下面简单介绍一下我个人的申请背景和结果，以便使大家对帖子内容的借鉴程度有更好的把握。
在2012年的PhD申请中，我主要申请了US、UK、CA、NZ的部分学校，当然也了解过AU与Singapore的部分高校，申请方向CS/EE。所申请的4个国家的都有拿到offer，最后鉴于毕业时间、导师、奖学金、研究条件等方面因素的考虑，最终选择了UK的University of Bath。
E.g.1 Manythanks for your email and apologies for the late reply. Your CV looks reallyimpressive. Also, there is really good overlap between the areas that interestyou and those that interest me. So, in principle, I would be open to superviseyou.
E.g.2 Manythanks for your email and interest in the work here at XXX. I am looking forhigh quality students for next year, yes. Your CV looks impressive.
E.g.3 Afterreading your CV I would be very keen for you to apply to study at XXX. AlthoughXXX is not my area I believe the techniques we work on could potentially beapplied successfully.
E.g.4 Yourbackground is solid and interesting. I encourage you to apply for admission. Ifyou write my name in your statement of interest, you material will be directedto me. Good luck.
E.g.5 YourCV is excellent and I am certainly am interested in supervising you for a PhD.
E.g.6 Thankyou for your interest in my research. You do have an interesting background.
Neutral：
E.g.1 We wouldcertainly welcome your application to our graduate program. Admissions decisionsare not made by individual faculty, but by the department as a whole.
E.g.2 I wouldencourage you to apply to our PhD program. I can supervise students in eitherComputer Science or Engineering.
E.g.3 Iappreciate your interest. You have a good resume. We may have an opening nextyear but I am not certain about its availability at this early date.
E.g.4 Thankyou for your inquiry. Yes, I am accepting new students; however, you first needto be admitted into the XXX. I would be glad to speak with you “after” you havebeen admitted.
E.g.5 Thanksfor your interest. I would encourage you to apply to our department officiallyonline. Please make sure all your supplementary documents will arrive before thedeadline.
E.g.6 Your CVlooks interesting. XXX is not my currentarea of research. So I have passed you CV on to some of my colleagues who mightbe interested. （好心的教授可以把你的CV转给系里其他的教授）
Negative：
E.g.1 Thankyou for your inquiry, but I am not taking on any more students at this time. Goodluck in your future studies.
E.g.2 Thankyou for your interest in my research program. Unfortunately, I have no fundingavailable. I wish you best of luck on your career.
E.g.3 Thankyou for your interest, but regret that I do not have positions open.
Eg.4 Iam on leave this year and not taking any new students.
E.g.1 I wouldneed a half page research proposal. I know that you have outlined a few ideasbut I would need something a little more concrete. I doubt this would be whatyour PhD was about but it gives me some idea of a single idea, your writingstyle, whether you can access the scientific literature etc.
E.g.2 Whenyou fill out the application form, please note down my name in the researchproposal section. This will eventually route the application to me. （可见联系导师的重要性） Once we have received your application we can giveyou further feedback regarding your suitability for study here.
E.g.3 I thinkthat the next stage for you is to fill out the online application form. If youwant me to look through your research proposal before you submit it then dosend it to me.
E.g.4 If youwere to apply to my group, I would only be interested in taking people whowanted to work either on XXX or XXX, as these are now the major focus of mygroup. We have a great deal of work to build on here in both of these areas. Whichof these areas interests you, and why?
E.g.5 Whichaspects of my work are you particularly interested in? Do you have any ideas forPhD proposal yet?
E.g.6 Can youtell me a little bit about your interest in our group? What about our researchinterests you?
下面我们来看看国外教授邮件中关于Research Proposal的写法的建议：
Theresearch proposals are anything from one paragraph to 10 pages (at least that Ihave seen). The point is to show that you think like a researcher and know whatgood research problems look like. Since you are applying for funding, I thinkit would be helpful if you wrote 2-4 pages. But since you have alreadypublished papers, you could also keep the proposal pretty short (e.g. 1-2pages) and attach extra PDFs with one or two of your best papers.
TheStatement of Purpose asks:
Pleasedescribe your aptitude and motivation for graduate study in your area of specialization,including your preparation for this field of study, your academic plans orresearch interests in your chosen area of study, and your future career goals.Please be specific about why UC Berkeley would be a good intellectual fit foryou.
ThePersonal History Statement:
In anessay, discuss how your personal background informs your decision to pursue agraduate degree. Please include any educational, familial, cultural, economic,or social experiences, challenges, or opportunities relevant to your academicjourney; how you might contribute to social or cultural diversity within yourchosen field; and/or how you might serve educationally underrepresentedsegments of society with your degree.
下面我们先来看看MSU对类似PS以及类似PH的写作建议：
Guidelinesfor your Academic Statement:
YourAcademic Statement should be a concise statement of your plans for graduatestudy, your career goals, and how MSU’s graduate program will help you meetyour career and educational objectives. Your Academic Statement must includethe following statement: “My intended area of specialization in the graduateprogram in (DEPARTMENT) at Michigan State University will be in_________________.” If you have already been in contact with faculty or staffat MSU regarding your application for graduate studies, please list thesecontacts in your Academic Statement.
