How to get into Ph.D in the USA as an International Student | Full 2023

 

How to get into Ph.D in the USA as an International Student | Full Funding + Stipend

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As most of you already know, I am a PhD student studying
at Indiana University and I have been asked lately to share my journey as to how
I got an admit to the PhD program here in the US.
So today I thought let's just sit down
and talk to you guys about my journey and experience.
In this posts I am going to tell you all the things that help you to get admission
in the PhD program in the US with full free wave stipend and health insurance.
So let's get started.

But before that, please subscribe to ourwebsite  and also hit the comment icon so
and that you will be notified every time we upload a new article .
To give you guys a little background,

I did my Bachelor's and Master's in Economics from University of Mumbai
and directly applied for the PhD program in the US for Fall 2017,
which most people generally don't do because many people come here for Masters
first and then continue to a PhD program in the same or a different university.
And so that's why I was clueless and had
so many questions about the entire process back then, because of which we thought
of starting this YouTube channel as we exactly know what students go through
and we can help and guide them through this process.
So make sure you check out all our videos from the Study in the USA series.
Enrolling in a PhD program is tough and requires a lot of dedication

How to get into Ph.D in the USA
and to keep that motivation alive for good five six years.
So if you're ready for this kind
of commitment and are really keen on research, then only go for this program.
In my case, I always loved Economics and wanted to study more about it.
I wanted to get the highest level
of education possible for me, which will help me even while entering
the job market and that was my motivation for PhD.

Now when I decided to apply for a PhD in Economics program,
I wasn't sure about which university to apply to because there are so many
things like college ranking, location, coursework, et cetera.
So I went onto

American Economic Association website which has a comprehensive list of all
universities in the US offering PhD and Master's in Economics program.
You can search for a similar website depending upon your field of study.
I went onto that website and checked out every single university listed on it

and shortlisted universities according to my criteria like the GRN to FL
requirement, any prerequisites university ranking, location, weather,
standard of living, Indian community in and around campus, et cetera.
So I shortlisted about 40 universities
from around more than 250 universities from that list.
After that I started checking out
the faculty profiles of each of these universities and tried to find one
professor from each of them whose research interests match with mine.
I then went ahead and emailed all these professors introducing myself,
showing interest in their PhD program and asking their guidance.
I received about 20 replies from that pool, which is like 50%,
and I never heard from the rest 20 even after a follow up.
Now, one problem which I thought might be
the main reason for professors not replying to my email is maybe because I
didn't have any official college email ID at that time.

In India it's very common to use Gmail or
Yahoo for sending and replying to emails, but that's not the case in US.
Here, everyone has an official school
email ID, so it's possible that my email might have gone to some of their spam
folders and so they might have not even read my email.
So make sure you don't do the same mistake.
Now, contacting professors before you
apply for a PhD program in that particular university helps you in many ways.
To begin with, if the same professor

happens to be in the admissions committee, then he or she might refer you,
so that increases your chances of getting an admit.
Secondly, the professor might get really
interested to work with you after looking at your profile and you might end up
researching under him or her, or even make him or her as your adviser.
Or at least you will know your chance
of getting an admit which can save you on application fees and effort.
Also, as Dr.
Mangalal Agaraval told in his interview with US, do not email more than one
professor from a particular department because then it lowers your credibility,
showing that you are not really interested to work with that particular professor,
but more interested in just getting that admit.
This is certainly not a good impression to have.
Dr. Mangala Agrawal has given very useful
advice in his interview, so make sure you check that video out anyways.
So the 20 responses I received from the professors were not all positive.
Some upfront encouraged me to apply

to their program, while some politely suggested not to.
By then I was sure that I wanted to have
some options and sort of those very positive and encouraging responses.
I applied to six universities
for PhD Economics program and four universities for Masters in Economics
programs just in case, because I wasn't sure if universities
in the US would directly accept me for a PhD program or not.
While I was hunting down what all
universities to apply to, I was preparing for GRE and Tofield test
simultaneously, so I knew approximately what range I should be scoring.
For example, for a PhD Economics program you need to have a really high GRE Corn
score and a high Tofield Speaking score, so I knew which areas to focus more.
We have made few useful videos discussing tips and tricks for GRE and toe fill test
and also about SOP and Lor, so make sure you check them out.


Now, by the time I completed
my shortlisting for universities, I was ready with my test score,
SOP and some other requirements like sample essay.
Some universities ask for your research
paper or an article, so depending on that, you have to make sure that you have it
ready before you start your application process.
The deadlines for PhD programs are
generally sooner than Master's program, so if you're a PhD aspirant then please
keep this in mind when you start the process and also while approaching

your professors to write recommendation letters for you.
I took one Lor from HOD in my bachelor's program and remaining two Lors
from Assistant professors in my Master's program.
I had a very good rapper with all
my professors from the beginning and so when I asked them to submit recommendation
letter, they did it immediately like way before the application deadlines so I
didn't have to worry much or check with them constantly.

How to get into Ph.D in the USA
So make sure you ask professors for Lor
whom you have good relations with because applying to seven to eight different
universities means submitting seven to eight different Lors.
So that's a lot of work.
Also make sure that your professors submit their recommendations through the official
university email ID and not their personal email ID.
I was done with submitting all my applications by December 1 week and I
started getting acceptance letters by around end of February.
Now, each department or programs have their own procedure,
so some might ask for a Skype interview round Two but in my case I wasn't required

to have an interview and so I directly started receiving my offer letters.
Some of them were offering me partial
and some full tuition aid, stipend, health insurance and so I selected the one
that promised me five years of full fee waiver, assistantship and health insurance
and also where my research interest matched the most with the faculty.
So that's how I got into Indiana University.
And then it was just the usual process
of getting an I 20 booking, visa, slots, et cetera.
We will come up with a detailed video on that too, where we will explain what
you are expected to do once you receive an admit letter.
Also, getting an admit to a PhD program is

just one step, but what really goes on during a PhD program like the course
work, research, qualifying exams is just a different story altogether.
And we will soon come up with a article
talking about how my PhD journey is going on.
So stay tuned for that and please subscribe to our website .
If you have any questions then please ask in the comment section below.
Until next time, take care. Bye.