- Hey everyone, so this is
probably been my most requested
video in the last like two
months, and I've only been
running this YouTube channel
for like six, five months.
So, I wanted to make a little video today
about how I got into ETH.
Okay, so I guess I'll just start with all
of my qualifications that
I had when I was applying.
What I did, was I did honors
mechanical engineering
at McGill University in Canada.
In Canada, our last year we
have to do a year-long project,
probably with industry,
sometimes with a professor,
and instead, in honors, you
do research with a professor.
So you don't do it with
four people in a group,
you do it individually
under the supervision
of a post-doc or a masters
student or something like that.
So I did research for a year
in a lab, right off the bat,
I did really good work,
I worked really hard,
I made a really good
impression and I made really
meaningful relationships,
and so my professor,
I'm pretty sure he wrote
me like a phenomenal
letter of recommendation .
So right off the bat there,
I have a year of research,
and I have a year at the
time because I applied
by December but I started
in January that full year.
So I had a year of
research, and submitting my
master's thesis, or my
bachelor's thesis, and so because
I was already doing this
research for a year,
in my letter of intent for application,
my motivation letter, I
already knew what I liked,
I knew what I wanted to
do at ETH, and I was able
to communicate what I
knew, like what I learned,
and how I wanted to apply
that because I had already
worked and figured out what I like.
The other thing that
really helped is that,
and I would really
suggest that you do this,
in any university you
apply to, you should really
first of all, figure out
what you like of course,
then figure out what
other labs in the world,
work on what you do.
So when you're applying, say
you wanna apply to Caltech
in the states, let's just take
that, you should go through
every professor in the department
that you want to apply to
and see if their research
relates to anything you like,
and then even before you apply,
you go and email that professor.
I even mailed physical
letters when I didn't get
a response back for an
email, I would mail them
a physical letter and then
like two months would go by,
and I would get a response
to my email because
they would see my letter.
So that's what I would
do, and then even in your
motivation letter, now that
you know what you like,
what your passion about
and this university
has what you want to do,
and you know which professor
works on that stuff, you put all of that
in the motivation letter,
and you say this is why
I want to go to ETH
because you have this prof,
he works on this, this is
what I did in my undergraduate
research experience, and
we're a perfect match.
So that's pretty much what I
did and what you should do too.
So that's the research part.
The other thing was that
I had really good grades,
not really good, I didn't
have a 4.0, I had a 3.83,
so a 3.83 out of 4.0.
So most of my grades were A's,
sometimes I had A minuses,
and then I have like two
B's, or something like that
on my transcript.
Yeah, they were good grades,
but obviously they weren't
the best, I know people that
had way better grades than me
that don't have that much success
in applying to university,
like for masters programs
at some of the top schools,
so grades aren't everything.
I would say that your research
experience and how much
professors vouch for you,
is way more important.
For example, the professor
that I worked with at McGIll,
he's very very well known
in the combustion community,
so I would say that having him write me
a letter of recommendation was very useful
for my application.
Oh, the GREs, my GRE scores were so bad.
I don't really remember but
like if this is the scale
of like zero to 100, like
100 is the best grade
you could have and zero's the
worst grade you could have,
for English, I was like
in the middle somewhere,
like smack in the middle,
which is terrible because
English is my first language
and I know there's tons
of people that apply that
have phenomenal GRE scores
that don't even speak English.
And my math was like somewhere around 75%.
I'm an engineer, like my math,
find the area of the circle,
ya know it should be a lot
better than around 75%,
but that just goes to show
that like ya know, these tests,
like these ridiculous, I
think the GRE is total BS,
these ridiculous tests
don't determine your future.
So that's just what you
should keep in mind.
You should always apply to
that job, apply to that school,
really like think about why
you want it, don't just apply
because just applying means
nothing, like why would you just
apply for something if you're just like,
"Oh I'll see if I get it."
Like figure out what you want,
figure out what you're good
at and like try to match
what you're good at with what the job
or the university or the lab has.
