Voices of CS: Tao Long

The 1st-year PhD student talks about the Pre-submission Application Review program and how it helped him finetune his application.

One of the hardest things to do is prepare application materials for a PhD program. It is hard to gather your thoughts and try to distill them in a way that makes sense and will impress the admission committee. Plus, the pressure is on for you to get into a program and a lab that matches your research interests.

These were some of the thoughts running through Tao Long’s mind this time last year when he was figuring out which PhD programs to apply to. He started doing human-computer interaction (HCI) research as an undergraduate at Cornell University and knew that he wanted to continue on the academic research track. When he saw that Columbia’s computer science PhD program had an application review program, he knew that he should apply to it and take the opportunity to get feedback on his application materials.

The Pre-submission Application Review (PAR) program is a student-led initiative where current PhD students give a one-time review of an applicant’s statement of purpose and CV. Now in its third year, the aim is to promote a diverse and welcoming intellectual environment for all. Not many PhD applicants have access to a network that can give advice and guide them through the application process; the student volunteers of the PAR program hope to address these inequities.

Long shares his experience applying to PhD programs, taking part in review programs, and how he is paying it forward by helping other students with their applications to PhD programs.

Q: Why did you decide to go into a PhD program directly after undergrad?
During my undergrad at Cornell, I worked on a few projects in several different labs, all focusing on HCI. I am really proud of a digital technology project that I contributed to – collaborating with Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Law; we are trying to understand the existing barriers for asylum seekers to adopt technologies and how to design ones for them.

My passion for socially impactful technology makes me want to continue doing human-computer interaction (HCI) research. HCI researchers study how people interact with technology and how to better design and develop technology according to people’s needs. Thus, both technical and social science knowledge is essential in this interdisciplinary field. With a background in information science and communication, I believe technology has a communicative capacity and responsibility: we speak, design, and build for those who can’t.

Q: How was your experience applying to PhD programs?
I finalized my school list, started reaching out to faculty members I was interested in working with, and prepared my application materials around September and October. In November, I focused on polishing my statement with some current graduate students and pre-submission application review programs held by universities.

December was the time when the long wait began. After the holidays, some applicants will begin receiving interview inquiries. Around late February and March, most applicants will receive their concluded application decisions back. Lastly, they need to decide whether they accept the offer by April 15 (see April 15 Resolution).

The whole half-year-long application process was too long for me. There are many online platforms, like the r/gradadmissions subreddit and the GradCafe, where people share their admission updates. These information sources made the waiting process more exciting but also made me feel a bit anxious. I think I really enjoyed the post-submission period, where I felt relieved after all my application materials were in. Thus, I started working at an on-campus cafe, learned knitting, and watched YouTube and TikTok all day.

Q: Why did you choose to apply to Columbia CS? What attracted you to the program?
Columbia is well-known for its strong academic and research resources. I am now taking a class on how to build a successful startup in CS. The instructor of that class is a Columbia CS PhD graduate with several well-established startups. In addition to courses, countless fascinating research projects from the department widely collaborate with different schools on campus and large tech companies in the city. Specifically, I find the research conducted by my advisor, Lydia Chilton, really cutting-edge in helping users understand and interact with artificial intelligence tools. Many of her recent publications on large language models and text-to-image generative models are fascinating and impactful to the HCI community.

Q: You were part of the PAR program last year; how was it?
I found the PAR program on the department website during my school search period. During that month, I looked through many university websites and found several schools that provided similar programs to give feedback to PhD applicants. I chose to apply for the PAR program because I wanted more feedback on my application materials. Sometimes people say you have enough experience, but it isn’t addressed well on the application. I wanted to make sure that I presented myself well and painted a full picture of myself.

Q: Was it helpful to get feedback?
I submitted my Statement of Purpose, Personal Statement, and academic CV in early November. Then, the PAR team paired me with a reviewer and provided me with valuable and insightful written comments on my application materials by November 21, which is around 20 days before Columbia’s application deadline.

