晓宏留学谈套磁------套磁中常见问题

 

    你可能会遇到下面的一些问题：

 

    能告诉我从哪里可以找到我们可以联系的教授吗？

 

    套磁听说不要套中国人或者印度人？ 

 

    到底陶瓷应该在什么时候呢？是应该在把各个学校都看得差不多后，甚至在寄出材料后专门看些教授的论文再套，还是现在就该套，根据套的结果选校，可是感觉都是套话呢，有意义吗？

 

    研究背景不强的套磁会不会对申请有负面作用啊？

 

    我是文科的学生，陶瓷有意义么？怎么套啊？

 

    如果一个系里同一方向有几位教授，需要都套磁吗？会不会有的教授有钱，有的教授没钱？还是说同一方向的教授基本都是在同一个项目里的，所以要么都有钱，要么都没钱。

 

    我中意的导师是中国人，套磁信用中文可以吗？

 

    给教授套磁的时候EMAIL的信题目写什么呢？

 

    我套磁教授回信了，第二封信怎么回阿？

 

    怎样算套磁成功啊？

 

    套磁成功了一位，那还要不要多套几个以防万一阿？

 

    美国教授对套磁的人究竟是什么态度阿？

 

    下面我们就从上面几个问题展开，谈谈套磁。

 

    通常，在你申请的专业的主页上，都会有faculty的链接，里面就是这个专业的教授的联系方式，当然ZUI 通常的是E-mail.和电话，有些教授会有个人的主页链接，这样的话可以进一步了解你要联系的教授，包括他们的研究经历，他们的文章，科研兴趣等，都是你可以利用的资源。

 

     另外从实验室里面也可以找到一些研究员，这些老师也有可能带学生哦。

 

    “套磁听说不要套中国人或者印度人”这或许是师兄师姐们给的经验吧，不过世界上没有绝对的事，有些中国教授也是不错的，他们的对中国的学生很热情。我们发现中国教授所带的学生中大部分是中国人。

 

    到底陶瓷应该在什么时候，有人说越早越好，我觉得这个观点还是很正确的，如果你有足够的本事，而且在研究上面有一定的水平，为什么不早点陶瓷呢？当大家还在选学校、准备申请材料的时候，一方面教授们不是很忙，另一方面更能体现出你是从学术上而不是单纯为了被入取而陶瓷的。但是，陶瓷切不可盲目，看教授的论文是基础，没有基础何来套词？

 

    研究背景不强的套磁不会对申请有副作用（当然不能胡乱的套）。如果你对教授研究的东西很有兴趣，而且也努力去学习过，研究过，让他知道，并不会有什么副作用。文科学生陶瓷主要是注重自己的思想吧，表达出自己的思想，对研究的计划，writing sample都能写得很好的话，陶瓷应该会有一定帮助的。

   

    一个系里同一方向有几位教授，切忌同时陶瓷。这样会起到副作用的，试想，当老师们聚在一起的时候，发现你同一封信给每个老师都发，怎么有不恼火的道理呢？

 

    一个系里有的教授有钱，有的教授没钱是很正常的。如果你套磁一个教授，在确定了没有希望的情况下，可以换另一个老师陶瓷。

 

    即使导师是中国人，套磁信也要用英文写。在教学中，无论哪个国家的老师，是不允许用母语的，这是纪律，所以，从学术的角度讲，要用英文。但是如果教授用中文回你，你当然可以用中文再回他，不过这种情况好像没听说过。

 

    给教授套磁的时候EMAIL的信题目写什么呢？

 

    这个问题就是仁者见仁，智者见智了，有的同学说要写一些不合内容但是能吸引老师眼球的题目，不过本人不推荐用中方法，还是用概括内容中心意思的题目吧，而且题目不要太短。

 

    我套磁教授回信了，第二封信怎么回复？

 

    根据老师回的第一封信的情况考虑，如果老师回的事很客套的话,例如下面一封信:

    Dear applicant, Thank you for your interest. I have added you to the candidate pool. For more information, please refer to ××× and ××× .（给你几个网址，或者是小米的联系方式） 那么说明你的套磁并没有什么实质性的效果，所以只能重新努力，你可以换一个老师，也可以继续在这个老师身上下功夫。类似的套磁没有什么作用的例子还有比如老师说：要退休了；要出去休假；现在手头学生太多；明年不打算招人；想招，但没钱；你的方向跟我不太一样，推荐你联络其他老师.

