(i) Scholarship guide for South Korea: http://goo.gl/Bo22DY
(ii) How to contact supervisor :http://goo.gl/Ih7tjM
(iii) How to search for articles, professors: http://goo.gl/LFpnA6
(iv) Example of a bad email.. http://goo.gl/PbqnP9
(v) Resume Sample: http://goo.gl/aZE8Cl
(ii) How to contact supervisor :http://goo.gl/Ih7tjM
(iii) How to search for articles, professors: http://goo.gl/LFpnA6
(iv) Example of a bad email.. http://goo.gl/PbqnP9
(v) Resume Sample: http://goo.gl/aZE8Cl
Reference: Scholarship guide for South Korea: http://goo.gl/Bo22DY
Scholarship Guide for South Korea
How to get Scholarships in South Korea
South Korea is one of the countries offering a lot of scholarships in every field.Please read below, with much attention, you will understand every thing
Dear All,
Let me explain to you that in Korea the easiest way to get admission and scholarship (both fee and living expenses) is first of all, you should search relevant professors of your choice and research interest. Then you should make a good CV according to the interest of those relevant professors and send him/her that CV along with a short email stating your introduction and show your interest that you want to do master/Ph.D under his/her supervision.If a professor shows interest it means almost you have 99% chances that your admission is confirmed. In most of the cases, university provides tuition fee scholarship while professor provide monthly living expenses scholarship. It also means you have to struggle to get these two scholarships. If you get one then the other you have to pay by yourself and it is very expensive for individual.
So, first of all, you should try to find “Faculty” => Professors profiles on the university website. Then what you have to do is:
1. Read all your major professors profiles, research interests and projects. (You can also find the research interests of professors by finding on Google their published research papers)
2. Make your CV research oriented and also easily readable and good looking. (Also according to the professor you choose to apply. Relate your previous work plus final year project with that professor’s research work and show him/her your interest in his work). A sample can be seen here
*Important Note for Electronics plus Computer majors ( In Korea, professors like if you are good in programming languages and it is good if you have distinction in programming skills and you can show them)
3. Write an email. (Please be short in writing email, as professor has not so much times to read it fully just write main but few sentences)
4. Send your email and CV to as many professors as you can (keep in mind only interested professors may reply you, so don’t be disappointed)
Note: If you are interested in any specific professor and he/she does not reply you and also you think that you are quite fit for work in his lab according to that professor's previous work then you must contact him/her by" telephone". Please keep in mind that many professors do not reply, so in that case, you must contact him/her by telephone.
IMPORTANT:
1. Maybe if you face some trouble while opening website then please install “Korean” language tools.
*Always Open the Korean websites in Internet explorer and inatll google toolbar in it and then use that toolbar's translate button to translate website OR copy and paste text in google translator simply
2. Deadlines and time is very important.
3. Try to get any English proficiency certificate such as IELTS / TOEFL or even TOEIC. It increases chances of scholarships.
4. Once the ball starts rolling (After getting reply from professor) Come up with a project plan or SOP (Statement of purpose, Research plan) that what you are going to research about. Indulge yourself in writing new project proposals if required.
FEW MORE THINGS
In Korea, two kinds of scholarship
1. University scholarships
University scholarships are few and hard to get , but good than professor scholarship as in this case you will not be depended on money by professor. But when you apply for this scholarship, if you contact the professor before in the way as mentioned above, then you have better chance to get this scholarship. Although university scholarships mostly do not require professors recommendations but if you are successful to get one before applying, then it is good chance for you to get that scholarship
2. Professor scholarship
This solely depends on professor and university does not give you money in this case. These are easy to get but hard to maintain sometimes, because sometimes if professor is not happy with your performance, then he can give you financial problems.
How to Contact a Supervisor
When you are planning for PhD or Masters by research program, two kinds of funding opportunities can be availed. The first option is to apply for a scholarship program which covers everything including your flight ticket, settle-in allowance, books allowance, tuition fee and monthly stipend which is mostly tax free. The scholarships like this are very good but limited in number. Another option is getting funding support from a supervisor/professor, where you need to work on some specific research problem/project under the supervision of professor. At PhD level getting support from a supervisor is most common way to fund studies. Now, the important question is how to find a supervisor and ask him for supporting your studies. In this article, I will talk about the things to be considered while searching and contacting supervisor.
In a successful search for a professor, who is willing to supervise your research, you have to make strong first impression because you may get only one chance for each professor. If you fail to impress or convince him about your abilities in first contact, it’s probable that you can never do that again. Most common and formal way to contact a supervisor is through email. There are some common mistakes which if avoided would result in a splendid communication regarding your motivation.
