Principles of Studying Abroad
Higher category: 【Studying Abroad】 2023-2024 Academic Year Study Abroad Admissions and Scholarships Summary
※ Please note that the following principles are based on natural sciences colleges, not engineering colleges.
A. Study Abroad Philosophy
1. Studying abroad is a noble journey in search of hope.
2. The most successful example of studying abroad was Jang Bogo, the maritime officer.
3. Studying abroad is often referred to as a lonely path.
4. If you look carefully, there are study abroad exams all year round. Therefore, there’s no need to fear failure in studying abroad, just the courage to continue is needed.
○ Example 1. Stellenangebote de ETH Zürich
○ Example 2. ETH get hired
○ Example 3. Max Planck Insitute PhD
○ Example 4. KTH Royal Institute of Technology
○ Example 5. PSI website
○ Example 6. academicpositions.eu
○ Example 7. jobs.ch
○ Example 8. alpha.ch
○ Example 9. topjobs.ch
○ Example 10. jobscout24.ch
○ Example 11. Recently, PhD and Postdoc position openings have been frequently posted on LinkedIn.
5. Compete fiercely in admissions, and even in failure, be impressive.
6. I wanted to open up many possibilities for those who thirst for success by sharing information on studying abroad.
7. Grad admission never fails. You just have to keep trying until you succeed.
8. Study abroad admissions and study abroad life are closely related to the presence of funding.
○ Departments with abundant funding have many out-of-quotas positions (e.g., direct admits) and many opportunities post-graduation (e.g., faculty appointments). (ref)
○ Departments with limited funding prefer domestics over internationals. This is because tuition fees are cheaper, and some funding is only available to domestics.
○ Departments with limited funding provide less support for equipment, departmental travel, and program benefits.
○ In departments with limited funding, students who fail qualifying exams or fail to match with a PI are often matched with a PI from another department or graduate with a Master’s degree.
○ In departments with limited funding, students often have to serve as TAs to cover tuition fees. This is because the TA salary is provided by the school, not the department or the PI.
○ EECS and medical schools have abundant funding, followed by other engineering schools. Natural sciences departments have relatively less funding.
○ The University of California system has been experiencing a recent lack of funds (e.g., 2023-2024 student protests). This might be a reason for the high dropout rates in PhD programs.
9. If you are special, studying abroad is even more challenging.
B. Admission Strategy
10. It is better to apply to larger departments (e.g., umbrella program) rather than small ones.
11. First, second, and third are all about the fit with the department.
12. The more school searches, the better.
13. About research area,
○ In fields like economics, the reputation (or brand value) of a school seems quite important, while in life sciences and related fields, it’s crucial to seek out authoritative researchers.
○ For departments like physics, admission outcomes often correlate with GPA, whereas in fields like life sciences, ‘fitness’ seems more important, leading to a weaker correlation.
○ One must stay updated with the latest scientific trends, e.g., spatial transcriptomics, neuro-immuno interaction, chemical biology, Method of the Year.
○ The U.S. has distinctly made its mark in artificial intelligence, structural biology, and biochemistry.
14. You should avoid places with actually low acceptance rates (e.g., MIT csbphd).
15. You should avoid areas where the competition is really fierce (e.g., computer science, bioinformatics).
○ However, as I have been accepted into a bioinformatics program before, it’s not that one is completely unable to succeed, but rather that it’s difficult to have high expectations.
16. The department should have a lot of Teaching Assistants for foreigners.
17. You need to broaden your choices through various research.
18. Don’t just apply to the department you want to go to, apply in a continuous spectrum from the place you most want to go to the place you least want to go.
19. About Attitude,
○ In an interview for studying abroad, appearing too competent can be problematic (as it may give the impression that you have other options), but it’s better than appearing incompetent.
○ For the admission process to study abroad, it’s necessary to have some confidence. You need to become a person who is needed.
20. About the importance of Statement of Purpose (SOP),
○ SOP is not about what I want to say, but about what they want to hear.
○ While U.S. doctoral program admissions rely on qualitative evaluations such as SOP (Statement of Purpose) and letters of recommendation, European doctoral program admissions in countries like the UK and Switzerland depend on quantitative evaluations.
○ One should avoid esoteric ideas in the SOP.
○ Given that most topics have already been researched, the SOP should present a big question.
21. Regarding the difficulty of studying abroad,
○ The global population increase implies that the difficulty of studying abroad will increase.
○ The gains from catch-up growth in developing countries, with improved technological levels, also contribute to the increasing difficulty of studying abroad.
22. There are departments where pre-contact is not necessary (A; e.g., Stanford Biosciences), recommended (B; e.g., Harvard SSQB), and mandatory (C; e.g., Harvard OEB). Pre-contact can help understand the Teaching Assistant situation and gauge the direction of the SOP, so it may be more strategic to focus on (B), (C).
23. Toning down is a virtue for both papers and SOP.
24. You must truly love research. (ref)
C. Miscellaneous
25. In a country like South Korea, where the culture around dating and marriage is somewhat distorted, it may be more strategic to study abroad in several ways.
26. The only three options for changing schools are law school, medical school, and studying abroad, all of which are not easy processes.
○ However, there was a case around me who achieved all three: studying abroad, law school, and medical school.
27. The world changes so quickly that yesterday’s study abroad trends are different from today’s.
28. The reason domestic scholarship foundations consider whether students are enrolled in high schools or universities in the country is to maximize the benefits for the country.
○ Students from domestic institutions are more in need of economic and non-economic assistance compared to those from foreign high schools and universities.
○ Students from domestic institutions are more likely to return to the country.
○ Students from domestic institutions are more likely to have domestic networks, increasing their chances of obtaining key positions.
29. The lessons learned from studying abroad apply equally to human relationships.
Input: 2023.02.23 00:33