 

    如果你收到类似这样的回信，那么说明你套磁是很成功了： Dear XXX, We are very, very interested in the possibility of your coming to work with us at XXX. I note that the application materials for international students are not yet available - please keep checking that website for information. Typically it takes some time to process international applications. Please keep me informed about your progress in applying.

 

    Dear XXX, I will certainly give you a RA if you were admitted, and I will look forward to see your application. If you have applied, I will see the application and flag it out. If you have not, would you please apply? 或者老师跟你说：你搞的东西我有点兴趣，我们可以继续探讨，我已经给你发了我的ZUI 近的文章，你可以看看；我明年打算要1-2个学生，但是··· （问你为何要出国，为何选他们学校，为何对方选你，即你的优势等等）这都是比较有希望的，就要继续跟他套磁，可以告诉对方―我想跟你做研究；我对你某个方向有兴趣，如果我有机会跟你学习，我打算针对某个问题搞研究‖等等，对方如果 真的对你有兴趣，就会继续回你的信。

 

     总之，要表现出自己的潜力与热情，当然科研能力很重要，因为，不可能教授研究的问题你都了解，所以，要让他知道：你虽然没学过，但是你有潜力很快学好，并且，你有思想，有创意，说服他，让他觉得招你进来很有意义。

 

    如果套磁成功了的话，一定不要在同一个学校再多套一个，“以防万一”这种想法是对你套的教授的一种不信任和不尊重。

 

    外国的教授一般是很守信用的，不会说话不算。对于套磁来的offer从道德的角度说，一般都会接受的。但是，如果你套磁成功以前，同时套了几个学校的教授，这个是比较正常的。无论是哪个国家的申请者，再申请的过程中，都要大量套磁的人存在，美国也是一样，所以教授对于套磁的申请者不会有什么偏见或鄙视的态度，但是，他们对于套磁中学术的交流和套磁的态度是很看中的。

 

 

    下面是一位TAMU的教授在他的个人主页上写的话：

 

    Notice： Important notes (not to scare anyone): At the Ph.D. level, you should already know your area of interest. Therefore, I strongly suggest for potential applicants not to send a request to various professors within the same department by slightly changing the content of your e-mail to each professor. This indicates to us that you are not seriously interested in the professor’s area of research. Also, please do not ask for funding opportunities upfront. Funding is given on a competitive basis based on the people who have officially applied to our program.

 

    可见，教授对套磁的态度是很看中的，还是以表达研究兴趣和眼就能力为主吧。

 

    一般来说，套磁并不是每个人都合适。如果你没有很强的研究背景或者经历，套磁是几乎没有什么作用的。接受到你邮件的老师一般不予理会或者仅仅客套的告诉你：欢迎申请，但是请联络秘书或者通过学校的正常程序进行。在这种情况下，套磁没有太大的意义。

   

    但是如果你非常想申请某个学校，甚至想和这个老师做研究完成自己将来的学业，可以先看这个老师的论文，在对他研究的方向和内容有一定理解后，针对文章中不是很懂或者觉得有疑问的地方，向他提出问题，但问题不能显得太基础，这样会降低自己的学说水平。不过，不要害怕被笑话，大部分老师都是很nice的，如果他们有时间的话，会回复的。当然，这部分的陶瓷不应该在申请高潮的时候进行。

 

    晓宏留学谈套磁------套磁的技巧与原则

 

    根据上面的常见问题，以下是套磁的基本原则

 

 1. 不要在同一个系里同时套两个教授。

 

 2. 在套磁之前首先要熟悉教授的研究工作（包括阅读教授论文，看教授正在做的项目）。

 

