foreign in this video we are going to take a look at the top four factors that I think got me to MIT I did my undergraduate and master's degree outside the US and got into MIT to study my PhD degree as an international student I will also share some tips on how you can also get into toughest schools like MIT and Harvard this video is specifically about admission for graduate school at the end of this video I'm going to share my own CV at the time of applying for graduate school so make sure to watch until the end of this video by the way before we start if you haven't subscribed yet please make sure to subscribe so that you won't miss our future videos let's go [Applause] number one research experience well if you take one thing from this video is that topic schools like Harvard and MIT care a lot about your previous research experience especially having Publications in the reputable journals can make your application stand out from my experience there are two effective strategies to increase your research experience while you are an undergraduate student first strategy approach your professors in your University and see if they are working on a research project that interests you ask them if there are any projects that you can help with University professors are overloaded with a lot of work most likely they will be more than happy to have one more helping hand for free make sure to find a nice professor and an area that you really like this way you get a chance to contribute to a real research project later when the project is hopefully published your name will also get into that publication and this is a great way to boost your CV for admission to graduate school second strategy you have probably taken courses or are going to take courses that are heavily based on projects it means during the course you are required to complete a project as part of the requirements for that course here's the thing you can continue working on these projects even after the course is finished what you can work on is to expand the scope of that course project beyond the class and add more details and add more work to it after the course is finished you can approach the professors teaching that course and say that you are super interested to continue working on the course project here the goal is to use the content of that course project towards a research publication from my experience professors would be more than happy to have one more research assistant for free so these two were the key strategies I used to increase my Publications I will let you know how many Publications I had at the time of applying for graduate school at the end of this video number two GPA topic schools like mic and Harvard care a lot about your GPA especially your undergraduate GPA almost everyone I know who got into MIT for graduate school had a very good GPA but it doesn't mean that getting a c or a couple of B's is end of the world I actually had multiple bees and one C in my undergraduate transcript so don't let a few bad grades disappoint you from reaching your dream School in addition to having a high GPA something that I've also observed from people starting at MIT is that a lot of them graduated in top rankings in their class that means you should not only have a very high GPA but also being the top ranking in your class well we can have a whole video about how to study hard to get a guaranteed a but for now I'll just leave it there number three letters of recommendation from my experience MIT admission committee cares a lot about letters of recommendation you might be thinking that these days everyone gets a very good recommendation letter the reality is that getting good recommendation letters is actually very easy but getting Stellar recommendation letters is fairly hard a stellar recommendation letter should mention specifically why you are the best and give specific examples for that for example if your professor mentions that you are hard working then he or she should give a specific examples in a research project when you produce a lot of data or made a new discovery getting Stellar recommendation letters takes a lot of time and needs building relationships with your professors over a very long time in general the more time you spend with a professor doing a research project or taking a course the better they will get to know you and the better the quality of the recommendation letter here are three type of people that I would suggest getting a recommendation letter from number one your thesis advisor assuming that you have a positive relationship with them number two if you have taken multiple courses with the same professor and have gotten good grades in them then that Professor could be a good option number three if you have taken a course project with a professor and have done well in that course project that Professor could be also another option you can check out the strategy I used to get recommendation letters in this table here I've explained why I chose because each of these people and the type of course projects or any type of research I had done with them I stopped me that three recommendation letters you can see in this table why I chose each person and any type of research projects or courses I have taken with them number four chance yes chance was also a big factor that helped me get into MIT for graduate school I almost never thought of going into toughest schools like MIT or Harvard it's funny but I applied only one day before the application deadline my point is that a good portion of your application outcome depends on chance and things that are out of your control for example the pull-off applicant in the year that you apply and how strong they are compared to you well the takeaway from this video is to try to improve your CV as much as possible by using some of the tips that we covered in this video even if you don't get into MIT or other top life continues and just try to enjoy the journey okay as I promised now we are going to take a look at my CV at the time of applying for graduate school hopefully it will help you with your own graduate admission Journey as you see I had a good number of Publications and a high GPA but not any remarkable GRE or TOEFL score in fact my TOEFL score was barely above the minimum for MIT which is a score of 100. that's what I don't think GRE was a significant factor for my admission to MIT for graduate school that said when it comes to GRE different schools might have different policies or requirements and it's always good to check with a student who is currently studying at your target school thanks for watching this video If you like this video and found it helpful please make sure to subscribe if you are planning to apply for graduate school give good luck with your application and please let me know if there is any questions I can help it in the comments have fun until our next video in about a week thanks