我想了想，為免麻煩，不如集中這貼裡談，以後也不會找不到了．大家交流的意見，可能日後也有用．還有什麼想說的，請在下面說就好了．
Great!!......Seems you are compliing the personal statement
for your PhD application. Any target programs??? The heck GRE should never be an obstacle nor should we quail with...... given our keen aspiration to become a scientist is still there! right?? I wish you can concentrate only on what you wanna / have to do and become a PhD student in 2009! Lewis at December 31, 2008 09:56 AM |
美國方面，我報了UCSD，U of Illinois at Urbana-Chanpaign, U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, & Brown U。光是報名費就已經2000多大洋！還沒算其他有的沒的transcript費用。我勸大家，在Ohio完全離開香港之前，叫Pat給你申請一堆transcript，而且要seal好（就是在信封上蓋印並用膠紙貼在印上面，總之就是如果你打開過人家會知道的那種）。因為現在Pat幫你申請，是US$5一份，將來自己申請，好像貴一倍左右一份。我申請4間，就需要8份！ 死騙錢的美國佬... 我聽說過，有人是conditional offer，因為GRE沒考得好，所以condition就是不管你怎樣，考個verbal 600, writing 5.0出來為止！>_< 這什麼鬼規矩？我還是覺得英國比較好，PhD一般不需要再做course work，三年半到四年左右完成。美國是5-6年，還要讀course，這樣我畢業時不是快四十了！？有沒有搞錯...PhD又沒有什麼實習，唸那麼久幹嗎！ Blog Owner at December 31, 2008 10:11 AM |
Sounds lovely! As far as I know, UCSD & Illinois are top-notch departments regarding psy. Don't know if they perform equally well in Neuroscience. BTW, have you decided what kind of research you wanna do and, how about their funding packages?? GRE is an "entering screener", so they won't accept students with too shitty GRE score even he/she has unequaled research potential! "死騙錢的美國佬" Why make a fuss??? They've conned the world! Trillion of dollars lost through the credit cruch ROFL. "我還是覺得英國比較好" Maybe. On the flip side, funding for UK PG study is a lot shabbier!! The ORSAS is fading out. Incidentally, RAE2008 results are now available. Check that if you find this important for your choice. "美國是5-6年，還要讀course" Some Us in the States allow credit transfer if you have master degree. Dunno if this apply to you. "這樣我畢業時不是快四十了！？" Well, if you keep a healthy lifestyle you may enjoy more than 20, even 30 years of post-doc career!!!LOL Lewis at December 31, 2008 05:07 PM |
有啊，不過我發覺，移民局那邊無厘頭地要求你有一倍於他們提供的funding package的現金才批簽證． 我想做關於long term memory的，用EEG或fMRI之類的方法看，暫時是neural correlates of distant and recent LTM. 我一直最有興趣的東西就是記憶，大概是因為我老人痴呆？ 我想某程度上是一種指標，總之要達到某個目標，所以收了再考也沒所謂，總之不可以拖低收生標準． 報名費貴，申請report又貴，每一個都是錢． 就是啦，好像到處的ORS都消失了． 有，不過還是得唸，麻煩死了． 總比沒著落的好...|||||| Blog Owner at December 31, 2008 08:27 PM |
I got my GRE reports: General: V370 Q620 W4 Subject: 600 I didn't feel bad, as I expected to redo them next year. I still wish to go in 2010, even it seems hard from you guys conversation. I would give up only when I fail the GREs next year again. Pancy & Lewis, add oil & happy new year ^^ sara at December 31, 2008 09:46 PM |
Happy New Year! 在我搞申請的時候,我發覺大學對於數學的重視超出我的想像,有大學甚至說他們平均接受Q690的學生.所以啦,我覺得你如果打算再考,花些氣力考好數學,那只是中五程度的普通數學,花點時間一定會有回報的.Writing也是,最重要的是在有限時間寫好,如果練習得越多, 就越有機會考好.Verbal我也不知道了...我最討厭背單字 |||||| 話說回來, Lewis那邊怎樣了? Blog Owner at January 1, 2009 02:32 AM |
Pancy, thx for your suggestions, I will pay more attention to them. BTW, I realized how deficiency of my vocabulary bank is; when I first looked at the GRE vocab book, I would say most of the vocabs are aliens to me...However, when u learnt them, u found them in many ways, like fiction & news; it reveals that we didn't learn them seriously in our former education. sara at January 1, 2009 11:53 AM |
我最討厭的就是背單字...所以一向是學到的就學,忘了的就忘了,要用就查字典... Blog Owner at January 2, 2009 01:34 PM |
