套磁的作用

一、套磁的作用最低也是有总比没有好

套磁应该在你准备申请材料的同时进行。找到系里的主页，上面都有各个教授的email地址，然后你就发信吧。回信的肯定是少数，不过你给近千个教授发信，总会有上百个回信。这中间还有很多是客气，套话，说什么你的成绩好，录取有希望，不过你最好别抱太大希望。想当初，MIT、Chicago、yale等很多好学校的教授都这么跟我说，害的我白白交了那么多申请费。如果说钱是小事，那么我当时喜悦的心情逐渐破灭确实挺让人难受。

有人认为只有研究生套磁有用，因为套磁是与教授直接接触，而本科生没有论文，没有方向套磁自然没用。其实，本科生套磁一样用处特别大。我遇到几个教授，刚发了信简单说说自己的情况，他们就迫不及待的说要给我钱让我一定去。这样你起码心中有底了。你套磁中应该问问他们系这个专业缺不缺人，如果教授告诉你特别缺人，那你就放心申请吧，肯定是offer。如果教授都说人满为患了，那你还申请什么呀。这样申请的目标很明确，可以保证成功率。当然，如果某个学校没有一个教授回信，也别失望，我最后去的学校就是没有一个教授给我回信的学校。

总之，虽然不套磁也可以来offer， 但套磁说不定会给你一个惊喜。而且，选择申请学校时目的也更明确。反正那时侯也没什么事，闲着也是闲着，不套白不套，顺便练练写作。但套磁时尤其是套同一个系的几个教授时要慎重，最好不要把话说的太绝，也不要随便对教授表示忠心，因为这些教授经常在一起，可能会互通信息。

但是，套磁的最大害处就是教授满心欢喜的等着你去，你可能又去了别的学校。这样确实很不道德，也会损害中国学生的声誉，影响后来申请的同学。当时有一个教授可以说对我仁义尽致，我后来写拒信时整整花了一个星期来思考怎么写，真有一种犯罪感。不是我在这里装纯洁，当时我整整内疚了一个多月。我相信这个NMSU的教授以后不会相信任何中国学生了。

二、乱套教授必定乱套

套教授是有用的，但不在多，在于你和他有相似的研究背景，在于你对于那个方向研究的积累，还在于你在联系过程中以诚待人。

我还记得我现在联系的那个教授给我回的第一份信：

I can help you to get an offer for you, but I won't waste my time ifyou are not committed. 听口气看得出是被人骗过的。

我回信说：I am really committed, I say so with honor of a USTC student!

她的回答是：very good. Pls check out my paper ... and try to extend to the case of ...摆明了是要考我哪。好在我在这个方向上多少有点研究的积累，几经辗转，把她?

最后她说, I will do the best I can to get fellowship or RA for you.Your chanceof fellowship if soso. Your chance of RA is 90% depending on my funding situation.看得出来，她是很诚恳的。

以后那段时间我一直犹豫，该不该套另一个。但总觉得已经有了90％的把握，再这样做对不起被套的教授。终于，今天收到了your chance of RA is 100%的回信。这是一所排名30的学校，导师也很牛，对于我这样一个EE的本科生来说，算是很好的结果了。

总结我的联系过程可见：

1.套磁是有用的。如果不套，我就不会为自己争的表现自己解决问题能力的机会。

2.套磁是需要实力的。不要想仅仅凭吹牛或节日greeting就让教授掏钱给你。如果我没能解决她提出的问题，她不会那么直率的跟我说拿offer的机会。记住，教授们的智商不会比你低。

3.套磁的质量的重要性远远高于数量。我从头到尾只和这一个教授联系，这个例子可能极端了些，不过回想那几天为了解决那个问题日思夜想的情景，我不相信有谁能有那么大的能耐能和几十个教授同时周旋。

4.套磁是不要想使什么歪招的。一个不诚实的人不可能在科学上有大的作为。要相信教授是诚恳的，同样，你也应该诚恳待人。你应该向他展示你的才华，但有一点: sell yourself with diginity(by Alan_Guo).

照理，我offer的正式通知没到手，我应该保持低调。但我还是想把我的体会说出来和大家分享。希望我们USTCer（指中科大的学生）能在米国的教授眼中不仅仅有很强的科研能力，而且有credibility。希望我们的师弟师妹们对米国教授说：I say so with honor of a USTC student 仍然有震撼力。

我还想对那些学弟学妹们说，不要浪费太多的生命在T&G上，好好学习才是真正值得自傲的资本。

套磁的方法

一、注意，教授不是小秘，没有义务回你的信

过来两年多了，和教授间收发的英文信不计其数，看到各位的问题，随手写两句自己的切身经验。

第一，希望大家建立一个概念，美国大学的一个正常的教授任何一天收到的电子邮件大概不会少于十封。即使我这样一个小phd一天收十几封非垃圾的关于正事的邮件也是常事。美国的各种公务事项极大地依赖于电子邮件。系里的任何通知会发邮件，任何讲座会发邮件，学生和老师的任何联络会发邮件，更不用说大大小小的私人事务。

第二，在上面这个事实的基础上，各位要对自己发给教授的邮件的重要程度有一个清醒地认识，不要推己及人：对你来说，这是你申请过程中重要的一环，你发了信之后会不时地想着什么时候会有回音，这是你这几天的心思里面最重要的事情之一。可是对教授来说，这封信是他每天要收到的几十封信之一，是他每个月要收到的几百封信之一。

第三，教授不是小秘，收信发信不是他的主要工作。他每天除了上课和科研活动之外，只会有两三次打开邮箱处理邮件（教授不会像我们申请的时候一样没事一天到晚刷邮箱，除非他使用outlook之类的软件随时提醒），而你的套磁信会在这两三次时间里被他“用旁光”一扫而过。

第四，在他收到的这些信里，有重要的公务通知，有同行的工作交流，有上他自己的课程的学生的咨询（回答这些咨询是课程教师的义务），你的套磁信的重要性和回信的急迫性无疑排在这些信后面。

第五，即使单以套磁信而论，你也未必是全世界唯一一个向他套磁的学生。好了，现在请想象你是如上面描述的这样一个教授。你能不能保证你会给予向你套磁的每一个以色列、黎巴嫩、阿根廷或者中国的学生的形形色色的问题都给予热情而及时的回复？如果你不能保证，你大概就能理解为什么有的时候你给教授的信没有回音了。

顺便说一句，如果你为采用什么邮箱而困扰，或者不知道一个问题是否适合发信问教授。想想上面描述的场景，也许你会有答案的。

二、套磁的九大原则

1. 不要在同一个系同时套两个教授。

2. 在套磁之前首先要熟悉教授的研究工作。

3. 慎重选择套磁对象。因为一旦去去了这所学校，一般就会师从套磁的教授了。

4. 套磁最有效的方法是探讨学术上的问题。

5. 在套磁之前最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，因此能够有十分之一的回复已经很不错了。但是，最好等两周没有回复之后再写信去骚扰。7. 套磁最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。

三、套磁需要艺术地对待

经常出现什么发了60封套磁信，却没有回音的搞笑文章。这不叫套磁，叫自我介绍，等同于垃圾信件。

套磁是一种艺术，需要花精力花时间的，有针对性的艺术。

首先说说套磁信的title，很多人在title上就写想加入实验室，感兴趣什么的，也有直接写"Hi!"的。要知道到了申请旺季是个教授就收n多这样的套磁信，要是你的话你也没兴趣一封一封的看，一般就直接d掉了。而且很多大牛prof都有自己的小米，这样的信跟本到不了他眼前就没了。Title一定要带有学术性，让小米看了不敢删，教授看了有兴趣。

Title是个敲门砖，关键的还是在于内容。我认为要套一个教授，最少的要求是把他主页上的介绍都仔仔细细的吃透，正常的要求是你要把他的代表性paper仔细研读一遍。首先当然是简要的自我介绍，然后就该谈谈你对他的研究的看法了，提出自己的见解和问题，一般情况下教授都会乐于与你讨论的。如果已经处于申请期，大可直接就问有没有position，很正常的。当然，也可以随信附上自己的resume一份，PS就免了。代价是增大了被作为垃圾信件删除的可能性。

拿我套过的一个Caltech的女院士为例。我几乎读遍了她的代表性论文，跟踪她的研究进展半年多，和她的几个学生都有过email讨论。最后我给她写了封挺长的email，把她所在领域的几乎所有的美国教授逐一评论了一遍，然后提出了一些自己的设想和问题，1小时后她就回了封长长的信，说去年她lab招的人多，今年没有预算了，然后讨论完问题以后还很热情的给我推荐了好几个教授，说会和他们打招呼，让我去联系，还让我随时告诉她我的状态。这个方向是我最喜欢的，虽然最后Caltech拒了我，从套磁的角度来说，我觉得还是成功的。

我最后大概一共套过6位教授，5位都是当天回信，一位没有回信的prof所在的学校也给了我offer。所以我想教授们还是会回信的，关键是在他们眼里你是不是真的认真对待他们，你的信是否值得回。而这后面，说白了还是大量的时间和精力换来的回报。【作者系北大学生】

四、套磁的技巧

第一：先找我自己母校毕业的在美的导师。事实证明确实有用，自己的校友一看是自己的学弟，好多学长就算没有opening也会给个回复，而不是直接置之不理。找学长学姐直接问他们学校我这个方向哪些老师需要学生，哪些老师人品比较好，这样就无疑增强了套磁的目的性，大大节约了时间成本，也免得自己的自信心受损。想象下每天套磁石沉大海的感觉吧。事实证明也是有用的。

第二：在套磁信中要敢于提出自己的看法，就算比较幼稚，也无所谓，只要不是简单的常识性错误就好。我当时套一个心脏循环的老师，文章中写到他们用水去模拟血液，我就问水和血液黏性系数不一样，会不会影响精度。结果那老师竟然说goodquestion，并且解释了一番，让我兴奋不已。

第三：我认为很重要的就是分享。后来我来了好几个offer，我同学也有，但他特别想去我其中一个offer，stonybrook。 那个老师4.15快来的时候还在问我要不要去，很急的样子。于是，很顺理成章的，我给那个老师推荐了这个同学，他如愿以偿的拿到了dreamschool 的offer。所以给大家的建议就是，和身边的人分享信息，共同进步。

五、套磁完美秘籍

一、所有教授都接受套磁！

必须承认，有的教授对你说不接受套磁。

有的教授给你模板回复。

有的教授不给你回复。

但是所有教授都是接受套磁的，只是你的背景没打动人家，或者人家不招生。

教授的话不能信，他们就是接受套磁的。可能A接受，对学生a说不接受套磁，但是津津乐道的回复着学生b的套磁信。

二、套磁信写什么

范例：

From XXX, asking forpossible positions in your team

Dear Dr. XXX

Sorry totrouble you, but I wonder if there are openings in your research team. I haveapplied for 15 fall Ph.D. Program.

（礼貌用语）

My name isXXX. I got my Master Degree and Bachelor Degree from HarbinInstitute of Technology (HIT in China)and my major was Vehicle Engineering (Mechanical Engineering). Inaddition, I joined the Double Degree Program and my minorwas Electrical Engineering and Automation. I prefer to continue myeducation related to Engines. （简单介绍背景）

I have learned someacademic courses related to engines, such as thermodynamics, heat transfer, combustion, engine construction, engine principle andengineelectronic technology. I believe I could do research on engines. （因为中美专业设置不同，大体谈了我学到的与套磁教授方向相关的课）

During the B.S and M.S. period, I haveparticipated in academic researches related to engines, especially Emission Reduction issues, ranging from LTC technique to Alternative Fuels. Consequently, I thinkI match your research field and I do believe I would be competent for yourresearch projects. （本段可以更详细，你的什么技能，什么研究经历会使得你在这个教授实验室里承担什么角色，完成什么任务，能贡献给实验室什么东西）

In anutshell, I prefer to join your team.

With MyWarmest Wishes,.

XXX

三、套磁信小细节

1. 多采用加粗，斜体，带颜色的字体。这样能突出重点，也使得看起来不单调，舒服，与众不同。

2. 套磁信要简洁。但是简洁不是简短的意思！最重要的你要说明你的什么技能，什么研究经历，能使得你为教授的实验室做出什么贡献。这既对你，也对教授是负责的。当然这部分要简洁，靠字体的颜色突出重点。

3. 尽量挑在美国早上8点30到9点时候发套磁信。因为这时候教授在看邮件，保证你的邮件一下子蹦出来，而不是被埋没。美国分冬时令夏时令，每个州的时间又不同。所以这些时间细节自己查。

四、套磁信什么时候发

申请前要发套磁信。因为你需要知道你申请的方向招生不招生。主要稍微改一改，比如I wish to apply for 15 fall phd program. Iwas asked to put a prospective advisor’s name into the online application.（只是这么说，这样回复几率大，但是千万别把导师名字放在申请里，这是为自己申请的利益考虑，否则你的申请就容易受限了。）

申请了学校后，也要套磁。I have applied for the 15 fall phd program. I wonderif there are openings in your research team。这个时候套磁是因为让教授帮你提名fellowship，或者直接给ra或者ta。

拿到ad后，还要套磁。From XXX, already got AD, asking for RAposition。这个时候要套磁。因为大部分学校都是拿到ad后再由教授决定给奖还是不给奖学。拿到ad后一定套磁。

拿到reject或者waitlist也可以套磁。因为只要和教授对口，教授有权利改变你的结果，虽然几率很小。但是不要懒！套磁又不花钱。

五、教授不回复怎么办！

教授一般第二天就给你回信了。如果超过两天不回复。就在上一封的邮件里再回复一封。如下

Sorry to trouble you.

You must have received hundreds of emails everyday. So I am writing to you to draw your attention.

I wonder if I have an opportunity to join your research team. I prefer to continue my studies in your field.

如果再不回，换教授套吧。

一个学校套一个教授。2天不给信就套其他的。什么2周1周的不要听，那样效率太慢，机会会溜走。2天就换人完全不违背学生的道德。甚至你也可以一个学校套几个教授，因为教授有选择学生的权利，学生也有选择教授的权利。只要不是一个课题组的就好。

六、套磁不花钱不费电，尽量套

回复率低不要灰心。

500封套磁信，套磁200个教授都不算事。

想拿钱，就要努力！

套磁的时间

一、套磁的五个时间节点

套磁很有必要，回信率在10％就很不错了，不要灰心，教授的记性还是不错的，留下印象总比不留印象好。我的方法是每所学校选三个教授，然后投其所好，教授研究方向和你课题有关的一定要套，关系不大的就在套磁信里瞎拽，说background强不就行了。

套磁分五个阶段：

1）寄出材料10天后，告诉教授你申请了他们学校，并对他的课题感兴趣；

2）圣诞节，请安；

3）过年，请安（中国的方式）；

4）开学后，再次表示兴趣；

5）offer高峰期，（如果你还没有offer的话），强烈要求他关注你的材料。

教授的信一定要回，这是礼节问题，大家都懂。

二、套磁的时机

听到的一个师兄的校园讲座，其中有两点颇有借鉴意义，是关于套磁的时机——

一种是已经拿到了admission，没拿到钱。这个时候套磁是因为你已经被认为有能力去上学了，你就表现出对这个机会的浓厚兴趣以及囊中羞涩的经济状况。“有奖学金我就来了”的意思。

另一种是处于wait list的局面中，用套磁加深自己在教授心目中的形象，以及被录取的可能性。一方面跟教授套近乎，一方面补充自己的学术、科研材料。“我想起来我还做过……”

套磁实例

一、非大牛经典套磁实例

我真不是什么套磁大牛，我的思路就是：先发信，附简历，问对方明年可否招人。

有的prof就回信说“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”等等，这是明确拒绝的例子。

还有的就跟你客气“欢迎申请我们系，我们系…（赞美之词）；如果你要当我学生，要先通过我们的研究生院这关；谢谢你的兴趣，我会给你寄份材料的”等等。

有的就会对你有点兴趣：“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最近的文章，你可以看看；我明年打算要1-2个学生，但是会问你为何要出国，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，赶紧告诉对方“我想跟你做研究；我对你某个方向有兴趣，如果你要了我，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，让你回答问题，你就赶紧看资料，请教其他人关于专业的问题吧，反正就是表现出自己的potential来。因为不可能对方问你的问题你都了解，对方的东西你以前都接触过（那样的情况更爽），所以要告诉对方，你虽然没学过，但是你有potential，你能很快学会。并且你有ideas，而且带着interdiscipline的知识，能更加开阔你的眼界，让你在本领域里可以创新。总之，让对方觉得招你的确对他和对你都有利就对了，说服他！然后，就继续套吧。

我套的那两个个教授，一个看中了我的背景，刚好我跟她将要搞的research project有着地域上的联系，她就很希望我去，而且十分鼓励我，说我的资料很强，起码是今年她所见的当中，最强的一批，如果已经申请了，早被录取了所以。我就在后面的信里，明确问她，如果我被录了，能否给我提供RA？对方也实话实说，她没全部的权利，需要committee做决定，但她认为我没问题，每个PhD都有assist的所以，我觉得这个基本上算搞定了，于是决定做为保底，跟她继续保持着联络，等她的材料寄来，再跟她继续探讨。

另一个教授，是个牛人，说打算明年要人，于是问了我那些问题（开始就是问些学习目的的东西），我当时就回信说，请给我几天时间，我会让你看到我的真实目的的，然后我赶紧苦思冥想的，之间还发了次烧。1周后给对方回了信，连带着把发烧的事也说了，请对方原谅我拖这么久才发信说了我的purpose of study，对方看来认同了我的目的，于是又来信问我专业问题、了解我的专业能力，——我正在考虑如何措辞呢，有的东西我以前没接触过，有的学了现在有些荒废了，需要补补。但是我会老实告诉对方，我有的没学过（同时给他个理由）学过的，就别说忘了——如果老说自己的弱势，势必造成不良后果打算告诉他，我有potential，我能胜任你的research工作。反正，我要自己做到最好至于对方能否更我想的一样，就得看对方和你的背景了，但是套就要认真套也要老实，跟对方玩太虚的东西，如果被对方揭穿了，后果我不用明说了吧？

总的原则么，我认为“诚实、自信、热情、有分寸、有礼貌”就行了，因为你的其它东西都已经是过去式了，我们能强调的，也只有将来我们能做什么了。

二、MIT电气工程的套磁

我一个EE同学的老板是负责所有大陆学生申请MIT EECS的主审人。这位兄弟的GPA 只有3.3，但是被那位教授列为第一位而如选。他没有套磁任何教授，但教授就是把他发掘出来了。所以，套磁不是必要条件。但是这位先生对PS很看中。选到后来，一共10来份大陆学生的申请，他也不知道该选谁。就注重看PS。一人在PS云：加里略死的那一天，牛顿诞生。某某死的第二天，爱因斯坦诞生。某某死的时候，我诞生。嗯，很有气势。该人第一个被赶出局。自信和自负是要好好把握的。

但是，在很多情况下，套磁有巨大的作用。我原来的LAB MATE在收到拒信后，在日本回来的套磁过的教授马上干预，很快得到全奖，比没有收到拒信的人更快。同样的是一个EE通信方向的同学。基本上，MIT AREA1是不从大陆找人的。套磁的作用就是从拒信到全奖。

