THIỂU

Sessions 26 to 32
Module III
Instructor: Hồ Lê Vũ

1
 OVERVIEW
• Self-assessment questionnaire
• Main components
– CV
– SOP
– LOR
– Economy of language
– Research proposal
– Professor contact
– Application packaging
– Interview
• Language use & relevant vocabulary
• Live demonstration of application review
3
 WARM-UP
– Objective: Student today. Vice president tomorrow.
– Marital status: Single. Unmarried. Unengaged. Uninvolved. No
commitments.
– Sex: Occasionally
– Working experiences: Wholly responsible for two failed financial
institutions.
– Language skills: being bi-lingual in three languages
– Other qualifications: Twin sister has accounting degree.
– Personal interests: Donating blood. Fourteen liters so far
– Emergency Contact Number: 911

4
 SELF-ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE
• Should it help those with NO specific plans for graduate study?

5
SELF-ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE

6
SELF-ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE

7
 FOOD FOR THOUGHT
• Why RESUME comes first?
– Academic RESUME vs. Job CV

8
 FUN ACTIVITY
• Should you lie on your résumé? (part 1)

9
 RESUME STRUCTURE
• Objectives
• Research interests/concentrations
• Contact information
• Education
• Relevant experiences
– Teaching
– Research
– Professional/Working
• Publications and conference presentations
• Honors, awards and grants
• Extracurricular / Community / Advocacy activities
• Professional affiliations
• Other qualifications (language, computer, statistics, etc.)
• Personal hobbies/interests
• References 10
 OBJECTIVES
• short-term vs. long-term goals
• goal matching  duty prioritization  hierarchical dependency
– a project translator seeking a degree in project management
– do A vs. do A
do B also do B
• be concise but specific
– Seeking a professor position in a well-known university
• an academic faculty position (tenure track) in an
accredited tertiary institution  vocabulary choice
– I want to become a marketing manager in a foreign
company
• seeking a Marketing Manager position in a (size) small-
sized | mid-sized (nationality) international | multinational
corporation (industry) in IT | the hospitality industry
11
 OBJECTIVES
• be concise but specific
Information technology is my passion since I was a high school
student. Therefore, I always want to go to a world top-level
university to have an opportunity to obtain more useful
knowledge in IT field. → focus on WHAT WHY
Seeking a Master Scholarship in Public Relations → focus on
the destination

• Seeking a Master’s degree in Public Relations ( with

12
 RESEARCH INTERESTS
A summary of research interests or concentrations with roughly 3
to 6 keywords
or a summary of your proposed research
– Vocabulary development, translation & L2 writing
– Software engineering [too broad] vs. Applied Geographic
Information System in Forest Resources and Management
[too narrow]
→ the professor-matching process (very important to Ph.D.
students)

13
 CONTACT INFORMATION
Full name, postal address, phone, fax, and e-mail for home and
office
Name, Addr., Tel, Fax, Email, (H), (O) & (M)
Notes:
• Gender, DOB, marital status, nationality normally NOT required
• Work/school email (if any) should be included
• personal@[Link] (preferred), work@[Link]
• Be careful with personal email
Imsodrunk@[Link] or Iloveporn@[Link]

14
 EDUCATION
• list chronologically, with the most recent first
– degrees before certificates
• (for graduate application) postsecondary degrees only
• certified courses only
• include
– date of graduation (preferred) or a date range
• expected graduation date for pending degrees
– type of degree and major
– affiliation (department and university)

15
 EDUCATION
• GPA (and also grade descriptor)
– overall/cumulative GPA vs. major GPA
• class standing
– class vs. section: 200 vs. 30
– specialized vs. graduating class?
– thứ 2 trên 30 lớp nhỏ & 14 trên 156 lớp lớn?
• 2nd in my section of 30 (top 10% in the graduating class of
156)
• title of thesis/dissertation
• relevant courses taken (in the case of major switching)