Me?? Same as before. Heck, I've asked about funding to 3 Us accepted my applications, but they unanimously said no "ships" for MSc courses. Only Lancaster may offer me a shabby 500ps bursary in 2009 (c.f. 2000ps in 2008)!! I've considered Chevening but they need a professional ref, i.e., employer, who is nowhere to be found as my job is totally unrelated to psy. I've also considered other programmes... Some with lucrative ships, but either their research interest doesn't match mine or their tuition fees are still high after deduction of possible ships. The only good thing is ps has fallen >30% since late Sep. I've exchanged some at ~$11.4. I'll buy more if it keep falling. TO Sara: You're not alone...This is my 1st trial: V580 Q790 W4 I've to seat another one to boost my V & W scores. For Q, I'll try perfect score (10% of ppl can do it) So, Never give up! Lewis at January 2, 2009 11:44 AM |
就是啦,金融海嘯啊,什麼錢都給捲走了,可是我看Bangor還是有幾個挺好的bursary啊...可能是不會馬上說給你,等看看有沒有更好的candidate? 不過ps跌了,比什麼都好,我是16的時候去的啊!!! >_< GRE你比我考的好多了,我V440 Q760 W4.5而已!不過是2005考的. Blog Owner at January 2, 2009 01:39 PM |
Um...Bangor's programme is an optimal solution in terms of its research strength (having quality profile of 20,45, 25 & 10% w.r.t. 4*, 3*, 2* & 1* researh quality in RAE2008), tuition fee and funding. If you aim at a reputable psy. PG department in the UK while money is a major concern, Bangor is one of the best, if not the only best choice. The main thing is there seems no faculty who is doing research related to auditory perception. (If there is, pls let me know!@@) On the flip side, I start thinking if it is too early to fix my research target. At the begining, I wanna meet those faculty giants who are eminent in the field and try doing research with them in order to polish my CV for further study. But I realized that we can still got admitted to do PhD research which may not related to those done in the previous master. Now, the heck thing is there seems only few choices if I foreclose other research fields, like memory. Lewis at January 2, 2009 02:49 PM |
有時,很難說.如果能搭上個大佬當然只會是件好事(除非你後來發覺跟他八字不合),不行的話,退而求其次,有時都說不準.像我那老闆,他的研究範圍也本來不包括音樂,不知道抽了什麼風忽然又踩了進去,我的師姐的研究題目是Alzheimer's disease對於聲音的working memory的EEG study,我的同學是音樂的EEG study,就我一個怪人是做painting的.如果是你,我想如果是做類似我師姐的題目,那是一件很好的事--跟auditory有關,有clinical aspect(即是面對patient的experience,加分啊!),還有neuroscience technique可學,真是值回票價啊!師姐的thesis我也有,要是你想看,我可給你,就千萬別流出去就行. 所以啦,如果你擴大一點題目,例如auditory的working memory之類,可能機會更多,也更有prospective. 反正,當年我寫personal statement時胡說八道的,進了校才讓我在一堆project中選,活像JUPAS時一樣,他最後派你的未必一定是你本來打算做的.我不知道是不是每間大學都一樣,不過你想想,只有一年還有course work,他們有可能為了你就initiate一個新project嗎?時間不夠啊!我的thesis跟patient無關,不用過NHS的ethical committee,也超時了啊! Blog Owner at January 2, 2009 03:29 PM |
"他的研究範圍也本來不包括音樂,不知道抽了什麼風忽然又踩了進去" Maybe aptly changing the field of research is conducive. Sometimes new research ideas come out when the one idea meet ideas, mehodlogies or discoveries from other fields such as genetic research, nanotechnology, and even quantum physics. Some even say working too hard on a field maybe counterproductive!! "師姐的thesis我也有..." Well, I'm interest in that, could you please e-mail me... I've keyed in my e-mail address in this reply and I promised I won't let other ppl read... thx!! Lewis at January 2, 2009 06:11 PM |
