When you are going to
apply for PhD program, MS by research or MS leading to a PhD program, one
important thing you need to decide before submitting application is potential
research supervisor. Research supervisor can be some senior published
researcher in your area of research and can be related to academia or industry
professionally but mostly these are Professors at Universities. The importance
of finding/contacting a research supervisor before applying to the graduate
program is clear from the fact that more than 70% funding decisions are made by
Professors. Few scholarships are managed by universities or other funding
agencies. The most common way to fund PhD research is by contacting University Professors
or supervisors from industry.
In countries like Germany, Belgium, South Korea,
Japan, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Luxembourg, Italy,
and many other places, PhD admission and funding decision is made by Professor.
In case of USA, you do not need to contact Professors a prior for submitting
admission application but they do ask to fill in names of three potential
supervisors, ultimately pushing you to find one. Here we will discuss how to
find a Professor so that you may proceed with an effective contact with him.
In a successful search for a Professor, who is willing to
supervise your research, you have to make strong first impression because you
may get only one chance for each professor. If you fail to impress or convince
him about your abilities in first contact, it’s probable that you can never do
that again. Most common and formal way to contact a supervisor is through email.
Finding a Supervisor
Finding a right and “nice” supervisor can be a tedious task. It
is not enough that you like his work or publications, to be able to perform well;
you need to be at same page with him. We summarize some important points to
keep in mind while searching for a research supervisor.
Search by Research Profile
To narrow down search, you have to first know what your
interest/ambition is. I know it is not easy to know exact topic of research at
such an early stage but you should know your area of research. One way is to
search some latest survey papers related to your field, just skim through the
content, do not expect yourself to understand everything at this point, look at
the author profiles at the end of papers. After doing some literature review,
you can see that leading professors in your area of research would be most
cited and by this you can point to potential supervisors currently involved in
your area of interest.
Search by University
Another way is to further narrow down your search by universities;
where you wish to pursue your degree, then visit university’s website and your
program’s page. Here you will see couple of professors doing similar research,
you must see their latest publications to finalize potential supervisor. Be
careful, do not email to more than one professor at the same department
simultaneously, because if a professor finds you suitable he will arrange an
interview with more than one or two other professors and usually you end up
with same professors you emailed, besides one who is interested in you and this
raises a question about your commitment or seriousness because you cannot be equally
ambitious about different research problems at the same time.
Search by Country
The idea of studying
abroad is very fascinating at first but all this charm has a price to pay. When
deciding about a country to pursue your higher studies there must be a solid
reason for your choice. Most of the universities ask for your reasons to apply for
that particular university, program and the country. Your reasons must be of
academic nature besides an importance of the fact that you are interested in
their culture but this should not be your whole point as you are not going for
tourism. The important things to highlight in this sort of question are the
educational model, economic model, academic achievements/contributions, and how
their environment is suitable for you.
Try to be honest and base
your decision on some important issues, where language is top of all, it would
not be easy to settle in a country whose language is completely strange for
you. The cultural shock is another thing, try to go for a country whose
language is familiar to you, it will help you learn more and enjoy more. If
somehow, it’s not a win-win situation and considering multiple constraints like
funding, your area of interest, research environment, post-study prospects;
then try to learn about culture, language, and civilization of that country as
much as you can. It will help you a lot. Once country is finalized, check for
best universities and research centers there and then follow the procedure as
explained in search by university category above.
Finalizing Ask Alumni
Your search and choice of
supervisor is complete, before contacting him, why do not ask someone who has
done this before. The Alumni is someone who had experience not only working
with them academically but also know them well socially, their behavior towards
students, lab environment and other related issues. Do not expect very honest
answers from them. You can find a list of Alumni from Lab’s or Professor’s
website. Try to find an alumni who comes from your country of origin, he is in
best place to guide you. You should value their opinion but do not take that as
a binding because in a social relationship, warmness come from both sides, nobody
will tell you that their relationship was bad because, he himself was not good
enough but to put burden on the other guy. But opinion from an experienced
person will be helpful.
To summarize, first thing is finding
relevant supervisor and then maximize chances of getting in top-class
University and country. We hope these guidelines will be helpful for you to get
best out of your search.
Also See: [How to Contact a Supervisor]
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