美国留学申请之套词全解析

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套词是大部分留学申请者较为熟悉的一个术语，是指申请者和申请学校的有关教授Email联系，借此达到增进自己录取和奖学金的机会。
美国学校的录取和中国的考研还是有很大区别的，中国的研究生主要的参考是成绩，这种评判标准不是很合理，却客观公平，反观美国的学校录取，决策者是专业科系的评审委员会以及教授，但是对于有些教授，他们有权审核所需要的助研或助教机会，而教授的批判标准，除了GRE和TOEFL考试和大学成绩，更看重的是申请者过去的经历和以后的发展方向，具有相同背景的申请者才能让教授留下更深的印象。如何向教授们展示申请者素质的主要手段就是你的申请文书以及和教授的套词。
套词虽然不是申请所必需的，却是很重要的，尤其在竞争十分激烈的情况下，对于那些硬件条件足够的学生，套词是为了更加保险，对于硬件条件不是很出色的学生，套词的意义更加重要。下面就用一个实例介绍套词中的一些技巧。
Sample 1.
Dear Professor (name),
Greetings from (name of city), PR China! As an applicant your esteemed doctoral electrical & computer engineering degree program for fall 2007, I am writing to cordially request your consideration upon my candidacy for teaching and/or research assistantship appointment to support my graduate studies at your esteemed Department. I wish to contact you because I have absolute interest in following your research areas relevant to signal processing for wireless communications/networking (equalization, synchronization, and compression), statistical signal processing and estimation theory during my doctoral studies.
套词第一部分的一种写法就是避而不谈申请而就教授的目前研究领域谈起，讲述自己的认识和看法，这在学术上要求较高，适合对该研究领域有过项目研究和经验申请者，相对比较难。在这个案例中是另一种方式，开篇开宗明义，表明自己的诚意以及将来目标的明确，表示出对教授的研究方向领域非常有兴趣。
Now a senior year student at the Department of Control Science & Engineering at (name of university), I have accumulated a 3.72/4.0 GPA that ranks me in third place out of my entire undergraduate class of (number) students. Furthermore, I have obtained an even stronger GPA for my major coursework that stands at 3.89/4.0 and received all ‘A' grades in my mathematics and computer science relevant curriculum. However, I believe my strongest qualifications lie in my diverse laboratory experiences applying mathematical algorithms and control theories to address uncertainty issues in communications. I have also applied algorithms to address image processing issues such as autonomous target acquisition (ATA) and autonomous target classification (ATC) to meet with improved noise elimination, image detection and segmentation, feature extraction, as well as pattern classification and identification. My association with (name of research institute) has given me hands-on knowledge on multiprocessor DSP architectures for signal adaptive equalization and adaptive filtering, particularly the role that adaptive DSP plays in modern signal processing, for instance, to modern mobile multimedia systems and set-up boxes for noise cancellation. I have also been working on a GPS project commissioned by the (name of institution), with the aim to propose novel remote sensing and GPS facilities to support transportation network monitoring and surveillance. In my supporting role, I have helped propose signal and image processing algorithms related to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and laser radar (LADAR) needed to autonomously detect and recognize the signature of a target in embedded backgrounds. I also performed investigations into functions associated with the autonomous target acquisition (ATA) process including noise elimination, detection, segmentation, feature extraction, as well as pattern classification and identification.
第二部分讲述自己的学业成绩和排名，在学校所取得的成就和荣誉，同时详细介绍一下自己对于教授的研究领域是有相同的科研背景的，在参与过的各种项目开发中，扮演的角色和起到的作用，关键是证明自己以往的教育背景和实习对于以后该教授的研究项目所带来的帮助。
Thank you very much for your attention and time. I would appreciate if you can be so kind to grant me the opportunity to speak with you over the telephone so we can discuss in greater details regarding my study plan for the Ph.D. program and my chance for TA and/or RA appointments at your Department. Wish you a productive and successful Year of Pig to come and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Your advice on my candidacy shall certainly be highly appreciated.
Yours truly,
第三部分向教授讲述自己的目的，能否得到教授的青睐以及获得Interview的机会，并表示谢意。
当教授接到Email(Sample 1)后给出了回复意见，表示对该申请者很感兴趣，但是因为他的研究领域涉及到国家的通信和国防，无法收取美国籍以外的研究生，但是问学生是否对纯商业的专业（autonomous vehicular control）感兴趣？当学生收到教授的回邮时，有两种选择，或者放弃，或者接受教授的建议改换新专业。这个申请者选择了后者，但是因为之前已经对教授的研究专业发表过看法，于是在Sample 2中，该申请者通过整合自己的资源，重新寻找对于自己有利的相关研究背景和实习经验，目的就是表述自己其实对于autonomous vehicular control这个专业其实也是很有兴趣，同时自己平时也积累了不少的经验，假如有机会做助教或助研的话，对以后很有帮助的。

te-hee

Sample 2
Dear Professor (name),
It has been more than a month since our last communication via email, and during which period I have been very fortunate to have learned something about the “autonomous vehicular control” concept that you mentioned in your previous email through the advice and assistance of my current project mentor, Dr. (name). I am resultantly writing to report to you the learning I have gained through such intriguing personal exposure and hopefully can have your valuable opinions on such regard.
As I have mentioned in my personal statement, since entering my senior year at (name of university) I have been selected by Dr. (name) in her current GPS project commissioned by the (name of institute). While our primary project objective was to propose novel remote sensing and GPS facilities to support transportation network monitoring and surveillance, I asked Dr. (name) if any of the Administration's other commissioned projects have involved relevant concepts and/or technologies to autonomous vehicular control and was very excited to have learned that one of the project teams that is currently on the process on investigating the autonomous intelligent cruise control and its possibility to replace human driving in an attempt to achieve better traffic flow control. Through my enthusiastic efforts I have learned about the computer simulation that the project team had designed and proposed to realize an “intelligent” system that could sense, model and diagnosis a dynamic domain, determine possible courses of action to accomplish a goal in the domain, and assess the various courses of actions to determine optimal action.
I feel that certain concepts and simulation techniques employed in this project should be of relevance to the “autonomous vehicular control” that you mentioned in your previous email despite its purpose is in optimal traffic flow control instead of computer controlled cars. I wonder if you can be so kind to advise me whether if I should continue spending time and efforts to learn more about this project and whether if you think such efforts will better prepare myself to join your current research team.
Thank you in advance for your valuable time and instruction. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours truly,
当教授接到Email(Sample 2)后给出的回复意见：需要申请者给出对information theory for multi-terminal networks的了解程度，于是该申请者在Email (Sample 3)中，讲述了自己对于此领域的关注程度，并对该领域的领军人物及其研究方向做出自己的见解，以示自己对该专业的了解，和符合该助教或助研岗位。这个案例中的申请者最终成功申请到了autonomous vehicular control这个专业，并获得的奖学金。

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