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A Guide to Graduate School Vat Ly Ly Thuyet Alumni July 2016 T his document was

A Guide to Graduate School Vat Ly Ly Thuyet Alumni July 2016 T his document was inspired by a dis- cussion in our Vat Ly Ly Thuyet Facebook group. The guide is geared towards undergraduate students who are searching for a master/graduate program. Students who already com- pleted their master and thus wish to ﬁnd a PhD position might try to use some links at the end or contact the authors directly. We hope this guide will be (somewhat) helpful for future generations looking to set oﬀtheir journeys in physics. 1 Introduction The usual application procedure is as follows: • ﬁlling out an application form, which usually includes a written essay about yourself and your research interests; • providing all up-to-date transcripts, CV, En- glish language certiﬁcate, around 3 letters of recommendation, BSc and, if available, MSc diploma; • (only if being asked) giving a talk on your previous research and attending a personal interview (30-60 min long). Usually this can be done via Skype, but some places are so committed at choosing the right candidates that they will have you ﬂy there and talk to them in person. So be prepared! (Actu- ally those are the kind of places that you deﬁnitely should apply for.) • receiving the oﬀer(s), considering your op- tions and making the ﬁnal call. Below we shall discuss the whole process in details. 2 General Remarks You will usually be asked for 2-3 reference letters. Think about them well in advance. Make them diverse. Your personal statement/motivation letter should describe more in details yourself and the highlights of your CV. It should also show your enthusiasm for physics, even better if you can demonstrate your understanding/insight of the topic/ﬁeld of your interest. Europe. The ﬁrst thing you need is an En- glish certiﬁcate (TOEFL iBT, IELTS, etc.) The minimum scores for each kind of tests vary from place to place but in general European insti- tutes/scholarships are more tolerant of this crite- ria, comparing to their US counterparts (except for the UK!). Funding schemes are diverse and are very generous at some places (see below). Page 1 of ?? • UK. Funding is scarce for non-European stu- dents, you can try to contact the school you are interested in to ﬁnd out more about their funding options if you cannot ﬁnd the infor- mation you need on their websites. Oxford and Cambridge oﬀer their own scholarships for international, i.e. non-European, stu- dents but the applications are highly com- petitive and cost some fees. • Germany. External funding can be found from DAAD scholarships for Germany have an October deadline. If admitted, they will ask for your high school diploma translated to German and certiﬁed by the embassy, al- locate some time to do that. • Italy. Italy government also oﬀers some scholarships for international students. USA. Usually US graduate schools provide all of their graduate students with TA or RA positions. Support is provided by VEF fellows via VEFSTA Fellowship Program. You deﬁnitely will need TOEFL iBT, high scores are unlikely to boost your chance but a bad score in any section is very likely to hurt. TOEFL, however, is not the test that you should worry too much about. GRE General and GRE Physics are. These are quite diﬃcult to score well on unless with proper prepa- ration. Depends on your physics background, it might take around 3-9 weeks to prepare for GRE Physics. GRE Physics is oﬀered only 2-3 times per year (April, September, October). Also, pre- pare yourself for the costs. (each test costs around $150-200 and usually schools take some applica- tion fee, between $50-100). If you are determined to continue your study in the US, applying to less than 5-6 schools is a big gamble. Japan. Japanese Government Scholarship - MEXT, you can apply for it either through the university where you are applying or through the Japan Embassy in your home country. Be aware that Japanese are still doing their admis- sion process by posts. While you’re only compet- ing with candidates of your own country when ap- ply through Japan Embassy, there’s a rumor that selection process might a little bias toward who’s working for the government (like teaching in uni- versities,...). Just something to keep in mind if your proﬁle is not so strong and you’re not work- ing in a university. Also the applying procedure is somewhat hassle with many steps/documents and usually takes months. Less hassle but more competitive way to get MEXT scholarship is ap- plying directly to the universities. Most of top universities in Japan works this way: ﬁrst you ﬁnd a professor, ask to join his lab, then submit your application, take the screening examination. If you get high score (like top 10), the univer- sity will nominate you to get MEXT scholarship. Usually 100 % of who’s nominated will get the scholarship. 