 3. 慎重选择套磁对象。因为一旦去了这所学校，一般就会师从你套磁的教授了。

 

 4. 套磁ZUI 有效的方法是探讨学术上的问题，不要空泛的只说你对他的研究多么有兴趣。

 

 5. 在套磁之前ZUI 好要对该教授所在的系和研究组有一定的了解。

 

 6. 不要指望每个教授都会回复你的套磁信，教授的工作都很忙，而且每年这个时候他们每天都会收到很多这样的套磁信（据了解，一位教授每天收到的邮件近100封），因此能够有十分之一的回复已经很不错了。但是，ZUI 好等两周没有回复之后再写信去提醒一下，不可以过于急躁。      

 

 7. 套磁ZUI 适用于成绩不突出但研究工作很不错的情况。因此，当你的成绩很高但是研究工作一般时，套磁并不会有太大收获。

 

 8. 尽量争取和教授面对面或者电话交流的机会，这样比email要直接有效的多。

 

 9. 套磁对于RA比较有效，但是对TA的帮助不大。

 

    下面的这篇文章可能会对大家有些启示： 套瓷的目的就是要offer，要想通过这条路径达到拿钱来美国的目的。

 

    首先要弄清楚offer是怎么决定的。

 

    这里只讲一般情况。 一般说来，每个系都会组成一个招生委员会，成员都是老师，tenure track的。据说有的学校还会加上几个学生，这算是很罕见的了。 一般系里会估计一下新学期到底需要招多少人。奖学金一般有2种，TA 和RA，此外，一些学校可能每年有几个fellowship。

 

    理论上讲，后者跟前二者的区别就在于前二者算是20小时工作的工资，后者不需要工作。系里的TA一般是由委员会的成员们决定的，算是公款，所以里面的东西比较复杂。

 

    比如说，系里资格老的老师发言权多，他们给学生要TA就很容易，但是这也不是绝对的，有的老师学生很少，或者刚起步不久，又没有什么funding，这个时候，委员会也会平衡一下，倾向于帮这样的老师招几个学生干活。

 

    总之，鉴于TA需要考虑很多因素，需要几个人一起做决定，拿这种奖学金就比较复杂。如果系特别小，情况也许会略有不同，我以前认识的一个人去了一个小学校读物理，系里的研究生招生委员会就系主任一个人，他一个人决定所有TA—这也是特例了。

 

    TA的优点就是你没有对任何老师的commitment， 你可以自由的选择研究方向，换导师，只要成绩别太差，奖学金还是不愁的。

 

    RA录取过程就相对单纯。

 

    RA的来源是教授们的research funding，所以决定权完全在他们手里，尽管ZUI 终录取需要经过招生委员会点头，但是除非你没考toefl or gre or gpa 2.0，一般只要是有fund的老师说要你，那就是你了。

 

    RA的缺点是如果你将来和该教授不match，你决定或者被决定离开，你的奖学金就没有了。需要自己 重新找TA 或者其他的RA（好的学校会自动给你TA，但也有不少学校不管）。

 

    TA套瓷的时间取决与系里什么时候开始开会讨论分配奖学金。在系里决定之前，赢得教授 的好感，这样他可以跟招生委员会要TA名额。如果系里已经做决定了，你唯一的希望就是 有人reject，然后教授实力超群，力排众议，提拔你一把了。总之，TA尽量在系里决定之 前套，一旦决定了，就很难改变了。 RA套瓷的时间，首先看教授什么时候来funding，funding一到手，他们就要开始找学生了。这个时候你发的信，他们会好好阅读一下的。

 

    在教授对你感兴趣之后，就要看学校ZUI 近的招生是什么时间，如果比较遥远，那你就要多跟教授联系，免得在此期间，他们发现更好的candidate然后把你kick掉---这种事情很不地道，但是还是常有耳闻的。

 

    套瓷至少有两大忌讳, as far as I know。

 

    首先是千万别群发。

 

