HOW TO: Apply US graduate schools (A non-US student's perspective)

Surely this is NOT a complete guide on the topic. But I do want to write something about the whole application process in the view of an international (non-US) student.

Well, interested in graduate schools?

Step 1: Think twice!

Step 2: Find out the right track of your career. I mean, if you are already a final year (or junior/senior) student, you can directly jump into the application process. If not, there are still somethings you can do to enhance your chance of acceptance. The rest of this guide assumes you are still freshman or in second year.

Step 3: Research, research and research...

There are several sites that I highly recommend all of you to read. First two are online forum, which you can have a feeling what people are worrying on the application process:

www.PhysicsGRE.com

www.TheGradCafe.com

The next one is www.gradschoolshopper.com, which contains very comprehensive information about each school, including the statistics of their applicant pool.

Step 4: Save some money (~US$2000) for paying money-eating agent (e.g. ET$ ) for te$t fees and also your prospective school app. fees. After all, they are high risk investment that someone can get rejection by all schools he applies.

Step 5: Join a research group. Really no matter how you are working in the group actually, e.g. even typing in data with any learning, "research" experience is always an important part in the application. After all, graduate school is all about research. It really sounds better if you said you did make your hands dirty.

Step 6: Letters of Recommendation. I think this is a tough topic for international students. Since teachers of international students may not be international recognized, their letters may just sound like from any other unknown person from your country. I don't really have a clue for this, especially if you really cannot find a chance to make connection to the outside world (USA). Sad enough, the letters are also very important.

Step 7: Dont miss the deadlines