Applying to US graduate school for a Ph.D: From the perspective of a physics major student from a Malaysian physics school

The following is an edited version of email record between YY and me. He was a locally graduated physics student (non USM), first class, very enthusiatic but 'troubled' after reading the emails to me by Mee Hui, now in Utah pursuing her Ph.D. in physics.

I reckon that those who are in similar situation like YY, from the similar education/social background, may find my response to YY useful. In particular, he raised a few questions on how to pave the way to US for a Ph.D. degree in physics, from the perspective of a physics students graduated from local universities inspired to climb up the tip of the pyramid and to make the globe a blue ocean to realise his/her dream as a world-class physicist.

If you are a physics major student in a Malaysian university physics department/school, in particular from USM and is thinking of pursuing a Ph.D in the US, this article would give you some general ideas of how to make it a reality.


The following is the original email by YY after some minor editing.
_______________________________________________________
From: YY 
Sent: 29 January 2012 10:57
To: Yoon Tiem Leong
Subject: A "fresh" graduate seeking for advise in physics.


Hey there Dr Yoon,


Reading your blog is very, very disturbing – especially when you’ve posted about one of your ex student in Utah (Mei Hui). I’ve been interested in Physics (especially theoretical, stuff with lots of mathematics, computation and numerical simulations). With that I’ve changed over to Physics as my undergraduate course here in UKM, just to notice that the taught courses here are far from my imagination – I desire to know more. That’s when I’ve set my ‘goal’ (to be precise, just ‘daydream’) to go overseas for Physics postgraduate.


But there was another part of life – reality. I learnt that money is indeed important, and my family can never support me through postgraduate, not to mention when it’s overseas. Due to personal preferences, I’ve not applied for postgraduate in the university I gradauted from. Now that I’ve graduated for ~1 year, working as an engineer. I’ve been completely disconnected from the academic world now, and no action was taken so far for postgraduate studies. And worst of all, I have a limiting belief – I’ve always believed that overseas education is a luxury I can’t enjoy given my financial status.


Then I’ve saw your blog with Mei Hui’s story. It seems that she’s having tuition grant for her studies, and living happily in the US. Now that I have the momentum again, I seriously hope that you/Mei Hui can help to change my limiting belief (or confirming them) – by explaining the situation in applying overseas for grants. I’ll perhaps start off by leaving a few questions for you:


-        Do we usually get tuition grant from other universities (eg UTAH)? Do they need flying results and so on?
-        How about living expenses? Does TA payoff sufficiently for everything else? Do I need to top up from myself/family?
-       Which university should I apply for? I am keen on going into the top 10 universities but I doubt that they’ll be interested in my credentials for now. I have no idea which other universities should I consider.
-        Any general suggestion/advises?


I’m sorry if my queries sounds subjective. I guess I just need some ‘real-life example’ of my ‘daydream’.


PS: if Dr were to post my queries online, please avoid putting my real name (or university name).


Thanks!
Lost,
YY
*******************************************************

YY,

Thanks for your email. i am perfectly glad that my post has reap some response to our local physics graduate (despite it being 'disturbing' to you). i always wish that our local physics students could be made aware of what is happening in the world outside, in particular, how other graduate students are doing physics overseas. Mei Hui appears to be the first student i successfully persuaded to go to US for graduate study in physics despite many years of effort to 'preach' to other students to do so. It seems like many local students either don't have the desire to pursue a career in physics research, or just simply having no guts to do so. so when mei hui successfully went over to US, i was really pleased that at least we are not totally deprived of enthusiasts and aspired young men/women.

Here are my reply to some of your concern:

YY: Do we usually get tuition grant from other universities (eg UTAH)? Do they need flying results and so on?

YY: How about living expenses? Does TA payoff sufficiently for everything else? Do I need to top up from myself/family?

If a US graduate school accepts you as a graduate student, they normally will provide (though not in gauranteed term) teaching assistantship (TA). This usually is enough to cover your expenses in the us (to pay for food, accommodation, living etc). Usually the tuition fee is waived (meaning you dont need to pay the tuition fee). As a TA you need to help them do grading, look after lab or assist in teachings. mei hui did not get a flying result (sorry MH for exposing your 'achievment'). Her undergraduate result is ok but not extremely excellent. So is her GRE grades. But her english is good, with a very mature thinking. I also heard of story even people has saved up enough to send some money back home with the TA money. The best part of doing postgrade study in the US is that they have more than 1000 universities offering PhD in physics. So there is a vast opportunity awaiting for whoever have the guts to apply.

YY: Which university should I apply for? I am keen on going into the top 10 universities but I doubt that they’ll be interested in my credentials for now. I have no idea which other universities should I consider.

As a common strategy you usually shortlist 10 graduate school of your own choice. To check the info, browse the physics department/school webpage for 'potential gradaute students' or 'graduate study'. I spent a few months crawing through the webpages from site to site to find the graduate school that suits me best. i prepared a short intro and cv of myself and emailed it to the persons in charged of graduate study emission (in each uni I am interested in) to ask for his/her comment on my chance of getting in their gradaute school if i lodge an application. The working strategy is to list 5 school from the top 50, then choose 1 each from rank 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, 80-90,90-100. You can do similar choice based on slightly different criteria of your own. If your GRE or undergraduate results / cv is not extremely excellent (an excellent cv would be, e.g., 5 PRL publications from your final year project, or nearly won a Nobel prize but missed it because the Nobel comittee can't understand your great work etc.), you would avoid putting too much concentration on top ranking grade schools. If your GRE scores are very high (say around 95% ), then u afford to apply to top ranking schools. Otherwise, applying for not-so-top ranked grad schools give you better chance. The feedback/response from the person in charge of graduate admission shall be very helpful to determine weather a particular grad school is worthy to give it a try or otherwise. Most graduate school in the top 200 list of USNEWS are good schools. Just choose 10 that you think you like best. Also, if you choose those grad schools that already have malaysians the chance could be higher (such as texas austin, georgia tech, nortre dame, utah). If you got to join the facebook group of Malaysian Scientists Abroad, people there may give you better suggestion.

YY: Any general suggestion/advises?

You emails is written in a very good english, and your expression is well structured. Your initiative to write to me also suggests that you are a very keen person to realise your dream as a physicisit. If you decide to go ahead to turn your day dream into reality, the chance of success is very high. The procedure requires: taking general gre test, subject test, toefl, asking your academic referees to write you recommendation letters, preparing a statements of purpose (or personal statement). This procedure is a lengthy endeavor. It involves months of preparation (for the gre, toefl tests), webpage researching, and also money. Prepare to spend about RM 2-3 k to pay for the expenses (reference materials, application fees and postage).

This is the beginning of the lunar calendar, so is a good time to for plan for your future and a new direction. If you really are serious about altering the direction of your life to become a physicist sitting at the top of the society's strata, you can realise it by taking real steps from now. There is also a fb page "Malaysian Scientists Abroad" (mostly graduate students). most probably u will get a lot of info or advice from there as well.

pls feel free to keep in touch with me.

tl