In everything that I'm saying, what I do,
even if you do it exactly
the same way that I do,
it doesn't mean you're gonna get in.
You might even have worse grades
than me, worse GRE scores,
and not even do that much
research, and get in.
It's always a bit of luck,
it always depends on who else
applied that year, like did
other people that were way
better than you apply, then
they're probably gonna get in.
Or did I just apply in a year
where there weren't that many
good people, ya know what I mean?
So there's always a bit of luck.
The other thing that I had
was, I had an internship
at a company called
Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Now, my internship was
actually in the business unit,
but while I was there, I went
out and seeked for anything
that could be related to engineering,
so I was working with spreadsheets.
I didn't want to just say, oh I played
with spreadsheets whatever,
like I seeked out work,
so what I did was I actually learned VBA,
which is the programming
language for Excel and Access.
It's actually really easy,
I just Googled the commands,
like if you can code, if
you can like write scripts
in MATLAB, then you can do it in VBA.
I just like automated a lot
of the processes for people
because they were just like
punching in like line by line,
the same thing in Excel, and I was like,
"What are you doing?"
They're like, "Oh, I don't know VBA,"
and I'm like, "You can just
like Google, how to do a loop."
Anyway, so that's what I did,
and then I was able to sort of
relate my work experience to being like,
I'm problem solving.
So I have my grades, my GRE
score, my motivation letter,
oh I had a lot of extra
curriculars, but it doesn't mean
that it's gonna help you,
like out of all of this,
I don't know what got me
in, probably a little bit
of everything, but my extra
curriculars were like,
I was on the like student
council for mechanical engineers
for two years at McGill.
I was also, I organized, this
is gonna sound really intense,
I organized an international
kayaking competition
on the St. Lawrence in
Montreal, where like kayakers
from literally all over the
world came to compete here.
It sounds like yeah, it's a little crazy,
but it doesn't mean that you
have to do that (laughs).
Actually I don't even know if I put that
on my resume when I applied, sorry.
I was also, this is gonna
sound also kinda funny,
I was also on like Team
Canada for whitewater kayaking
for like four years, or six
years, so I also put that down,
but I don't know if that helped.
I think it just like makes
my application pop out
'cause they're like,
what's whitewater kayaking?
Anyway, that is how I
think I got into ETH,
but out of all of that, I
would say the main thing
is reach out to professors.
So actually it's a funny
story, I was in another lab,
now I love the lab I'm
in, I actually applied
to a different lab and in that
lab I emailed the professor
before I submitted my job
application in December
and I wrote him like this
short and sweet email ya know,
saying like you do what
I do, blah blah blah,
I'm applying, whatever,
because sometimes it's like
the admission committee says,
"Okay, she has this grade,"
da da da da da, "She passes into the pile
"for the professor to look at."
And because you apply to a professor
in mechanical engineering
for example, I don't know,
all the different programs are different,
but you apply to like a
tutor, and they only pick
a certain number of students.
So then the professor
gets this pile of students
and they have to go through
them and they have to pick
like three or something like that.
He's going through them
and he's just like,
"Oh Jessica, I remember that
name, but I don't know,"
ya know it just makes him
stop for that split second
and like it makes me seem
more human and less like
I'm just another student.
Actually when I emailed
him, this was his reply;
he was like, "Okay, see you in September."
I was like, "Okay, so does that
mean I'm gonna be accepted?"
And then I saw him in September,
but then I switched labs
'cause I didn't like his research,
and I really like my research now.
Did you even think that you
should be emailing professors?
Yes, you should be.
They're gonna get a pile this big.
They're gonna have to go
through, everyone is probably
just as qualified as you, so
how are you gonna make yourself
stick out to them, how are
you gonna make yourself
not just another number?
I know that was a lot of information,
but I think it was really,
really, really good information
and I really hope you like it,
and thank you so much
for watching this video.
If you have any more questions
about getting into ETH,
please leave them in the comments below.
Like this video if you liked
it, and please subscribe
if wanna know more.
(jazz music)