我们系的一个著名教授每年都受到无数亚裔学生的套磁信。他都不回。这位同学很优秀，他就回了一封套磁信，在EMAIL的不起眼的角落有他的手机号码，这一般是不会给的。但是在这位同学受到录取信后要求资助的时候，他的很多信没有一个被回。后来他急了用手机联系教授得到了全奖。在后来教授的家宴上，教授在介绍这位同学给其夫人时，说他找到了正确的联系方法。同样的事发生我的一个同学身上。她只有一个OFFER。就是给MIT教授打电话得到的。但是，千万注意这是在有很积极的会应得情况下。很多时候，教授没有太多的时间去记住你。在恰当的时候就要提醒。有时EMAIL是不会被看。

一些TIPS：

1：套磁不是必要的，但是有时是决定性的，尤其是在同样的情况下如同推销商品一样，你要有“卖点”，如何做是你自己的本事。

2：不同的教授有不同的风格。要有针对性，现在有些同学的套磁太不PROFESSIONAL。同样的信给无数人。如果一定要加上你的简历，用PDF文件。

3： 套磁是艺术，更是运气。成功的关键是在适当的时机，适当的人在适当的教授前以适当的方法展示了自己的优势。似乎爱情也是如此。【转自水木清华BBS】

三、学术套起首经典案例

给一个个案供参考

1. 暑假期间，读到人家一paper和我做的内容有接近部分 写信去问人家细节（纯学术）

2. 具体讨论了一下技术材料等细节（大概2-3个来回）

3. 然后基本没有联系 直到感恩节的时候给对方发邮件

4. 大概12月初的时候告诉对方我对你的方向感兴趣 而且申请了你们学校

5. 1月对方说看到你的材料了 我在committe里面 会advocate你的申请。如果说套磁的话 这样应该算成功了，但是我后来因为别的原因去了别的地方，很可惜。

个人觉得最重要的是 这第一封信是必须有技术含量的。问学术问题的邮件原则上含三个部分：

1. 你的research 很 amazing impressive（具体到某篇paper）

2. 问题：比如某个实验技术材料等等，文章里面提到的但没说具体的，而你做实验想要用的东西 不要问Google一下就可以找到答案的东西

3. 我做的是什么和你没有竞争。（注：这一条是否必需，见仁见智）

四、菜鸟背景四套三中拿Offer

背景： PKU，菜鸟（biology），GRE 不牛，TOEFL 不牛，没有 PAPER， GPA 很低。不过我的实验室老板很牛，UCLA教授，在这边也开了个实验室。这是我唯一的优势吧，还有就是工作很刻苦（自吹下）。

套磁战果： 套4个学校，4个教授，其中两个回了email，并协助我申请，收到其中三个学校的interview，其中一个interview 完了给了offer，而且是年初一给的。

教授1： From school rank 40 (offer) 

背景： 很年轻，和我研究的是一个领域，他做的很牛，science Nature PNAS, 都发了，我感觉后劲很足的一个老师，在该学校的实验室建立不到两年，也很缺人。另外，我让同学帮我打听，说他很nice，这点最重要。

套磁第一封： 

第一段内容，某某某 我正申请你们学校，对你的program 很感兴趣，希望能加入你的gr

oup 如果能被录取的话 

第二段内容：我现在的研究跟你很相近，我正在做xxx 目的是xxx。我现在的老板这方面做的很牛，在他的引导下，激起我对这个领域的强烈兴趣。他也很鼓励我来美国读phD并且给我写推荐，所以我很希望能到你实验室工作（给了他我老板的email，和电话，让他free to 联系他，如果想进一步了解我的话）

第三段内容：最后比较无礼，直接说如果你实验室有position的话，请支持我一下，我一定…（表一下决心）

第一封回信：很短。意思是说，我们的研究的确志同道合，然后问我申请到那个系了，到那一步了，让我把CV，PS给他看看

套磁第二封：

第一段，不重要，我申的什么什么系，他们在review吧，不晓得

第二段，讲他的研究，说他的focus 很有意思，我们这边实验室也有点准备做这方面的东西。

第三段，应该算比较罗索，讲了我进实验室的经历，以及一些想法的改变，到最后为什么下定决心做科学，反正是个story

第四段，在balabala说申请中快给我些支持，然后告诉他我有个朋友也在你们学校，你也可以问问他关于我（给他足够的途径去了解我）

第二封回信：

我已经找招生委员会了，和他们谈了一下，他们回很快给我答复的，有了答复再通知你

套磁第三封：

说说我的想法，如果我将来能去你那的话，我就可以把现在的工作和将来的工作衔接上，那样的话会省很多时间和精力，我也可以利用来之前的半年，好好读paper，好好做实验，好好象你和我导师请教，为我将来的phd，奠定坚实的基础

第三封回信：（他没回） 直接是他们program发过来的面试通知，然后他告诉我好好表现，就over了。面试之前没有和他再交流，到面试结束，给才向他再汇报情况。

套磁第四封：

告诉他我面试的情况，感觉很不错，过程也很轻松愉快、然后，还跟他讨论一下实验，等等。

他4天没有回信，把我急坏了，我以为他不要我了，可是面试，我觉得没有太大问题的。一直郁闷到大年夜，刚敲完12点的钟，我就给他发email，祝他 happy Chinese New Year。 他立刻回了封mail，说谢谢，他这两天被一个什么会议耽搁着，他已经和面试老师谈过，面试老师说我表现不错。 我才放心睡觉了

醒来就是 OFFER了，高兴的去拜佛烧香了！

教授2：from school rank 20（失败）

背景： 牛人，也和我做的是一个领域，元老级别的人物。后来才知道他退休了，不管事务了，也就没有再打扰他。

教授3：from school rank 50 （interview）

背景： 一个中国人，和我老板差不多水平，相关领域，我觉得他应该认识我们老板，但没有敢问，主管招生委员会，招谁他说了算。

套磁就一封信：

第一段：介绍自己怎么对你的program 感兴趣：希望得到他的支持

第二段：介绍一下我现在在做什么，以及我将来准备做什么，当然最后还是不忘记，让他free to 联系我们老板，以得到更多我的信息

第三段： 老一套，继续请求支持

没给我回信，直接给了面试，在三月份

教授4： from school rank 50 (interview)

背景： 一个中国人，和我老板水平也差不多，相关领域，认识我们老板，所以很容易信的内容，不太一样，主要讲了，我在老板实验室里做了些什么，学到了些什么，老板教了我些什么，为什么想出国之类的。象聊天。告诉他一些故事

回信：说很了解你现在的处境，会帮我申请的，但你申请的系，他不是commitee，他是另外一个系的committee，叫我补份材料过去，那样good chance to be admitted我DHL发了材料，三月份面试。

套磁总结感想

• 最好套和你研究背景相关的，那样比较好上手，谈谈你对这个领域发展的想法，是很有用处的。背景＋兴趣，至少可以让他关注一下。
• 尽量给他更多的途径去了解你，我是每次都把老板的电话和email都留下，随人家联系
• Research 要做好，尤其生物类，不然老板怎么给你说好话啊，牛老板一般评价人很客观的
• 口语要练好，随时准备应付突发事件。其实口语是申请中重中之重，面试要，签证要，不练不行的。

五、重新申请如何跟老板套磁？

作者背景介绍

南京大学，本科物理专业，共申请三次。前两次录取到哥伦比亚大学且入读，后在哥伦比亚大学读硕期间，第三次申请终于被加州理工学院应用物理系、哈佛大学化学物理专业，均获全奖，最终选择去了加州理工。

经验分享

申请教训：

我第一次申请本来的是成功的，然而终究是因为考察老板的不慎重，盲目地追求名校，导致最终的悲剧。因此在第三次申请中，我对选组花了足够的心思。我觉得一个好的老师不能只看他的成果，他的职称，更应该要跟了解他的人（比如他组里的学生、博后、毕业生）发信联系。另外，这次申请由于身在美国的原因，Harvard和 Caltech都有去campus visit。在国内的时候我们对campus visit不是很了解，其实对于美国学生而言，campus visit是非常重要的。你可以有机会跟教授、研究生面对面交谈，可 以住在研究生家中体现他们的生活状态。毕竟读PhD是一个漫长的过程，这一段时间对后来 的整个人生都有非常重要的意义，所以其抉择一定要非常慎重。在具体细节上，我campus visit时碰到好几个国内来的本科生，他们办的是B2签证，学校在campus visit上可以报 销600刀左右，因此国内本科生来campus visit还是非常值得推荐的。

重新申请如何套磁：

有人问我重新申请该怎么跟老板说。我想这个问题还是很重要的，如果将来某位不幸需要重新申请，我的经历可能可以作为参考。

重新申请跟老板说的风险在于老板可能会因为我不准备长久在组里做而立刻停掉我的funding。基于我老板的特殊性（有前人教训在），我的策略是完全秘密进行，不跟老板透露半点风声。这最大的问题是我不可能要他的推荐信，因此研究能力似乎不能突出。于是我就通过选和我科研相关的课程，和任课教授保持好互动，最后课程得分尽可能高，于是搞定了两封来自哥大的推荐信，用来佐证我的专业水准。

另外一封为了反映本科经历的真实性，还得从国内出，于是只能硬着头皮问国内的老板要。最后拿到offer后心里已经有底，本准备跟老板说，结果没想到老板提前从MIT那边知道了，只好摊牌，同时把组里的问题也如实说出，以证明离开是现实所逼，不过我承诺只要我还在这个组，科研都是照常进行。基于现在组里分崩离析，人才流失，有些项目不得不由我参与完成的现实，我老板也并没有和我撕破脸皮。

总结一下，根据组内前人案例，具体情况具体分析。如果老板很nice,人很大度，最好申请之前跟老板说清楚。如果老板以前做过坑人的事，这种情况还是不要说为好，等到生米煮成熟饭，未来有了着落再跟老板摊牌。

六、北大师兄有关套磁的看法

发信问一个师兄关于套瓷，把他的回复email转贴如下，希望对大家都有所帮助——

你好！

先说说我的套瓷经过吧，其实当时也没有什么经验，开始也比较晚，大概是九月份吧。我基本上给申请的教授都发过信，回复的并不多，比较encourging的答复就更少了。Gatech则是恰好有个学术活动要来北大，我发信联系的教授提出可以和我见面谈谈，事后证明这个因素可能对最后拿到offer的影响比较大，算是恰好捡到了一个机会吧。我个人认为这个阶段的套瓷不一定会有什么特别大的帮助，毕竟这时和教授再来建立联系是很难比较紧密的，几封email很难让教授对你的印象大大加深，当然运气好的话也可能会有比较大的收获，所以如果你有心坚持并且时间和精力都允许的话不妨多试试看。

应该说，决定录取的因素很复杂。首先从教授的角度来说，通常决定是否招人的最重要因素是funding情况，如果手头没有足够funding支撑的project，即使申请者足够优秀也没有办法招人，所以作为申请者，了解自己想申请的教授今年是否有足够的funding招人便是一件首要的事情，通常这也是需要了解的第一个重要信息。

当教授有足够的funding且需要招人的时候，他会对申请者的背景和能力进行评估，从中进行筛选。不同学校有不完全相同的审材料的程序，不同教授也有不同的评判标准，这是申请者不可能完全弄清楚的。不过按照我所听到的以及看到的来看，录取的原则尤其是教授挑选的原则的核心是“match”，也就是说教授希望申请者的背景以及兴趣能够和自己的研究方向最大程度的契合，所以申请者的研究经历和兴趣就非常关键了。GPA和英语成绩等在申请过程中固然也非常重要，还是有不少学校在初审阶段是按照这些硬性指标进行排队的。不过可以肯定的是，一旦进入系里最后的审核，有水平的教授是不会受那些他们并不感兴趣的课程成绩影响的。发信给你感兴趣的教授，了解一下对方对于背景有哪些基本要求，比如我曾经申请的一个教授就明确表示需要较强的物理化学尤其是电化学背景，这些必要条件对于申请者也是很重要的信息。

大概说了些我自己有关申请和套瓷的体会，不知道你对我的答复是否满意。这里再给你几个小建议：

申请需要扬长避短。如果你认为自己有些地方有缺陷，那就尽量少提甚至不提都无妨，在你的ps以及和教授联系的email中尽可能地突出你自己的独特之处以及优势所在。给教授的email不宜过长，有些关于自己的背景资料和ps等可以考虑用附件的形式发送给教授。最好在自己的材料准备上多花些心思，一份独特的申请材料尤其是ps，我认为对任何一个教授都是一个很强烈的诱惑，它能够增加对方更多更好的了解你的动力，有可能会达到意想不到的效果。

申请的过程中必然会遇到很多困难，有时候会动摇会迷茫，希望你能自信些再自信些，坚定地走向成功的彼岸。最后预祝你申请成功，拿到心仪的offer！

七、CS套磁实战：Berkeley+UW

我申请的比较早，8月开始套磁。还用googlesite做了个个人网页。套磁信就是很一般的自我介绍，科研背景之类的，附上自己的CV和网页的link。因为发的都是很match的老师，所以回帖率很高。没时间学术套磁，除非真的有新的见解或者指出老师paper上的问题。

先谈谈berkeley，绝对的dreamschool。我套的是Ming C. Wu，作MEMS的。他组和我们这边有合作。我洋洋洒洒的发过去，他第二天就回了:”seemsthereisagoodoverlapwithourresearchinterest,perhapswecanhaveachatonthephone.”这段我都背得出来了。我立马回信说好。可人家不理我了，说好的interview也没有了。大牛就是大牛。后来Constance Chang-Hasnain来我们这里做报告。一直以为她是台湾人，其实是大陆人，很早出去的，嫁了个外国人。她那天穿的衣服，带的眼睛从里到外和她主页上的照片一模一样。走过我的时候还特意跟我说了个hello，我又激动了一下，后来发现是自作多情。1月看到gradcafe上有人报interview，2月看到发offer，我就知道自己没戏了，慢慢接受了这个现实，3月初平静的收到拒信。个人感觉berkeley太难进了，我一个berkeley读本科的同学说连自己家的本科生都不喜欢招。而且berkeley和其他名校比起来招的international最少。非牛人没牛推还是别去浪费着100刀了。CCH喜欢招中国人，都是北大清华的top望尘莫及的那种。

再谈谈华盛顿大学（UW）的Michael，作siliconphotonics的。Caltech毕业，80后的牛人。在读书的时候就建自己的公司lextura，相信做光电这块的朋友都知道。Michael在caltech是读物理的，对学生的基础知识比较看重，他发了4到题目给我做，我一道都不会，一点想法都没有。于是我通过人脉关系找了我们组里一个作理论的小帅哥搞定所有题目，还耐心的给我讲解了做题思路，给Michael发了过去。一个机缘巧合的机会，我和michael一起吃了个晚饭，ps:他买的单，还给了服务生不少消费。哈哈。闲聊时他逼着我问phd想具体做什么。我只是说我对什么方向有兴趣有经验，想深入了解。他很喜欢找中国人，他用amazing这个词形容中国的本科教育，说和美国的不能比啊。还问我为什么不在国内读本科。临走时michael说我要你了，明年收offer吧。还问我开不开心，我很sb得点点头。

于是lz开始憧憬西亚图的幸福生活。可1月初的时候他发信给我说他要去Delaware了。那里离DC近，钱好申请，还和新加坡的NUS有合作，要我改申请。我当时就有一种被cheat的感觉。因为那时候已经有其它家的offer给我了，而且他家也不是我的topchoice.我就明确拒了他。看了看我们gemail的纪录，35封，到头来还是一场空。1月底的时候收到UW的拒信。处女拒献给了UW。不得不否认michael的能力很强，不过个人感觉此人比较偏Industry，以后想去Industry工作的去他组不错，光电相关的Industry前景还是不错滴。他收学生套路是，先发几道变态的题给你做，你做出来了，二老板会给你面，查题目是不是自己做的。还有他组里学生给你面，和他的终极面。感觉题目做出来希望很大，他比较注重基础知识。不知道他现在去了UD是不是还是这个套路。

提到Michael不得不提一下关于学术圈子的问题。以前我们所里面有人resign，我问他去哪里，他说先不说哈，学术圈很小的，做我们这行的就几个人几个组，以后你就会知道的。我当时将信将疑。现在才深刻体会到其中的含义。和michael联系过后，又和几prof聊过，问我还申了什么学校，我提到UW，XX校的prof说是联系谁了啊？我说：Michael。Prof说：噢，他啊，我们在caltech是同学。他去UD了啊？另一个学校prof：哦，申UW了啊，Michael不是要去UD了吗。看来圈子真的很小，Michael知名度很高。

八、折衷套

我申请的是机械工程。从八月中旬到现在已经套磁40多封了，收到的回信较少，但有一些心得体会，分享一下，积攒人品：

1. Assistant Professor 比较好套，尤其是刚毕业五年以内的。

2. 一开始学术套，并没有什么效果，而且写一封邮件时间太长了，但又不想水套，于是就折衷一点学术水套，尽量和教授的研究兴趣相结合，但不读paper了。

3.UMich的ME的教授给我的回复是“note that we require GRE grades and that applications with 163 (Q), 156 (V), 4 (AW) are considered highly competitive, but applications with lower grades are still considered in a holistic manner if other supporting material is strong, e.g. GPA and/or recommendation letters. ”

4. UT-Austin的教授让我现在不要套磁，他们会在2016年三月底告诉我结果。“Please refrain from communicating with us, after you apply. We will let you know of our decision (for Fall 2016) late in March 2016.”

套磁模板

第一封信到第三封信

first Letter

subject: new Phd student looking for research opportunity

Dear Prof XXX,

I am a new PH.D student in Computer Science and planto attend *** University this comming fall semester.

I am very excited about this great opportunity.

I write this letter to you to explore potential researchopportunities in your group. I am particularly interested in XXX project (look at their homepages). Describe your experience. I think it will be a great match. I attached my resume and Academic Statement with this email. Please let me know if you are interested.

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely

XXX

---------

resume... (Remember, don't send the resume as attachment, but copy & paste it following your email as text. The same for your academic statement.) Also, If the prof is interested, he will want to see your resume/ps immediately, not likely to ask for it. so betterattach it).

----------

Academic statement...

....

Second letter (if the prof not replying you)

Prof. XXX,

I wrote to you two days about asking... However I haven't heard from you. I think you will be interested in my background...

Thanks...

XXX

--- attach your first email (again, copy & paste)

Prof. XXX,

I wrote to you two days about asking... However I haven't heard from you. I think you will be interested in my background...

Thanks...

XXX

--- attach your first email (again, copy & paste)

No third letter, if the prof still not replying you....

TA和RA申请的套磁模板

简要说明即可——

TA：我喜欢教书，我想教书，你们系的本科生课程我全都学过而且学得很不错，我一定能教好，我有过TA经验，学生都说我深入浅出，循循善诱等。

RA: 我喜欢作研究，我有什么什么科研经验，你们系有个同学正在做的一个研究项目，我太感兴趣啦等

拿到AD后的要钱信

Dear Professor Ronald Dutton,

Thank you for your letter on Feb. 21. 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. Still a junior in Peking University, I worked in the University Computer Club and acted as a young lecture. 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,

如何向目标导师的学生了解信息

第一封：

Dear XXX,

I am a prospective graduate student who is very interested in the Professor XXX's group. If you have time, I was wondering if you might be open to answering some questions about the group and projects?

Thank you for your time!

第二封：

I realize this is a pretty long list so feel free to leave some out/merge responses together or maybe pass it along to someone else if that might be helpful. Thank you so much once again for any information!

Why did you choose to go to Columbia and join Professor XXX's group? What is it like working with Professor XXX? Do you meet with him often or are you more independent? How easy or hard is it to get meetings? Are there any particular strengths or weaknesses?

