Credits - Nayantara Ramakrishnan, B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering, 2025

University

Stanford

Programs and Countries applied to

PhD programs in Materials Science and Chemistry, USA

Application Timeline

July onwards: Shortlisting labs and programs I was interested in August: Started drafting my SOP October: Asked for reviews on the SOP

Application Strengths

1) My motivation for doing the research I wanted to do 2) Research experiences and what I took away from them 3) How being a debater helps me choose problem statements to work on

SOPs, LORs, Resume

Resume: pretty standard SOPs: it’s helpful to start by just listing your major research experiences - project summary, what techniques or tools you used, what you learnt from the project, how it fits in with your research interests etc - this is the most important part of your SOP. Then try and formulate each research experience into a paragraph of it’s own, and finally try to tie the whole SOP together LORs: Ask the professors you have worked on research projects with. You should ideally build a good rapport with these professors and show them your depth of understanding on the work you’ve done with them so they can express that in the LOR. And explain what program you’re applying for and what your aim from that is when you ask for the LOR

Resources Used

Asked seniors and friends for reviews

Reflections & Advice

Starting on my SOP early was good, it gave me time to really think about why I wanted to do a PhD and allowed my motivation and the research I found interesting to influence each other. I think that discovery of why exactly you want to do that program you’re applying for is very valuable.

I hesitated a lot to pick just the right safety schools and did a lot of unnecessary overthinking - wouldn’t recommend that.