3 Places to Keep an Eye on Europe: • Erasmus Master Programs: The complete list of programs funded by Erasmus can be found here. These are mobility, joint mas- ter programs, people who like to travel, to explore diﬀerent cultures or to learn new languages are highly encouraged to look at these opportunities. For people who are also interested in astrophysics/cosmology: Astro- Mundus should deﬁnitely be on your list. Any question regarding AstroMundus can be addressed to either Le Hoang, Truong Nhut or Nhat Minh1. • Germany: Bonn and Cologne together oﬀer a solid, highly competitive master program for physics and astronomy: . There is also a very strong/highly active ATLAS group in Freiburg. Bielefeld and Goettingen are small but very good places for theoretical physics. • France: Aix Marseille oﬀers a Master-2 (the second year of the master degree) for theo- retical physics and particle physics. The pro- gram is compact but very solid and quite well organized. Students who are interested in this program might try to contact Dainghia Nguyenhoang2 for more information. • Italy: Trieste has SISSA and ICTP where scholarships for Diploma/Master/PhD pro- 1nhat.minh.nguyen.111@gmail.com 2nhdainghia@gmail.com Page 2 of ?? grams in many branches of physics are avail- able. Their programs are top notch within Italy and highly regarded in Europe. Stu- dents can try to contact Tien Dat Nguyen3 or Loan Truong in case they need more infor- mation. Sapienza and Tor Vergata in Rome or Padova, Bologna and Pisa are very good places for theoretical physics. The Galilean School of Higher Education in Padova annu- ally oﬀers 30 scholarships for international students. Students are strongly encouraged to look at this opportunity. • UK: The 1-year Master of Mathemati- cal/Theoretical Physics programs in Cam- bridge and Oxford are one of the most highly regarded pre-PhD programs in the world of theoretical physics. Application processes and course loads are, as you might have guessed, insanely competitive. North America: • US: – The out-of-your-league list includes MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley, Chicago, Cornell, Havard. Generally speaking, you might want to apply to one or two of these if you think your application is highly competetive. They are your lottery tickets. – The top league includes lesser-known names like Santa Barbara, UPenn, Illi- nois at Urbana-Champaign, John Hop- kins, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona (Astron- omy). They are deﬁnitely comparable with the top schools, some groups are actually the leading ones in their ﬁelds. – The middle league has some notable names like Rice, Tufts, Case Western Reserve, etc. These are also good places to check out. – More information (including ﬁnancial aids, acceptance ratios and rankings) can be found here and here. • Canada: Perimeter Institute - best place for theoretical physics in Canada, The Uni- versity of British Columbia, University of 3faregas2007@gmail.com Toronto, University of Waterloo, McGill Uni- versity. Asia: • Japan: University of Tokyo, University of Kyoto, Tohoku University, Waseda Univer- sity, University of Osaka. • Korea: • Taiwan: The lists above are not exhaustive. Browse and scan papers in your ﬁeld(s) of interest to ﬁnd out where people do what you would like to do. 4 Internship - a Thing to Keep in Mind This is your key to the graduate school. Se- lection committees pay a heavy attention to the extra academic activities on your CV. After all, they show signs of passions, dedications and re- search abilities. So try your best to attend physics schools and summer internships. The ﬁrst one may be a bit hard to get selected, but after that, things will get much easier. Build up your proﬁle, start with the local schools (google VSOP!) and work your way to international ones. Schools for undergraduate and master students are organized more and more each year in Vietnam (most of them are now held at Quy Nhon). So your gen- eration is deﬁnitely much more better oﬀ. Grab your chance. • KEK Summer Program: ask Dat for more information. • CERN and DESY Summer Student pro- grams. • Fermilab Summer Internship program. 5 Speciﬁc Calls for PhDs/Postdocs Calls for applications are announced all year- round on these platforms: Page 3 of ?? • uploads/Litterature/ graduate-school-guide.pdf