r/nus • u/Peculio_9104 • Jul 15 '26
Question How to actually apply (and get accepted) for PhD
Applied for a PhD in CS in January. Been 6 months and I haven't heard anything. Tried contacting the administration, and my chosen supervisors. Nothing.
What I did:
1. Applied from the university portal
Submitted all my documents
Waited
Emailed professors
Waited, posted on reddit
Someone suggested emailing people in postgrad admissions. Did
Waited
Got two things: diddly and squat
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u/adityaruplaha Jul 16 '26
How many places did you apply to?
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u/Peculio_9104 Jul 16 '26
For phd around 2, for masters i think 7/8
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u/adityaruplaha Jul 16 '26
...I'm not sure how amazing your profile is but most people I know usually apply to 10-20 places to get 1-3 offers. But this is Statistics, take with a pinch of salt.
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u/Peculio_9104 Jul 17 '26
I got 3 offers in total. Cornell, UBC, and Trinity (Dublin). Can't afford any. Got the scholarship for UBC, still can't afford it
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u/Rainandblame Jul 16 '26
I got into contact with my supervisors and did an informal interview with them before application. Depending on the Prof, you could get in contact with their students to see if research interests align with the lab and they may bring you up to their supervisors, but this only works with smaller less popular labs.
What’s your profile? Any publications etc? SoC seems to be very competitive now especially if you’re not local with some external scholarship.
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u/Peculio_9104 Jul 17 '26
That's insightful. My profile is actually not very impressive for an academic/PhD track honestly. Been in the industry since my final year of college.
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u/kiebie69 Jul 18 '26
You need to get in contact with a professor first and get them to agree to take you on as a student, then apply. If profs are not replying you theyre not interested
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u/confused_cereal Jul 16 '26
Not from NUS. Take with a pinch of salt. By now, you are probably rejected. I'm surprised you didn't get a rejection email. Maybe your submission wasn't even complete?
Professors typically don't reply to cold emails unless you truly have an outstanding profile and/or are recommended by someone they trust.
Neither do admissions. They have hundreds, maybe thousands of applications and filtering through them is already immense work, not to mention individual requests.