The feedback contained a general evaluation of the pros and cons of my application materials. They pointed out problems in the statement structure – mention more about my experience, stress more about the technical or the non-technical skill sets, shrink the length of the statement, and move one section forward. Feedback was also given on the format and language usage like what tense to use, easy-to-read font style and size, and header or page breaks to help the user flow between sections. Thus, containing feedback from both high-level and low-level perspectives, this PAR review program was beneficial for me to navigate and make future changes.

Q: You are part of the PAR team now, right? Why did you join the group?
I became active in the subreddit r/gradadmissions last year while I was waiting for the admission results to come out. I found it helpful to check posts there to learn more about the general admission process from other people’s cases. I also found a few HCI PhD applicants there, thus establishing some prior connections before entering the field. My friend and I started helping applicants from low-resource countries or regions by reviewing their application materials and providing feedback.

When I decided to go to Columbia, I knew I wanted to continue helping PhD applicants. I am part of other review programs offered by affinity groups outside Columbia to help those interested in pursuing a PhD. I joined the department’s PAR program committee in September. We are getting ready for the upcoming November 15th deadline and recruiting current CS PhD students to become reviewers. I highly recommend that applicants join the PAR program! I am sure that you could receive a lot of insightful feedback from the current CS PhD student community to help polish your materials! Good luck!

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Interested applicants have to apply to the PAR program and submit their personal statement and CV by November 7th at 11:59 pm EST. Because the program is student-run and dependent on volunteers, there is no guarantee that every applicant can be accommodated. Those who are accepted will be notified by November 14th, then paired with a PhD student in the same research area who will review their materials and provide feedback to them by November 21st – well ahead of the December 15th deadline to apply to the PhD program.

PAR Program Offers Peer-Support to PhD Applicants

PhD students will review an applicant’s Personal Statement as part of the Pre-Submission Application Review (PAR) Program.

A group of PhD students wants to reduce the inequities in the department’s PhD application process. They will help applicants of the PhD program – by lending their expertise by reviewing a personal statement. This initiative, called the Pre-Submission Application Review (PAR) Program, is in its second year.

“It is clear that students from underrepresented groups may further benefit from mentorship through the entirety of the process of applying, to deciding, to ultimately entering grad school,” said Sam Fereidooni, a first-year PhD student and PAR Program coordinator. The group plans to organize further mentorship opportunities in future iterations of the program such as spaces where students can engage in conversations in a supportive community of their peers, in addition to current PhD students and faculty members.

“Ultimately, we are trying to provide resources to support underrepresented people in CS, with the goal of addressing inequality in representation,” said Samir Gadre, a 2nd-year PhD student and PAR Program coordinator. The group sees the importance of continuing the program because the status quo does not change quickly. It is a feeling that is shared with other universities – Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology students started similar programs in 2020 as well. Said Gadre, “We feel that PAR programs across the country are a good first step. However, we also recognize that more student and faculty activism, particularly from people in positions of power, is necessary to create meaningful institutional change.”

By continuing the program the group hopes to address the systemic disadvantages people from underrepresented communities face by lending a hand and giving advice on how to write a personal statement that will stand out and get the attention of professors.

“Above all applicants must do research on potential faculty that they would like to work with,” said Kahlil Dozier, a 2nd-year PhD student and PAR Program coordinator. Even if an applicant is not completely sure what their intended research area is, it is better to mention specific faculty that may align with their interests in their application. This is one of the most critical pieces of advice; an application will likely get referred to the names mentioned, and those professors may be the ones deciding if the applicant is a suitable candidate for admission.

And it is not enough to just mention the faculty in the application–potential students should actually look at the recent work faculty has done and read their papers. A PhD can take five to seven years to complete so applicants should see if it is the type of work they actually want to dedicate their graduate research career to. Continued Dozier, “If you have done this, it will inevitably come through in your personal statement and bolster your application.”