16
 EDUCATION
DEGREES
MM/YY Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics, Department of
Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, Texas
Tech University, U.S.
GPA: 4.0 (A+ for thesis)
Thesis: Personalized vocabulary development and
organization based on the mechanism of association.
MM/YY - MM/YY Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronics and Computer
Science, Electronics and Telecommunication School,
Hanoi University of Technology.
GPA: 7.85 (Class standing: graduated 3rd in the class of
30)
CERTIFICATES
MM/YY Certificate on Unix Systems Development by The
Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship, Japan
MM/YY Certificates on Internetworking & LAN Optimization and
Troubleshooting by NetLearner, Singapore

17
 FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Feb 27th 2009, HANOI MEETING ROOM - MICROSOFT
VIETNAM - 10th floor Tung Shing Square, 2 Ngo Quyen St,
Hanoi. Participant, “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Team
Foundation Server,” lectured by a Microsoft Vietnam Expert.
02-09 Certificate in SQL Server 2008 granted by Microsoft
[Vietnam]
• taught by a well-known lecturer?
→ avoid name-dropping
Through these events, I had an opportunity to study research
problems and to interact closely with leading mathematicians,
such as, Prof. Ngo Bao Chau (Chicago, U.S. – Fields Medal
2010), Prof. M. Konsevich (IHES, France – Fields Medal 1998),
Prof. G. Faltings (MPIM, Germany – Fields Medal 1986), Prof. J.
Serre (Paris, France – Fields Medal 1954), Prof. B. Gross
(Harvard, U.S. – Cole Prize 1987).
18
 FUN ACTIVITY
• Should you lie on your résumé? (part 2)

19
 TEACHING EXPERIENCES
• Courses
– date range
– teaching role (teacher, co-teacher, TA, tutor)
– taught subject(s)
– student level (adult, high school, 8th grade, college)
– enrollment (a.k.a., class size)
– institution and supervisor
TA-ed two graduate classes on Functional Approaches to
Language (Fall YY, enrollment: 12) and Applying Cognitive
Linguistics to Language (Spring YY, enrolment: 20)
Supervisor: Dr. Andrea Tyler, Georgetown University

20
 RESEARCH EXPERIENCES
• Include
– date range
– research project title
– position & duties
– supervisor/advisor/project director & institution
– significant results (conference presentations & publications)
• Qs:
– Should I list class assignments and my thesis project?
– My past research is not relevant to my proposed research

21
 RESEARCH EXPERIENCES
Principal researcher in a Cognitive Linguistics project on
Modality Teaching which investigates and compares two
current pedagogical approaches to teaching English modals
Supervisor: Dr. Andrea Tyler.
Result: presented two conference papers, co-authored a journal
article and a book chapter

Built, installed and configured a custom Linux system from

22
 PUBLICATIONS
• ACADEMIC RESEARCH papers only
• an internationally recognized citation standard in one’s
discipline (i.e., APA or MLA)
– Articles published in Vietnamese: the original Vietnamese
title complete with an English translation
– put your name in bold (in multi-author articles)
[APA style]
Ho, L.V., Fong, A.C.M., & Hui, S.C. (2002). Effective techniques for automatic extraction of Web
publications. Online Information Review 26 (1), 4-18.
Ho, V. (2009). Differences between Vietnamese, EFL and English argumentative essays: Pedagogical
implications for EFL academic writing classes. 2009 Symposium on Second Language Writing, 5 – 7
November, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Ho, L.V., & Pratt, C. (2006). A Software-Based Learning Program for Vocabulary Organization and Recall.
Proceedings of DigitalStream 2006: Emerging Technologies in Teaching Languages and Culture
Conference, 23-25 March, Monterey Bay, California.
Tyler, A., Mueller, C., Ho, V. (2011). Applying cognitive linguistics to learning the semantics of English to, for
and at: An experimental investigation. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics 8, 122-140 (in
print).
Ho, V., & Pratt, C. Lexical association patterns and consistency by L2 learners: Implications for developing a
software-based personalized vocabulary organizer. (submitted | accepted) 23
 WORKING EXPERIENCES
(a.k.a., EMPLOYMENT HISTORY)
• List
– full-time, internships, administrative/part-time/summer jobs
– paid jobs only (except unpaid internships)
• Include
– date range
– job type (full-time, part-time, probationary, temporary)
– position, company name
– supervisor’s name and office contact info
– major responsibilities and ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• V-ing vs. V-ed

