Applying To The Us Graduate School

By Author: STEPHANIE
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When you apply to US graduate schools, you should understand that the competition will be stiff®. My economics department at the University of New Orleans (www. uno.edu) gets the majority of its PhD applications from Mainland Chinese. Curiously, the GRE scores on' these applications are far superior to those on applications from Americans. One year the page listing the top scores had only one American — the rest were Chinese! No doubt the Chinese study harder for the examination for financial aid will be stiff, and only the best bother to apply. Yet because we are supported by the state of Louisiana, we are obliged to give priority to local applicants.

When writing an application, one should bear in mind that the readers will know little about China. I recall a discussion in which one professor argued for taking student A because he was from People's University, which he had heard was a Tag Heuer Replica top school. Another argued for candidate B because he was from Rennin University, allegedly a very good school. It was not ...
... immediately understood that both candidates were from the same institution!

Since the readers know so little about China, supply details that establish why a given fact in one's record is significant. For instance, if one has won an honor, say why the honor was bestowed and how many people received it. For instance, you might explain that XYZ Award is given for excellence in scientific research by undergraduates, at ABC University; only two students a year receive it. Or suppose you state that you were named an outstanding graduate" — then go on to say that only the top 5 % of graduating seniors receive this honor. If a Chinese university is highly respected institution, say so (even if Chinese readers all know it). The school might, for instance, be on the government's list of key universities; to give the fact its full value, mention how many Chinese universities there are and how many of them are labeled "key" universities.

Likewise, it may be useful to remind foreign readers just how strong the competition is in China. Recently I was looking at an application from a student who ranked fifth in his province on the national university entrance exam. The province, as it happens, has some 35 million inhabitants, yet few westerners would even recognize the name. If someone had ranked fifth in a general exam in a US state or European country, we would probably be happy to have him. I suggested that the student tell the readers how many people there were in his province and compare it to a well-known European country ("The province has 35 million people, almost as many as all of Spain or Poland.")

Readers will be rushing to get through a thick pile of applications. Members of the admission committee do not get any special rewards for reading essays carefully. In my department the only essays that get any real attention are' those from candidates with outstanding test scores. Essays will be read quickly and then forgotten, unless an application should comb his academic history or personal experience for anything that makes him Tag Heuer Link Replica stand out, and then highlight it. Perhaps one completed an outstanding research project, or has written a book, or has obtained a patent on an invention. Perhaps one has quickly reached a high supervisory position in a company. Such accomplishments should figure prominently in the essay.

Saying things that everyone else says will do nothing to advance one's chances. Paragraphs about how one will contribute to China after getting a doctorate, or about how marvelous the target school supposedly is — all of this adds nothing of value to an application essay. One may wish to mention these matters if one has something concrete to say, but the emphasis should be elsewhere: on why one is able to finish a program with intellectual distinction and be a credit to the target university in the US. Again, hot air does not help; find solid evidence that leads to favorable conclusions regarding one's promise in a given field. -The best evidence that one will eventually succeed is having already succeeded.