A List of Awesome CS Ph.D. Application Advice
This page is also maintained on this GitHub repo.
This curated list of awesome advice for computer science PhD applicants consists of blogs found on the internet, with a slightly biased emphasis on the AI/ML and NLP area. These articles greatly helped me when I was applying to Ph.D., I hope they can also help you.
Application season can be stressful, but always remember to smile :-) - you are already awesome to have the courage to take this hard path!
General Advice
CSRankings.org: Advice on Applying to Grad School in Computer Science (In case you are new to a field and need to learn about the professors in that field, I highly recommend use CSRankings.org to quickly find professors working in your area of interest.)
Student Perspectives on Applying to NLP PhD Programs (by various Ph.D. students)
Undergrad to PhD, or not - advice for undergrads interested in research (by John Hewitt, Ph.D. student at Stanford)
Ph.D. Applications: FAQ (by Noah Smith, Professor at UW)
Scott E. Fahlman’s Quora answer on the admission committee process (by Scott E. Fahlman, Professor Emeritus at CMU, served many times in the admission committee at CMU)
Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science (by Mor Harchol-Balter, Professor at CMU)
HOWTO: Get into grad school for science, engineering, math and computer science (by Matt Might, Professor at University of Alabama)
Reflecting on CS Graduate Admissions (David Andersen, Professor at CMU, chair of admission committee for Fall 2015)
A PhD is Not Enough: A Guide to Survival in Science (by Peter J. Feibelman; this book is also super useful for PhD candidates and new post-docs! For Chinese speakers: a brife outline)
Statement of Purposes advice
How to Write a Bad Statement for a Computer Science Ph.D. Admissions Application (Andy Pavlo, Associate Professor at CMU)
Inside Ph.D. admissions: What readers look for in a Statement of Purpose (Nathan Schneider, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University)
Christopher W. Fletcher’s guid on SoP (Christopher W. Fletcher, Assistant Professor at UIUC)
