How you can get into Research after MS and contact Professors for PhD?

Summary

Asha Shibu (LinkedIn profile) pursued MS Energy at TAMU but managed to head to Oak Ridge National Lab as a research intern/engineer. Now, she is applying for PhD with promising responses from Professors. Her review of MS Energy program is available on https://scholarstrategy.github.io/ssreview

She tells her story of getting into a research lab directly after MS. In this interview with her, we cover:

  1. How to explore research options from MS?
  2. Do you have to decide about PhD right away?
  3. What matters when choosing a PhD program to apply to?
  4. Commentary on job prospects in Power and Energy field in USA

How to contact Professors if you are applying for a PhD position?

As a bonus, Asha talks about how she has successfully been contacting targeted Professors in her area. She gracefully shares the email that she used herself to get responses.

Subject: Research on Building Energy Efficiency – Prospective Student

Dear Dr. ____,

My name is Asha Shibu and I’m an Energy graduate from Texas A&M University, currently working as Research Assistant at Oak Ridge National Lab. I’m writing to express my interest in your research on Energy efficient buildings at University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

My master’s coursework provided me with an interdisciplinary understanding of multiple aspects of the field, ranging from an overview of energy technologies; to multi-scale energy systems engineering methods; to energy economics, law, security, policy, and societal impact. During my coursework, I also worked at the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) at Texas A&M University, a Department of Energy (DOE) funded program. In this position, I was trained to assess manufacturing plants and to identify measures that would save energy, reduce waste, enhance productivity, and reduce operating costs. As an Energy Engineer at IAC, I conducted ASHRAE Level I-II energy audits that resulted in $730,000 in recommended savings to date, and I developed practical skills in thermal systems, electrical power systems, building envelopes, HVAC, combustion systems, and lighting. The training I received at the IAC, along with courses such as “Energy Efficiency in Buildings,” sparked my interest in energy efficiency and sustainable energy resources utilized in commercial and residential buildings, and my desire to be involved in the field’s ongoing research led me to work for the Oak Ridge National Lab after graduation. As a researcher, I realize the importance of collaborating with others in the field, and at the same time, of an ability to work independently. Currently, I’m working on two DOE projects, and my interaction with the Energy Efficiency Research and Analysis Group at ORNL has sharpened my appetite for further knowledge in Building Technologies field and this is one area I could see myself exploring further in research as a graduate student.

I will be applying to Ph.D. program in Building Systems offered by University of Massachusetts-Amherst and would very much like the opportunity to join your group. Will you be accepting applications for new graduate students for entry in Fall 2018?

Thank you very much for your time. I hope we have the chance to speak about research in the near future.

Sincerely,
Asha Shibu
ASTRO Student
Energy Efficiency Research and Analysis Group (EERA)

For more info on how to contact Professors, please check out MS Book.

So, without further ado, here is the interview with Asha Shibu.

We are now open for Spring/Fall 2019 admission cycle. Check out our counseling packages to see how we can help you.

Interview – How Facebook Intern spent her first year in Grad School

Today we are profiling Shivani Singla who studies Computer Science at Stonybrook and joined as a Facebook Intern in Summer of 2018.

Profile

Undergrad: CS at Thapar University
GRE: 317
GPA: 8.65
Work Experience: 2 years at Sandisk before joining MS

I took Asynchronous Systems, Artifical Intelligence, Network Security and Algorithms in first semester. I really enjoyed Asynchronous Systems. It was really amazing. I developed Byzantine China Replication Protocol research paper written by research Professor from Cornell University.

Full Interview

We discuss the courses she took and activities she participated in first year at SBU, how much does the GPA matter, what was the Facebook internship hunt timeline and process.

Takeaways

Shivani again shows that it is possible to crack dream companies like Facebook and Google even if you hail from non-IIT schools in India. Even though Shivani started preparing late, she quickly realized what she needs to do in Grad School. Of course, you can learn from her hindsight and be more prepared for internship even before heading for MS!

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Starting salaries for engineers in USA

study abroad salary and expense

The most lucrative thing about studying in USA is the high salaries that engineers can get when they start working in USA. If you study from a Top 50 school, you have a pretty good chance of landing a job. But many aspirants wonder how much would they earn? And if it justifies the higher cost of study.