Is Professor XXX very available to help with research? Is he helpful? How much have you learned in terms of research/publications/networking from Professor XXX or the post docs/research scientists?

What are your project(s)? How did you choose your project and how much freedom did you have in choosing it?

Are classes well-taught and are they applicable to research?

What is the work environment in Professor XXX's group like?

Is it a quiet or more talkative group? Is it more collaborative or competitive? Do people have separate social lives or do they tend to hang out together? Is there anything you wish was different?

What is a typical work day like? How many hours do you or most group members work per week? What type of skill set have you learned?

What do students in Professor XXX's group typically do over the summer? Is Professor XXX active in placement during the PhD program or after graduation?

Are scheduled group meetings helpful? Are other group members helpful?

Thank you so much for any information! Any response would be GREatly  appreciated.

Thank you!

美国教授关于套磁的看法

一、偏激看法：套磁=垃圾信

Dear Prospective Student,

you should know that emails such as yours are much discouraged. At almost all universities, they reduce your chances of admission.

You must understand that I get about 12 emails from prospective students EVERY DAY. That is over 4000 emails per year, which is highly annoying. This is far worse than all the other spam mail I get, trying to sell me credit cards, mortgages, water filters, long distance telephone service, and life insurance.

It turns out that most of these students send the same email to multiple professors at the same university, telling each of them that "their research interest match". If you are sending this to more than one professor, it is obviously a lie. And a lie that is very easy to catch on our end. And if we catch someone not telling the truth, do you think we would admit him or her to our university?

Also, you should never send email to a professor until you have already applied and paid the admission fee. Sending email to anyone before that point is offensive - the university might get the idea that you are trying to avoid the fee.

Please tell all your friends that they should NOT send email to professors unless they have found the ONE to maximum of THREE professor in the whole U.S. who is the absolutely best fit - and then send email only to that one two or three professors. It is a nonsense sending these emails, and a myth that they increase your chances of admission. In reality, they REDUCE your chances of admission at many universities.

At all good universities, admission is done by a committee. The committee collects information, among this is a list of all the students that individual professors have been communicating with. There is no individual professor who can admit or reject a student - but if the same student appears on the list of many professors, that is a good indication for rejection.

You should stop ruining your career, if it isn't already too late.

Sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Michael

总结：

1）教授平均每天收到12封套磁信，一年4000多封，这比垃圾邮件还垃圾，烦！

2）不要漫无目的乱套，确定好1-3个教授套就可以

3）同一个系甚至同一所学校坚决只能套一个教授，多套露馅就是等于rejection

4）交了申请费再套

二、套磁的代价

Don't send me an email with your resume saying you are applying to XXXX and would like to work with me.

I used to try to respond to these, until I realized the volume of messages and the amount of time I was spending responding - time that would otherwise be spent working with my current students. In fairness to the students who are already here, I now ignore these messages. Any information I would get from the email should be contained in your application, which I will see as part of the admissions process.

If you do send an email, at best it will be ignored. At worst it will make me question your fitness for graduate study. 【转自中科大瀚海星云BBS】

三、不看邮件不意味着不注意你

Prospective interns, graduate students, post-docs and visitors for Jeff Fessler's research group,

Thank you for your interest in my imaging research at the University of Michigan. I have been in the EECS Department here since 1995, and over these many years I have been enjoying the privilege of working with many creative and bright graduate students from all around the world. You can see the dissertations and current positions of all of these students here. I have also mentored several terrific postdoctoral fellows; you can see their current positions here.

To get a feeling about what are the current projects in my group, look at our in-press papers and recent conference papers. Reading the "future work" section of any recent paper or thesis on my web page is a reasonable way to see possible future directions. However, every member of my group is unique and I work with each person to find a project that suits their interests.

Every year I get numerous emails with the question "will there be any openings in [my] lab next year?" 
My web page shows that I have graduated at least one PhD student every year since 2003, often 2 or 3 students per year. So it is logical to think that I must recruit one or more new PhD students every year! Naturally I prefer to work with students who think logically.

If you email me to express interest in joining my group, please include one of the following keys in the subject line: [fessler-intern] or [fessler-phd] or [fessler-postdoc] or [fessler-visitor] as appropriate to your situation. Also include your name in the subject line.

Instead of attaching a resume to your email, the best way to promote yourself is to make a web page that describes yourself and highlights your skills, and then include the URL for that web page in the email. If you email me this URL and use the appropriate subject line, then I will look at your web page and I will try to reply to your email. If you are a PhD applicant, then I will certainly consider you for financial aid decisions that are made in the Spring.

If you are a prospective post-doc or visitor, then please also create a Google scholar entry for yourself. It is helpful for prospective mentors/employers.

I will ignore any emails sent to me that disregard the above requests, because I guess such students have not read this page and might be sending mass emails rather than really trying to find an adviser whose interests match theirs! I do not read resumes sent to me in Microsoft formats. Here are many reasons why not. 

For the most part, I focus my time on my current students. In particular, I cannot answer the question "what are my chances of admission." Your chances will be improved by applying!

Please understand that after you are in a graduate program, you will be glad if your adviser spends his or her time working with you instead of responding to numerous emails from prospective students. I hope you understand.

Advice:

• If you are embarking on PhD research, this short article about the importance of stupidity should be required reading. 
• Here is another article about failing. 
• Here is an article about the common "imposter syndrome" 
• Here is a book on Mastering your PhD: survival and success in the doctoral years and beyond

【作者：Jeffrey A. Fessler，密歇根大学EECS系教授；原文链接：Advice for prospective interns, graduate students】

四、诺贝尔得主教我如何写套磁信

昨日斗胆向本行一大牛人、诺贝尔奖获得者发了封套磁申请博后。未料当晚他即回信，回复很短，亦是套辞。但附言却长，竟是教我如何写套磁的！

回信原文如下：

Dear Mr. Xxxx

Thank you for your letter. Regretfully, I do not have a postdoctoral position available in my group. I wish you well in finding one elsewhere.

Sincerely yours

Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx

PS. May I give you a piece of advice on applications for post docpositions?

This is a nontrivial process, and to be effective does not consist of just putting your qualifications in front of a person.Such applications must be sent with out some "personalization", meaning somestatement, just a few lines, as to why you want to work with a certain person, revealing some knowledge of their research.

Also statements suchas “I am very interested in your work.”, or “Your excellent work has attracted my attention,” are recognizable as having no content, but just being polite phrases. Applications which do not contain such a specific approach are likely to be automatically rejected by almost everyone in the US, because it looks like you are just sending a form letter to everyone, with no special interest in a given group.

People have many, many postdoc applicants -- they want to see that a person really wants to work with them, and a reason why. It takes work to do this, I know.

评论：美国人就是特别重视Motivation, 你自己牛不牛倒在其次

五、一位美国教授关于几种套磁信的评论

International applicants seeking assistantship/admission: please do not send me emails blindly without reading this.

Every day I receive emails from international candidates for information, for advice, and especially requesting financial assistance. Unfortunately, I delete most of them without even reading them carefully. I get so many irrelevant emails that cannot reply to each. Extremely rarely has one caught my attention. Please do not send me emails without reading this first. I am only interested in corresponding to candidates who are exceptional, and have a strong interest and experience in my immediate area of specialization, and I highly prefer ones with a Master's degree.

For your benefit, I have included in this page, some writing tips, when corresponding to me, and perhaps also in writing to other faculty members in US Universities. When corresponding, do not mention your age/date of birth, your gender, nationality etc. These are superfluous information.

I am NOT interested in: Extra-curricular activities, performance in high school or before, TOEFL scores, hobbies, software skills, UNIX/ORACLE/NOVELL certification and other items unrelated to my research area*.

I am SOMEWHAT interested in: Your awards/academic honors, academic records, GPA, GRE score (2200+), experience.

I am HIGHLY interested in: Your publications, research interests (have supporting evidence for your claim, don't just claim you are interested, unless you actually have done some work in the area).

*(Incidentally, I do not know what NOVELL or Microsoft certification are. Research is more concerned with things like advanced mathematical skills, creativity etc. Too much software skill actually may even count negative in my group).

Information I CANNOT provide

1. Chances of getting assistantship in the department (other than my own available research grants - I do not have any right now, although not very likely, it may change in future).

2. Deadlines for assistantship/admission.

3. Any information on admission procedures and policies.

4. Minimum GRE/TOEFL scores required.

5. How to get application forms.

6. Whether a decision for assistantship or admission was made.

7. Other faculty who would be interested in a prospective student's

background (you can easily see faculty research interests from the

department website).

8. When an admission/assistantship decision will be made.

9. Any other information, other than that below,

The only information I CAN provide

1. Compatibility of your interests/background with my own research area.

2. Possibility of getting research support from my own (not departmental) funds. I am always trying to get external funding for my research projects.

3. Possible research areas you could work on with your background, with me.

I know how interested some students are in coming to the USA for a higher degree. I have written this as a useful guide for you. I have also written this to let prospective international students try and focus their own efforts properly, instead of wasting their energy sending me emails. Here are two sample letters.

负面套磁信

• Unwanted email

A sample letter that will never get the candidate an assistantship with me:

Respected sir,

I am very interested in going to the US for higher studies. I am seeking admission and financial assistance in your esteemed University. I am very interested in artificial intelligence and computer architecture. I have programming experience in C++, C and Java. I am also familiar with several software packages in the Windows environment (MS Word, Excel Spreadsheet etc.). I also have networking certification from NOVELL. My GRE score is 2050, and I got 99 percentile in the TOEFL exam.

I request you to spare a few moments from your precious time to go through my attached resume.

Sir - if you are kind enough to offer me assistantship, I promise to work very hard for you. I have a very good academic record since primary school.

Alternately, can you tell me what are my chances of getting assistantship from your department?

Can you kindly inform me about the last dates for Summer term 2002 before which I can apply?

Thank you for your valuable time,

Yours obediently

ABC

My comments:

I simply delete these emails, which I consider garbage. The person seems to be too obsequious and flattering. In the emails that I do read (occasionally), I do a first scan for keywords like "precious", "respected" etc. deleting the email if I find one. Obviously the person is not professional enough. The person is interested in artificial intelligence and computer architecture - these are quite unrelated areas, making me think that he is trying to cover as many professors as possible to get aid from any possible source. Besides, he does not have anything in support of his claim (about his interest in artificial intelligence). He

emphasizes on his software skills, making me think that his goal is to get a programming job in the US and higher studies is only to allow him access to the US job market. His GRE scores are OK, but not exceptional. He asks me to tell him what his chances of getting an assistantship are, elsewhere in the department. I have absolutely no way of finding that out, and even if I knew, I would not bother to reply back. He also asks me to give him information about summer deadlines. How am I supposed to know that? (I would typically expect that this information should be available from the University web site, or from the grad school, but my guess is as good as yours.) Finally, this letter is too generic. He probably uses exactly the same format for hundreds of email letters to various professors throughout the country, leaving no stone uncovered. I receive hundreds of email like this. Regretfully, I cannot answer everyone, and these applications do not interest me at all.

I have even received emails from students asking me to evaluate their chances of getting admission, based on their GRE scores, TOEFL scores and GPA. Here is an example:

二、Highly undesirable email

Respected Sir,

I am applying to a few US Universities for higher studies, including your esteemed University.

I am a fourth year electronics engineering student at XYZ University, India. My undergraduate GPA is 3.2/4.0. I obtained 2000 in my GRE examination (V: 500, Q: 800, A: 700), and 456 in the TOEFL.

Can you spare some valuable time to assist me in determining what my chances are for assistantship in your department and in other Universities?

I will appreciate any help from you.

Sincerely,

PQR

My comments: This letter is at least as bad as the previous one. It too looks excessively obsequious and unprofessional with words like 'respected' and 'esteemed'. I will not respond to queries like this, even if I could possibly "detemine their chances". As I mentioned earlier, my mailbox gets flooded with these queries such as this each week, and I have no time to respond. But more significantly, I do not have the slightest way of knowing this, not even in KSU EECE department, leave aside other Universities. You are much better positioned to do that, based on your own peers' experiences. Take an example, how much information can you, as a student, give me about the criterion for promotion from associate professor to full professor in your University? Likewise, I have no idea what policies graduate schools in the US follow to admit/denying admission to prospective students. I barely know the format of the GRE exam, leave aside TOEFL. I do not have the slightest idea how to distinguish between a 'good' TOEFL score and a 'bad' one. Besides, I know that most Indian Universities do not follow a GPA system. His "GPA" is most likely inaccurate, obtained by applying some arbitrary conversion formula devised largely to scale up the

overall percentage score. Use GPA to fill in the official admission form, if you please, since there is no space for marks, but do not give that information to me unless your University actually follows a 4 point GPA system. (Unfortunately, I cannot distinguish a good percentage score from an average one either.)

I have even received letters with personal items unrelated to the profession - something which I consider to be highly negative (examples - "I looked at your family pictures in your homepage", or "I am from the same part of the country as you are" etc.).

正面套磁信

一、Excellent email

Now, here is a letter that would DEFINITELY attract my attention:

Dear Prof. Das,

I am applying to KSU (amongst other places) for a Ph.D., and I am very interested in your research areas. I would like to explore the possibility of doing my research with you, with financial support.

One possible area that would interest me a lot is in applying Tikhonov regularization to your problem in computational neuroscience, since I understand that neural data can be very noisy, and yet sparse. Alternately,

I am also interested in applying evolutionary algorithms to your genetic neural network parameter estimation. One of my other interests in in parallel processing. Are you considering parallel implementations for any of your optimization/estimation algorithms? Considering that the projects that you list in your web site would probably be very computationally intensive, that may be a worthwhile strategy to pursue.

I presented a paper entitled "Hybrid Gradient Descent Based Training of Probabilistic Recurrent Networks" in the International Conference on Neural Networks and Image Processing, Bangalore, last year. It is a reviewed publication. If have attached a copy of the article in pdf format.

If you have available funds, and are interested in my application please let me know soon.

XYZ

My comments: This is a straightforward letter from someone with a genuine interest in my area. He is an exceptional candidate. He has evinced a keen desire to learn, and already has considerable mastery over my area of research. If I have any funding available, I would definitely try my very BEST to get this person. This person may have an MS degree, while many applicants have only a BS degree.

二、 Good email

Here is a letter from a fresh undergraduate that looks very good:

Dear Dr. Das,

I recently applied the Ph.D. program in your department at KSU. I looked at your home page, and your research areas were very interesting to me. I also read your research article that appeared recently in the journal "Signal Processing & Data Mining (note: this is a hypothetical journal)". I am very interested in your idea of applying independent component analysis to data mining. My own undergraduate project was in a closely related area and should be of interest to you. It was entitled "Applications of LVQ algorithms to speech recognition". Furthermore, I recently joined XYZ labs in Mumbai, (India) as an assistant scientist, and I my work is in designing neural network algorithms for knowledge discovery applications.

My GRE score was 2270, and I also took the GRE engineering subject test with a score of 96 percentile. I stood first in the the University in my batch (245 students).

Please consider me for any financial assistantship that you may have. I have attached a 5 page postscript format curriculum vitae.

Sincerely,

ABC

My comments: I would try to get some funding for this candidate, although I strongly prefer students with an M.S. degree. I recommend that fresh BS students who wish to apply, do the following: Decide on what area you are really interested in. Be very specific about what you want. Then first spend a few months researching material in that area. Look at conference and journal papers. If you do not have access to a decent library, then surf the web, and read as much on the subject as possible. Even try and present a paper at a national conference, perhaps with a University professor there. When you are finally ready, start getting information about faculty interested in that area and write to them only. This is the only way you ever stand a chance for a research assistantship. I think it is very unlikely that a professor in the USA would take you blindly based on your GRE scores, your undergraduate record and a few letters of recommendation.

If you are not willing to do this, then focus on a teaching assistantship only. For teaching assistantships, you should not even be sending emails to various professors, but only to the department chair/graduate coordinator/graduate advisor. Individual faculty members have no control whatsoever in deciding how teaching assistantships are going to be awarded.

For these positions, your undergraduate performance, GRE scores, etc. count a lot.

三、Another excellent email

Here is a letter from someone from a country where English is not spoken:

Dear Dr. Das,

I studied at a famous University in Beijing, PRC in Electronics Engineering in 2001. I intention is to travel to US for aPh.D. I find your area very interesting such as neural networks and genetic algorithm. I published a paper in fuzzy logic after research in my university. This paper is in Chinese. But I submitted another English paper for a conference last month.

It is application of neurofuzzy system to 3 joint robot arm control. My GRE score is 2100, (Quantitative 800, Analytical 800, Verbal 500). I am very interested in Kansas State University. Do you have assistantshipavailable in next semester to teach a Ph.D. student in neural network application to pattern recognition or sensor fusion? Please see my resume if I am suitable for you.

Thank you,

JKL

My comments: This letter looks exceptional. I receive many letters from candidates from Asian countries where English is not emphasized. That is no consideration from my point of view, as long as you qualify for grad school. A lack of English should not discourage someone from applying. Students from several countries with bare English capabilities have known to be highly successful in the US because they are so hard working and sincere that they more than

compensate for this minor disadvantage. I will only care about things such as your mathematical skills, and research record. This person's GRE analytical and quantitative scores are excellent. But most important is the fact that he has two publications, even if one is in Chinese. I will give credit to this student for writing a paper in English, even if he is not fully comfortable in that language. It shows how dedicated the person is. I certainly would like to have this person in my research team.

I have heard that there are agencies which send out emails for you to various professors in the USA. In fact I and my colleagues have received exactly the same generic email several times, with only the names changed. Such an email can only have a NEGATIVE impact on your chances. That is a total waste of money and a very bad idea.

Finally, don't be discouraged if you cannot make it to the USA. With economies in India and China skyrocketing, I expect in about a decade, the job prospects in these countries could even be better than in the USA. Even today, I am pleasantly surprised to see engineers, software personnel,doctors, scientists and managers in India enjoying more or less the same lifestyle that one does in the USA (and probably better off than their counterparts in some other countries like Britain). I am sure the standard of living in some other Asian countries, such as China is excellent too.

One last word.

If, and only if you get my attention (which is extremely rare), I will keep in touch with you, push hard to increase your interest, try my best and do EVERYTHING possible to get you. Currently I do not have much funding available (or have not updated this page), but I hope that will change soon.

注：中文小标题系小编所加，忽略这些小标题即为纯正原文

六、教授对中介模板套的看法

I have heard that there are agencies which send out emails for you to various professors in the USA. In fact I and my colleagues have received exactly the same generic email several times, with only the names changed. Such an email can only have a NEGATIVE impact on your chances. That is a total waste of money and a very bad idea.

七、最重要的是真正的兴趣

I wish you the best luck however.

If I may, perhaps I can suggest that you include in your e-mails to other professors a brief description of your interests. Very many Chinese students contact US professors wishing to be admitted to graduate programs. Very often it is clear that they are willing to be admitted to any program to study any subject.

What US professors are looking for is someone who has a true interest in a particular topic. When they see non-specific e-mails they think the student is just fishing and they do not consider them very seriously.

The most effective letter will show that you have looked at the professor's own web site or have learned about them on their department web site and are familiar with their work.

This is the reason you contact one professor rather than other professors. It is particularly good if you have read some of the professors articles and can mention which one has interested you in their work.

The letter will also state what topic the student would like to study and what relevant experience they have. Many applicants from US colleges have a year or more of experience as a research assistant to a faculty member.

This is how they develop specific interests and learn whom to contact about graduate school. I know this is not common for Chinese students but it is useful for you to understand. Most important, avoid saying "If you do not take students can you tell me who else in your department might accept me." You need to be looking for specific people or topics, not just psychology in general.