Finding a Supervisor
To narrow down search, you have to first know what your interest/ambition is. I know it is not easy to know exact topic of research at such an early stage but you should know your area of research. One way is to search some latest survey papers related to your field, just skim through the content, do not expect from yourself to understand everything at this point, look at the author profiles at the end of papers. After doing some literature review, you can see that leading professors in your area of research would be most cited and by this you can point to potential supervisors currently involved in your topic of interest. Another way is to further narrow down your search by universities; where you wish to pursue your degree then visit university’s website and your program’s page. Here you will see couple of professors doing similar research, you must see their latest publications to finalize potential supervisor. Be careful, do not email to more than one professor at the same department simultaneously, because if a professor finds you suitable he will arrange an interview with more than one or two other professors and usually you end up with same professors you emailed, besides one who is interested in you and this raises a question about your commitment or seriousness because you cannot be ambitious about different research interests at the same time.
Once you have selected a professor who can be potential supervisor for your research, please follow the general guidelines on how to contact him.
Know him well
Know your professor’s profile well, try to see his latest publications especially one which interests you and try to quote them in your email just title of paper. Write a formal, short but comprehensive email including information about your research interests, how you found him and your background.
Avoid Casual language
Your email should be very formal without use of any casual language and check twice for your abbreviation which you frequently use with your friends etc. For example writing short for your as ‘ur’, thanks as ‘thnx’, ‘R U fine?’ and others.
Subject of Email
The subject of email is very important as professors are very busy and would not spend time reading all emails in their inbox; subject line is to catch their attention. Write like ‘Interested in Research area _____ with your group’ or similar.
Make specific Query
The professors get hundreds of emails from students asking for funding to support their studies. The most important thing professors want to establish about you is level of ‘seriousness’ and ‘motivation’. Some students write an email with generic content and send to many professors and universities and this is worse way to make contact with a professor. Try to be specific to your own case and refer to things which motivate you to join that particular group. Generic emails would never be read and replied.
Do not ask about weather/health
As a stranger to professor, its better not to ask how is he feeling and how the weather is. For initial contact this kind of questions/wishes are not appreciated. To the point message is better as it saves time of recipient.
Know the Culture
In some cultures you do not call elders by name or first name. For example in Korean culture, writing “Dear Professor” is better than “Dear _Name” as the social hierarchy is vertical. While in west there is no harm in calling Professor’s name as social hierarchy is horizontal. It looks a minor point but I am telling you it reflects a lot if you do it rightly. Do not flatter the recipient beg or plea as it is not considered a good thing.
Be precise
As mentioned earlier, message should be precise and to the point. If you are referring to some of professor’s papers, just mention the title of paper/project. You do not need to go in details of your own work at this stage, just try to connect that with the research interests of professor.
How you find him
Do tell him how you found him. Professors are always keen to know this, as it also indicates how serious were you to join his group and did not try thousand email addresses in a go to try your luck.
Attachments
Never forget to attach a CV and ideas about your expected area of research. Do not attach all those award certificates and transcripts at this point in time.
Review Email
Check all the grammar, spelling, typos and similar careless mistakes. These would not put good impression about finishing of your work. Conclude your email well, ask him to talk more about your ambitions and do let you know if need more information.
Acknowledgements
For making of this guide, the most of material was taken from articles of Dr. Murad Ali(South Korea) and Mujeeb Ahmed (MS from South Korea)
Waqar Baig
PhD Candidate
Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate
waqarbaig85@gmail.com
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How to contact supervisor :http://goo.gl/Ih7tjM
How to find and contact a Supervisor/Professor regarding MS, PhD
Students who need to contact supervisors for grants/scholarships for MS and PhD especially in South Korea, Australia, New Zealand etc. They have to find supervisors first and then contacting them.
How to find Supervisors/Professors
1) Find the list of universities, you want to apply for by writing in google.com. e.g., “Universities in Australia”, “Universities in South Korea”. You will get whole list of universities there.
2) Finalize your area of interest; you can finalize your area of interest by looking at your final year project, subject in which you are best, some already done research or some tool in your filed you are best for example programmers in Computer science field. So find as many keywords as you can from them, for example programmers and CS people can use keyword, image processing or computer vision or data analysis etc.
3) Open google.com and write the research area of interest with some university name whom you have already found out in first point given above.
4) You will get the results from google about the department links/professors links/papers from that university published etc., relevant to your area of interest b. You can open the links of professors and departments links or papers to find out your relevant professor/professors.
How to contact Supervisor/Professor
1) Professors are doing advanced research work, which you have not done, but may be some tools or techniques, which professor is using, you have worked on or you have basic knowledge of professor work etc.
2) Before contacting the professor, you must know that they have not much time to look at your emails. So be careful for the instructions given below
3) Read out the all the professors profiles very carefully and see which one is related to your area of interest.
By profile reading of professor I mean to read their
(i) Research papers
(ii) Projects
4) Finalize one or two or more professors based on who is most understandable and relevant to the area of interest you are going for. You will get this thing cleared after you have read their projects and their research papers
5) Then after the few professors you have finalized. Read with very extreme attention their research papers. Ask your seniors or teachers to help you understanding them
6) See and find that how your area of interest fits in them. For example if you are good in some subject /tool and they have already used it.