So, lets look at this data this data on average starting salaries for engineers in USA taken from Michigan Tech College of Engineering –

IndustryBLS StatsMean Entry-Level Salary1Mean Annual Salary2Top 10 Percent3
Biomedical EngineeringNational Labor Stats$60,958$95,090$144,350
Chemical EngineeringNational Labor Stats$65,618$114,470$169,770
Civil EngineeringNational Labor Stats$56,152$93,720$142,560
Computer EngineeringComputer Hardware Engineers

Software Developers, Systems Software		$71,007


$68,436		$117,840


$114,000		$172,630


$166,960
Construction ManagementNational Labor Stats$55,795$103,110$161,510
Electrical EngineeringNational Labor Stats$64,936$101,600$153,240
Environmental EngineeringNational Labor Stats$55,884$92,640$137,090
Electrical Engineering Technology / MechatronicsRecruiter $86,6904$133,2804
Geological and Mining Engineering and SciencesNational Labor Stats$61,977$98,420$151,030
Geospatial Science and TechnologyNational Labor Stats$49,571$68,340$101,400
Materials Science and EngineeringNational Labor Stats$65,806$96,930$148,110
Mechanical EngineeringNational Labor Stats$61,538$92,800$136,550
Mechanical Engineering TechnologyNational Labor Stats $99,310$154,720
Surveying EngineeringNational Labor Stats$48,360$66,440$102,220

As per this: “Year after year, engineering tops the list of majors with the highest average starting salary. The bottom line:  It is well worth the time and effort it takes to become an engineer.“

What’s more? I talked to some professionals who recruit engineers for their companies and when I asked hows the recruitment scenario, I got a unanimous reply – a resounding ‘it is a good time for engineers as lot of career opportunities are floating around and we have more positions than qualified candidates’.

So, if you are on fence about whether to join a graduate school in US or not, this is your answer. Look at how much it costs to do an MS in USA, possibilities of finding funding, take into consideration these salaries and calculate your ROI. The market is back in shape (at least for engineers) and it was never more lucrative to earn in dollars.

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WEBINAR on EE programs and recruiting in USA

Electrical and Electronics students perhaps face the toughest competition when it comes to getting into Top US programs for Master’s. EE projects are tougher and with lack of great infrastructure in Indian colleges, it becomes harder to stand apart from international competition.

To help you prepare better for MS in EE applications and jobs thereafter, we have invited Sajin Sabu who is pursuing MS EE at UNCC.

“Before coming here, I didn’t feel that UNCC was a good option to do my Masters in. But, I’ve been proven wrong in every way. The coursework for Embedded systems, computer architecture and operating systems specialization is really good” – Sajin

So, we have Sajin with us who I have mentored personally and I know that this is going to be blast of a session! He himself was a bit disappointed when he was heading to UNCC but he says it did wonders for him. Find out more details when he shares his story.
I will be moderating this myself and asking questions about studying EE and finding jobs in USA. With so much competition for EE programs, you do not want to miss it.

QnA will cover:

  • What are good and less competitive EE programs in US?
  • How to get into these programs?
  • How to recruit for EE role in USA?
  • and more

We will be announcing the final webinar links on our Facebook Group on MS Internships and Jobs (click here to join), so please join us there for follow-up announcements. We have limited seats, so hurry up.

Building career in Analytics through MS programs

Anyone looking to build a career in Analytics should check out MIS (Analytics), MS Data Science and MS Business Analytics programs.

Career in Analytics – Why you should not miss riding this trend?

In four years of Scholar Strategy, one trend that is so glaringly clear is the rise of interest in Analytics and Data Science programs. This stems from the growth of number of jobs in this field in big enterprises and small businesses alike. Be it a software giant, pharma company, a SAAS business, a food tech or ed-tech company, analytics underpins every industry and sector. Thanks to the massive data science teams at FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) and their success, suddenly everyone wants to play the data game!