Certainly do not send the same letter to everyone on the faculty in the same department. When they meet to consider students this will be noticed.

Good luck in your search.

八、CS教授钦定套磁模板

Advice for Prospective Research Students

Like most professors, I get several hundred emails a year from prospective students interested in coming to UVa for graduate school and joining my research group. I try to reply to all messages that are not obviously spam, but find most messages I receive make me less likely to want to accept the students sending them. This page provides some advice for prospective grad school applicants considering emailing me, but most of it probably applies to any other professor you want to contact also.

Who To Contact

Its a really bad idea to send spam emails to long lists of professors. These emails will never help you, and some professors will maintain blacklists of applicants who do this to make sure their application is rejected without consideration.

Your goal in sending email is not to contact as many professors as you can, but to identify a few professors who you might want as your research advisor and then to find which of those seem most promising as advisors and convince them that you would be a worthwhile student.

You should only contact professors with whom you have a genuine interest in working based on knowing something about them and what they do. You can find out about professors' research by looking at their web pages (professors who don't have web pages about their research are either not interested in recruiting students, not doing any research, or so famous they probably have someone to filter their email for them).

Do Your Homework

Before contacting a potential advisor, do your homework: read the advisor's home page and at least one recent paper.

If doing this doesn't give you any interesting ideas, this is probably not someone with whom you want to do research so you shouldn't waste time contacting her or him. If it does, send a short introductory email.

First Email

A typical message should go something like this:

Of course, your insight isn't likely to be so significant as Flipper's. But, you should make an effort to raise an interesting question about the work described in the paper, to suggest extensions or applications of the work, or to relate it directly to something you have done.

It is definitely worth taking time to write clearly and consisely using correct spelling and grammar. As with all emails, the message should be broken into short paragraphs, the sentences should be simple and straightforward.

What Not To Do

Never do any of these:

Don't send information about your GRE scores, GPA, class rank, cholesterol levels, favorite movies, etc. and ask what your chances of admission are. Standardized tests and grades have minimal influence on your chances of admission and reveal very little about your potential as a researcher. No one can or should tell you anything about your chances of admission based on an email (other than that you are more likely to be rejected now since you sent an annoying email).

Don't send a first email longer than a typical screenful. You should be able to get across everything you need in a first email concisely and use longer emails if technical depth is required in follow ups.

Don't waste space and time telling me how hard-working, creative and smart you are — demonstrate it with the contents of your message.

Don't waste space and time telling me how brilliant I am. The fact that you are interested in joining my research group is flattery enough.

Don't make generic statements about being interested in my work or how well it relates to your interests. Most professors have projects in several different areas and can't figure out what you mean unless you describe a specific connection or interest.

Don't attach anything to your email. If you want to provide additional content, you should do this by sending a URL (as plain text, not a link). If you are not able to create a web page, you probably shouldn't be applying to CS graduate programs.

Don't use HTML encoded email or non-standard character sets.

If you are a non-native English speaker, make sure your "From:" address appears using the English alphabet. If you have a name that is difficult for English speakers to pronounce or distinguish, it is to your advantage to use a name that English speakers can pronounce and remember. I do realize it is very unfair for us to expect you to change your name for our convenience and cultural ignorance! But, once you get admitted you can and should tell people what you want them to call you.

Note that for your formal application it is necessary to use your legal name, so if you use another name in your email communications with faculty, it is important to also provide the name you use in your application so they can identify the corresponding application. This is probably not necessary in a first email, but is a good opportunity to refresh the relationship after you send in your application by informing your contact to the formal name used in your application.

Don't use any fancy formatting in your email (including your message signature).

Follow Up

Since most professors get lots of email, there is some chance that even if you do everything right, your message will get lost in my inbox and you won't get a reply. If you don't get a reply after about a week, send a follow up email that politely asks if the message was received and includes the previous message. If you still don't get a response, that's a pretty good sign that the potential professor you are contacting either has an overly-agressive spam filter, or is not someone you want as your advisor.

Conclusion

Getting into a good PhD program is extremely competitive and professors are strongly motivated to identify and attract the best possible research students to their group. At any department you would want to go to (including UVa), the acceptance rate is usually in the single digit percentages. At the most competitive departments, only a few slots every year are awarded to students without recommendation letters from people the faculty know well.

It takes work to find the right PhD program and advisor, but contacting potential advisors directly is your best way to find a research group that matches your interests and goals well and possibly to improve your chances of being admitted.

Once you've read and followed these directions, please feel free to contact me about coming to UVa to do a PhD in Computer Science. Your goal is to start an interesting email conversation about research ideas.

If you find that my research does not fit well with your interests, feel free to post comments below for general advice.

【作者：David Evans，弗吉尼亚大学计算机科学系教授；原文链接：Advice for Prospective Research Students】

九、

Advice for Foreign Students Wishing to Pursue Graduate Study in Computer Science at UCSC

I frequently receive email from non-US citizens who wish to pursue graduate study in Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Instead of replying individually to these messages, I have created this page to collect my personal advice on this matter. These are my own personal views, and certainly should not be viewed as official policy of UC Santa Cruz. That said, I have tried to be as accurate as possible.

My goal in writing this is to help you, the foreign graduate student applicant, better understand the process of applying to graduate school at UCSC, and to be able to provide the best possible representation of your capabilities. The Department of Computer Science is actively interested in enrolling foreign graduate students, since they bring unique skills, and diverse viewpoints to our program. We derive considerable strength from the many active foreign graduate students currently studying and performing research at UCSC.

Some Facts of Life

It's helpful to have some background on the financial implications of a foreign student being admitted to UCSC.

Since UC Santa Cruz is supported by the State of California, students who are California residents have significantly lower tuition and fees than non-residents. Students who are US citizens can become California residents after a year. Foreign students who do not hold a US green card cannot become California residents. It is very difficult to get a US green card.

The net result is that foreign graduate students cost about 1.5 to 2 times as much as California resident students. From a Professor's perspective, this means that nearly two California resident students can be supported for the same cost as a foreign student. Supporting a foreign graduate student for an entire 4-6 year PhD program requires raising approximately USD $120k-$220k in grant money, depending on many factors, including whether the student receives summer support (increase), how quickly they advance to candidacy (decrease), and whether they already have a Master's degree (increase), and how quickly they finish. Admitting a graduate student is a significant financial commitment.

English Expression and Students who are Non-Native English Speakers

One common issue with foreign students is English is not their native language. As a consequence, they frequently are not as skilled at expressing complex technical ideas in Engligh, in both written and verbal form. This is a very complex activity even for native English speakers, and is doubly so for people whose native language is not English. Research in Computer Science involves investigation into complex technical issues, and then writing up these results in the form of workshop, conference, and journal papers. Writing a dissertation (typically 5,000 - 60,000 words) is a requirement for receiving the PhD degree. Writing articles and giving presentations at technical conferences are critical elements in developing a reputation in a research community. Written and verbal communication are central activities in Computer Science research. If you don't like to write and give presentations in front of groups, you should think seriously about whether you want to go into research.

From a research advisor's perspective, having non-native speakers as students frequently means that any written document by such students requires an additional 1-2 reviews just to get the English expression correct. Even after putting this additional effort into the document, it is generally of lower quality than a document produced by a native speaker. This is due to issues such as less interesting choice of words, less varied sentence structure, and poor control over the rhetorical structure of the paper. Finally, most professors do not enjoy acting as a copyeditor; they would prefer to focus on core research ideas, rather than English expression.

Who Makes Admission Decisions for Graduate Students?

In the Department of Computer Science, all admissions materials are digitally scanned, and made accessible via a Web-based system that allows the faculty in Computer Science (as well as Computer Engineering, Bioinformatics, and Electrical Engineering) to see and review all files. Each file is reviewed by multiple faculty members. Generally students are admitted when they are either visibly outstanding and exceptional students, or when an individual faculty member makes a personal commitment to accepting the student, and providing financial support. Administrative staff typically have a advisory role in admissions decisions, usually by informing faculty that there is a student who might be a good fit for their program.

The most important point is individual faculty make graduate admissions decisions.

Some Advice

Since foreign graduate students cost twice as much, and frequently produce research papers of lower quality than native students, it is critical that applications for graduate study address these two issues. From a research advisor's perspective, a foreign student needs to be outstanding and exceptional to justify the extra financial and time cost (all those extra paper reviews take time) of admitting a foreign student.

There are several things you can do to improve your chances of gaining admission. Contacting a faculty member is critical, since they make decisions on who is admitted. However, when contacting a faculty member, there are several key points to remember:

1. English expression must be perfect. Consider the following excerpt from an email I received from a prospective student:

I did my undergraduate studies at {XXX} University, one of China's the most famous universities with a history 100 years, and kept on ranking in the upper 10 percent among 92 students in the department.

Just in this one sentence there are at least four grammar and expression errors. This clearly says to me that the student does not have a firm command of English expression, and their papers will definitely need multiple reviews. As a Professor I want to bring in students who will make less work for me, not more.

2. Show a clear and sincere interest in the faculty's research area. Faculty have very specialized research interests, and are looking for students with demonstrated capacity to perform excellent research in their specialty. If you approach a faculty member and say that you want to perform research in an area outside their specialty, they will show little interest. Additionally, faculty often indicate research interests that are very broad. I personally state that I have a research interest in "Software Engineering." However, this is a very broad field. My more specific interest is in software evolution and software bug prediction. Hence, if you send me email stating you're interested in Software Engineering, that is much less interesting to me than an email stating you're interested in software bug prediction or software evolution.

Of course, just listing a few buzzwords doesn't impress much either. Some emails I receive appear to be form letters, with a fill-in space for research interest buzzwords. These are pretty easy to spot, and don't demonstrate any sincere interest in performing research in that field. If you want to rise above the crowd, you will identify potentially interesting faculty, then go and read one or two of their recent papers. This will give you a very good idea of their research specialty (you may find you don't like it!) and will allow you to write a customized letter that speaks directly to that faculty's current research interests.

Here's another example email I received:

Checking into the web site, I have found that your research areas cater to my type of research interests.

I interpreted this as follows. First, the student doesn't know or care what research they want to perform, since they didn't state their research interests. This is a red flag, since such a student might be accepted into the program, chew up a year of grant support, and then discover they are really interested in some other research area and switch to another research group. While students often do switch research areas as their interests mature, as a Professor I look to reduce the possibility of this happening, since this is disruptive to a research agenda.

Second, the prospective student obviously didn't do their homework. They didn't bother to read my web site enough to determine my current research interests.

Right now you may be thinking, "Reading all these papers takes too much time, especially for a preliminary email." This is true, it does take more time to really understand the research agenda of a faculty member. However, by applying for graduate school, you are asking a professor to make a large financial and time investment. My attitude as a faculty member is, "Why should I admit a prospective student who is not willing to spend 1-2 hours to determine my current research interests?" On the flip side, you are looking to make a commitment to a particular research area, and this can have significant impact on your career and happiness. Doesn't it make sense to have a good idea of what you're getting into?

3. Use an ASCII-representable name in your email if your native language is ideographic. A lot of spam email has "from" addresses that are not ASCII. Many faculty receive over 100 spam email messages a day. To ensure your message isn't ignored as spam, use an informative Subject line, and an ASCII From address.

4. Check to see how many students the professor currently has. Research groups are hard to scale up. Generally, faculty members do not like to have more than 3-10 students. If a faculty member has a lot of students already, even if you're Albert Einstein they still might not be interested.

Some Advice for the Actual Application

If you have decided to formally apply for graduate student in Computer Science at UCSC, you will be asked to provide a personal statement (an essay), letters of recommendation, GRE and TOEFL test scores, and your undergraduate transcript.

Personal Statement

By now it should go without saying that the English in the personal statement needs to be perfect. Have a native speaker review your essay. Pay money to get such a review, if necessary. I frequently see high GRE verbal and TOEFL scores accompanied by a poorly written personal statement. This says to me that the student takes tests well, but still has problems with written English expression.

In the personal statement, I personally look for evidence that the student has the capacity to perform high quality research. Specifically, I look for evidence of critical thinking, and discussion of prior relevant research or project experience. I also like to see students make a strong case for why they are well suited for graduate study, especially at UCSC.

Many prospective students write about how they have wanted to study Computer Science since they were a small child, and how it's a lifelong dream and ambition. In extreme moderation this is fine (1-2 sentences at maximum). However, it is reasonable to assume that nearly all prospective students willing to spend the time and effort to apply to the Dept. of CS for graduate school have a deep and sincere interest in Computer Science. One deduction you can make is that spending valuable space in your personal statement on this matter does not differentiate you from the other applicants.

I personally would like to hear about the difficult aspects of some project you worked on. Tell me how you displayed excellent problem solving skills, were a leader, or showed initiative. Especially if you have done research before, tell me about that research experience, and what you learned from it. Finally, tell me why UCSC is the best place for you to study. There are many universities in the US; why is UCSC the best match for you?

Don't Send Every Award You've Ever Received

A few years ago, one student sent a copy of their karate black belt certificate as part of the supplemental materials for their application. While this is a commendable achievement, one that implies a significant degree of discipline, it doesn't say very much about the student's ability to perform graduate studies. In fact, it's a negative, since it indicates the student doesn't have the critical analysis skills to determine what information can truly help their application. We threw the karate certificate in the trash. If you send supplemental information, make sure it is directly relevant to the pursuit of graduate study in Computer Science.

Make Sure Your Letters Arrive on Time

The recommendation letters are critically important to your case. Make sure they arrive on time. Letters from academic sources are preferable to those from industry, and a letter from an advisor on a research project is the best, so long as it directly addresses your performance on the research project, and your skills as a researcher.

Make Your Point Fast

In the preliminary review of files, the typical application receives 2-8 minutes of consideration by each faculty member that reviews it. Follow-on reviews are typically more detailed, since there are fewer files at this point. Personal statements are first scanned, then carefully read if they seem interesting. Your personal statement should ensure that the most important points are made in the first 1-2 paragraphs.

You may be thinking, "This isn't very fair. I'm going to spend hours putting together my application, only to have it reviewed very quickly." In defense of the practice, I'll make two observations. First, we receive many hundreds of applications, and must make rapid decisions on them. In order to provide timely response to applicants, each application cannot be reviewed for very long. Second, after reviewing hundreds of applications, faculty get very good at making rapid assessments of academic records. Does this mean we never make mistakes? No. It's an inherently error-prone process, since it involves making highly subjective decisions based on a small number of data points about a person's future academic abilities. Predicting the future is hard.

Hopefully you've found this advice useful. My sincere best wishes to you in your pursuit of graduate study in Computer Science!

【作者：Jim Whitehead；2012年4月18日；加州大学圣克鲁兹分校计算机系教授；原文链接：Advice for Foreign Students】

九、普林斯顿对套磁的看法

以下的文字是我一好朋友写的，分享了princeton的一些教授招学生的几个标准，这些信息都是她和教授闲谈中获取的。她去年刚去Princeton 读EE PhD，拿的fellowship。

今天下课后围着老师问了几个学术问题再问完后还是没有听懂的情况下,我就开始问关于套磁的问题。

首先要声明的是：如果你是清华北大的前1-2。那就不用套磁基本上所有学校都能中了。professor的原话是：you see a student from Tsinghua ranks 1 out of 200 students and the GPA is almost 94, that is just… awesome!

然后就是关于你来自哪个学校很无奈的是, 美国教授基本上只听说过清华北大还有"交大"。 其实主要是上海交通大学和台湾国立交通大学。至少在普林斯顿是这样的。如果很不幸你不是其中的任何一所, 那么你在套磁的时候, 基本上会被当成"student from an ‘ambiguous’ university email me today…"不过据说，中国学生貌似不是发这种Email的常客。

教授会回复的邮件，一般来讲，他们只会在心情好的时候回复这样的问题——do you have open for phd students in 20XX年。他们的回复一般也是: i am not sure, but hope you will apply…

教授是绝对不会在邮件当中透露出他们对你的喜好"i don want to give them the wrong information"

最后，最好的套磁手段是：visit them, or meet them on a conference, or good recommendation letters , especially from those they know about.

十、欢迎套磁，欢迎Email联系我

Those interested should email Dr. Li a cover letter stating qualifications, relevant experience and research interests, CV, and transcripts.

十一、唯一重要的只有真正的兴趣

罗格斯大学教授：套辞是必须的，没有什么所谓的核心技术，你对这个研究的兴趣超越一切背景。

上述观点，系某背景极弱学生在计划申美国PhD，近乎绝望的情况下，咨询自己罗格斯大学的一位教授（该同学亲戚）时，该教授对该同学说的一句话。

该同学背景：本科gpa2.3，硕士gpa3.7（但是学分很少，课程也很少），gre311，toefl100，无文章。推荐信一个普通教授（本科毕设导师），经理（毕业实习经理），副教授（硕士专业课和我交往不错的一个老师）。2012年毕业，2013Fall找启德遭遇全拒，2014Fall  DIY依靠套磁申到美国TOP50学校全奖PhD，生物技术专业。

该同学自述：“在2013年11月，在我递交完第一波申请材料时候，我心情是很绝望的。连我自己都想不出一个理由让别人要我。我的ps里面充满了套话，空话，我如果是教授，除非这个人的背景很棒，否则我不会要他的。”

十二、请勿群发套磁邮件

卡耐基梅隆大学计算机科学系教授Scott E. Fahlman近日在quora回答了自己对套磁的看法，从教授的角度告诉大家该如何更高效、更有针对性地套磁。以下内容译自Scott E. Fahlman在quora上的回答：

我曾经收到过很多很多的套磁信，所以今天我想来谈谈我对套磁信的看法。

首先，我非常不能接受群发套磁信。无论什么情况，所有的教授都不希望收到的是一封垃圾邮件，一封随便发送给同一个学校十几位甚至几十位教授的套磁信就是一封垃圾邮件，这说明你根本就没有针对性或者没有诚意地想加入我们。

其次，有些套磁信不够具体，甚至连称呼都没有。有的学生发来的套磁信中只有一个简单的开头Dear Professor，连具体的学校和项目名称都没有，也完全没有提到我的科研内容，更没有提到自己的兴趣或能力是否和科研项目相关，或者只是在官网上简单地找了几个相关的关键词就说对这个方向很感兴趣，但是这完全看不出来你有用心了解过我的研究方向或内容啊，甚至有时候说的关键词还是错的，根本就不是我的研究方向！

通常收到这样的千篇一律不真诚的套磁信，我都会直接删除了，或者发一个关于项目介绍的官网链接，但是，基本上就算你后来去查了这个链接，我也不会再考虑这个学生了。

所以，如果一个学生真的想加入到我的团队，在发邮件之前，至少应该花点时间了解一下我到底在做些什么研究，细节越多越好，可以查相关的论文。这不仅仅是对教授的一种尊重，更是对自己的负责，只有你真正了解了教授的研究方向，你才能知道这些东西是不是你感兴趣的。

如果上述前提确定好，那么我想我最关心的，也是大部分教授最关心的就是你的科研背景是否和我的项目相匹配。所以，在信中清晰地说明自己的科研背景、做过的项目、发表论文的情况、掌握的技术以及自己未来想从事的研究方向是整个套磁信中最重要的部分。同时，如果能结合自己和教授的情况，说明自己能够为项目提供的帮助也是很有必要的。尽管具体的匹配程度需要教授自己来判断，但是逻辑清晰、语言准确地推销出自己也能够让教授看到你的能力或者潜力，即使不是完美匹配，教授也会认真考虑。

基于以上，我认为一份好的套磁信应该直截了当地介绍自己的基本情况，然后重点说明自己的科研背景和对项目的了解、匹配程度，可以适当询问教授项目的具体情况。如果教授对你感兴趣，自然会回答你的问题或者询问你更多细节问题。

另外，教授是否回信大多取决于以下几种情况：教授有多忙，你有多优秀，你的英语表达能力，你有多么想为这个教授工作。

并且，套磁信尽量早点开始，这样你可以有更多时间跟教授联系，如果在申请旺季开始，每天我的邮箱里会收到茫茫多的套磁信，恐怕能不能看到你的邮件都是问题。

最后，套磁并不能保证录取。哪怕我很喜欢你，但是如果我当时没有项目资金再多雇一个人，或者出现了更好的候选人，那我也没办法要你。但是，如果我真的很欣赏你，也许我可以推荐你到其他教授或者其他项目那里。

话题讨论

教授到底会看套磁信吗，会看什么样的套磁信？

话题缘起：

A：前段时间把一心把教授的文献研究了半个月，憋出一堆东西想来一个高端的学术套。斟酌了半天字句，屁颠屁颠地发了一封大概400多个词的邮件，内容大概就是我曾看过你的文章，对你研究很感兴趣，想来读博士。最近受到你们课题组做的东西的启发，我想到了我们可以研究这个东西，但是呢要做这个东西还存在一些问题，我在你的文献中没有找到解决方法，你怎么看这个问题？

结果，等了一周多，没有任何消息，虽然问了在那边的学姐，学姐说这教授人很好的。有一种前功尽弃的感觉啊。

是邮件太长引起反感吗？是标题不好吗（标题是我想的研究内容：Utilizing Baculoviral Vector to Achieve Early Diagnosis of Cancer）？还是很多教授都太忙根本就不理陌生邮件啊？大家怎么看呢？

讨论：

B：40词可能还读一读，400词直接滤过。

C：教授很忙的，开门见山告诉他你想去，简历文章一贴，就够了。

D：套磁不回是正常的，回的是少见的。我感觉只有两种情况会：

• 一是学术上有联系，导师认识之类的
• 二是方向非常match，你做的就是他做的。

至于读他的文献，写写观点，人家根本不care，你解读给他听，不是班门弄斧么。除非你是大牛，对方也是大牛，这可能会有伯乐；通常教授只是招人干活，match最重要。

读两片文献不叫match。

E：我都已经被某学校录取了，给这个学校里另一个老师用该校后缀的邮箱发邮件，仍然没回复，真心怀疑教授们是不是只看熟人发的邮件。

F：我模板套回复率大概40%，表示已经很满足了，总共发了约50封。

G：Too long, and subject not informative... If he can't figure out what you want in 2 seconds, he won't read it. They are too busy to spare 5 minutes to read what you write.

