average 6 years
typically $1700 / month
cost a prof. 50k / year

Highly interesting in researching/teaching
Knowing *WHY* you need a Ph.D., e.g. working for a while.


3. App. process

(i)GPA
Top Univ. low GPA ~ Unknown Univ. GPA 4
RELEVENT Extra/Advanced course on the same/interesting topics
(ii)GRE
Basic requirement but largely ignored in top-schools
Mainly meaningful for non-native speakers
Subject scores for unknown Univ. under
(iii) Personal statement
Actually, research statement.
  p1. general area , interest, why
  p2.p3. research topics:what you have done, what you found.
  p4. Why PhD.
  p5. Why CMU? or this school

Never restate GPA or already exist informations such as awards,
or childhood and before, which is irrelevent to research but grading.
(iv)Previous research experience
Not really for a paper/journal, of course it would be better.
Emphasize research experience
Need to be evaluate: put in you personel web site: (pdf)
Accessible for the committee
(v)Recommendation
priority: prof., research scientist, lecturer, system scientist, employer,
          postdoc.
Ask guilding grad.'s prof. to write and grad. co-write
No GPA-like, performance on course recommendations
Highly research relevent(attitude), not course hard-working
Own-initiative, strong research potential, independent, self-motivated
Ask who seen your research, prof. or employer
3 for grad. 4 for fellowship.
Who know me well, give an oral presentation to him, writeups for my researches.
(找時間約李泰成 給一個presentation和附上我的資料 加上自己的初稿叫他寫)
Ask for a letter:
SOP,summary of research (coworkers), relevent course taken list,
extra materials(awards and honors)
On the packet:
MY recent PHOTO
Directions(recommedation deadline, address, seal and sign....)
Confirm informations(check to my email)
Ask for a strong letter, ASK ASK ASK rather than a weak one.
it would be ok if he says no.(at least, he tells you.)
Check school got it.
Thank the recommender
(vi)Awards
May including tutoring or TA (highly correlated between teacher/researcher)

5. Choosing right Ph.D. program(that's the problem when you get it)