24
FUN ACTIVITY

25
 WORKING EXPERIENCES
• DUTY PRIORITIZATION: to show both direction & progression
– e.g., teaching  material adaptation & lesson plan
development  curriculum & textbook development
– e.g., working experience – research assistant (Master’s)
vs. research experience – junior researcher (Ph.D.)
• quantify as much as possible
Supervised 10 staffers; installed 100 computers; won 5
contracts worth 200.000 USD in total
Achievements: highly appreciated by the supervisor for
professionalism and accuracy

26
 WORKING EXPERIENCES
Quality Assurance person, Accellion Pte Ltd, Singapore
[Supervisor’s name and contact info]
- designed and implemented test plans for in-house pplications
(7 major test schemes in 2 years)
- inspected codes submitted by 3 different programmer teams
- also developed test agents to automate various testing tasks

PUT EVERYTHING
IN PERSPECTIVE
27
FOOD FOR THOUGHT

28
PART 2

29
HONORS, AWARDS & GRANTS
• List
– graduation honor
– scholarship/fellowship
– research grant (incl. the amount of fund)
– work performance
– contest prize
– community contribution
Notes: combine similar awards
– 2012-2016 Four-time receiver of the annual Award of
Excellence…

30
 HONORS, AWARDS & GRANTS
• Include
– date
– title
– granting institution
– frequency (annually, monthly, etc.)
– brief description of the award’s nature & how difficult/rare for
one to receive this honor (a.k.a., put it in perspective)
• attach evidence (if available) or make it accessible online
– e.g., certificates (with translation), online links, pictures, etc.
→ 2 OPTIONS: a single, separate section vs. multiple sections

31
HONORS, AWARDS & GRANTS
YY – YY Graduate School Fellowship granted by Georgetown University worth
250.000 USD in total
YYYY Annual Award for Excellent Services granted by Ministry of Finance
of Vietnam. Awarded to the two top-performing staffers per 100-
strong department.
YY – YY Government-sponsored Scholarship granted annually by Ministry of
Education and Training. 1st year based on entrance exam results,
subsequent years on academic performance. Less than 10%
received this honor.
YYYY Second place in the National Mathematic Contest for High School
Students organized by Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam

32
EXTRACURRICULAR, COMMUNITY & ADVOCACY
• List
– service activities
– committee memberships
– other volunteer works
• A key member of the X high school/university Alumni
Association
– IMPORTANT: diversity, continuity & balance

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
MM/YYYY - now American Council on The Teaching of
Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
33
 OTHER QUALIFICATIONS
• LANGUAGE
– native language and other languages you are proficient in
– proficiency or standardized test scores (including skill sub-
scores and the test DATE)
Vietnamese native speaker
English IELTS 8.5 (L 8.5, R 8.0, W 8.0, S 8.5, date 12/2017)
French communicate fluently, both orally and in writing
• COMPUTER: list software programs
Well versed in Microsoft Office software and Photoshop CS
or Use MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint for study and work

34
 OTHER QUALIFICATIONS
• STATISTICS
– statistics courses
• Completed three courses in statistics, namely…
– data analysis techniques and statistics software (e.g.,
STATA and SPSS)
• Used SPSS for data interpretation/analysis in research
projects A, B, C…
– Statistics skills: Mathematical Analysis, literature analysis
and search from journals (Pubmed, Sciencedirect, Wiley…)
and textbooks, Image analysis of surface characteristics and
structure of micocapsules, graph, table analysis
• other specialized tools (software, instruments, etc.)
• other standardized test scores (GRE, GMAT, SAT, etc.)
– mention the then percentile rank
35
FOOD FOR THOUGHT

36
 PERSONAL HOBBIES/INTERESTS
One line
• Badminton, watching sitcoms, singing and making fun of my
students

REFERENCES
– full name, academic & job title, institution
• James Douglas (Ph.D.), Associate Professor, Chair of
Linguistics Department, Georgetown University
– office phone number
– work e-mail (if available)

