Grad School Series: Texas A&M University

Vaishnav Tadiparthi graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 2017 with a dual degree in Aerospace Engineering. He is currently pursuing his PhD at Texas A&M University, where he is a member of a research group that deals with uncertainties in engineering systems.

When did you decide to pursue a PhD? What motivated that decision?

I probably decided to do a PhD towards the end of my fourth year and the beginning of the fifth, when I had an opportunity to pursue an internship at NUS. The internship exposed me to a good research environment and made me realize that doing original work could be extremely rewarding. Moreover, I wasn’t too keen on working because the opportunities for Aerospace engineers in India were limited in scope.

How did you decide on colleges to apply to? For someone unsure about what they want to do, is MS a better option?

I think it is standard practice to apply to the top ten universities in the US. I personally applied to seven of them and emailed the professors there. I eventually decided on Texas A&M because I received positive feedback from KGPians already there. Moreover, my current advisor was from Kharagpur and happened to know some of the professors who recommended me.

I spent a lot of time contemplating whether to pursue an MS or a PhD too. Eventually, I chose to do a PhD because I figured that an MS was not worth the economic investment that it required of me. A PhD certainly opens more doors than an MS does and seemed like a good idea because I was about to graduate with a Masters degree from IIT anyway.

ETS, the administrator of GRE, allows people to take the GRE once every 21 days. What, according to you, is a good time to take the qualifying exam?

I took the GRE towards the end of my fourth year, in January to be precise. For someone in a 5 year program, that is actually a very good time because the Spring semester of the fourth year is relatively free when compared to the Autumn semester of the final year.

For people enrolled in four year courses, I would suggest taking the GRE early in their final year, sometime around August. If you are fairly certain that you want to do a MS/PhD, the end of third year may not be a bad idea either.

Can you comment on the relative importance of CGPA, Statements of Purpose and Letters of Recommendation?

I would say that your CGPA, along with relevant research experience matters the most. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that people don’t read SoPs, but from my experience, I would say that the amount of effort people put into drafting their SoPs may not be as rewarding as they would want it to be. That said, SoPs convey what your resume or CGPA cannot, and in that context, it is very important to write a good SoP.

Letters of recommendation are fairly important too, but the weights associated to SoP and LoRs vary greatly across professors interested in your application. It is pretty standard for most universities to demand three LoRs. I got my BTP and MTP advisors to recommend me. For the rest, I confined myself to other professors from my department.

How did you go about choosing your advisor? Are there opportunities for funding once on campus?

I obviously approached my current advisor because his research interests aligned with mine. More importantly, he was the only one who guaranteed me funding and that influenced my decision to a large extent.

Funding is largely specific to the university that you apply to because there are TA and RA posts that you can take up (subject to their availability) that will cover a portion of your tuition. As far as Texas A&M is concerned, almost all PhD students and Masters (thesis) students are afforded a stipend.

Any parting words for current undergrads on how to approach the entire apping process?

It isn’t that different from applying for placements. It’s better in the sense that an applicant is not limited to a one page resume and can expand on his/her achievements in their personal statements. It’s worse in the sense that the entire process is cost prohibitive and severely limits opportunities to apply to more than a handful of schools. You should look out for funding guarantee, cost of living, peer community and your potential advisor’s nature. During apping, get feedback from seniors on how competitive your application is. Some rejections will hurt more than others but know that a number of factors other than the strength of your application are in play during admission decisions, and given that you’re about to graduate from a reputed institute you’re not doing too bad at the moment.