一輩子做同一個題目,很悶啦!所以也沒關係.我想說的是,有些人在網頁上的research interest,有時不update. 我寄給你啦!看看倒沒所謂,不抄不流傳就可以,因為是文件檔,這方面實在比較麻煩.搔頭,我沒看到你的email啦...總之是你之前用的那個. Blog Owner at January 3, 2009 02:36 AM |
繼續說吧！我們都需要找人談啊！
Sara，到底你那個master唸完了沒有？我忘了是兩年還是三年．
再重申一次，在Ohio完全撤出香港之前，申請一堆transcript，記著要Pat Chan給你們在信封的開口蓋上校印，以示你絕對沒有打開竄改了些什麼．如果現在不做好這動作，日後要直接跟美國申請，麻煩之餘還要多加錢！
還有，如果要DHL，找個學生或大學工作的人一起去，有30-40%的折扣！我今天花了$755寄了5封（天殺的UNC要我分開寄兩個地址！） 內有transcript正本的document出去，原本是過$1100的！Lewis如果要寄幾封，找Sara或我好了，省$80一封，就算請了吃飯也還有賺！
can u see my post, i can't see
回覆刪除ai~ my previous post is gone, fine, type again
回覆刪除Yeah~ My MSc will be finished in this summer; I
am now collecting data for my study and hopefully
it will be enough for analysis in March. Like
your MSc in UK, beside study, I also have course
works to do which are heavier than the study. To
do study+course works+job all together is
absolutely overwhelming. Afterward, I will redo
the GREs. Since I m simply interest in research
work, no matter in medicine or psy, also GREs are
supper hard for me, I won't restrict myself in
the US path, I will explore local opportunities
as well, see my next post...
because of word limit so i cut it into half.
回覆刪除I hypothesize two options, one is to deduct my
salary to apply an RA in psy dept in order to
wait for the potential PhD candidacy; the other
is to do a full time or part time PhD in School
of Public Health(either CU or HKU has this
faculty under medicine) coz my MSc is come from
there. No matter which way i go, it would be a
long way and I shall prepare myself and try my
best to enrich my bibliography. So I wish I can
publish my first own paper(MSc thesis) before I
resign from my current job.
Thx
回覆刪除sure, I won't quit unless I get another job or
full time PhD here.
Our course is designed for publication, but not
necessary for graduation. So, my boss in work
and I aim at publish it afterward.
sigh~I knew, it would be hard in HK unless u get
a full time PhD...but I'm afraid I may not get
the GREs right even next year, gotta think some
backup options. Anyway, I wouldn't give up any
other way up to this moment.
You are right, I am flexible in any division/dept
in term of research work and this scenario
applies to u too coz u r already psy MSc
graduate, so u can apply their research work too,
once u entered, u then look for PhD opportunity.
Of course, it should be the spare option, US
should be your No. 1 choice always.
Agree~ so, u should go...by all means...haha
回覆刪除WOW... Thx Pancy for warping up our posts!!
回覆刪除and BTW, I've received and skimmed the confidential thesis! Thx!
If we have chance to hang out, certainly with Sara ^0^, we may
discuss the content. Seems it's not appropriate to comment on
others thesis overtly!
"一輩子做同一個題目..."
Oops...your supervisor only changed research topic but not the
field. Sorry, I had a little bit hangover...LOL, though
researchers entirely changing his/her field is not unheard of.
"反正,當年我...,活像JUPAS時一樣,...派你的未必一定是你本來打算做的"
If that's really the case, they don't expect us to have
whatsoever research interests to read an MSc! Heck! When I applied
to Lancaster, I clearly indicated that I have keen interest to
do research on auditory, especially pitch perception of human,
psychoacoustics and their possible neural correlates. I have
also enclosed my paper (in e-format, of course) done in Ohio U
to them. Seemingly they all sound too ambitious...
BTW what did you originally wanna do??
