Admission to PhD EECS/EE at Berkeley/Stan/MIT for Fall 2011

paxboyo
Sat, 20 Nov 2010 03:25:57 +0000

Alright thanks to everyone for their comments. Inasmuch as I don’t want to turn this forum into a topic on my personal preferences/goals I think clarifying further in detail why I am doing this may help me get some feedback/aid from you on how to best showcase my reasons for re-applying. I think enough has been said on prestigious vs. other top schools so unless someone wants to start a whole new forum on faculty jobs I have no further comments.

Better faculty opportunities for elitist graduates was the last of a series of reasons that made me want to do this (I never expected it to create so many question marks otherwise I would have included the following as well). However, if it was not for it, I would have definitely stayed in my current school, finished the PhD quickly and then looked into good postdoc positions (altho these days top-notch postdoc positions are getting ever more competitive). Following are the other reasons that may help some of you also understand why I am less worried than you expect about the LORs and disloyal reputation in academic community.

1) I believe my chances of getting a top-notch PhD is quite low.
My research is totally off the main-stream of my group, and by off mainstream I mean nobody even understands what I am talking about when I am presenting, least of all my advisor. Why? It was a shot in the dark by my advisor to secure funding in bio/health care directions. Why would he do that if he doesn’t know ***** about it? Because all he cares about is to get more and more funding and expanding the group to a center by any means possible. Though his attempt might be justified given the $-oriented academic community, it obviously hurt my PhD. I was able to develop the work on my won and publish without his help/guidance, still, it is clear to me that working alone without good advice/guidance tho 24/7 has almost no chance of becoming “wow” research. So yes, my advisor is not at most of the conf.'s I go to, when I got the internship they didn’t know my advisor, didn’t even ask for his recommendation. Basically nobody knows him in my field, actually now I can say more people know ME than HIM in the very board field that I publish in. Why can’t I quit the group, switch advisors, go work for a while then apply? F1 visa and an advisor who knows how to exploit it.

2) My chances at getting a top postdoc position will be low.
PhDs from our group with 10 first author journal papers during 7 years of PhD work (yeah the advisor rides them like …) end up doing two more years of post-doc at the same group and then on average join less famous/accredited groups in their field. Why? Advisor never helps and makes them switch research (as his fundings dry up) during PhD once or twice so they don’t have a strong focus. As you can see I am not the kind of guy who thinks he will be different when his turn comes. I look at what’s happening on average to my peers and plan accordingly.

3) This could be the last chance to save my PhD.
I am working in the R&D of a good company and I have done more in six months than the whole 2 years back in my school. Why? I work in a team directed by someone who knows the research we do. Who? the CTO of the company, who gives talks at Cal and Stan every year, who knows ***** load of profs in the field, and has top academia track record. Is he happy with me? He had a open job offer for me 2 months into the internship. Will he recommend me? u bet. Does it carry weight? More than my advisor? Let’s just say he employs Stan/Cal PhDs in the company by talking to the Profs. Which profs? same that will be reviewing my application. Will they contact him or my advisor? I would say most likely him. After all he is my real CURRENT ADVISOR.

4) I don’t mind starting over, actually I like it. I think the ability to let go of old/saturated fields and starting new ones is a key to success as a faculty. So yes I am ready to waste four more years on a PhD. I look at it as saving on my postdoc years. Is it worth it? For me yes I will have a way better shot at becoming faculty in the top 4 itself.

5) I have seen many students from my undergrad school who have done this. And yes most of them ended up in Stan (but i can direct you to the ones in Cal as well). What do they think? They think they would do it again if they had to as I am sure you can guess. Is it just the prestige for them? No, the people the work with, more exposure, better collaborations, and more options when they graduate.

Having said all of that, none of it will be on my SoP. Actually, I bet if I hadn’t mentioned I am ditching my PhD for good schools in the initial post nobody would have pointed it out as a weak point. That is why my reason for applying would be doing a PhD at a school with a very strong program on my field after an MS and some work experience. But I agree that the missing link would be a recom from my advisor, and given what I described about my recommenders and my advisors reputation, I believe it is worth risking it. I have already emailed some of these profs and even got one reply from a Stan prof. As of today, none have contacted my advisor.

Haha, now what’s the worst worst worst that could happen?

They contact my advisor, he puts in bad word, I am rejected, and my advisor is so ****ed he decides to let me go. Will they announce it on the billboard of US academia? I don’t think so. What am I gonna do? Stay enrolled at my school and switch advisors or just get an MS join this company publish and network my way to a UC. Honestly I don’t think I can have a better future with a PhD from my school. No offense but I would rather be a researcher in Lawrence Berkeley than a faculty in purdue. Can’t stand the boonies.

Cosmicfish, from people I have come to know in academia, I don’t share your standpoint towards permanent disloyal stigma in academia. And again, I will not put prestige as the reason I wish to join their school. Meanwhile, I can direct you to a friend’s resume at the time of application to Stan, where he clearly uses MS/PhD in his education that was in a way lower ranked school. He’s in stan now, full fund. So though I won’t do the same, I don’t think leaving PhD early to join a better school is that much frowned upon. And yes you are right, I want to have a good shot at faculty positions in top schools and their asst. profs are more or less from the elitists.

Having said all of that, opinions in this forum do have stake in my decision. The only case mentioned was one where a prof in the admcom knew the advisor which I think in my case is pretty much not likely (actually I am avoiding harvard/caltech because that’s where my advisor has his circle). Does anyone know of a similar thing? Non-recommenders being contacted? To my knowledge it’s not very common in stan/cal. Lower ranked schools where admission is same as RAships yes. Keep in mind this is how my resume/biosketch will be,

2010-present xx company research intern
2008-2010 MS with 4/4 on yy
….