H：第一封只要说我感兴趣就行了。

I：回复你的教授，那都是too simple, sometimes naïve，现实是：

• 你套磁和你是否对该教授有兴趣无关联；
• 教授就算喜欢你，也不一定能为你争取offer（因为不在招生委员会）；
• 就算能为你争取offer也不一定有用，而且对他/她来说多了很多额外工作；
• 就算为你争取了offer，发给你了，你也不一定来；
• 就算你最终来了这所学校，你也不一定跟着他/她，你很可能以“兴趣变化了”为理由，就；
• 跑到其他组，甚至硕士毕业或者是转专业也未必。

上次和老板聊天，他当着我的面打开他的邮箱，我瞄了一眼，发现他大部分的邮件都是Unread。我们组的人的邮件他专门设置了一个marker的color，他才会看。

J：有认识的学姐，赶紧先问问今年组里招不招人，今年没钱不准备招的就不用费力气了。除非每天没几封邮件的新教授，不然肯定不会回的，能看一眼有个印象就不错了，不过400字估计是没戏了。

K：直接上来自报家门写求PhD就完事儿了，如果相互match+老板有钱，就会回你了，你这么写没人愿意看，换位思考啊亲。学术套要第一封邮件表明心意之后再琢磨。

L：你来了就知道了，看了也未必回的，自己学生的不是急事都不一定会，如果你很特别他会记住的，但是回信太麻烦了。

M：我也觉得，别说套磁了，我给自己老板写信他都不回。

N：邮箱常年几千封未读邮件，经常忽视掉一些重要通知。小蜜再发提醒邮件一看 CC 列表远不止我一个人这么懈怠。感觉搞学术的很多都是拖延症晚期患者，有 deadline 的事情都要拖到过期两次再开始干，邮件什么的先放一天再说。不重要的邮件？过一天就忘了。

O：不知道是我们那年还是我们前一年有个牛人写了个套磁的帖子，有句话我深表同意，大概意思是说，牛校，比如专业Top 20的，不用怎么套磁，因为牛校不怎么缺牛学生，很少有教授会因为一个学生的套磁，轻易决定是否要他的，反倒是靠后的，或者保底的要多套套，以保证你真的能拿他家来保底。

P：其实套磁了之后才发现很多教授根本不在乎你的GPA,更不在乎你的GT，他们要的是motivated student，而不是student with high score

Campus Visit的重要性

A：在国内的时候我们对campus visit不是很了解，其实对于美国学生而言，campus visit是非常重要的。你可以有机会跟教授、研究生面对面交谈，可以住在研究生家中体现他们的生活状态。毕竟读PhD是一个漫长的过程，这一段时间对后来的整个人生都有非常重要的意义，所以其抉择一定要非常慎重。在具体细节上，我campus visit时碰到好几个国内来的本科生，他们办的是B2签证，学校在campus visit上可以报销600刀左右，因此国内本科生来campus visit还是非常值得推荐的。

A背景介绍：南京大学，本科物理专业，共申请三次。前两次录取到哥伦比亚大学且入读，后在哥伦比亚大学读硕期间，第三次申请终于被加州理工学院应用物理系、哈佛大学化学物理专业，均获全奖，最终选择去了加州理工

如何套磁？

A：套磁四大战略【上交大学生】

我也不知道到底哪一种最好。主要还是看自己的情况选择吧。不过我可以证明，哪一种都有成功的可能！

第一种，正常套磁。这个大家可以广泛收集资料，很全的。基本上是先选择学校，看主页选择导师，读对方的文献，找出不足或自己认为可以继续研究的方向。然后开始写信，先谈学术，有个几个来回后开始谈自己要出国。

第二种，逼上梁山。我是在没有得到那边老师回应的情况下直接把他的名字写在了申请书上的，然后发了封信：I have submitted a application as your potential student，结果，第二天他就给我回了（之前2个礼拜都没有反应）我IC的offer巨快（11月底吧），就是由于这个的功劳。所以说，如果你特别想去哪个导师那里，而他又没有给你回信，那你可以考虑一下破釜沉舟。PS.，导师给我回的时候其实是还没有看到院里投递的我的资料的，我想可能是被我邮件的名字给吸引了？

第三种，不填老师。这样他们会一个一个老师的传下去，直到一个老师对你感兴趣。我是交了申请后第5天收到Oxford的老师来信，问我要不要读PhD。而牛津我申了PhD的另一个项目的老师至今没有给我回音。这招和幸运指数直接挂钩。

第四种，故意犯错。个人认为这都不叫套磁了，犯个低级错误，然后导师会和你联系。我申bristol的时候，发错PS了，结果对方导师给我发了个邮件。然后我就顺着杆子爬。

B：仅表达兴趣的套磁没有任何意义【中科大学生】

一上来，就是什么feel great interest in your group。没用的，美帝喜欢有创意的东西，要不然就别套。把材料弄过去，然后直接问小米，谁对我感兴趣，然后直接去给那个感兴趣的教授写信，我就是这么搞的。

C：课题最重要【上交大学生】

1. 要看学校的录取制度，因为如果这个学校是第一年就要做RA，直接进实验室的话，那么套磁有很大的必要，几乎可以决定你的录取，但是，如果学校第一年要做rotation TA然后第二年是RA的话，那么也要看。你套磁的教授如果在committee中，他如果对你很有好感的话，那么你套磁还是有机会的，如果你成绩什么都不差的话，那么拿到offer的可能性很大。

2. 区别一下Professor和Assist Pro. 其实这个要看的，有人说Assist因为要成为Pro就会加油干，其实不一定，这个只是一方面，还有就是Professor手下可能有很多Assist，所以套磁的话，不一定要追着AssistPro去。完全应该根据你的兴趣来。

3. 最后说一点，有些东西到了这里来以后才发现，因为你现在不用担心以后找工作，其实选教授不单单要看有没有钱，当然钱很重要，但是，如果做的是一个你不喜欢的课题，或者说以后没有前途的课题，还不如不来。

D：选AP比选Prof.好【上交大学生】

个人觉得现在的形势套磁没用，不只是经费问题，其实国外的教授已经被中国学生训练的差不多了，对套磁免疫了——我们应该开辟新的方法了。现在套磁真的没用！下一年的funding鬼知道有没有，套了也白套，除非是那些刚来的AP，手上有startup package的。

E：新AP并不好找【上交大学生】

新AP还真的不好找，很多新AP招兵买马的时候还没有开始正式工作，学校网上没资料。等有资料了 start up了，其实人家前期准备也差不多了。

还有一点就是：新AP一般比较着急着要立马可以上手干活的人 比如lab tech、postdoc，对于招学生并不急。当然，学生也是要的，毕竟便宜嘛。

F：建议学术套【北大学生】

我建议先看一篇论文，说一些自己的看法，提一些有意义的问题，比如结论可以加强，条件能否减弱，证明能否简化，之后再说申请的事，我都这么写的，大部分有回信。

G：建议直接联系目标教授的学生

哪些教授想招学生，这个信息非常重要，重点套这些教授会比较有用。不过如何搞到这些信息，一来可以问秘书，二来其实可以直接问系里高年级的研究生，系里的网站上都有他们的邮箱，挑几个看着面善的就问，他们不知道也罢，知道了就赚了，反正没有损失。

H：不是牛人请卖萌

自己一路DIY下来还蛮感慨良多的。我个人觉得，不是牛校的牛人就别学术套了，卖卖萌好了，大家都省力。我有个学长读了一年PhD重申，硬要学术套，他把一个长篇大论的学术套辞信改一下关键信息就海投；他也慷慨地给我看了他的套辞信。最终我感觉他靠的还是自己超高GPA，正面肛到了一个加国学校。我觉得还是motivation最重要了，怎么表达出自己的动机，和决心，理想。也就是PS很重要。

I：往自己的科研经历靠拢

写你看了Prof. 的论文，谈一下你的心得，然后往自己的方向靠，说说自己的科研经历，间接说明你有基础，可以给他干活。不用发成绩，只要大致和Prof相近的科研经历。

J：亮出你的优势

套磁题目：PHD joining your group and +亮点。题目中一定一定把自己的亮点用最简短的语言概括出来，这决定了professor是否愿意打开你的信件。比如我就写得interested in balabala（某个领域）。语音不要啰嗦三五个字概况即可。如果你GPA很高，可以写之；如果rank很棒，也可以写。总之，亮出你的优势！

正文，我推荐不要写太多，两句话介绍一下自己，然后重点介绍自己的research，可以分条列举。针对教授的research area，把你的research尽量写的往教授那个方向靠拢。切记，要找match的教授套，最好之前也看过其文章，不然基本没戏。或者你三维很好，那就当我没说。

最后，客气一下，委婉地问问人家找人不。其实你找的教授基本上都会招人，但是你总得给他一个回你信的理由吧。所以，I was wondering whether you have available RA positions？

最最后，套磁是个碰运气的事，也别把希望全放在上面。

K：三条建议

1. 有选择地套磁：我发现地里很多人都是海套，这样是没用的，应该先选择和自己match的advisor （可能有些还没想好自己到底要研究什么就开始套磁，这样非常浪费申请时间）。

2. 找有funding的advisor：一般有funding的advisor都会在自己的主页说要招人，一般是assistant professor刚拿到funding。还有一类是有funding的associate professor/professor，但是他们一般不会写要招人，我猜可能是因为手下学生太多，这种情况你的套磁可能要看运气了。

3. 套磁的心态要摆正：通过套磁直接给offer的比例是很小的，牛一些的老师更是如此，一般给的回复都是我们不能单独招人，必须通过committee的同意，能够给你一些额外信息的已经很不错了。其实申请PhD最后看的还是自己的实力。

L：不要玻璃心

你95%的邮件都没人回的，我老板一天将近1000封邮件，所以don't take it personally。我今天一共和两个教授聊了1小时，等了6小时，昨天准备了10小时，有些人上网查个教授邮箱，觉得和自己一个方向，发个模板email，然后吐槽人家不回你的，尊重都是互相的。

电话套磁VS邮件套磁

A（本科上交大学生）：应该电话套磁而非Email套磁，理由如下——

申请确实有些凭运气。来了之后才知道那个PROF有钱、那个PROF缺人、那个PROF根本不招学生。 所以我觉得大家不要怕自己口语不好，有机会主动套磁，直接打电话给PROF，问他做的什么项目，同时把自己的专业兴趣说出来，这样要亲近了许多。就算他不招人，你也多了条信息;要是口语实在差的对方听不懂，那就当是一回锻炼，反正总有要你的学校和PROF。

我的感觉是工程（文科不太一样）基本还是老板说了算，有PROF对你感兴趣那是最好。申请了以后不少人(我以前也是这样的)给小米打电话，除了知道状态没有什么用，不如和PROF聊聊。其实你一旦打过去，他们一般都会重视的，因为他们顺便INTERVIEW一下。(有学生想过来干活，那个PROF心里不高兴?)

但电话套磁要注意，一是年级特别大的不要考虑了。他们虽然是PROF，TENURE，但多数快退休了，可能不想招人了(虽然MONEY有)你真的来了，到他那里其实他不是很CARE，也不会学到多少东西(轻松倒是真的)，ASSOCIATE或者ASSISTANT都比较缺人，当然风险大(可能老板提前走掉了)，也比较累(有的老板整个一工作狂)，但他们需要好的学生来帮他出成果。 你要是真的没有什么研究经验，聊天的时候就说TA也好。这种PROF，他们都特别想做出成果来，对上本科的课大多反感，通常至少需要TA帮他分担上课的负担(我们这里一个工作狂，向系里要求自己花钱请别人代他上课未果，干脆每节课都要TA 上，他在下面边听边看PAPER!)。

当然主动电话套磁需要准备一下，不妨从鸡肋学校的鸡肋老师开始。不过要注意，千万不要一个系的老师同时献媚。这边PROF信息交流很快的，到了年底APPLICATION是他们经常聊的一个话题。你至少应该知道这个PROF做什么，否则就是浪费时间。

如果你对一个教授感兴趣，知道他可能会要你。就应该多看看他做的研究方向，具体一些。然后在PS中提到。申请寄了以后，别忘了和他保持联系，电话永远比EMAIL管用。EMAIL在他们看来是骚扰，千篇一律，他心情好或者特别需要人才会搭理你;电话抓住他，他跑不掉，而且也不会随意应付。

B：电话套磁四个注意事项

1、他有没有过中国学生?

带过中国学生的(特别是THU，SJTU也不差)一般都知道中国学生的吃苦耐劳，LAB MOUSE人物也，我一师兄回答他的TA OFFICE HOUR说9AM-12 PM，呵呵。同时也知道一开始中国学生的英语都不太好，所以就不用担心了。你可以从GRADUATE STUDENT的信息中找到那些PROF带过中国学生。

2、如果他做和你学的相差太大，你还是不要急于电话了

3、你看他以前的RESEARCH 的FUNDING，他有过多少RESEARCH PROJECT，越多越需要人呀。找个感兴趣的入手，要学会提问题?让他感觉到你的兴趣，而且思维比较敏锐

4、要是有PAPER(不少都知道放在它的主页上)，最好不过，找到一篇就好办了，记住在多看看PAPER后面的REFERENCE。 记住，你没有十足把握，不要谈PAPER，看这些只是为了更多的了解。

注意：聊坏了就算了。所谓的坏，是指吹牛或不诚实，被对方立刻发现了，或者什么都不懂，强行装懂。其余的交流问题不用怕，你甚至可以过几天再跟他打，告诉他你特别希望能去做，上次希望通过电话IMPRESS HIM，但一紧张效果不好。坦诚最重要，PROF会理解的。

C（质疑A）：

那么夸张，现在难道都要电话套磁了？跟中国人说英语都有困难何况和老外呢，别说坏了！

A（回复C）：

这是我的体会。你真的怕和老外交流，来了怎么办？所有的中国学生除了在学校上比较容易分出档次，其他的都不太可信，连GRE。所以PROF特别想知道你究竟是怎样一个人，不是那些死板的数据。 声音是立体的，你和他说2分钟，效果比PS强许多。

D：实例

我们系（MIT电气工程与计算机科学系）的一个著名教授每年都收到无数亚裔学生的套磁信，他都不回。这位同学很优秀，他就回了一封套磁信，在EMAIL的不起眼的角落有他的手机号码，这一般是不会给的。但是在这位同学受到录取信后要求资助的时候，他的很多信没有一个被回。后来他急了用手机联系教授得到了全奖。在后来教授的家宴上，教授在介绍这位同学给其夫人时，说他找到了正确的联系方法。同样的事发生我的一个同学身上。她只有一个OFFER。就是给MIT教授打电话得到的。但是，千万注意这是在有很积极的会应得情况下。很多时候，教授没有太多的时间去记住你。在恰当的时候就要提醒。有时EMAIL是不会被看。

小木观点：A的观点很有借鉴意义，但小木还是坚持认为Email套磁是第一步，否则会给人极不礼貌的印象。一旦有回应——正面甚至负面都可以——就可以考虑电话套磁。D那位同学的做法就是实例，必要的时候，该电话就得电话！

教授的决定权到底有多大？

话题缘起：

A：看到很多同学都在套磁了，我看了一些教授的主页，有的专门指出不要给他发套磁信， 因为他没有权力决定是否收学生，而是evaluation committee决定。所以想问问各位，教授对学生是否录取决定权到底有多大？

话题讨论：

B：根据我的套磁经验，教授牛的话，并且有钱有招生意向，他就有完全决定权，只要套的好，就算因为你的成绩或英语系里打扮，老板也会很容易跟他们argue，如果在我上面说的条件下，系里一般不会说什么的。

其他assistant 或者 associate说话可能就没那么分量了，当然不敢给你打包票，但是如果你各项条件都很优秀，他应该也会给你积极的信息，比如说了他没决定权，but 你的其他都很好，我相信会没问题的。我觉得这样还是比较合乎常理的。

C：在我看来，如果真正能打动faculty，人家又有钱招人，不论学校政策是什么，教授想要人小米们还是得充分考虑人家的意见的。象我们学校号称教授完全不管也无权管招生的,学生第一年必须做2-6个rotation，graduate school一堆小米又把招生弄得很像模像样很严肃正式，架子很高轻易不能松口的样子，但一旦某个学生联系好了Prof.，Prof.表示非常想要招并且跟小米提出时，小米们一定会给充足的面子。因为小米的一部分职责是服务于Prof.，小米们的工资一部分都是Prof. 们的经费划出来的。所以只要不存在啥GPA小于3托福550不到等，有把柄给小米们抓的情况，基本就等于会给offer。以后的rotation等也就是走走样子。

实际情况是，一般看到网站说明，很多人就不会太联系了。绝大多数联系了的人，也“打动”不了faculty，Prof. 们客套回一下。但偶尔总还是有这样那样的牛人，或者恰好碰上了自己实验室连年招人不顺的Prof. ，于是就出现这样“特招”的情况了。

