportunity to showcase a different color and different dimension of yours.
So don't waste it. If you want to talk about a personal story I recommend using
a chronological order. And a lot of people would say that "I don't really
have interesting and unique background, I just like science, I just like
engineering," and that is a perfect reason Talk about it, talk about why you think
it's an interesting topic why you are naturally drawn to it, and talk about the
experience that makes you like it more. I'm sure everyone has a very interesting
back story and sometimes it's just that you haven't found it in your memory yet.
So go talk to a friend, go talk to a family member, and for international
students this is a great opportunity for you to showcase the environment that you
grew up and show the level of diversity you can bring to the campus culture.
Talking about cultural diversity, I recommend not talking about big ideas
because this is very likely to overlap with other people so talk about small
examples—growing up, a childhood memory, a childhood experience. A small tip on
writing! So when I'm stressed about writing and just desperately you want to
get it done I usually think about how I can write a piece so that the reader can
actually enjoy it and have a good time when they read it. So this way I shift my
focus from my own suffering to the enjoyment of another person.
and this is how I overcome my writer's block.
So for PhD applicants,
networking is probably the single most important factor that is so underrated
in the whole application process. And this should be done as early as possible.
So if you want to apply later this year now would be a really good time to get
it started if you haven't done so. And you can start by going to the
professor's lab webpage to go through their publication briefly and see if you
are interested in their research and want to inquire about a potential
research position as a grad student. Cold emails are generally appropriate but
make sure they are short, concise, and cut to the point. In my experience a long
convoluted email is more likely to be archived or ignored compared to a
short, concise email. But by short I still mean two to three paragraphs introducing
yourself, express your interest in their research, and end with a inquiry for a
phone call or a video chat. Finally be a responsible person and do not mass send
these emails. In each of these emails be specific and be genuine and show your
respect.
So for recommendation letters I have three advice. First, always ask one more
person than what's required, because emergency can happen and I have seen
people who went through a very stressful time because one of the recommenders
couldn't complete a letter due to a family emergency and their application
was incomplete as a result. So don't be that person.
Always ask one more person as a backup. And the second advice is to ask your
professors, your class instructors, or your supervisors from your company to write
you letters, and don't ask your family, your friends, your significant others to
write you a letter because their opinions can be highly biased and won't
be valued much. If you're a student just go to your professor's office hours and
get them to know you in person so they can write you a highly personal letter a
specific letter that describes just you as opposed to a very generic letter. Most
professors would actually be flattered to write you a letter so don't be scared
to ask for one. Finally I typically don't recommend actually reading the letter
and I recommend trusting your professor giving you a good recommendation letter
and directly submit it to the school. But for international students I recommend
somehow either on your side or the recommender's side, make sure that there's
no grammar mistakes in all of your recommendation letters if your
recommender does not speak English as their native language. And this is so
important because grammar mistakes again reflects a lack of attention to detail
so you really want to eliminate that as much as possible.
Now that you have received an invitation to visit the campus, take this as an
opportunity to know the people, the culture, and the city. I think what's
important is to be able to show your communication skills and that is to talk
about your research in a coherent manner. You also want to demonstrate your
passion for their graduate program by giving good energy through conversations.
It would be great if you can schedule a time with the professors that you want
to work with and get a sense of what it's like to work in their lab. I'm sure
you would tour the campus and the city, but to me location is less important
than how good the school and lab are.
One thing I wish I would've done more when I was applying was to contact the professors,
and see if they have any available positions or available seats for students.
And also get to know more of their research and what to expect
when I get there.
Yeah...that's my advice!
GPA, yes. Undergrad GPAs.
The most important, not to say other things are not important.But I would say GPA.
I think your research experience is important, like showing that you have research experience. Or like thought about it.
I'd say personal statement and research experience.
That's why, that's why we interview so many people and the first video is going
to be so confusing, but I think in my opinion and we have another piece of
potato. That's real life. Yes it's totally...
Thanks for watching my first vlog video!
I hope this has been helpful and if you have any more questions please leave at
the bottom as a comment and I will address them to the best of my ability.
And I will see you next time!