<p>I’m doing research in a professor’s lab for a research fellowship next year. It’s a one year pilot study, so I will most likely get a publication out of the process. One of my external advisors suggested that I speak to the professor about turning my fellowship research into a PhD thesis at the professor’s lab.</p>
<p>Few questions I have:
- The professor isn’t part of a traditional department, he’s a professor at an institute, so on his web page, he does not have graduate students. But the institute does offer a graduate program.</p>
<p>2) Is it possible to be accepted to the program if the professor is willing to support me for the graduate program?</p>
<p>3) Will the fellowship benefit me during the application since I’m already conducting research in collaboration with the institute and doing work which directly relates to a proposed thesis work?</p>
<p>4) Does professor sponsorship give an applicant an “edge” over other applicants? Enough to gain admissions with lower stats (GPA, gre, etc).</p>
<p>I’m applying to a STEM program.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>First: pilot studies don’t always turn into publications and publication requires substantial work on you. I would speak explicitly to the professor about the probability of getting a publication out of the fellowship.</p>
<p>When you say “one of your external advisors,” who are you speaking about? Someone at the institution? A former professor? You need to speak directly to the professor himself about that possibility and whether the project can be expanded into a dissertation. And PhD programs aren’t as simple as just a dissertation; that’s an exhibition of the work you can do, but they are 5-7 years of concentrated research work, with the goal towards an academic faculty position or industry research job at the end. Do you want to do that right now? What is your goal? Just having an area of dissertation research is not enough to get admitted.</p>
<p>2) Yes, but it depends on how much clout this professor has and how much money the department has, as well as the rest of the applicant pool the year you apply.</p>
<p>3) Probably, as long as you do good work.</p>
<p>4) Yes, it gives an edge. But how much of an edge depends, again, on how much influence/power the professor has in this particular department. The second part depends on how much lower your stats are: a person with a sub-3.0 GPA and/or sub-1100 GRE score is unlikely to get into a PhD program even with the support of a professor. It can tip you if you are borderline.</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful advice.</p>
<p>By external adviser, I mean he is a research collaborator who is working with the professor to conduct the study in an international nation. How I got involved was that they needed a student to travel to conduct the field work internationally, but did not have funding to support the travel costs. Since the fellowship covers my cost, I’m pretty much free labor lol. I haven’t actually spoken to the professor about turning the fellowship work into graduate work since I wanted to conduct work with him directly before I asked him to sponsor me. But my external advisor suggested that I do it in the first place, which makes me think he discussed this with the professor about the possibility in the first place.</p>
<p>I’m in a masters program now, and although it is a non-thesis program, it’s it a very prestigious university and have conducted extensive research (although not a thesis) this year for my masters. I wanted to go to graduate school previously, but did not have the numbers to penetrate a top program. My numbers aren’t amazing, (3.2 ugrad GPA, 4.0 masters GPA). Which is why I was asking how much the fellowship and sponsorship would help me. The fellowship is given to about 20 people nationally, and is like Fulbright for engineers.</p>
<p>I think I should apply regardless after speaking to the professor, and have a backup plan just in case.</p>