Well, it's darn difficult to strike the balance between indvidual
回覆刪除research interests, the overall research strength/reputation of
the schools and financial issues. There seems no best choice if
I don't compromise. The kernel is even I don't know whether I
can earn what I expected from particular schools at the begining
given the uncertainty of research projects availability,
funding and career prospect... After all, I will only
admit to ONE school even I apply for a dozen now.
忘了說，你既然決定要去英國一年，記著去補領BNO（如果有的話）．
回覆刪除BNO優點有兩個：
1)簽證不用錢．申請BNO大概是$1300，而簽證費（如果用特區passport）是$1250，所以你只是多
給幾十塊而已，如果你真的再續的時候，就賺了．
2)我忘了HKSAR Passport要不要，不過有些國家的護照（包括台灣），到步時要去警局登記，登記
時當然要交費．持BNO則不用（起碼我不用）．
我昨天終於聯絡上Bangor，把我master的transcript寄來，第一張要25鎊
回覆刪除-_-!!!!!,第二張開始是2鎊一張...我一口氣申請一打！
幸好當日沒把英國的銀行戶口取消，Lewis將來回來，也記得千萬別把戶口取消（起碼要留一個不需要
交年費的），以便付這些有的沒有費用．
"...她的老闆是我的thesis的另一個評分人，我拿A啦!"
回覆刪除This maybe what the department's compensation for a more
valuable PhD opportunity (Maybe to to some, though.) An one
trick pony to us internatinal students?! Too much conspiracy
theories?:p
"時也命也,...你的情況，我覺得你搞定了英國那個..."
Your advice will be my most optimistic plan but let's see how
I perform during this MSc first, at least, say half of the
course done... Maybe I'm utterly not suitable to do research
at all!! Who knows? One of my reason to read this MSc is a
further proof of the pudding given my only one research
experience. Others like money, GRE are also my deep concern.
Time for part II...
回覆刪除"記著去補領BNO（如果有的話)"
I have one before 1997 but was expired and lossed??? afterwards,
I only have the HKSAR passport now...
"到步時要去警局登記..."
I've checked the british council website, they say SOME
ppl (I wonder why??) holding SAR passport need to register and
leave 34 pounds, while my entry clearance stamp will tell if
I need to...
"Lewis將來回來，也記得千萬別把戶口取消（起碼要留一個不需要
交年費的），以便付這些有的沒有費用."
Can't paid by credit card?? I now have an HSBC account in
pounds for my study, maybe I can save some after I came back
HK.
"因為申請PhD基本上是bachelor就可以...所以，早申請對你來說沒有壞處"
回覆刪除Randy also ask me why don't I apply PhD directly in the States &
UK, but I told him cos I don't have enough referees. One of my reasons to
do a MSc is to find more.
I'm not as same as you. You can "technically" apply to PhD even
you don't have the UK MSc, but I can't becasue there're not
enough ppl to justify my research potential and abilities.
Keeping this in mind, I HAVE TO impress the faculty members
during my MSc there so that they will write me up later.
More importantly, I don't think they will write me decent letters
if my performance is mediocre... even I won't dare to ask -_-!
BTW, have you considered schools in Canada & Aussie?
There're some pretty good at Neuroimaging, especially in
Canada.
Aussie??? Um...The Group of Eight (Go8)??
回覆刪除Go8, hailed as Aussie Ivy League, have strong background
in research (funding)& teaching. I have little idea about their
psy programmes. Maybe check their webpage to see if any of
them fit you...
第一家結果出來了－－UCSD，失敗！
回覆刪除我估計，我的申請根本還沒到Department就已經給丟出來了，因
為GRE的成績沒過門檻。想想看，十二月底截止，中間還有新年假
期，而要通知我這種失敗者也需要一段時間，所以我的申請根本
在一開始就被截下來了。所以，大家努力考GRE啊。
我是不是又要重頭再唸書，準備如果今年沒著落，下年拼死拼活
也要考個V600，W5出來？Subject也要考90%以上啊，我想我應
該做得到的，因為當年我才唸了五科PSY（其中兩科還是上課
中），也考了87%啊...
看英鎊越跌越低，我比較想去英國啊...