    以前在学校的时候，每年总是有人会发给grad@cs.XXX.edu or staff@math.YYY.edu or faculty@physics.ZZZ.edu 。第一个是系里所有的研究生的Mailing list，第二个是给所有小秘的，第三个是给所有老师的。这个是基本知识，但是每年都有人做蠢事给整个mailing list上的人发信。

 

    发给第一个你是傻瓜，研究生里有很多没钱的自己也在等奖学金呢，你上来就dear professor, ...... Balblabla...... give me money ba。发给第二个你更傻，系里秘书们哪里有权力决定奖学金给谁。发给第三个我都没法说你傻了，因为你等于是自杀。跟所有的老师都说I am very interested in your research........你在这个学校的申请到此也结束了。 Surprisingly, 我以前所在的系里，这种事情每年都有发生，都是中国人。

 

    套瓷的第二大忌讳就是信里没有内容，泛泛而谈。

 

    很多人的信都是说，My name is *** I am from AAA University, a very famous one in China and I have amazing background. My TOEFL is 6**, my GRE is **** and my GPA is 3.*. 然后就是要求教授看你的简历，给你offer。同学，你的材料递交到系里以后，愿意招学生的老师都会浏览一下的，没有特殊的东西你自然就被撩在一边了。这种内容的套瓷信跟你的申请材料有什么区别？老师们难道会因为这是电子版的就感兴趣了？套瓷信里一定要有paper application里没有的东西，才能让教授们对你感兴趣。

 

   那么，套瓷信里该有什么？很简单，talk about research problems。怎样谈？一是要看看你懂什么，二是看目标教授研究什么。两者结合在一起提问。上来先说自己是个学生，研究某个方向的，然后说自己发现这个教授的research跟自己相关或者自己的背景可以应用在教授的方向，接下来，把教授做的东西summarize一下，讲讲你的看法，然后讲讲他的东西还有什么可以提高的地方---凡是做过research，写过paper的都知道，paper后面总是要compare/evaluate一下自己的方法，所有的research都有limitation or assumption， 你自己读懂paper里major achievement是什么，告诉教授们你是如何理解的，慢慢的谈，然后你自己冥思苦想，看看有什么想法可以解决这个问题，或者至少提出一些算是相关的idea。这样，让教授们知道你对他们研究的问题很了解，而且你很有兴趣，很有热情的在研究思考，这样他们也愿意跟你来往通信----现在很多专业教授们每天都要花大量时间处理电子邮件，多你一个其实真的不多的，if you can attract their eyeballs.

 

    这样的内容才是陶瓷信里应该有的。你的ps等申请材料不应该很具体的跟某一个教授表忠 心，这样的email contact才是你尽情发挥的地方。有过相关研究经验的，套瓷相对容易，你有自己的研究方向，suppose懂一些东西，如果导师没放羊的话J。 没有研究经验的本科生，也并非总处于劣势，因为国内不少研究生也就是半瓶水晃荡，问题未必问到点子上。这个过程中的度，以及对于教授们研究方向的理解，甚至选择哪些教授下手，需要很大的精力，很高的灵敏度，和很丰富的经验了。。。。这些我就无法说教了。

 

    普林斯顿大学教授Vivek的个人网页（http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~vivek/gradapp.html）也许能给您更多一些启示，强烈推荐一读（我们把核心内容附在下面）：

 

              l Graduate School at Princeton

 

              l Please read this entire page before writing me with questions. Most of the questions I receive are already answered on this page and on the pages it references.

 

              l I apologize in advance for what may seem an overly pedantic tone. However, I can quite honestly say that every point mentioned on this page is here only because I have received multiple e-mails on that topic. Most of this page is basically common sense coupled with some general instructions.