As large number of professionals pursue a career in analytics and many looking to switch over, competition is on the rise as well. Which means that it can be very tricky to navigate the quantitative job landscape as an entry-level graduate. Burtch Works Study reported that 86% of analytics professionals have at least a Master’s degree, and 18% have a Ph.D. No wonder, we at Scholar Strategy have seen an increasing number of applicants in MIS (Analytics), MS Data Science and MS Business Analytics programs. We already discussed the subtle differences between these in our previous post.

What is Predictive Analytics?

A new term that is becoming more ubiquitous is Predictive Analytics and a lot of jobs use it in their descriptions! It can be looked upon as a subset of Data Science which specifically deals with forecasting future business outcomes. It helps us predict what can happen based on the past events. As per adobe data blog, “for instance, your credit score is calculated using predictive analytics. Based on a predetermined predictive analytics model that includes data about how you have behaved in the past, your credit score predicts how creditworthy you are likely to be in the future.” Since a major application of data science in business is to predict and prepare for the future trends and customer behavior, predictive analytics is growing in demand.

Analytics has changed many industries, one of the major ones being Marketing. The way businesses attract customers and draw leads has changed significantly. In fact, the very way that businesses think of customer acquisition and focus on incoming vs outgoing interest, has grown because analytics makes it possible to measure the efficacies of different channels. This growth in data and ability to use it effectively for business decisions is one of the major transformations we have seen in past 5-6 years.

What does it mean for you and your career?

If you are looking to become a data analytics professional, you need to wade through the competitive waters to get a good analytics position. An advanced graduate degree can give you the differentiation and a good entry point in the market. But still, it takes effort and sagacity to get to a coveted analytics role in the market. To better understand this, we are holding a webinar on Studying and Recruiting in Analytics! Looking at the overwhelming response to our last Data Science webinar, we are focusing on providing more insider information by successful grads who are now working in the industry. And if you want to know what does it take to become an Analytics professional, do not miss it 🙂

STEM OPT – what do you need to understand?

sop for ms applications guide

Students are always confused about OPT and STEM extensions etc. because these directly impact how easily you are able to work in USA because admit it, one of the foremost reasons for pursuing MS in USA is to get a job there afterwards. Let’s look at some simple things you need to know about these without getting into the complications.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs and many graduate degrees qualify to be considered as STEM degrees such as:

  1. Business Analytics
  2. MIS
  3. Quantitative Finance
  4. Computer and Information Sciences
  5. All branches of Engineering including Industrial Engineering

However, it is better to ensure that the program you are applying for is STEM validated before you apply if that is your major concern. Frankly, I do not care that much. When I was applying for jobs, there were no OPT extensions. These things sometimes boil down to chance. What matters more to me is that there are good opportunities to be availed in USA and that is something I cannot say about Europe.

Earlier the students were provided with 17 months of additional OPT, which has now been extended to 24 months. This means that now you can hunt for jobs for up to 3 years (1 original + 2 years additional) after graduation. Why is it needed? Because to work in USA, you need to get H-1B visas. And number of H-1B visas allotted each year are less than the number of people applying for those (selected based on random lottery system). So, sometimes students graduated from MS programs are not able to get the H-1B. To give more time to these students, the government decided to extend the OPT so that they can try their luck at lottery again.

To qualify for the 24-month extension, you must:

  • Have been granted OPT and currently be in a valid period of OPT;
  • Work for an employer who meets all the requirements listed below in the STEM OPT Employer Responsibilities section
  • Have earned a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree from a STEM accredited program

We have discussed CPT and OPT in detail in the MS Book if you shall be interested in exploring further.

How to start preparing for your dream career from day one in grad school?

First things first, I wanted to provide an overview of how Scholar Strategy students fared in our first year and I feel both proud and ecstatic. 90% of our students received great/satisfactory admits and are joining grad school in US in 2014. Some of the schools we will be having our presence in are-

UIUC, UCSD, UT Austin, Columbia, TAMU, CMU, Cornell, Duke, WPI, NYU Poly, UTD, USF…

But the picture will be incomplete without mentioning that our students also got admits to these incredible schools-

UIUC, CWRU, TAMU, Syracuse, U of Arizona, Utah, UT Arlington etc. (wait, no USC!!)

We started small and did great. More importantly, we have full faith that our students are heading to brighter and happier phases of their lives. I like to measure my success by happiness created in the process and by that scale, we have done done wonders 🙂

Among our readers who were not officially working with us, I’m sure that many are heading abroad as well. If you would like to share your success story, we would love to publish it here!