Whenpreparing your Academic Statement, please include the following information:
Brieflydescribe key experiences that led you to graduate studies. Examples mightinclude research experiences, internships, coursework or extracurricularactivities. Share specific, relevant examples of how these experiences helpedyou develop skills for success as a graduate student. For instance, you mightdemonstrate ways that you have synthesized knowledge from the classroom,developed research skills, communicated effectively, acted as a leader, orgained skills and responsibility over time. Make a clear connection betweenyour previous experiences and your current interest in graduate studies. If yourintended area of specialization in graduate school differs significantly fromyour previous experiences, please briefly explain why you decided to changefocus. If applicable, explain any gaps or discrepancies in your academic recordand share unusual obstacles or hardships that you have overcome in pursuit ofyour educational objectives. Explain how your goals for graduate study relateto your longer-term career plans, including the pursuit of additional degreesor certifications if applicable.
Guidelinesfor your Personal Statement:
YourPersonal Statement should concisely describe how your background and lifeexperiences – including social, economic, cultural, familial, educational, orother opportunities or challenges – motivated your decision to pursue agraduate degree.
Whenpreparing your Personal Statement, please address the following questions:
Howwell do your personal goals for education and research fit with the interestsof our faculty and the research activities within our department? Brieflydescribe research areas or questions that you find interesting and identify anyspecific faculty, labs or research projects at MSU that are of particularinterest to you. How have you demonstrated your leadership skills, or yourpotential as a leader? For example, you might share specific examples of howyou made contributions as an officer in a student organization or how youassumed a leadership role within a team or during a professional internship.You could also discuss your potential for leadership in graduate school andafterwards by sharing your career goals and discussing your capacity to make adistinctive professional or scholarly contribution in your field. How have youcontributed to a diverse educational community, or how will you do so as agraduate student? How have you promoted understanding among persons ofdifferent backgrounds and ideas, or how will you do so as a graduate student?Examples might include service activities, leadership roles, study abroad,language study, etc. If applicable, please describe any barriers or obstaclesthat you have overcome in pursuit of your educational or personal goals.Examples might include economic, social or health challenges, being the firstin your family to attend college, family obligations, etc. If applicable,please describe aspects of your personal background that will enhance thediversity of MSU’s graduate student body, such as being multi-lingual,participating in a McNair or TRIO program, attending a minority-servinginstitution, etc. If applicable, please describe anything else in your personalhistory, experience, or aspirations that distinguishes you from otherapplicants to our graduate programs.
E.g.1 I am inprinciple happy to take more students, but the issue will be funding. Veryexceptional non-EU students sometimes get funding from the University. Butotherwise it is difficult to fund someone from China unless they come withtheir own scholarship funding.
E.g.2 However,funding is very competitive. Based on our previous experience, the successfulscholarship winners were normally ranked in the top 1-3% in their year (notjust in their class) of their university.
E.g.3 How willyour PhD be funded? Do you have a scholarship? Unfortunately, currently wedon't have any funding available. If you are still interested you could applyfor admission to a PhD by completing an application form available online andwe will look at it - will arrange an interview if the committee considerssuitable.
E.g.4 However,I am aware that we do not have any scholarship within the school available forinternational students. Should you be made an offer, it would be up to you tosecure a scholarship in order to cover the tuition fees and the cost of living.
E.g.5 However,admission to do a PhD here at XXX is a competitive process wherequalifications, references and, importantly, funding all play a role.
E.g.6 Onemajor issue though, will be funding. The university does award a limited numberof overseas bursaries that reduce the fees to EU rates - these are verycompetitive. What are your potential sources of funding?
E.g.7 PhDscholarships are quite tricky and whether I have a place available will dependon what grants the University receives. We will advertise the projects as they becomeavailable. Probably the best thing would be for you to apply to the University,giving a detailed description of the sorts of area you'd like to work on.
E.g.8 However,I currently have no funding to support you. This means that you would have to findfunding for your PhD. Alternatively you could just apply to our department andthere might be a possibility that another academic in the Intelligent SystemsResearch Group has the funding to support you. There are other mechanisms forfunding that you could investigate.
E.g.9 Currentlymy funded graduate student positions are all full. There might be a chance thatI get additional funding next year, though there is no guarantee for that.Please send me a note in early 2012 for funding updates.
Q.2 PhD的申请UK与US的一般的过程是什么？
A：我们可以先来看一下一个UK教授在申请时给我回复邮件中所涉及这个问题的内容：To be clearabout the UK application process, you are doing the right thing to contact PIs directly.Basically, if someone says they are happy to supervise you then you are verylikely to be accepted as a student. The funding is unfortunately harder to getthan just being accepted. But to be accepted you need to apply & convince apotential supervisor and one other person in an interview context. Normally aninterview with someone not in the UK is done by telephone.
我们再来看看US教授在申请时给我回复邮件中所涉及这个问题的内容：
We arealways looking to accept strong PhD students. If you wish to work with us, thefirst step is to get admitted to the PhD program, a decision which I don’t havedirect control over, and second to demonstrate (through your application), whyyou would be a strong candidate for our research interests. Strong candidatescome from a top university (such as yours), demonstrate strong GRE/TOEFLscores, have clear evidence of research potential (e.g., publications ininternational venues, research internships, clear involvement in research projects),strong letters of recommendation, and cogent letter of researchinterests/plans. When you apply, you can indicate on the website which facultyyou would be interested in working with XXX. If you want to work in our group,select one or more of the faculty when you apply.
Q.10 如果自己的语言成绩未达到学校的要求一定需要重新考雅思或托福吗？
A：并不一定，每个学校的招生政策不尽相同，导师可以在面试时考察你的语言能力，如果导师觉得能够接受，可能会帮助你通过学校的要求。这里可以看一段系里小秘写给导师的邮件：Thank you forthe emails you （注：you指代professor） sentme-these have enabled us to waive the English condition for both.