37
FOOD FOR THOUGHT

38
 LANGUAGE USE
CONCISE but SPECIFIC
• Exercise economy of language (NPs full sentences)
Organize and implement proposals, the goals of which have been
battling poverty and its consequences, and helping disabled
people with their financial problems
→ Coordinating projects on poverty elimination and financial
aid for the disabled
• No redundancy & trivialities (a.k.a., CV padding)
– e.g., (Work experience) Intern, duty: Learn to work in a real
working environment
– e.g., Job responsibilities: Making phone calls to make
appointments

39
 LANGUAGE USE
CONCISE but SPECIFIC
• Avoid vague quantifiers & verbs (e.g., some & a couple of; feel
& seem)
Developing distribution market for many important projects
→ Developing PR strategies for [Link], an online
training website for students nationwide. Approx. 20.000
visitors per day.
• Avoid other words that sound subjective and keep personal
interpretations minimal. Use something that can be backed up
by hard evidence and facts.
Achievements: I was the youngest among the best agents of AIA
company.
→ became the youngest certified agent in the company

40
 LANGUAGE USE
CONCISE but SPECIFIC
• but not… too specific
– Month & Year (MM/YYYY) would suffice in most cases
Working part-time as an English tutor for 3 secondary, 5 high
school, and 2 undergraduate students 3 small groups of high-
school and college students

41
 SAMPLE REVIEW
• RESEARCH-oriented vs. WORK-oriented
→ no single format for resume

duty prioritization
upward mobility
42
 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (SOP)
a.k.a. Letter of interest, Letter of motivation, Letter of intent,
Personal Statement, Admission essay
• Purpose: promote one’s qualities to the admission committee
– serve as reflections of one’s intellect & personality → a
personal story
– serve as evidence of one’s writing and communicative skills
→ linearity and coherence template → sample SOP 2
→ the next step after CV and before LORs.

43
 A FUN SOP
Theo như thầy nói, em chưa chắc đã có 1 ghế tại lớp học của thầy, vậy nên em xin
trình bày cho thầy thấy strong commitment của em về việc tham gia lớp học:
1. Bản thân em đã lên kế hoạch apply du học vào mùa thu này, và hiện đang học
Gmat, dự định tháng 8 sẽ thi lần 1
2. Em đã nghe tiếng thầy, đã tham gia buổi workshop về SOP tổ chức tại quán Cafe
(quán gì em ko nhớ nữa :)) cuối năm ngoái, đã chờ thầy mở lớp Thiểu năng từ hồi đó
đến tận bây giờ; từ 1/5 đã thường xuyên vào trang web của thầy để kiểm tra thầy đã
mở link đăng ký lớp chưa; đến đúng ngày 5/5, em đặt chuông đồng hồ dậy từ 4h sáng,
phòng khi thầy cũng dậy sớm như em và đã mở link rồi, nhưng rất tiếc là thầy ko
giống em :); Đến cơ quan là 8h, em mở ngay web của thầy, thấy đã có tầm 15 bạn
trong danh sách đăng ký, vậy là em ngồi lỳ trước máy tính để làm test, mặc kệ sếp gọi
í ới.
3. Em đã vận động 1 chị đồng nghiệp cùng đồng hành apply du học như em, đã gửi
địa chỉ mail của thầy cho chị ý để đăng ký vào group của thầy, đã gửi lại link lớp học
và hướng dẫn chị ý làm test cũng như điền thông tin đăng ký lớp
4. Nếu được nhận vào, em chắc chắn sẽ có mặt ở lớp ngay từ buổi đầu tiên, sẽ
đóng tiền ngay lập tức, và sẽ không nghỉ bất cứ buổi học nào, dù mưa gió bão bùng
hay động đất (trừ phi thầy cho nghỉ ;))
Bấy nhiêu như em trình bày ở trên đã đủ thuyết phục thầy rằng em xứng đáng có
một chỗ trong lớp Thiểu năng vào tháng 6 này của thầy chưa ạ? 44
 SOP OVERALL STRUCTURE
(an all-purpose generic SOP, customizations expected)
• A “catchy” but relevant introduction
• Personal history review (pre-college, college & post-college)
• Important academic & professional goals & their relationship
• Reasons for applying to a particular country/university/program
• Financial needs
• Possible contributions to the program & to home country
• Post-graduation plans
→ DAMAGE CONTROL

45
 INTRODUCTION
• Start with an interesting hook (if possible) to capture attention
immediately
– If you can’t come up with one right away? → sample SOP 1
(An SOP excerpt in the health care field) If health facilities are
better managed, there will be fewer people dying of avoidable
causes, such as not being able to get to hospital in time. All in
all, my self-exploration at work has drawn much of my
aspiration to gain expertise knowledge in health service
administration…
→ how to start?

