美国教授如何判别申请的学生是否有潜力（Johnny翻译）
作者:Sanjoy
Das, Assistant Professor, KansasStateUniversity
Ph.D. 1994, Louisiana StateUniversity.
Evolutionary algorithms, neural networks,
artificialintelligence, discrete optimization.
（这里采用第一人称翻译）
我每天都会收到国际学生的email，他们希望从我这里获得信息与建议，尤其是奖学金。不幸的是，我会删除绝大多数的邮件，因为我认为它们不值得详细阅读。我希望与有强烈的专业兴趣和经验的申请人沟通，尤其是有硕士学位的学生。这里点评两封email：
我不希望这样的来信：
尊敬的先生：
我很希望能够到美国读书。我正在申请您所在学校的奖学金。我对人工智能和计算机体系结构非常感兴趣，有C++，C和Java的编程经验。我也对Windows操作系统的一些软件包非常熟悉（Word，Excel，等等）。我还有NOVELL的网络认证，GRE的分数为2050，TOEFL99分。耽误您一点宝贵的时间来浏览一下我的简历。
先生，如果您能够让我成为助教的话，我一定会为您努力工作。从中学起，我就有很好的考试成绩。同时，能否告诉我得到您助教的机会有多大？
能否告诉我2002年夏季学期申请的截止日期是什么时候？
谢谢
ABC
我的评价：
这样的邮件会被我视为垃圾邮件直接删除。这个学生太过谄媚与奉承，这封邮件里有太多的诸如“宝贵的”，“尊敬的”之类的词语。很显然，这个学生很不专业，它对人工智能与计算机组成原理感兴趣，而这是两个完全不相关的领域。这使我认为他会同时与尽可能多的教授联系来获得支持。同时，他并没有谈论任何关于他感兴趣领域（人工智能）的内容。他强调编程经验，让我认为他的目标是在美国获得一份编程的工作，而到美国读研只是获得工作的敲门砖而已。他问我在其他部门获得助教资格的可能性，这一点我实在无可奉告。他还问我申请的截止日期，我怎么知道呢？这种资料完全可以从学校的网站获取。最后，这封邮件写得太过宽泛，让我认为，他会使用这封邮件跟上百个不同领域的教授打交道。我也收到过上百封这样的邮件。我不会一一回复，因为我对这些申请人没有丝毫的兴趣。
这里有一封会吸引我的邮件：
亲爱的Das教授：
我在申请KSU的博士学位，我对你的研究领域很感兴趣，希望了解与您一起研究的并且获得经济支持的可能性。
一个非常吸引我的问题是在计算机神经学中使用Tikhonov正则表达式，因为神经元信息会有很大的噪音，并且很少。同时，我也对神经网络中算法的进化感兴趣。我的另外一个兴趣在于并行处理。您是否正在考虑在您的算法中使用并行的思想呢？考虑到网站上您的研究项目列表，我认为这种策略是值得研究的。去年，我在神经网络与图像处理的国际会议上发表过一篇文章，名字是“HybridGradient
Descent Based Training of Probabilistic RecurrentNetworks”。如果您对我的申请感兴趣，请告诉我。
我的评价：
这是一封内容直接的信件，可以看出，作者对我的研究领域有强烈的兴趣。他是一个很特别的申请人。有浓厚的学习兴趣，并且在我的研究领域做过很多研究。如果条件允许的话，我会尽最大可能让这位学生到我这里进行学习。他有硕士学位，而很多申请人只有学士学位而已。
Internationalapplicants seeking assistantship/admission: please do not
send meemails blindly without reading this
Every day I receive emailsfrom international candidates for information,
for advice, andespecially requesting financial assistance. Unfortunately, I
deletemost of them without even reading them carefully. I get somany
mirrelevant emails that cannot reply to each. Extremelyrarely has one
caught my attention. Please do not send me emailswithout reading this
first. I am only interested in correspondingto candidates who are
exceptional, and have a strong interest andexperience in my immediate
area of specialization, and I highlyprefer ones with a Master'sdegree.
Here are two sample letters:
A sample letterthat will never get the candidate an assistantship with me:
Unwantedemail
Respected sir,
I am very interested in going to the USfor higher studies. I am seeking
admission and financialassistance in your esteemed University. I am
very interested inartificial intelligence and computer architecture. I have
programmingexperience in C++, C and ｊａｖａ.I
am also familiar with
several software packages in the Windowsenvironment (MS Word, Excel
V+ CSpreadsheet etc.). I also havenetworking certification from NOVELL. My
GRE score is 2050, and Igot 99 percentile in the TOEFL exam.
I request you to spare a fewmoments from your precious time to go
through my attachedresume.
Sir - if you are kind enough to offer me assistantship, Ipromise to work
very hard for you. I have a very good academicrecord since primary
school. Alternately, can you tell me what aremy chances of getting
assistantship from your department?
Canyou kindly inform me about the last dates for Summer term 2002
beforewhich I can apply?
Thank you for your valuable time,
Yoursobediently
ABC
Mycomments: Isimply
delete these emails, which I consider garbage .
The personseems to be too obsequious and flattering. In the emails that
I doread (occasionally), I do a first scan for keywords like"precious",
"respected" etc. deleting theemail if I find one. Obviously the person is
not professionalenough. The person is interested in artificial intelligence
andcomputer architecture - these are quite unrelated areas, makingme
think that he is trying to cover as many professors as possibleto get aid
from any possible source. Besides, he does not haveanything in support
of his claim (about his interest in artificialintelligence). He emphasizes on
his software skills, making methink that his goal is to get a programming
job in the US andhigher studies is only to allow him access to the US job
market.His GRE scores are OK, but not exceptional. He asks me to tell
himwhat his chances of getting an assistantship are, elsewhere inthe
department. I have absolutely no way of finding that out, andeven if I
knew, I would not bother to reply back. He also asks meto give him
information about summer deadlines. How am I supposedto know that?
I would typically expect that this informationshould be available from
the University web site, or from the gradschool, but my guess is as good
Finally, this letter is toogeneric . He probably uses exactly the
same format for hundreds ofemail letters to various professors
throughout the country,leaving no stone uncovered. I receive hundreds
of email like this.Regretfully, I cannot answer everyone, and these
applications donot interest me at all.
Now, here is a letter that wouldDEFINITELY attract my attention:
Excellentemail
DearProf. Das,
I am applying to KSU (amongst other places) for aPh.D., and I am very
interested in your research areas. I wouldlike to explore the possibility of
doing my research with you,with financial support.
One possible area that would interestme a lot is in applying Tikhonov
regularization to your problem incomputational neuroscience, since I
understand that neural datacan be very noisy, and yet sparse.
Alternately, I am alsointerested in applying evolutionary algorithms to
your geneticneural network parameter estimation. One of my other
interests inin parallel processing. Are you considering parallel
implementationsfor any of your optimization/estimation algorithms?
Consideringthat the projects that you list in your web site would probably
bevery computationally intensive, that may be a worthwhile strategyto
pursue.
I presented a paper entitled "Hybrid GradientDescent Based Training of
Probabilistic Recurrent Networks"in the International Conference on
Neural Networks and ImageProcessing, Bangalore, last year. It is a
reviewed publication. Ifhave attached a copy of the article in pdf format.
If you haveavailable funds, and are interested in my application please
letme know soon.
My comments: This is a straightforward letterfrom someone with a
genuine interest in my area . He is anexceptional candidate. He has
evinced a keen desire to learn, andalready has considerable mastery
over my area of research . If Ihave any funding available, I would
definitely try my very BEST toget this person . This person may have an
MS degree, while manyapplicants have only a BS degree