Here are more points applicants should consider before writing a Personal Statement:

– The Personal Statement is a key part of the application; oftentimes, it is where an applicant can differentiate themself from other applicants

– In short, the intent is to build a personal narrative, goals, and aspirations, and offer a perspective that is fundamentally absent from a resume/CV.

– The application is constrained by limited space, so applicants need to focus on a few concrete experiences (broadly defined) that may have shaped the trajectory of the applicant’s academic career up until this point or even themself as a researcher.

– Even though it is separate and serves a different function than the Research Statement of Purpose, research can still be involved. One approach to making a personal statement is to make a narrative out of one’s CV, fill in the “between the lines”.

– Again, doing prior research on potential faculty can shine through here, and it would be advantageous to show in any way how a faculty member’s work may align with the applicant’s background and goals.

Student-led Initiative Aims to Help Applicants of the PhD Program

In an effort to reduce inequities in the PhD application process, a group of PhD students have created the Pre-Submission Application Review (PAR) Program to help applicants to the PhD program.

When Chris Kedzie and Katy Gero heard about Stanford University’s Student-Applicant Support Program they immediately thought, “this is something that we can do at Columbia.” Within hours they put together a rough plan on how to help applicants of the PhD program – by lending their expertise with reviewing a personal statement.

“Many times people who end up in PhD programs get there because of an invisible network of support, normally from other people who have attended a PhD program,” said Chris Kedzie, a seventh-year PhD student. When he was applying to graduate programs many of his friends who were in PhD programs helped and gave him invaluable feedback on his application, specifically his personal statement. “But for those who do not have access to that kind of network, it can put them at an unfair disadvantage.”

This review program attempts to fill the gap and help provide access to PhD students who can look over an applicant’s statement of purpose. “It is certainly not even close to addressing all of the systemic problems that some people face when applying to grad school,” said Katy Gero, a fourth-year PhD student. She, too, had friends in PhD programs who helped her with her application and she saw what a big difference getting feedback and guidance made. “We hope this is a small step in the right direction and it is something that we as grad students can implement ourselves.”

The initiative did not pop up out of the blue. Kedzie and Gero have been meeting with other students, faculty, and department staff since the #ShutDownSTEM strike for Black lives on June 10th. Over the summer, the group brainstormed ways that they can make the CS department more equitable. One of the points discussed was making the PhD program more accessible and so it was easy to get the group’s support for the PAR Program.

The initiative was put together quickly because of the support of fellow students, like Khalil Dozier and Tim Randolph, along with Associate Director for Academic Administration and Student Services Cindy Meekins, Professor Augustin Chaintreau, and CS Department Chair and Professor Rocco Servedio. The program was presented to the Dean’s office and officially launched in mid-October.

“The Computer Science Department is very happy to support our PhD students in this effort that they have led to improve the equity of our PhD program,” said Rocco Servedio, a professor and chair of the department. The department launched the CS@CU MS Bridge Program in computer science last year and is working on other programs with students and faculty. “We hope that this and other similar-in-spirit programs will bear fruit in broadening access to our department to a wide group of learners.”

Interested applicants have to apply to the PAR program and submit their personal statement and CV by November 7th at 11:59 pm EST. Because the program is student-run and dependent on volunteers, there is no guarantee that every applicant can be accommodated. For those who are accepted, they will be notified, then paired with a PhD student in the same research area who will review their materials and provide feedback to them by November 21st – well ahead of the December 15th deadline to apply to the PhD program.

“We have been really impressed by the support we have seen,” said Kedzie. “We hope that this is a step towards a lot of bigger changes to the department and the school, to make it a more equitable place for everyone.”

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If you are interested in taking part in Columbia’s #ShutdownSTEM meetings, the group meets every other week on Fridays at 3 pm. Sign up for meeting announcements here: https://lists.cs.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/shutdownstem-columbia

Tag: Pre-Submission Application Review Program