最难的地方在于，打动人家，让人确实觉得找你他自己很值。要知道除极个别情况，一般教授招个学生还是很容易的，为什么需要费些时间和精力，亲自和小米提出要你？你来与与其他人任何人来没有区别？凭什么要你？仅靠我们写个“I am very interested in your research in xxx”，或者充其量看看人家两篇paper扯上或深或浅的两句或者若干句？ 或者你的GPA 4.0, GRE 1400？ 如果真GPA4.0 GRE1400, 单纯把材料寄给小米就可以了，没有什么能比这样的数字更打动小米们的心了。但是Prof. 一般都不care。

Prof. 们自己走的路多了，见过的学生多了。象我们这种做过若干或者一系列实验，有关方向懂得一点或者几点，有一些有点意思但还是很naive的见解，GPA GRE大都还好你要是看CV都还是偏top 或者excellent的学生，你自己可能很自豪（当然，需要有点自豪），但Prof. 们碰到的认识的就太多了太多了。是不是这一类的或者再加上一些限制因素，这些学生做Science 就跟他们的GRE分数GPA分数或者英文信件的流利程度一样水涨船高了（当然，这些高还是比低好），能在做science过程中中处处体现聪明才智与众不同了？更何况还是一些communism 培养下的international student, who knows 他们是不是认为这个世界都

是马克思创造的？

99%的Prof. 们都很清楚，他所招的90%的学生都是差别不大的，剩下的10%的学生，也只能说自己很幸运--自己很难说是伯乐但确实抓到了一匹千里马。但是，他现在却要为一个陌生的听起来跟他见过的90%的学生一样没多大差别甚至还嫩一些或者嫩好些的学生，顶着点点打破规则的压力（尽管这压力很小），叫平时八杆子打不着的自己一直认为都是一些吃闲饭的自以为是的小米们给他面子。我还要写funding, 参加会议，跟底下的学生讨论实验进展，我的schedule已经排到Christmas...套磁信？我还是设个回复模板吧。要是清闲，且当fun看看，或者回一封：这是今天我收到第6封套磁信。6是我的幸运数字，恭喜你中奖

了...获本人亲笔email一封。

那我们要不要套磁了？要！在没有offer的时候，我们能指望什么呢？一句"I am interested in xxx" 从饥渴的教授那边获得一点点青睐，也足以让我们黑暗漫长的等待日子燃起一点点亮光了，尽管说不定后面是2000刀/mon掩盖下的5-10年更黑暗和漫长的日子。聊胜于无嘛。

如果想真正的套一个教授要怎么做？如果你真想做sicence, 如果你把他所在方向的主要paper能都读一遍，写一个的综述，理清已知和未知；或者针对人家实验室发的paper，在实验设计方面，或者实验室未来方向提出一些看法和想法，人家可能会对你另眼相看。有牛人，follow了一个牛老板实验室所做的东西两年，一封几页的套磁信之后成功转到该老板实验室。

我以前也很嫩的套过词...即使现在我也没有那么大的internal energy去这样的套磁。但是要知道这些1%的机会绝对不是给99%的人准备的。另外1%的彩票机会，大家拼人品吧。

D：有教授是这么回复的：I may have some influence to their decision, but need to wait until early next year when they review applications.

为什么要套磁？

A：教授需要确保不要错招学生，否则就是灾难

中国PhD学生普遍能遇到三个症结中间的一个：1.GPA+学校背景中下；2.英语成绩不够好（托福100以下或者GRE没考到320+3.5）；3.申请PhD的过程中只有网申，没有套磁

2的话最为容易，去把托福或者GRE刷一刷就可以了，成绩总是能刷够的，为了让自己留学几十万的投资更有价值，就多考几次千把块的考试吧。刷刷刷成绩就好。

3的话是很多中国学生的通病，尤其是北大这种China's top school第一年申请的学生尤其容易犯。需要站在教授的角度上考虑问题，PhD FULL FUNDED的话，需要有5-6年左右的合作时间，教授需要持续资助你5-6年（这是一笔很大的钱），所以对于教授（尤其年轻教授）来说，错招一个学生就是灾难（相反，招到好学生就是中了头奖）。什么样的学生是正确的选择呢？一般来说需要有很好的背景知识、很强烈的求学兴趣以及克服困难的精神。这些东西都是需要交流才能确定的。

China's top school学生很多都是递交了材料，就不管不顾了；北大学生普遍很给力，但是年轻人也容易骄傲；如果是一个比如中国其他985大学的优秀学生，有着好的托福和GRE成绩，又对教授表达出强烈的求学热情，那么教授一般就会倒向他然后把全奖给他。

如果是1的话，我觉得还是直接申硕，毕竟GPA是改变不了的，来年申请也未必更成功；去某所还不错的大学，打点零工，另外在master期间把master GPA刷好，直接申请本校的博士。【北大学生】

B：套磁的最低作用也总比没有好

套磁应该在你准备申请材料的同时进行。找到系里的主页，上面都有各个教授的email地址，然后你就发信吧。回信的肯定是少数，不过你给近千个教授发信，总会有上百个回信。这中间还有很多是客气，套话，说什么你的成绩好，录取有希望，不过你最好别抱太大希望。想当初，MIT、Chicago、yale等很多好学校的教授都这么跟我说，害的我白白交了那么多申请费。如果说钱是小事，那么我当时喜悦的心情逐渐破灭确实挺让人难受。

有人认为只有研究生套磁有用，因为套磁是与教授直接接触，而本科生没有论文，没有方向套磁自然没用。其实，本科生套磁一样用处特别大。我遇到几个教授，刚发了信简单说说自己的情况，他们就迫不及待的说要给我钱让我一定去。这样你起码心中有底了。你套磁中应该问问他们系这个专业缺不缺人，如果教授告诉你特别缺人，那你就放心申请吧，肯定是offer。如果教授都说人满为患了，那你还申请什么呀。这样申请的目标很明确，可以保证成功率。当然，如果某个学校没有一个教授回信，也别失望，我最后去的学校就是没有一个教授给我回信的学校。

总之，虽然不套磁也可以来offer， 但套磁说不定会给你一个惊喜。而且，选择申请学校时目的也更明确。反正那时侯也没什么事，闲着也是闲着，不套白不套，顺便练练写作。但套磁时尤其是套同一个系的几个教授时要慎重，最好不要把话说的太绝，也不要随便对教授表示忠心，因为这些教授经常在一起，可能会互通信息。

但是，套磁的最大害处就是教授满心欢喜的等着你去，你可能又去了别的学校。这样确实很不道德，也会损害中国学生的声誉，影响后来申请的同学。当时有一个教授可以说对我仁义尽致，我后来写拒信时整整花了一个星期来思考怎么写，真有一种犯罪感。不是我在这里装纯洁，当时我整整内疚了一个多月。我相信这个NMSU的教授以后不会相信任何中国学生了。【复旦学生】

C：为了奖学金！

奖学金有RA、TA和Fellowship。RA是教授出钱，毫无疑问是需要套磁得来的；TA是助教，但是这个职位也是教授说了算，比如教授自己教的课，助教位置给谁。所以说TA也是需要套磁给的；Fellowship经常需要教授提名。教授为什么提名你不提名别人，所以也是需要套磁的。总而言之，不管是RA、TA还是Fellowship，都需要套磁得来。

D：有部分学校是先给录取，后让找RA的

比如我申的奥本大学ECE，好不容易PhD拿到录取，却被小秘告知要自己老师拿RA。悲催没有人回复，着急！

到底应不应该套磁？

话题缘起：

A：看了很多类似“教授的回复是什么含义”的帖子，感觉95+%都是礼貌的客气话，这样的套磁真的有意义吗？我问了一个朋友关于套磁的看法，得到的答复是“好像都是比较久远的方法了”（当然，这只是人家基于自己的理解）。另外，有些教授特别反感“套磁”，尤其尤其，是泛泛之谈的邮件。再次，那些有心情礼节性回复的教授，我感觉他们的脾气真是太好了。

话题讨论：

B：

个人感觉泛泛发邮件骚扰真的是骚扰，很多general的问题其实不应该发到教授那，而是系里的小米或者研究生院管录取的。所以很多人出发点和问问题的方式非常幼稚，包括我在以前。能来这个论坛听来听去的应该慢慢也上道了一点，以前的学生都不喜欢发邮件，特别是发英文的，还有就是什么qq邮箱翻墙问题之类的，总之，除非你做好详细的准备了，不要随意的发毫无营养的长篇大论给教授。90%是直接trash，10%是被拿来当笑料。

最好的办法是：一定要找到某种connection，目前国内牛的实验室或者课题组都有从美国回来的，你顺着关系无论近不近找找联系，了解背景，一是给自己做判断，二是开口有话讲。再者最好来美一趟，未来重大的改变为何不赌上一张机票，眼见为实，而且就不存在发垃圾邮件的问题。

撒网捕鱼或者中介什么的适可而止了，读到研究生，今年是2016，如果你对留学，或者美国毫无深度认识，成绩也不佳，你永远都是loser，别挣扎了。

C：

不要提前自己否定自己啊……真正看懂提出来的应该不会很蠢吧，而且老师也会从一个申请者的角度，而不是一个学术老油条的角度评价你的。而且建立了联系让老师眼熟你，老师看到了你的学术追求，肯定比不套磁强啊。

如果你真的读得很认真还是提出了很蠢的问题，只能说明你的水平还不够，那即使撞大运被录取了也一样会很痛苦吧。

D：不要被每天发“这样的套磁回复是怎样的”帖子所迷惑，bias太强了。就和定位的时候没什么大牛，出结果的时候就一堆四大一样，大部分大牛都喜欢潜水，而且已经套过了的人专门发一贴“我已经套磁成功，拿到了口头Offer”这样难道不是在拉仇恨么？

套磁和最后能不能录关系真不大，大部分套到口头offer的就是正常申问题也不大，就是早点有保底放心而已了，想通过套磁套到冲刺级别学校的offer还是不要想太多了。

E：我的内心是同意LZ的观点的，但是大家都套又怕不套会吃亏,而且不套的话不好写research proposal吧。

F：有意义。关键在于套对了人很有意义。而且切忌太学术的套，除非你真的跟那个教授搞的完全相关的topic。具体原因基本上就是，有些老师真的很缺学生。套上这些老师会让你的机会增加很多。所以一定要选好了哪些老师像是急需学生的套。

而一般而言，最需要学生的就是新AP。最需要中国学生的就是中国新AP。因为他们五六七年后要评tenure。所以知道该套谁，然后再挑几个研究方向好的（你喜欢或者skill set方便就业），去尽力而为。

G：我认为还是应该发的。首先教授不会笑话一个还没进入领域的人的，尤其是本科生，他们能够理解。诚然，绝大多数教授对套磁都不以为然，但是套磁至少会让对方记住你的名字会看你的申请（当然一般情况下PS提到的教授都会看），如果恰好碰上想招人的那就更能提前建立联系。特殊的经历（比如在大牛的组里干活）也会引起老师的注意。

长篇大论不需要，对方没耐心，长度要适中，需要说起两边相关的地方。当然最好不要泛泛发，如果精力不足或那个教授并不是第一第二选择，只谈自己的项目，群发也无不可。

来美的问题是，首先要跟教授搭上线，直接闯办公室非常非常非常rude，但是这不还是得发邮件？另外套磁能有几个回复的呢？而且这个是针对PhD的吧。

补充干货吧，套磁成功的，THU一个妹子得到了rank20以内加州校的保底offer+被套教授的推荐信，PKU一个拿到了rank15以内学校最牛老师的保底offer。这两个是我知道的。我自己也小有所获不细说了。两个例子都是纯发邮件套到的。不要因为套磁失败就停下努力的脚步。

H：有必要发啊。上个月拿到了专排9的PhD保底全靠套磁。看了些论文，稍微扯了点联系，没有太深入发表啥长篇大论。

I：看几篇论文就敢套磁的我也是很服。

J：【回复I】没有什么不对啊，看多了也没用，14年的论文基本上教授现在就不一定再做了，15年的论文也就发个几篇吧，看看有兴趣就套呗。套个磁都畏首畏尾的机会不早都溜走了。

面试应该向教授问一些什么问题？

话题缘起：

A：回到家查邮件，收到USC的电面通知了。看邮件的语气，面试是发邮件的教授本人亲自面，有可能就是所谓的未来的导师来面了。但这个教授一方面是个Assistant professor，另一方面他的研究方向虽然在我的resear ch interest之内，但我不是那么想从事这个方面的研究。所以，求问对策。尤其是我问问题的时候，是应该泛泛地问点气候、学校的问题，还是应该看看他的paper，问学术一点点的问题。

话题讨论：

B：显然是往学术上靠吧。

C：问问进去是不是rotation比较好吧，如果你不是那么想跟他的话。

D：不太清楚你申的方向是怎么选取教授来面试的，但起码我这边，一般都选个AP，AP就是用来干这种事情的嘛，哪有正教授弄这么多电面的？——然后是相关方向都选同样的AP去面，所以实际上不一定就是他面你，你就得跟他。不要问气候，这个太不专业了。问program的一些情况，譬如和别的program有没有交叉性啊，具体方向的老师都在做些什么啊之类的。当然，如果是你之前就套过的，或者你们program的规矩就是谁面你你进谁实验室的，那另说。

E：问学术。还有program的训练方式，可以问教授的mentoring style。反正又不是要你当面决定，还是认真应对吧，以后说不定还有交道。

如果套磁老师不回你怎么办？

A：其实套磁之前可以问一下graduate office的小米，哪个教授有open position。

B：top学校的导师每天都会收到一大堆一大堆，不回复很正常吧。记得之前有教授说，你会希望你的导师每天都在回复套磁邮件，不把重心放在组里的学生身上？只有你申请了，非常serious的希望进组，教授才会去认真考虑。这会儿除非你over qualify的话，导师很想要你，才会去积极争取你。

C：套磁信一定要有针对性，模型类型的邮件教授一扫而过，根本不会回复的。

D：我觉得你发够100封之后再看吧。

E：同一个学校，可以等一周，如果没有回复，发第二封或者套第二个老师。

F：套磁不回是正常的。我有一次去老师办公室，老师刚好在发邮件，我瞟了一眼，未读邮件有1w+，可以想象一下是何概念。

G：套磁不回复无非有以下几种应对办法：

• 过几天再给这个教授发同样的一封信.
• 过几天再给这个教授发比上一封有改进的信
• 给同一个教授发了一封不回复，就套同一个系里面的另外一个教授
• 给同一个教授发了两封还不回复，再套同一个系里面的另外一个教授
• 给同一个教授发了三封还不回复，才套同一个系里面的另外一个教授
• 改电话套磁

H：陶瓷邮件隔个好几天甚至好几周回都很常见的。

如何进行学术套

话题缘起：

A：一个AP，大牛校的，说要招人，但扫了一眼他的文章，全是公式，感觉搞不定。本来想看看他的论文继续加强联系的，但全是公式完全看不懂，这可如何是好？

话题讨论：

B：我跟我联系的导师说了我看不懂他文章里推导公式的过程，让他发一些论文或参考书目给我。然后他就发了几篇综述和最基础的论文让我看，然后还说如果有问题可以约时间面谈。

总之，要把自己不懂的地方说出来，这样导师才能对症下药。

C：如果“扫一眼”就能把教授做了几个月几年的东西看懂…，沉下心慢慢推导吧。

MS套磁到底有没有用？

A：我是15fall的，其实我也有相同的疑问，不过我认识的学长学姐就有陶瓷后，很快就被录取的，有的是套director,不是学术套，而是更新一下自己的进展，进一步表达自己特想去这个学校，另一种就是套比较match的教授，表达在研究生期间做研究的想法，反正两种方法我都知道成功的先例。

B：要看录取结果是不是committee决定的吧，很多学校的硕士申请是comittee决定录取与否，教授的话语权很小的，那陶瓷了也没用。录取以后陶瓷不说钱吧也许可以和套的教授做研究，这样也挺好的。

C：套Director，就是套管招生的教授，但不是聊对方的学术和研究，而是表达自己有多么多么想来你们学校。有成功的先例，但也不排除会有负面的效果吧。

D：MS不需要套磁也能被录取是肯定的。

多伦多大学教授教您套磁技巧

整体思路：
套瓷阶段至少选择10+的教授，一轮聊完挑5个左右感兴趣的继续深入沟通，再决定要跟谁。‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌哪怕从一开始沟通的第一个教授你就很喜欢，且他也愿意要你，也不要放弃这个流程。广撒网的重点不是留备胎，而是通过与不同的教授沟通来确定自己的方向。用C的话说，做研究总会有崩溃、想放弃的时候，如果你一开始沟通了足够多的教授，花了足够的时间思考做抉择，等你后悔的时候就可以回想一下当初是为什么选择的这个导师，而不是想着“说不定我之前选XXX现在会做得更好”。

怎么了解教授：
教授的个人主页是会有滞后性的，特别是大教授，个人主页往往好多年没更新了。要了解一个教授最新的研究方向最好的途径就是Google Scholar，因为它最及时，且方便看合作者。

怎么约教授：
遇上不回邮件的教授怎么办？C说有两个思路，首先大牛教授基本上会有秘书（Supporting Staf），联系他们比较容易得到答复，至少能知道教授最近的availability。另一个方法就还是看Google Scholar，找近两年他们发表的paper的第一作者，很大概率会是教授现在的学生，通过学生约更方便。当然最便捷最有效的方式就是，你本身就是该校的学生，那么就可以直接去敲教授办公室门，前提是找知情人询问一下教授是不是欢迎这种方式。

怎么跟教授聊：
沟通之前了解一下教授应该就不用说了，C也表示教授们会对熟悉自己研究的学生更热情。重点是沟通之前要先想好自己跟着这个教授想做什么。C的原话：很多学生找到教授说"I have a broad interest, I can do anything",自以为通过降低自己的要求可以得到更多机会，但事实是教授们并不喜欢这样的回答。他们会希望学生知道自己要做什么，至少有个大方向。就算教授手里没有你想做的项目，如果他们喜欢你的话也会给你提供其他选择或者把你推荐给同事的。

其它：
每个教授会有不同的风格，不同的需求，在做最后决定前一定要找他们的学生了解组里的氛围和风格是怎么样的，如果发现跟自己期望不符的话不要勉强，不然进去之后也不会开心。
不要在暑假找教授，因为教授们暑假（6-7月）度假/开会的安排会很多，不在学校不能及时回复你也没有多少精力跟你细聊。最好的时间是8月中旬，那时候教授们陆陆续续回学校开始为新学期做准备了，对招学生这事也会更认真

套磁回复

套磁回复鉴定方法

1. 如果老板回信通篇只是提到说要你去提交申请，或者说得好听点鼓励你去申请，那么这个是不能算数的，这种情况多出现于模板中。随便他说得怎么天花乱坠，都是无用功。

2. 老板说：你来申请，申请好了告诉我，我来跟招生委员会的人说。 这种情况属于成功50%，多出现于老板本人没有招生权利的情况下，这就要看老板有没有影响力了，如果是业界大牛，即使没有在委员会里，往往也是能让学校收你的。Anyway，毕竟这个不是100%保证的。

3. 老板说：你把材料给我，我来向委员会推荐。这种情况属于成功80%，因为老板提到他个人去推荐，说明了两点，首先是他真的想要你；然后是他的推荐是肯定有用的。但是，这个推荐的话只是给予你申请以很大的加权，跟2中的情况一样，如果老板属于大牛，一般情况下说出这话就基本offer在手了，否则的话，仍然有被招生委员会驳回的危险。

4. 老板说：很好，你真的确定要来这里吗？那你填写一下系里的申请，我来跟系里说我要你。这个就是offer在路上啦，多见于老板本人有招生权利的情况，收到这样的信，那么就congratulations啦。（南京大学某同学的总结，见于小百合BBS站）

套磁回复举例

1. 会给admissions committee建议

Great. I will keep a look out for the file when MSE starts to review them. I am not directly involved in admissions, but can offer to them my suggestions.