 

 

Why Have This Page?	Every week, I receive a few letters about graduate school at Princeton. If I had the time to answer all of these letters in great detail, I would. However, that's not really possible for a variety of reasons, so I've put together this page to save me (and you) some time. Having read this page demonstrates that you are serious about your inquiry, and I'm much more likely to respond to your e-mail. If you ask questions that are already answered on this page, or if you fail to follow the relatively simple directions on this page, I'll know that you're not willing to spend time looking into the matter, and I'll summarily delete your e-mail. If this sounds harsh, it is. However, the simple fact of the matter is that most of the people who send me e-mail usually send the same message to every professor in the department. This a waste of everyone's time, and it usually indicates that the applicant cares less about everyone else's time than his/her own.
How Do I Start The Application Process?	Believe it or not, the Princeton CS department has a fairly well-written page that describes the process of applying to graduate school. It's available from our department's main web page, under the "Academics" heading, linked as "Graduate Program". I won't provide a direct link here since it's subject to change and I hate broken links. However, it's relatively simple to find, and it is quite comprehensive as of this writing. In fact, it contains answers to the questions about the application process, then you're really not too bright.
Are You Taking New Students?	Yes, I am currently taking students, and I do have funding for them. The areas of my research are described on my home page, and my current research is some extrapolation of what's written there. I am only interested in PhD students - if you want a MS only, I'm not the right choice for your advisor. When I state that I am accepting students, this does not imply that I admit anyone directly. So, the process of becoming my student is the following: apply to the graduate program in general, get accepted, perform well in your first year classes and exams, and at some point in your first year, discuss what you're interested in doing. As I've written above, do not send me your application and resume right now. Doing so proves that you're capable of ignoring the instructions written several times in this single page.
What Is Your Ideal Student?	I'm not looking for slave labor, nor am I looking for programming drones. The ideal student for me is some combination of being bright and being hard-working. Coupled with this is the desire to actually pursue research, which is some catch-all term for investigating an area where you don't have all of the answers. I'd rather deal with someone who's willing to be a little risky and come up with nothing than someone who's willing to risk nothing and comes up with nothing exciting. Research by its nature is an inherent gamble. However, it's a risk that can be managed - if you aim for something ambitious, you may not graduate in four years. However, when you do graduate, chances are that you'll have far more interesting options than someone who just wanted to get out as quickly as possible. That being said, I also want someone who is practical - a working incomplete system is far more useful than a complete but non-working system. So, some amount of programming is almost always needed in order to get your PhD. In fact, chances are good that you'll do a fair bit of programming on your own projects. Such is life.
questions most people send me via e-mail, such as                what about financial aid?                what are the minimum GRE scores?                is the subject test required?   What you should NOT do is often as important as what you should do. Please follow the guidelines in the pages I mention above. Princeton has a fairly well-established orderly set of procedures in place to process graduate student applications. It's pretty hard to successfully pull an "end run" around this process for a variety of reasons. The most important reason is that each grad student that any member of the faculty wishes to admit is reviewed by the entire faculty. So, the possibility of an end run around the system is close to nil. In particular, there are some things that you should not do:                do not pit professors against each other - Too often, some applicant decides to ask several professors leading questions and then tries to compare their responses. It's usually considered impolite at the least, and manipulative at the worst. Put another way - if you don't act in good faith during your application process, why should anyone believe that you'll be any better once admitted?                do not pit schools against each other - If you ask me for an opinion about a school, I may give it, and it will often be frank. If you decide to then forward that message to someone at that school and ask for their rebuttal, you'll have two annoyed professors on your hands. Again, this goes back to the issue of acting in good faith.  please do not send me your application, resume, application materials, etc. - I have no power to do anything in between meetings of the graduate admissions committee, and even if I did, Princeton's CS department does not accept graduate students mid-year. To avoid confusing the process, the simplest approach is to send your application along with supporting documents through the official channels at the appropriate time. If you have a specific question you'd like addressed, ask it. However, if you just send along a resume, I have no idea what you want done with it. If you want to know what your chances are of getting into Princeton, see the answers below or read the FAQ mentioned above.
 do not send me large attachments in e-mail - I use an old-fashioned text e-mail program, and handling attachments is annoying. If you really want me to see something, provide a URL. Services like Geocities (and others) provide free web pages, so even if you don't have your own account somewhere, it's possible to put the information somewhere on the web.
How Do I Get Further Information?	The answer to this one is "it depends" - if you want further information about a particular professor's research, write directly to that professor. If the information is about the program itself, write to the department's graduate coordinator. At the time of this writing, that person is Melissa Lawson. Be nice to her because she wields a fair bit of power. If you show up at Princeton, she actually holds an enormous degree of control over how smoothly your life progresses in graduate school.
What Are My Chances of Being Accepted?	In general, if you stand out among the various applicants, your chances are good. What makes a person stand out is some combination of the following:                good scores - GRE, subject test, undergraduate, etc.                recommendation letters - a good letter that proves the professor knows you is valuable                experience - if you have some interesting experience that works in your favor, tell us                few felony convictions - while jail time is always a crowd pleaser, so is stability                following directions - really. An amazing large number of people can't seem to fill out their forms properly, and if you are one of the few who follow directions, you're already one step ahead of the game   Some of the things that don't help include                cash - we don't care if you can pay for grad school, because we don't charge you for it                name-dropping - unless the people you name are writing your thesis, they'll be of little help in school                being obnoxious - there's far too little time in the world to deal with truly obnoxious people. If you unduly harass the administrative staff, we will hear about it. If you harass the professors, you're probably not too bright. If you decide to nit-pick the e-mail responses from professors who answer