And now, a very important announcement for all readers who are headed to USA this Fall-

We are conducting an online talk on ‘How to work towards your dream career when you start grad school‘. This will cover innovative strategies for landing great internships and full-time jobs. Remember that if you don’t land your dream jobs upon graduation, what is the point of having worked your a$$ off so far and getting into these great schools in the first place? We will also be covering some fantastic advice given by students who have successfully found their way into different industries (who we interviewed for our book).

The session will be conducted online on one of the upcoming weekends. We will mail you the date and time as soon as it is decided.

Speaker Profile: Nistha Tripathi (yours truly)

Profile of Grads/Professionals who have contributed advice:
1. PhD from UIUC, CS from IITK, now working at National Research Lab in US
2. MS from UIUC, Mech from IITK, now working as core engineer at Motorola
3. MBA from Chicago Booth, MS CS from RPI, now working in London
4. MS CS from Iowa State U, now working at Amazon

Update: If you missed the event, you can watch a replay here-

The slides were stuck in the first part of the video, so I uploaded the ppt separately here-

Do you want to craft a perfect career for yourself by studying abroad? Join our guidance and let’s create success stories together. Pick which counseling program fits your needs and contact us.

Find your dream career first

I was talking to a prospective candidate today who wanted to find out the options about studying abroad. After talking for a few minutes, I realized that he was going on the same route I ask students not to. He was brainstorming what course to do and what major to go after and whether his profile is strong for it or not but not once did he mention what is that he wants to become in life. What is his dream career profile?

What’s the point?

You don’t pave the path to your destination and discuss if the path should be covered by marble or grass without knowing your destination first. If you just start paving the path in any direction, you may have a good path that leads to nowhere. The point is you don’t decide the path first. You decide what is your destination first and for that I again plead you to INTROSPECT. Once you know what it is that will make you happy, you figure out what path will take you there. Simple, no?

So, I asked the student to do some introspection and then we can figure out how to reach there. This post is not to find fault with anyone’s thinking but just to drill down the importance of introspection. Most of us Indians think like that and I hope I can encourage students to not fall into that trap. You will be amazed at how easier it is to reach your goal once you have defined it.

For specific reasons why you should do MS, check out our bestselling MS Book: Smart Engineer’s Complete Guide to MS in USA.

For our paid professional counseling, check out our counseling packages.

Introspection is the key to happy money

There is a big problem with Indian society – they interfere too much in a child’s life. The decision of what a child should become professionally is unfortunately decided mostly by parents and not the child himself.

The bigger problem is that parents’ decisions are driven by social norms.

Therefore, they will try to coerce their children into becoming socially acceptable professionals like engineers, doctors, lawyers, CAs instead of something which the child would enjoy more.

I encourage our student readers to go for a profession they would enjoy. As someone has said, you should be doing what you do when your mind wanders off studies or work. Understanding what is it that you like is INTROSPECTION.

  • Do you love socializing and get people excited about something – you could be a great sales person or a HR manager!
  • Did you love assembling PCs for your friends and families? – Great, get into hardware consultations.
  • Do you want to play games all the time – why not be a game engineer?

That’s very simplistic but I hope you get the drift. Find out what excites you and you shall never have to work a boring job again.

It is never too early to introspect. It is ideally done before Class XI but even if you do it before joining college, it’s ok. Forget that, it is even beneficial to do this while you are in college because you still have time to choose your first job.

Lack of exposure in our schools and colleges has aggravated this problem many fold and I see students following herd mentality instead of listening to their inner voices. I have covered this topic more extensively in this article-

IMA1

Once you can do a thorough introspection, you can figure a career path that will keep you inspired. We cover this in our career counseling service as well as help incoming Grad Students get more clarity on what career to pursue in Grad School.

I don’t want to earn my living, I want to live

Oscar Wilde

Now, we are not blessed with automatic means of survival and livelihood, so we do need to do some work. But work doesn’t have to feel like ‘work’, you can enjoy what you do. So, find out what is it that you will enjoy doing 🙂

Need help? Contact us.