How are we doing yet? Still hanging in here or left? — Part II

Continuing from my previous blog post,

3. Prepare a list of word templates you will need to react, reply and respond to the kind of answers you get from Professors.

Personally I had three prepared for myself

The first one was a more generic template. It expressed my interest in clear, concise and crisp grammatically correct English. You have to make changes regarding the research section, papers and your interests, etc.

The second one was a thank you reply! Unfortunately some professors will not “click” with your mails and profiles as some other will. As one of my friend who already got into the Phd program at New Zealand’s University of Auckland Dept of Imaging Science, he told me

Only 20 percent of the professors you approach in all, will acutually reply back.

The point here to be noted is that it is just a reply. It can be the most obvious one

Thanks your interest in our Phd program. You should apply through the admissions office at ZZZZZ@akd.edu

this one takes the cake!

Thanks your interest in our Phd program. Unfortunately, I am not taking any more students And/or Not teaching at the school anymore and/or Not full time faculty at the time
and/or I am on Sabbatical
(No offense. This kind of replies,make my day actually. You push me down. I will keep on coming up even with more force. The more you push me down, the more I will come up again to fight back)

So, if you get one of these replies, please don’t forget to send them a courtesy emails thanking them for time. Because you didn’t ask them before flooding their email inbox(s) and you wanted to see if you reach a common ground!

I know I do this everytime. And I know I would like to see a thank you note(atleast) from the person who sent me the first horrendously complex introductory emails. But that is just me

And the last tip for the post, don’t forget to keep your profile ( Academic Resume, Summary of interests, Linkedin Profile, email accounts, phone numbers, etc.) updated!!

Keep sharing and following! Have a good day! As again, I would love to read your stories

Share your stories and follow. I need motivation so does everyone So, just keep it on !!

Have a good day!

The beginning – How it started?

Disclaimer: This blog post is written with the intention of sharing one of my important life altering moments and is solely written to express my gratitude towards that moment and Mr. KJ.

It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.
— Carl Sagan

It was sort of early evening in August of 2005 when sun was about to go for the day. Faintly I remember, there was absolutely no hope of winds in the air and with it’s sultry outlook, I understood it was the beginning of fall that year. Entering from outside was my own barely seen shadow passing by the first gate. On the left I saw our dogs Bruno and Tommy. If I remeclearly year 2005 was Bruno’s third birth year and for obvious reasons he was young and sturdy. He would play with me all the time and whereas Tommy on the other hand was fragile and pale looking. Well it is not his fault. Breed of that dogs are known to be of similar health. And more importantly, playing with Tommy was never my fun moment.

As I entered my  own house complex from the gates after the first black gate, I saw KJ aka Mr.Tenant. He is one of brothers of our tenants. Over the last ten years, they have enjoyed living here and as much we have enjoyed having them here. Even though they decided to move out in late 2008 to their own house. I continue to wander myself with them. Last time I talked to him, he works at a deluxe group of hotels in New Delhi, near to the north campus Delhi University.
He as I walked to the main entrance of our house was standing and he looked into my eyes and said “What’s up?”

I replied “Hello! Nice weather outside! I was just coming from my private tuition classes. How are you doing?”

He looked calm and said “How is your application process coming along? So are you still applying for the schools in the US and New Zealand?” He looked intrigued.

I looked perplexed clearly. I was befuddled to decide to lend my voice to which of my thoughts? Agreeably, I had so many of them and all of them crushed my sanity to death every second in my mind. Going into the whirlwind of thoughts and the actions all around those thoughts, I got even more confused..what should I say, yes to US, maybe to New Zealand schools..! Which schools? New York, Missouri or Auckland or Christchurch!! What should I say? Which of the countries I should go to?

He looked at me and I looked back at him and said “Honestly I have been thinking what to do. I have this imbroglio of choosing the right university and country in the background. I am young in my education and I think it would be a decent decision to choose US for obvious reasons.”

I stared right into his eyes and wandered away immediately after that. In the backdrop, I realized that it was hard for me to capture my thoughts in totality and let myself be sure of one definite thought.

I continued saying “I am actually a little inclined to go to New Zealand. I got family there. It might of some assistance when I am alone and may need something. This country is growing and life standards are equally good. May be if I stay over a little longer, I can stay because New Zealand is happy to have educated people on their land.” He looked to the tree to his left in our garden and then he looked at me. He said something that I haven’t forgotten till day.

He said “Look. No matter what comes by your way and what options you have, always try for the first best. If you do not have the option of trying for the first best, then settle for the second best. But never ever settle for the second best!”