 

     如果他们的奖学金还没有定，那么收到ad之后的这短暂的时间内，应该抓紧套磁，向你喜欢的教授发信表达感谢和想被considered奖学金的感情。具体套磁的规则上面已经详细说明了，这里不再赘述。

 

    如果你申请的是博士，那到了admission无疑在套磁上增加了筹码，因为大部分博士生都是可以拿到奖学金的。所以，要抓紧机会。在这里给出一封拿到ad后的要钱信，大家可以作为参考：

 

   Dear Professor XXX I am very pleased to learn that I've been recommended to your Ph.D. program in Computer Science and considered for financial assistance. I know that a successful graduate education is vital for a young student to become a mature researcher so that it would be a great honor to me if I can study in your university. As you mentioned in the letter, in order to study in your department and meet no problem in getting the visa, I have to get some form of financial assistance. Now I would apply for a TA position because I think the teaching experience is my forte. （注意：TA的钱并不是老师自己掏腰包，所以相对来说可能不会造成老师经济上的困难，是一种不错的选择）Still a junior in XXX（申请人的母校） University, I worked in the University Computer Club and acted as a young lecture.（可以适当介绍一下自己的经验，但是不要过多） My role was to introduce the computer concept and application to all of the university students and my talks received special welcome. Presently, invited by the "Soar Educational Center", I am teaching Computer Architecture and Pascal Programming to part time students to help them get the Associate's degree. In my work, I found teaching a great pleasure and it builds up my confidence. Because of this, I would apply for a TA. I think the work in your department will be more challenging and inviting. Finally, Thank your for your informing me the good news. I look forward to having your decision soon.

 

Sincerely yours,

XXX

 

    当然，并不是说所有的admission都可以转换成offer的，如果学校的奖学金评定已经结束了，决定给你admission，同时你获得的又是master的入取，那么可以说，你拿到钱的希望小了很多，不过，不要气馁，申请中没有绝对地事情。

 

    Waiting List 这个waiting list是一些有可能被入取，但是不是他们ZUI 想要得学生，所以，就把这些学生排在一个list上面，如果发了offer的学生放弃了他们的offer, 才有可能考虑这上面的申请者。上了这个waiting list ，说明你还有希望的。那只是说fellowship没有了，但是，如果教授肯给钱的话马上就可以成的，所以，即使在waiting list上面也是有套磁的必要的。这个似乎没什么可说的了，如果你前面有接受到offer的人放弃了，然后老师在waiting list上面圈了你，那么你就录取了。但是，不要把全部的希望寄托再waiting list上面。因为你不知道你是排在前面还是排在很靠后面的位置，所以，被转成offer的希望有，但是不一定大，请认清这一点。