7) You must understand fully the ideas presented in the paper.
8) Then start writing an email with a suitable heading such as “Request for supervision of MS/PhD”.
9) Body of email should not be much long or short.
10) Start email by introducing with your name and the university, country you are from.
11) Then mention that while going through profiles of professors, you stumbled upon that professor profile and have read his papers, mention the paper/papers names you have already read of that professor and in one line the basic idea of paper/papers you understood. Then next line you mention how you link your area of interest with his that paper or papers whom you have already mentioned. This thing is quite tricky; you have to be good in it. For example I work in Computer science field and I write that “I read your paper “abc” in which you have implemented xyz algorithm using xyz filter. I have also implemented same kind of algorithm in which I have used abc filter with boosting classifiers and implemented the code using OpenCV libraries.”. This is just an example, you can write better version of it as it is just a sample line.
Also if you can give some genuine idea on which you want to work on, then it is best. But you should be writing technically when presenting such idea. These ideas come into your mind when you read many papers in one area of interest.
12) This thing will let him understand that you are a serious person and you have read his papers and you want to do serious work
13) Then ending lines that you would like to work for MS/PhD under his/her supervision,
14) You can mention sometimes in first email also the scholarships you want to apply for; e.g, IPRS for Australia, or NZIDRS or New Zealand etc
15) Put formal endings
16) Attach research CV
A sample of such CV can be seen here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/scholarships.pk/777526962257864/
17) Best is to use University official email address, if you do not have any university email address, then make a good email ID, do not make funny IDs, such as Romeo447@gmail.com or some jokes like it.
18) Also you can see these files
Scholarship guide for South Korea: http://goo.gl/Bo22DY
MS and PhD Scholarships tips and tricks for Australia: http://goo.gl/62DMqE
Tips to get PhD Scholarships in New Zealand:http://goo.gl/YcK9JK
MS, PhD scholarships in life sciences, Pharmacy, medical, Korea :http://goo.gl/W5PMfR
Best of Luck
Waqar
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How to search for articles, professors: http://goo.gl/LFpnA6
How to search for Research Articles/ papers, Professors, Departments, Websites
Game of Keywords
As long as you know your keywords, you are good in searching on google.
1) If you know the article name then first open two websites www.google.com and scholar.google.com. Just write in google, the name of your article. It will give you the full link of the article.
2) If you are finding some specific professor papers, then write his name or even part of his name in www.google.com and scholar.google.com. You may find many papers from that professor name. May be there are many professors by same name, so try to open the links and checking the university name as if they belong to same university you are searching for. For example, searching the name “Hyuchul Shin”. You search on both websites of it this name. But there are many names like this in results. So you will check university name to which his name belongs in the results from websites and open the papers/websites in which his exact university have been mentioned. Sometimes if you open the paper, the professor website/email is also mentioned in there and you can use that email of professor to further find information about him in www.google.com.
3) You can also write professor partial name with university partial name in www.google.com and scholar.google.com. It will give you some results and you can find the desired one. For example I am searching for professor Kim Hyun Lee from Kyung Hee University South Korea. I write in both websites “Kim Lee Kyung Hee “. It will give me good results rather than writing full description “Kim Hyun Lee from Kyung Hee University South Korea”. So I will get the papers of professors or his website and also from that papers/websites I can guess what is the research area of professor.
4) If you are searching for any area of interest in some university then Writing keywords of your choice for example, field “cognitive radio” or “lithium batteries” with country name such as “Korea”, “Australia” or with university name e.g., “Melbourne University”. You will get the papers from professor and also you will get interesting information that which professor is working in your area of interest. For example you area of interest is “Human Computer Interface” and you want to know about professors in this area in Australia. So you can write in www.google.com and scholar.google.com “Human computer Interface Australia” and if you want to add university name “Human Computer Interface Melbourne university”. This will help you also to identify the professors in that area working.
5) If you are finding some general area and professors in that area and their papers. Just write in google.com their area + university name. You will get professor list and then from that list you can use above methods to find papers. For example you are searching for Communication department professors in Seoul National University. Try with keywords in google.com. “Communications Seoul national university” also as communications belong to Electrical, electronics, so you can also use keywords “Electrical Seoul national university”. So trying different keywords, you will get the list of professors and using above methods you can get their papers/websites.
6) Most important problem that you have the links of papers now but you cannot access them. So what to do
(i) Ask your friends in foreign universities to send you paper copies
(ii) Join these three or more facebook groups and post there the paper link, people will send you papers immediately (a)https://www.facebook.com/groups/freeliterature/?fref=nf (b)https://www.facebook.com/groups/paperreqest/ (c)https://www.facebook.com/groups/jawadcemb/ Or using this website by Russians: www.sci-hub.org
Best of luck
Scholarship Network Waqar
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Example of a bad email.. http://goo.gl/PbqnP9
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Resume Sample: http://goo.gl/aZE8Cl
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