Advice

A repository of links with advice related to grad school applications, research, phd etc related to (usually but not always) CS, NLP, and ML. Some resources may be sourced from one of the other resource links. Note - this is merely a repository, and I do not necessarily endorse or subscribe to every piece of advice.

Contributing

If you come across posts/tweet-threads/blogs/podcasts that belong here, feel free to create a pull request.

Table of Contents

• Applications
  • General
    • MS Specific
    • Applying to Predoctoral Programs
    • ToDo PhD or Not / What doing a PhD Entails
  • Selecting Schools
    • After getting admits
  • Reaching out to prospective advisors
  • SOP
    • Examples
  • LoRs
  • CV
    • Examples
  • Interview preparation
  • Misc
  • Resources
  • Financial Aid
  • List of Lists
• Research
  • General
  • For grad students
  • Research Ideas
  • Writing
    • Papers
    • Proposals
  • Reviewing
  • Rebutting
  • Reading
    • Literature Surveying
  • Publishing and Conferences
    • Publicising
  • Advisor-Advisee Dynamics
  • Research Internships
  • Networking
  • Talks/Presentations
  • Productivity
  • Tools
  • Impostor's Syndrome
  • Misc
  • List of lists

Applications

Note: A lot of the advice might be geared towards PhD, but people applying to MS programs, RAs, short-term interns etc. might find a lot of it still very helpful.

General

• AI2 NLP Highlights Podcasts: PHD Application Series - Preparing Aplication Materials, PhDs in Europe v/s US
• Student Perspectives on Applying to NLP PhD Programs -- MUST READ
• Himabindu Lakkaraju and Aditya Grover’s Panel -- Must watch, great insights from the panel.
• Demistifying PhD Admission application by Shriram Krishnamurthi (Brown CS) -- nice nuggets on the admission process from a Prof's POV.
• PhD Application FAQs by Noah Smith (Faculty at UWash)
• Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science by Mor Harchol-Balter (Prof at CMU) -- Very good breakdown of the process + a good insight into how to decide if its for you.
• How to get into grad school for science, engineering, math, and CS by Matt Might
• Jean Yang's 7 part guide to applications
• PhD Applications FAQ by Maria Antoniak (Cornell) -- very helpful
• Machine Learning PhD Applications — Everything You Need to Know by Tim Dettmers
• A Princeton CS Major's Guide to Applying to Graduate School by Clay Bavor
• The A-Z for Graduate Admissions MS/Ph.D.
• Has your graduate school application been rejected? by Sanya Jain
• Pointers on grad school applications by Khimya
• Reflecting on CS Graduate Admissions by David Anderson
• Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science by Mor Harchol-Balter, CMU
• Optimizing Your Machine Learning PhD Applications for Success by Scott Freitas

MS Specific

• Demystification of the Graduate Admissions Process by Karthik Raghunathan (MS from stanford, now director of ML at Cisco)

Applying to Predoctoral programs

• Demystifying the “Pre-Doctoral Researcher” role at Google Research, India by Shaily Bhatt (that's me) -- I wrote this blog detailing my experience applying to the 'pre' doctoral program at Google. The advice is generally applicable for most predotoral/RA roles
• How to find a Research Opportunity by Vipul Gupta

ToDo PhD or Not / What doing a PhD entails

• Undergrad to PhD, or not - advice for undergrads interested in research by John Hewitt (PhD student at Stanford)
• The illustrated guide to a Ph.D. by Matt Might
• Advice for Undergraduates Considering Graduate School
• Is it worth it to go to grad school in computational linguistics? by Emily Bender
• Rabbit's Ph.D. Thesis and Lion's Watch Repair Business by Margaret Fleck
• Everything I wanted to know about C.S. graduate school at the beginning but didn’t learn until later By Roland Azuma
• A course targeted at undergraduates which lays out the journey leading up to a research-first position (PhD) or job

Selecting Schools and Advisors

• A Vlog on using CSRankings to find CS PhD programs by Philip Guo -- Don't blindly go by rankings, but don't ignore them either.
• How to pick a grad school for a PhD in Computer Science by Vijay Chidambaram
• How to Pick Your Grad School by Tim Dettmers
• University Rankings for PhD Applications by Danish Pruthi and Mansi Gupta
• How to Pick a Graduate Advisor
• How to short list professors for your PhD/ Master’s? by Sanya Jain
• Choosing a graduate adviser by by Jen Heemstra, special to C&EN

After getting admits

• Questions to Ask a Prospective Ph.D. Advisor on Visit Day, With Thorough and Forthright Explanations by Andrew Kuznetsov (HCII,CMU)

Reaching out to prospective advisors

This might be helpful for cold emailing advisors for internships and prospective collaborators even outside of the PhD application process.

• Tweet thread for a template to emailing prospective advisors by Casey Fiesler
• Contacting Potential PhD Advisors / Supervisors by Casey Fiesler
• A note on cold-mailing professors by Yontan Bisk
• A Guide to Cold Emailing by Eugene Vinitsky and tweet thread
• 5 Tips for E-mailing Busy People
• People you should cold mail other than the prospective advisor - a thread by Sanya Jain
• Writing Cold Emails by Jia-Bin Huang
• Twitter thread on writing cold-emails by Sanya Jain
• Threads on cold-mailing by Sanya Jain: No Response Positive Response
• Managed to get the professor Interested for a Skype call. Tips for the Call thread by Hammed A. Akande
• Tips for Contacting Professor through mail. Thread by Oludayo Sokunbi
• [Not get