鉴定：这是有戏了。

2. 录取是由admissions committee决定的，我的意见只做参考

I appreciate your interest, but i am unable to provide to provide feedback to prospective students at this stage. all i can do is encourage you to apply to our graduate program and indicate my name as a faculty you would be interested in working with (that way, the admissions committee will make sure to get my input on your application).

good luck!

鉴定：不是所有的录取都是教授决定的。这里教授已经点明了，录取是“admissions committee”决定的，他们会参考一下这个教授的意见，但是教授没有最终的决定权（各个学校各个专业录取都不一样，像我们专业最终的录取完全由committee决定，其他教授就不允许插手）。而且从回复内容来看，还是比较positive的。

3. 想做Research Associate吗？

Thank you very much for your interests. What kind of postition are you applying for? a research associate or a Ph.D. Student? 

鉴定：这里教授是在问你是要求给他做研究助理还是在他的手下念PhD。研究助理是没有学位可拿的，纯粹是打工。

4. 留意到了你的学术观点

Thanks for your reply.
I have many emails that I receive and I'm sorry that I have not replied to  this one for several months.
I think you have some possible good ideas with respect to what concepts you use to do the machine learning in this context.
We have not started to look at students for next year, but if you are still planning to apply to the U of S, I will see your application shortly after Christmas.

鉴定：算是比较正面的回复，至少表明这位教授注意到你了，而且还比较认可的你对机器学习的一些Idea。

5. 没有资金，如果自费的话，不介意

Thank you for your letter
The lab is not hiring, but if you can get the funding from China to come to the lab, we my consider it.

鉴定：这个教授想招人但是没有资金了，如果你不介意的话，可以继续套，表示你并不介意自费。

6. 申请之后再来找我

Hi,

After you send your PhD application to CMU, please send me an email. I will be able to tell you more information at that time.

Regards.

鉴定：不太乐观，属于模板回复。

7. 我想录取你，但是没钱

Today I recommended to the Office of Admissions that you be admitted to the Graduate College as student of mathematics and a candidate for the degree of Master of Science.  You should hear directly from the Admissions Office within three or four weeks.

Our screening committees have now completed their work and I regret that we will not be able to offer you financial aid.

If you have questions about our department or our programs please contact me. I will be happy to provide you with all of the information that you need in order to evaluate the opportunities at Illinois.

鉴定：你被录取了，但是没钱。

8．问职业规划，问Motivation

求鉴定：之前我的referee认识这个Prof，就重点向我推荐他，说他的学校和他都比较好，然后我就义无反顾地申了。my referee前天写了一封信给他，然后让我联系这位Prof，于是早上写信一封，每想到这么快就回复了。有两处不懂，还请大家指教：1）他手里到底有没有研究生名额呀？2）他让我联系department招生委员会的头，一般来讲我应该说些什么好呢？

Dear XXX, Thanks for your email.  Prof. XX has communicated with me concerning your application. I trust his judgement.

I am interested in your research topic but still need time to read it more carefully.  My quota of students is full right now but I should have 1 Ph.D. and 2 M.Phil. students completing their degrees this summer.  I have been contacted by many applicants this year.

They are all interested in XXX.  The selection process will be very competitive but I am glad that you will attempt. I believe that you are an intelligent student with vision of making the world better.

What is your career plan? Are you going to become a scholar in the future? I am copying this email to Prof. XXX who is the chair of graduate penal in our dept.  You may need to contact him during your application process. Best wishes to your application.

鉴定：

1. 他能招生，但是找他的人很多，他还需要仔细的筛选。

2. 他提到招生委员会的头意思是招生过程的问题别问他了。

3. 好好回答他的问题，你以后的职业规划是什么的，想不想做个学者，就是说你的motivation。这个问题应该是你应该重点考虑的，也会影响到他是否招你，作为硬件以外的因素，motivation对于他筛选学生是很重要的一点。

4．另外，我觉得他把信转给招生委员会的头其实是帮你通前几轮选拔，挺好的

9．给Offer没问题，但问题是你会不会去

北大的学生套的IUB教育学收到的回复：

Thanks for your inquiry. Your chances are extremely good for both admittance and scholarship for the Fall. I am program head and chair of recruiting and did not admit any students to my lab last year and hope to admit at least two new students. 

My sponsor at the MacArthur has just asked me rapidly expand my efforts in open learning this area and I need to expand my team and you look like a very good fit.  The deadline for international applications is December 1.

Can you get your application completed by then? We can skype soon but the main thing is to get the application process started immediately.

鉴定：非常正面的回复，基本上录取妥妥的，但是要问自己有多大的意愿去这所学校。

10. 未必有钱招生，却强烈鼓励申请

Thanks for your email and interest in our graduate program.  I don't know yet if I will be accepting a new student next fall.  It will depend on funding.  I strongly encourage you to apply to our program.  Please let me know if you have any questions about the application process or more specific questions about my research.  I look forward to seeing your application.

这是啥意思啊。不一定有钱招生，但是还强烈鼓励俺申请

鉴定：对方的意思就是很看好你的背景和成绩，如果他有钱一定会给你的，只是暂时funding的连续性上有问题而已。有的项目钱是要通过中期审查之后才能继续发放，所以有时有可能出现资金断档的事。不过如果伊这么说了，还是申请吧，也许他会推荐你去做系里的TA

11．先说没钱，然后说可以申

I am sorry to say that I am not currently in a position to extend an offer with funding to any graduate students right now. Moreover, my Department does not have TA/RA positions readily available to support you. This tends to be what students in your situation do not want to hear.

Our research group tends to look for three things in an incoming student. First, the student needs to have a strong background that include...skills, and mathematical prowess. Second, the student needs to have passions in ... that align with ours. We allow some leeway in research project choice, but the project needs to align with the current research agenda of our Lab. Finally, as a student that can attack and solve problems on his/her own is always valuable, independence is a key attribute.

From what you sent, you look like you would be a fit with our research group. We always have plenty of research going on and students readily find projects here. Plus, there are plenty of international students including many from you part of the planet. Should you have questions about applying, I would be happy to discuss that as well (or direct you to the right person).

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you want to continue the conversation in light of this.

鉴定：对方没钱，但是如果你自费的话，他也许乐意帮你。属于半模板回复

12．我招学生，你的背景看起来不错，申请了马上告诉我吧

Yes, I do believe we will be hiring students next year. We have several projects that we are collaborating with our colleagues at xxx University that you might be a good fit for. I am cc'ing my colleague xxx. You should apply to both xxx and xxx. Once you do, send us a note and xxx and I will discuss your qualifications and see if you would be a good fit for any of our active projects.

鉴定：不过是模板回复，虚夸几句，增加自己的candidate pool

13. 我要等到明年春季才知道有没有资金，先保持联系吧

Thank you very much for your inquiry regarding our graduate program.  Unfortunately, I do not have any graduate student funding currently available.  However, this situation may well change by Spring of 2016. Hence, I would encourage you to keep in contact and would welcome your application this fall at which time I should know more about the funding situation.

鉴定：把你当备胎，可以申请前1封，来年1月再1封

14．等招生委员会决定

thanks for your mail. We are currently awaiting the results of the PhD admissions committee.

Once you application has been reviewed and in case the review is positive, I’m happy to discuss

more details about a possible PhD position.

鉴定：模板回复，教授对招生无太多权限，只能依靠自己的实力过Committee关

模板回复

模板回复最正面的意义就是：对方是个看了你套磁信，并愿意回信的教授。对于这种教授，你只要多问问题就好了。比如看他文章，然后学术上问一问，写个小的proposal。这就是学术套。

模板回复鉴定

除了开头称呼，非专门针对你本人撰写 经典模板：首先Thanks for interest，然后宣传下自己的Research，最后再Encourage一下你 只要没有实质性的东西（面试、口头Offer、强烈的Interest、要看你CV/PS等），就基本上可以算是模板回复

模板回复举例

欢迎与我联系

Feel free to contact me when your application.

嗯，我们找人的，你申请就对了

问是否招人，回复：Yes, please do apply to our program!

请申请，二月给答复

please apply. I'll decide in Feb.

4．申请之后，欢迎联系

Dear xxx,

Thanks for your interest in our Ph.D. program. In order to be considered for possible admission with financial support in our group, you need to apply through xx University. Further information is available at [URL]

After you apply and submit all the required documents once your application file is complete, you are welcome to email me and and I’ll follow up with the university and review your application file.

We have numerous applicants. Reference letters among the other documents (transcripts, etc.) are of great importance in our selection process. We also do a lot of research on XXX (我的研究方向)。

5．你的背景不错，不过先申请吧

Thanks for your interest in our group. Your application looks very impressive! I don't know for sure how many positions I will have in the fall. I encourage you to apply to XXX - you should have a good chance to receive a scholarship with your publication record. It is free to apply to our department. Also, we have a XXX program that may be of interest to you: XXX.

After you are accepted, we can investigate applying for XXX funding (this requires that you are first accepted in the department). Please let me know if you need more information.

6．谢你感兴趣，我的项目很不错的，你的背景也不错，好好申请吧，加油！

Dear XXX,

thanks much for your message and interest in our program. I will be quite eager to find a student to join my active tectonics research group this coming year. Of course, graduate school admissions are a competitive/difficult process, and most years more than 20 applicants are interested in my group, from which we have to select one or two to recommend for admission. However, I am not quite sure if your background and interests are the best match for what we do in my group.

Our research is quite interdisciplinary focusing on the recent, neotectonic aspects of deformation, rather than tectonics/structural geology in a classic sense. That is, we rely on a mix of geodesy using GPS and InSAR, investigations of (micro)seismicity, tectonic geomorphology, and field mapping. Such observations can then be used to constrain models (usually mathematical constructs) of the first-order mechanics of an actively deforming region, such as the San Andreas fault system, Alaska, Japan, the Sumatra-Andaman subduction zone, or the India-Eurasia collision zone. Many of our efforts are focused on elucidating the various components of the earthquake cycle and related rheological properties of lithospheric materials. We also consider repeating micro-earthquakes and deeply seated non-volcanic tremors to improve our understanding of the behavior of shallow and deep fault zones, respectively. A related topic of interest is related to earthquake triggering and fault interaction via static and dynamic processes. Finally, we have interests in deformation related to non-tectonic surface loads, subsurface fluid flow and landsliding. Our group web pages with references and some research summaries are at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX These should give you an overview of some of the things we've been working on and the approaches we've taken.

I do appreciate, and encourage students who have their own ideas for possible research projects. It would be good to discuss possible projects and ideas during and even prior to the application process, depending on your interests.

The department web pages atxxxxxxxx provide information about other faculty and programs, and applicant information. You may want to contact some of the other faculty members whose program would also be of interest to you. We fully support all of our students (that is, we pay for tuition, fees, and salary).

Please don't hesitate to get back to me with any additional questions you may have.

Cheers,

XXXX

7．我招人的，你申请的时候记得把我放在你的interest list上

XX, Thanks for your email. I will be looking at graduate applications this year. So make sure you get your application in by January 1. And if you want me to look at it list my name on it as someone you are interested in working with.

8. 我看了你的简历，还挺适合的，申请了知会我一声哈

I’ve looked at your resume and your experience is definitely applicable. If you decide to apply to UMN, please let me know. Also, be sure to apply before the December 15th deadline. The department and college offer fellowships, but to be considered your application must be received by this deadline.

9．谢联系，我很高兴你愿意来我这，有啥问题可以问我

Thanks for contacting me. I will be happy to work with you if you decide to come to~~. Please let me know if you have any questions.

10．你的背景挺不错的，我也招人的，不过我们的竞争很激烈的，看好你哦

thank you for your inquiry. I am impressed with your background and do plan recruit few more phd students. I would encourage you to submit your application to study at XXX. due to space limitation, the admission is quite competitive.

I wish you the best and hope to see you at XXX.

11．欢迎申请，没关系，你可以把我放在你的interest list上

You are welcome to apply for our Ph.D program and feel free to mention my name and area in your application.

12．我招生学生，申请时如果你提及我为你感兴趣的导师，我会看到的

Thanks for contacting me. I do have positions for Ph.D. students and would encourage you to apply to Duke. However the admission decisions at Duke will be taken collectively based on the entire pool of applicants. If you mention my name in your application, I will get to see it.

13．你的背景挺适合我们实验组的，我无法确保能录取你，这是招生委员会决定的

Thank you for your interest in the PhD program at xxx. Your experience in xxx is certainly of interest to my groups research. We will be actively recruiting PhD students to begin in the Fall 2016 semester. While I cannot guarantee admission as this is decided to a collective committee of the xxx. Factualy I would like to encourage you to apply. You will find details of the admissions process at the following link xxxx

I have also cc’d our Graduate Programs xxx should you have any questions regarding the admission procedure.

14．谢感兴趣，我们确实招生学生的，不过此时我尚给不了承诺，因为决定是招生委员会决定的，不过我会尽力帮助你的

thank you for your interests in our group! We do actively recruit motivated graduate students, like you. I strongly encourage you to apply to the graduate program here at Penn State. I cannot, however, guarantee anything at this point since the decision will be made by the graduate admission committee. Having that said, however, we will try our best to help. Please let me know if you have questions. Thanks!

15．谢联系，很高兴告诉你我们确实招学生的，嗯，Just申请吧

Thanks for your email.

I'm happy to say that the systems group is hiring. So, please do apply!

16．你的背景挺适合的，嗯，期待看到你的申请

Thanks for your email, and your interest in our group. It sounds like your background would be a good fit for our group. I hope you decide to apply to Berkeley; I would look forward to reading your application.

17．你的CV不错，如果你有幸拿到AD，我会再考虑给不给你RA的

Thanks for your interest my research, you seems have an interesting CV, as for PhD assistantship, you will first apply for PHD to department, if you are granted admission, I will them look at your eligibility for assistantship in my lab.

18．谢申请，我们的申请是由招生委员会决定的，竞争可激烈了

It is good you have applied to the University of XX. A group of faculty decides which students will be admitted. The process is very competitive and dependent on the particular students who have applied. All aspects of the applications are taken into consideration. Research assistantships are usually awarded to students selected.

19．你的背景看起来还行，不过这个时候我还给不了承诺，So，先申请吧

Your background looks good, but I am afraid that I cannot give an answer at this point. The decision is typically made in February or March. If you are interested in joining our group, could you fill in an online application at XXX. We will review PhD applications the coming January.

套磁FAQ

Q：发套辞信的时候是否应该附上CV？

A：一般最好不要将CV做成附件，最好将CV的亮点直接写在套磁信中。一来附件容易被当成垃圾邮件过滤掉，二来教授好不容易翻看你的邮件了，结果还让教授去下载附件，很不妥当。事实上，有很多教授明确声明，让学生不要附CV，而是应当将CV的要点直接写在邮件中的。此外，还可以做一个个人主页（人人上就可以），这样教授就可以在个人主页上看你的科研经历和个人信息。

Q：一个学校，有两个很心仪的老师怎么办？

两个老师分别对应我的两个主要研究小方向，都很心仪，两人在同一部门。请问各位，我是先套一个，还是两个同时套呢？

A：最好不要同时套，教授会怀疑你对自己未来的研究方向不确定。最好选定一个，放弃的那个研究方向如果确实还想申请，就去其他学校看看吧。

Q：套瓷同一个学校不同系的两个老师合不合适？

看过很多说不要同一个学校套两个老师，那么如果这两个老师不在同一个Dpartment甚至同一个College呢？那便如何？

A：这就好比是套多个学校，表达了多个兴趣，原则上也是不可以的。美国教授还是比较注重“真正的兴趣”的。只是，只要学校不同，被发现的几率就不大。不是同一个系同一个学院也是一样，可以套，但可能风险会稍微大一点。建议间隔一段时间，比如7-10天的样子，这样比较稳妥，而且也好解释。

Q：请问要不要套瓷70、80岁的教授？好多年龄大的老师没有个人网站，也不知道近况怎么样。那么如何判断这种老师招不招PHD，以及读PhD适不适合在年纪特别大的老师手下读呢？

A：看现在还在不在发paper。发的话就是还有学术活动，可以再看看一起发paper的人，是PhD还是什么。不发了的话，基本都退休了吧。另外，建议别选年龄太大的导师，万一身体健康出了问题，没人带你，重找导师，费心费力。

Q：非学术套如何套？

A：简单罗列自己的背景，表达兴趣，问招不招人。

Q：MS需要套磁吗？

A：美国MS不需要套磁；加拿大研究型的MS需要套磁，授课型的不需要；英澳同加拿大。

Q：套磁得到模板回复，进一步该怎么办？

如下：Please apply and let me know when you have applied。

A：这样的邮件虽然是模板回复，但也一定要回，大概回一个：I will completed my application on time. Thanks. 此外，套磁中得到模板回复很正常，不宜妄自菲薄，接着开始学术套就是了。

Q：如何向小方向不匹配大方向匹配的老师套磁？

做的研究是一个非常新的领域，很小众，美国有研究的老师不多。如果想申请同时该专业其它方向的老师，虽然大方向相同，但他们的研究都是我未接触太多的，这样怎么写套磁信呢？感觉不好写套磁信，毕竟即便多读几篇文章，还是不能理解太深的。

A：1）如果准备未充分的话，可以先开始非学术套；2）关于见解，虽然不能提出太深的见解，这个，即便是你自己匹配的小方向，相比教授的理解，你也未必能提出很深的见解吧？完全可以细读文章，按照自己的对这个领域的理解，提出问题，开始学术套；3）注意表达深切的兴趣，尤其是为什么转方向。

Q：对于那种在自己个人主页for prospective students明确说不要Email他，联系他，要申请就申请，对他有兴趣录取了再来找他等等类似话的导师，还有必要套磁吗？

A：不要套了。建议在申请材料中提及他，申请了之后再表达兴趣说，已经申请，希望得到关注。

Q：如何判断一个导师招不招人？

A：1）打听打听组里有没有人刚刚毕业；2）可以看看老师现在带着多少个人，多的话就可以不用套了；3）一般教授的主页都有student一栏，可以去看看最近几年的学生，每年招多少，去年有没有招太多；4）也可以看publication，近几年只要在发文章的，都会招人的；5）仔细查看教授的主页，有的有资金的教授会在主页上明确写明要招人的。

Q：加拿大的MSAC需要套磁吗？

A：需要。如果你背景够强，不套磁也是可以录取。加拿大研究型硕士申请的时候就需要填导师的，不套白不套。

Q：学术套是一步到位好，还是分步说好？

心仪教授有一篇2011年的会议，里面讲的方法很有意思，但是我觉得有点问题并且想以此为契机跟他套磁。

方案1：直接问为什么采用这种方法A啊？出于XXX和YYY的原因，这个方法A并不可靠而采取方法B会不会好一点呢？

方案2：这个方法A好巧妙啊！但是关于理论依据教授能不能详细讲一下呢？

哪个方案好呢，是1一步到位还是2先交流学术问题，然后再谈PhD申请的事情？

A：理论上来说，1和2都有人做，也都能成功，所以真实说起来，哪个方案区别都不大——只要教授能睬你。但更建议是第一种吧，最好把自己的科研做个Latex的展示文件连带CV一起发过去。分开说感觉有点做作——人家教授认真和你讨论学术问题，结果发现你只是找个借口套磁！