Startled I looked at him.

I said to one own-self in my mind “Yeah, this is something concrete. But I still don’t know what option is the right one.”

Again, I looked at him and said “Uh, yeah. You know what, it helps. May be, it’s a little easier with that thought in my head now. Thank you!”. He looked at me & smiled.

“You’re welcome”, he said.

And it was in one moment, it was so clear to me what I was missing. And in one moment I knew what I was supposed to do. No confusion any more grip my mind and I was already ware what kind of school I was going to try.

This is nothing more than a regular short small talk type of conversation. But if you read between the lines, it is easier to see and you will see that the message is a lot bigger. Never settle for the second best option. One should always aim for the first best, that too always. Always First best!! Just the very first best, always!

Thought I would share with you guys how my journey to achieve the very best started. On another note, my journey to achieve the very best has started on a good note, but it is long way from halting now.

Fair day people!

Country/Schools update – New Zealand first

Fair day people! In last two weeks or so, I have applied to various universities around the world ( See my previous blog on which countries I applied). Even though I started and spent most of my learning (how to approach professors and schools) time for US schools such as Cornell and Yale, I am glad to inform that I have completed my first round of phd e-mails to

New Zealand – (1) – University of Auckland

Remember my last post about countries short-listing, for the most part University of Auckland at New Zealand (Business School) ranks low on the catch part for me. As you know I want to research in the field of “the strategic implementation and supply chain integration of information systems”. I applied to the head of the Department since I was unable to find/locate any relevant and descriptive research interests for any of the faculty members. (Tip#1)

On the other note, there are some schools that you think are easy for you and some are tough. This is the easy one. I am sure that my profile makes it very competitive for them to not select them. This is a good thing, as I see for now.

The information systems department is associated with the department of business at UoA and I approached one of the ranked professors at this school. Simple method! Show your interest in the program and professor’s research. Don’t forget to send your latest updated academic resume attached!

Note: Please remember faking your research interest won’t take you anywhere. You are going to be out even before you got in to the school. Since Phd is a very serious affair, do what you really like. It is okay to be confused (for now) however, but liking for the sake of liking will not go very far. Take time to explore Professor’s latest papers and his research interests. In my exploration experience ( as I say it), for ninety percent of the professor’s, their homepage or faculty page will have a separate section called Research Interests which will clearly say what his/her interests are. Now, all you have to do is to figure out if your research interests match upto his/ her research interests. I think even if it is remotely similar, you stand a shot of getting a good reply. So don’t worry if that is not exactly what you are willing to do, just go ahead and write a note to the professor asking for details on his research interests and also don’t forget to write your interests!

Stay tuned for more schools/countries update next!

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Academic Support document

Disclaimer: This blog post is a rationale for what you can do to strengthen your application at Graduate and PhD level.

Ideally, I could go with you ten rounds of discussion over what my profile has better than yours and what my school taught me even though it is not in the top 15 schools of the world. But any rational thinking person will agree that there can be no arguments about how much important it is to embellish your profile and your achievements and fine tune with the school(s) you are planning to apply.

No matter what major you are going for, be it IT, public policy or health! You will need to highlight what you have earned respectfully. I don’t know about you, I want to go to a top program. And to fulfill this desire to highlight your resume and accomplishments, you will find yourself in this position wanting to create something called as Portfolio for yourself.

As I understand it now and what internet tells me, an academic portfolio can be divided into following separate yet connected sections

I.            Education
II.          Teaching experience
III.         Research experience or areas/interest
IV.         Published or to be Papers
V.          Great Projects at School
VI.         Glory at Work experience
VII.        Resume

In this blog post, I will discuss the teaching experience part of portfolio. Now I know it is not in the order of the above, but everything counts!

A little BING search on the student portfolio(s) gives a good idea on what it looks like and what are its common components. (If you are reading this carefully, you will note how I wrote Student portfolio and not just portfolio.)  For some of us, who were lucky enough to land up a Teaching assistant or graduate assistant opportunity while in school, you will have some fluff to add towards your portfolio reflecting the amount of teaching exposure you have. Yay! And for the people who don’t have any teaching experience in those roles, research will be able to bolster your application.

Now moving ahead is definitely a good sign. You can ask me, Why? For two simple reasons – You get a separate chance to highlight your achievements as Teaching and/or graduate assistant(s). Second, most of the applicants wouldn’t have material to prepare this. So that makes you an early achiever or If I may say- early riser in the apps process from now onwards! Right!Till me next rambling!