...The below is from UCSD Psy PG admission FAQ webpage:
回覆刪除"Q: What are the average GRE scores of admitted applicants?
"A: The average score for verbal was 632 with a standard
deviation of 68 and for quantitative the average score
was 723 with a standard deviation of 38. We do not
require the writing portion."
"Q: What if my GRE scores are below the 50th percentile.
Can I still apply?
"A: Yes, but due to the competitive nature of the program
we do use the GRE scores as a way to pre-screen
applicants. If one or both of your scores is below our
minimum we recommend taking the test again.
We only use your highest scores."
The only thing you do is to follow their advice to take another
one. But I wonder why they don't need a writing score!!
Seems their pre-screening process is pretty cut and dried, if
回覆刪除not cruel. I wonder if they are using only computer Macros to
do that??!!
OTOH, I am convinced that you can strike a much higher score in
next round, predicated on putting all your focus on the
exam ONLY!
"看英鎊越跌越低，我比較想去英國啊..."
Gee, the sterling now is around 10.7, I may buy more after the
LNY holiday. Setting aside funding, UK institutions require less
exam scores for admission. On the flip side, funding is always
the central front which can't be set aside easily. After all,
I'm not the descendants of tycoons... Maybe tonite Mark Six can
help..LOL
Anyway, if you go to UK this yr, I'll have a companion.^o^!
"這是UCSD嗎？我以為是UCLA啊。"
回覆刪除My quote was for this link from UCSD
http://psy.ucsd.edu/graduate_program/prospective_students/faq.php
and here comes the one from UCLA
http://www.psych.ucla.edu/graduate/prospective-students/preparation
"...The average Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores of students
offered admission for Fall 2008 are: Verbal 679, Quantitative
746, Analytical Writing Section 5.3, and Psychology Subject
Test 739."
...sounds more selective than UCSD, though it's only an
one-yr fig, can't directly compare with UCSD's averaged figs.
"相信我..." Why shouln't I??
回覆刪除Actually, I prefer schools list all admission requirements befor
application and the department really use that requirements
as the criteria for selection afterwards. When we play the
game, we must abided by the rules. I don't even query what they
are after, school reputation, quality of students...Do we care?
We only care the cability and how we get the target scores.
Well, judging ppl from scores is not unique in Asian culture.
It's a stereotype that US/Western education focus much less on
exams than Asian one... Anyway, don't expect too much differences
when considering study overseas, as least for undergrad & PG!
"如果確確實實的寫了出來,那怎麼騙你的申請費? US$90一位啊!"
回覆刪除Some schools really try their best to post explicitly their
requirements. GRE scores & GPA are clear enough while some
others are written in vaguer terms, e.g., some research
experience, some maths or natural science background... I know
they won't list them exhaustively, but at least we can have an
idea which schools might be unreachable, which might be decent
and worth a trial, and which might be 2nd or 3th tier, simply
a plan b if missing some good ones!!
"...在PhD時還要做那麼多course work..."
Even worse, there are exams after some years of PhD study, 2,
3 or 4, I'm not sure... Only after we passed the exams, we can
legitimately do our "real" research related to our dissertation.
Heck, maybe more than half of the time either we are grappling
with coursework, exams or doing chores for supervisors, which
will be seared "Basic Scientific Research Training" in our
humble track record...
"Being a post-doc is a waste of time..."
回覆刪除She is right given there WERE much opportunities...
The matter is now even in top-notch schools, they produce PhDs
much greater than they can afford to hire back, I mean starting
the tenure track to become assistant professors. Thanks to the
economic downturn, this over-supply may exacerbate in the
coming yr(s).
What I can say is Natural Selection rule applies: you can do
your "real research" given you are bright enough. For others,
they may keep grappling with the post-doc trap yr after yr,
or simply end up tutoring in a teaching university or C.C.
If we really wanna do our OWN research, as Mr. Obama said, we
must pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off!!!
OTOH, we may find some industrial research positions, I mean
not in academia, seems there may be more in medical and health
care sectors...
Well, things keep changing...
UIUC也是失敗,同樣是一個月內的事,所以也是gre吧.
回覆刪除人家名校果然做事就是有效率啊!