Q：套AP和Professor哪个更有利？

A：各有利弊吧。AP尤其是刚入职的AP，急于招人，手头有启动资金，更乐意回复套磁信，但普遍Push（这个人看人喜欢不喜欢了），经验少，话语权低；Professor回复套磁信的意愿低，有的前一年招满了人，可能今年就不招了，但说话有份量，业界影响力也高。

Q：国外老师的职称，除了professor、assistant professor、associate professor之外，还有research stuff、research scientist、project engineer、research fellow，这些都是做什么的啊，也能套磁吗？

A：除了前三个带professor的，其它的都不带学生的，不能套。Research stuff、Research scientist、Research fellow是自己做研究不带学生的，Project engineer应该就是学校的工程师。

Q：如何与小秘联系？

A：给小蜜发邮件的话，建议邮件题目就简明扼要，内容有事说事，一定要简明扼要。小蜜每天看那么多封邮件，你写的越简洁明了，得到回复的几率更大一些。

同一封邮件里不要提两个以上的问题。我们学校的小蜜特别任性，就算一封邮件问了两个问题，她也只回复最简单的那个。所以还是先问一个简单的问题，得到回复之后，再继续追问比较好。

有的学校有时候效率是低一点，只要在deadline之前给你回复就好。有条件的话还是建议打电话，都能很快解决问题。

Q：套磁被新套的老师把套磁信抄给了之前的老师，怎么办？

申MS，大概一个月前套了A老师，方向和我目前的研究很匹配，但回复说要先招了PhD再考虑MS，然后又说不想找太多同背景的人。仔细读了几遍，感觉话虽然没说死，但没有什么希望。于是又套了B老师，B老师说今年不招人了，然后说A老师和我的方向很匹配，让我去找A老师，并抄送了邮件！这，是不是要被坑了？

A：如果是MS做的non-paid research的话，lz没必要想这么多，不会有太核心的任务给你的，顶多读读文章，跑跑comsol、follow一下实验什么的。A老师面试过你吗？没有的话我觉得就跟他吧，也是喜欢的方向，借着这封抄送的再跟他说一下。你完全可以放宽心，首先他不见得记得住你；其次，即使记得住，你也是先问的他，他回答你，觉得希望不大了，继续找其他人的。套磁嘛，就是这样的。一下找好几个可能不太好，但是你的情况，老师应该都可以理解的。

Q：PhD收到AD可以群发套RA吗？感觉隔一段时间套一个，效率挺低的，担心时间来不及。

A：建议不要吧，如果万一两个老师都要你了呢？而且这个节点（注：拿到AD的时节，一般都比较晚了）了，RA的位置也不会太多了。可以试试AP，或者等学校的TA。

Q：拿到offer之后好久不做决定，这样会给导师不好的印象么？已经拖了一个月了。

A：这不管怎样都要想清楚的，不能因为这个做决定。对导师来说，招生这么多年了，这都司空见惯了吧，可以理解的。

Q：对那种第一年给Fellowship不定导师的学校要套磁吗？

A：还是要套的，比如某学校在评fellowship之前要老师先nominate你的，所以套到个教授 或者教授主动面试你这样才有机会被nominate。

Q：申美国硕士，GPA低需要发邮件去套磁解释一下吗？

A：虽然没啥用，但也建议有时间的话不妨一试。官网找到负责招生询问的教授，发邮件解释。一般得到的都会是模板回复，大意是，他们招生不单看GPA，还要综合考虑等等。

Q：套磁联系时，如何称呼导师？

A：Dear Prof. Last Name；邮件来往几回后，基本就变成Hi XXX了。还有的导师会直接说Call me XXX的。还有的学生自曝大四还在邮件里给本实验室老板写Dear Prof. XXX，最后成了全实验室嘲笑的梗。

Q：Unofficial AD的邮件要回复吗？说就是提前通知，正式的还要过一段时间。

A：如果是群发邮件，就不需要回复；如果是教授单独发的邮件，那就必须回复。

Q：PhD申请收尾阶段该怎么套磁？

虽然过了学校的面试期，已经算默拒了，但是仍然想再试一试，或许还有一丝希望。只是这个时候发邮件的话该说些什么呢？学术套恐怕不现实了。

A：先发邮件，然后直接电话套磁去。此时进行学术套肯定不现实，建议推销自己。

Q：套磁邮件标题怎么写？

A：

如果你跟牛老师做过科研，可以加上xxx's student

针对老师的领域可以写 interested in xxx（两三个词）显得你focus.

然后加上Prospective Ph.D. student Fall 2017

e.g.

1. Emmanuel Candes' student interested in statistical machine learning, prospective Ph.D. student fall 2017

2. Inquiry for possible Ph.D. position in your group.

Q：套磁收到面试邀请该怎么回复，怎么和教授约时间？

A：注意时差，综合考虑自己的时间和教授的工作时间，列出几个时间表让教授选一个，或者直接让教授定时间。面试前最需要做的就是熟悉自己的PS和简历，尤其是套磁时递交给教授的版本。此外，还最好看一下自己的成绩单，以防教授抓自己的成绩单问问题。

Q：学术会议上如何当面套磁教授？

A：提前查好你想见的老师的报告时间，去听他的报告，如果有问题鼓励你提问他。报告结束后跑去找他聊天，并邀请他去听你的报告。你可以在会议前套磁，并希望跟他在会议期间面谈。

Q：套磁一直没得到教授很正面的回复，提交申请时有提及，需不需要厚着脸皮继续联系一下，说些“希望老师关注”的话，还有这句话地道一点的英文该怎么表达？

A：当然要继续联系，不管怎么样，No lose对不对？霸气一点的直接来“Could we have a phone call in the next few days?”，柔和一点“

Could you keep an eye on my application? Thanks”。

Q：用追踪软件追踪，发现教授看了邮件，但就是不回复是什么情况，是我太次了吗？

A：第一，教授很忙！第二，教授很可能只是顺手打开了一下，就删除了；第三，很可能是你的背景不够Strong。有的教授主页上明确地写着 “你们发邮件吧，我不会回的”，但实际上，有学生一封邮件过去，就秒回对其感兴趣的。

Q：保底的学校有必要套磁吗？

A：个人意见是看你的时间成本。美国没有一所学校说是不主动套磁就不会给全奖的。套磁只是增加录取的手段，你是否想要增加这个几率看你自己对自身实力以及对那个学校的渴望程度。你足够强的话，是会被反套的。再强一些，是会被Overqualified的。

Q：美国圣诞假期一般是什么时候，圣诞假期适合套磁吗？

A：美国圣诞假期一般为期15-20天，早的12月20号就开始放假了，晚的可能24号还在上班。圣诞假早的1月3号-5号就上班了，晚的可能10号了还没上班。圣诞假期不适合套磁，因为所有的教授都回家度假去了。等圣诞假期结束再来套吧。

Q：Committee决定的学校是不是就没必要套磁了？

A：不是，套磁不单单是录取的，还有更重要的资金。一种可能是，Committee只给了AD，需要你自己去找资金，这个时候提前套到老板就显得十分有必要了；还一种Admission Committee给的offer，学校面试也是Committee的面试，比如很多生物医学专业，这种情形套磁的有用性就降低了很多。

此外，很多教授回复中会提及这样一个细节：录取虽然是由Admission Committee决定的，但是也会征询教授的意见的。这也就是说，如果申请的时候，指定对方为自己感兴趣的教授，这个教授对是否录取你是有相当份量意见的。

最后悄悄告诉你，其实很多时候如果你套的老师正好在committee, 特别是AP，容易在。这样的话，他们的话语权会很大。如果是差距不大的情况，那直接就能淘汰别人，选择你。所以就算是committee，其实也不妨套一套。不过，当然了，集中在非committee是有必要的。

Q：Master申请提交后，是否有必要套磁PS中提到的教授？

A：MASTER不用套磁，除非是很少招MASTER的学校。规模大的都是有选人的特定机制，导师不会管的。

Q：小本一枚，没有科研经历，有必要套磁吗，怎么套？

A：套磁最低的限度也是有比没有好。找导师的Paper读读，照样可以学术套的。找到导师Paper的一些关键词，谈一下你做过的事情或者读过的书、学过的课程，跟导师现在做的事情联系起来。本科只要学术基础知识扎实，套磁同样没问题的。此外，也可以表达你一下你浓厚的兴趣，顺带提一句你的专业和学校。

Q：之前一直有邮件来往联系，提交申请后，还需要套磁吗？

申PhD，之前套过的老师，有过一些对于研究方向的邮件交流。在PS中也提到了研究兴趣。要不要在提交申请后发个邮件再联系一下，说我提交申请了，提到了want to work with you，希望你能注意一下我的申请材料blabla的？

A：必然要这么提醒一下，绝大多数导师更喜欢与已经提交申请的学生联系的。曾有学生给所有要申请的老师都发了邮件，告诉他们已经提交了材料，希望对方能看看。有两三个回了thanks for the note之类的。

Q：如果只是打算申请TA，需要套磁吗？

A：必然要套磁，因为除了RA/TA要钱，套磁还有一个目的是提高自己的录取率。另，TA有的也是老师出钱的，就算院里出钱也要老师推荐。

Q：PhD套磁，教授问如果给了Offer还要等其它学校吗，该怎么回？不是特别Dream的学校。

A：实话实说，教授可以有备胎，凭啥学生不能有备胎。不许学生有备胎的教授RP堪忧。如果教授真因此拒你的话，他的人品要掂量掂量，说不定就算今后跟他共事也不会愉快。他要是到时候真想要你的话会给你加funding的。

Q：多伦多大学和滑铁卢大学CS研究型硕士需要套磁吗？

A：需要。曾有一个多大同学，为了套上心仪的老师，来往了一百多封邮件，这个算比较夸张的，一般大家都是来往几封就差不多了。

Q：已经套了一个老师，可以在SOP中提及其它几个老师吗？

PhD，联系了一位老师，表达了兴趣和背景，老师说背景挺好的，让我申请他们系，但没说可以去哪个grou。我可以在SOP中写两、三位老师吗？比如 I want to work with Professor A, Professor B and Professor C. 几个老师可能是在一个Group里，但是方向不一样，都挺感兴趣的。

A：如果是PhD，写。不写显得没有明确目标，先写你如何match A老师，然后你的其他经历或者兴趣也和B相近。也可以只说到group，老师之间也是有竞争的。具体可见马里兰大学学院公园分校计算机系的SOP写作指导：Writing a Statement of Purpose。

Q：华人女AP真的那么可怕吗？

A：华人、女、AP号称是北美变态老板三要素，这可算是三要素都齐了。不过也还是要看人的，只是一个概率的问题，多方了解就好了。

Q：套磁教授建议申CSC奖学金，但CSC的前提必须是有offer才能申啊，怎么办？

A：这个，要么是教授没钱，要么就是不想为你花钱。直接跟教授说，CSC要有Offer才能申请。当然要注意语气要委婉一点。如果教授不理你的话，也就不用套这个教授了。

Q：套磁刚毕业的AP是不是要求会低一点？

A：不好说。AP一般回复套磁邮件的意愿会比较大，但要求还真不好说。换位思考，刚毕业的AP，经费不容易，前几年招的学生也对他留校拿Tenure非常重要，自然招学生也会非常慎重。

Q：学术套，之前一直在问有关学术的问题，也没提及要申请，对方教授也一直在认真的回答，但我的目标其实搭话，没想真的照着教授的建议去做，因为很复杂，时间上也不允许。接下来该怎么办？

A：申请递交之后，指定这个教授为自己感兴趣的导师。然后联系这个教授，告诉自己申请了学校，指定了他为自己的导师。至于教授提的建议，就实话实说。把面子放下，不论结果如何，反正自己也不会有何损失，对不对？

Q：套磁失败了怎么办？

A：就算套磁没反馈，也可以递交申请，说不定就有其他Faculty看上你。爱情这事儿啊，说来就来了。

Q：求问什么时间套磁合适，是不是越早越好？

A：陶瓷没有早晚，早套的未必有效，晚套的未必无用，关键看你和教授合不合拍，还有个人能力。还有，如果你有熟悉的教授他们在这个学校有熟悉的人，一定要用好这个联系，那样你中的几率比你和教授陶瓷了几个月都有效得多，美帝的PhD很多都是在关系之间流转。

Q：套磁得到回复都是让先申请，通过了然后再讨论项目的事情，该怎么办，还继续套吗？

A：绝大多数committee决定的学校，套磁得到的回复都是这个模板。建议礼貌地回复一句，表示会尽快申请。申请之后，并将对方指为自己感兴趣的教授后，再与教授联系。

Q：教授的个人主页里写的是：“如果想申我的PhD，先通过ms的申请后再来找我”，但是都通过MS了，难道还可以把通过的申请改成PhD的吗？

A：这个教授的意思就是你先去读MS，上他的课，他看好你了就给你funding把你转成PHD。这是教授为求稳希望招MS的学生。

Q：MS申请表中有问是否联系过那些老师，我们应该主动去套磁吗？

A：是的。

Q：第一封套磁邮件，怎么写？

A：各种方式的都有：一种方式是直接问对方有没有招生的打算；一种方式是直接进行学术套；还一种方式是上两种的结合，问空位+简单的学术套。上述三种方式，各有优劣，从未验证过到底哪种方式好。当然，最好是找教授认识的人——比如他组里的学生，或者他认识的其他的教授——帮你把邮件转给他。

Q：套磁教授问还申了多少所学校，结果如何，是何用意，如何回答？

A：套磁中很常见的问题。教授是在看如果我给你Offer，你会有多大的意愿去他那里，是不是把他当备胎。综合评估自己的申请状况，以及去这所学校的意愿。如果不是特别想去的学校，其它的学校也估摸着问题不大的话，实话实说就可以；反之，稍微委婉模糊一点回答吧。

Q：系里说给AD，联系教授说可以给RA，这种情况怎么办？

教授说给钱，可系里发邮件说是自费，我又发邮件问教授。教授说给RA并欢迎我参加他们的科研团队，求分析到时候系里还是发AD吗？

A：别着急，我当时也是教授说给钱。一开始研院发AD，系里发AD，然后教授去把我的Offer信催下来了，系里又来了一封正式RA信。所以可能有些学校就是这个流程，先把AD信发了，再发offer信。

Q：被对方学校问“是否仍然对我们学校感兴趣”应该怎样回复？

原文大概是这样的：

Dear xxx,

Greetings from xxx(学校). We are strongly considering to make you an offer, but we realize that we quite likely have competition. Could you please let us know whether you are still interested in our school? Please also feel free to ask any questions you might have..

Thanks,

Xxx

A：可以直接回复still interested，one of my top choices之类的话：

Thank your very much for your consideration! While I am also waiting for the results from other school, I am very interested to your school and your program is one of my top choices.

Q：被教授问如果给RA去不去，该如何回复？导师是个AP, 研究有点偏理论，不是第一选择，但又不想拒绝。

A：先说等official offer，至少要一两周，然后再考虑个几周，基本上你的dream school就来了，一旦没来也可以答应了。

Q：套磁不回复怎么办？

A：套磁不回复无非有以下几种应对办法：

• 过几天再给这个教授发同样的一封信.
• 过几天再给这个教授发比上一封有改进的信
• 给同一个教授发了一封不回复，就套同一个系里面的另外一个教授
• 给同一个教授发了两封还不回复，再套同一个系里面的另外一个教授
• 给同一个教授发了三封还不回复，才套同一个系里面的另外一个教授
• 改电话套磁

Q：教授周末都不回邮件的吗？

A：绝对的伪命题。这边老师每天查N次邮箱（含周末），我有时候做project周末给老师发邮件问问题老师都秒回，所以周末不查邮箱是绝对的假命题。

Q：套磁，教授回复说没有资金，怎么办？

如下：I think you could make an excellent addition to the group, and I have plenty of potential projects, however at present I do not have any funds available to pay for new students.

If you have your own resources for graduate school, and are still interested in working in my group, let me know and we can talk further

A：1）如果你愿意走CSC路线的话，就告诉他，否则换人套；2）留意下对方系里的招生政策，有些是可以自费rotation先干着，后面再定导师，一般是本科直申phD，有的是必须有确定导师有funding才给来，如Purdue等；3）可以问问对方什么时候有钱，再做决定。

Q：教授要了简历，然后就没有回复了怎么办？

套磁好不容易有教授向我要了CV，但发过去之后就没有了回应了，正常吗？

A：正常的。再发信询问一下有没有收到CV，如果再没有回应，就换一家套吧。

Q：可以同时套同一个系多个老师吗？

A：绝不可以。同一个系绝不可以同时套多个老师，这个是很早的定论了。很早之前，清华BBS上，就有贴出一位教授原话“I recently had a Chinese student tell me that I was her dream advisor, later to learn that she was saying the same thing to professors throughout our department and even other departments.”同一个系，建议先套第一个，如果没有回复的话，可以等1-2周再套第二个，这样如果被发现了，也好解释——我以为你对我不感兴趣什么的。

套磁杂记

一、经济系教授的三个经典问题

以下是virginia一位经济系教授问我的问题，该怎么办？

Would you please read the following three statements, and pick the one that most accurately describes you?  And then write a sentence or two explaining why you picked that statement?

Statement A: "I get a lot of satisfaction from finding out precisely what my teacher expects, and then exceeding those expectations.  I want to learn everything there is to learn about Economics."

Statement B: "I get a lot of satisfaction from understanding precisely what my teacher is saying, and then searching for flaws in what was said.  I want to find and correct some big mistakes in Economics."

Statement C: "I get a lot of satisfaction from cooperating with my fellow students and helping them.  I expect to find my happiness as a supportive member of the community of professional economists."

二、帮忙套磁的悲剧

今年上半年遇到两个中国人，套我实验室phd，本着中国人互相帮助的精神，我不遗余力帮忙，结果两个家伙快拿上录取的时候，都跑路了。

学生A，年前急急忙忙和我说要读PHD，投身科学事业之类的，还说能自带funding。我说好呀我帮你推荐吧，然后就和导师联系上了，布置了一些小任务。结果弄了半个月人家回国说找工作去了。。。其实当时他读的时候就说是他的长辈叫他读的，我能感觉到他并不是很喜欢这个，不过当时too young还是帮忙联系了

学生B，上课时候告诉我要读我导师的phd，课是导师博后教的，因此导师和他也没有直接接触，但是还是布置了一些小任务。B做的不错，然后前几天导师说先录取MS，如果暑假干得好，下学期铁PHD，并且有很大概率奖学金。然后呢，B同学爸爸打电话告诉他把admission拒了，因为中介和他爸爸说他们要是不能帮B申请到30+的学校MS不要钱。然后还说我忙了一个多月导师布置的的任务，他也不直接录取我PHD，真没有诚意。然后又说如果能读一个名校Master也很好。

我们实验室在行业内都是小有名气，四个博士后都是oxford 来的。我们毕业去apple之类的公司根本不成问题，申请本身极难。A、B君正常是根本不能可能申请上的。我鞍前马后和导师保证这个，保证那个，才帮他们录取到，结果他们随便就把我水了。

我觉得好多人读PHD根本没有想清楚。你真的喜欢这个领域吗，你真能保持五年如一日的激情吗，还是说你看别人读你也想读，还是觉得拿个PhD文凭很不错？