46
 FOOD FOR THOUGHT
 Năm ngoái, cô giáo tôi yêu quý nhất bị đột quỵ và do không kịp
cấp cứu nên đã…
 Nửa đêm tỉnh dậy trong nhà xác, tôi nghe văng vẳng tiếng gào
khóc…
 Mọi người thường hỏi tại sao tên tôi là Thiểu Năng. Mẹ tôi đẻ
rơi tôi ngay giữa lớp Thiểu Năng (do tắc đường nên xe cấp cứu
đến không kịp)
 Trước khi mất Hồ Chủ Tịch đã dặn rằng “Giá như cơ sở vật
chất y tế của VN tốt hơn thì Bác đã sống lâu hơn.” Là người đạt
danh hiệu Cháu Ngoan Bác Hồ 20 năm qua, tôi quyết định…

47
 CAVEAT
• Avoid clichés: no worthy story << NO story
• Avoid starting with a well-known quote, unless… → watch a
sample clip
• Maintain relevancy throughout the essay.

500 SKIP

48
 PERSONAL HISTORY REVIEW
SELECTIVITY & RELEVANCY: experiences that help shape you
personally, intellectually and professionally into a good fit
for the target program
• PRE-COLLEGE (family & social): work in a personal touch
• COLLEGE (academic): recount college years, gained
knowledge & subject of interests
– elaborate relevant academic (esp. research) activities
– discuss specific research interests & show how they have
been formed and developed.
• POST-COLLEGE (professional): relate employment history
– explain the links between academic & professional activities
– justify major/career changes (if any)

49
 PERSONAL HISTORY REVIEW
• Mention both achievements & failures
– … but NOT in a CV-like way → discuss a sample
→ focus on processes, adding personal interpretations & self-
criticism
– problem identification
– challenges
– specific solutions
– results (in perspective)
– implications & lessons learned

50
 FOOD FOR THOUGHT
• I had an opportunity to interact closely with leading
mathematicians. It is impossible to describe the feeling of
satisfaction that resulted from these discussions, especially with
Prof. Ngo Bao Chau and Prof. B. Gross who gave me some
valuable advices and suggestions.
• I continued with more intensive projects on Matrix Converter,
Active Filter, UPS and Multi Level Converter. Through these
projects, I gained a lot of valuable knowledge, experiences and
skills.

51
 FOOD FOR THOUGHT
From the published sequences, the oligonucleotides were designed with
complementary sequences at their ends. The Cecropin B gene was
synthesized from six primers by annealing and ligation... the
oligonucleotides were synthesized chemically from phosphoramidite in the 3’
to 5’ direction and therefore, at 5’ end, they lacked a phosphate group which
permits ligation of two nucleotides. The lack of this phosphate group was
easily solved by using enzyme T4 Polynucleotide Kinase...The synthetic
gene was directly cloned into the expression vector pGEX-4T1 and
successfully expressed in E. coli. The difference in size of the brevinin-2R
gene (111 base pairs) and expression vector pGEX (4969 base pairs) had
been an obstacle.

52
 PERSONAL HISTORY REVIEW
• Include UNIQUE experiences and achievements that would set
you apart → watch sample clips
– a common tactic: unusual obstacles/hardships/family
background/hobbies (minding the relevancy rule)

53
 GOALS
• ACADEMIC goals
– why graduate study abroad
→ methodology issues and course availability
– why Master’s vs. Ph.D.?
– why now
→ current problems encountered in work and research
• PROFESSIONAL goals
– short-term (2 to 5 years)
– long-term (5 to 10 years), important to ODA scholarships

54
 FOOD FOR THOUGHT
• Skipping the chance to study at the administration field in the most famous
university in Vietnam, I had decided to leave home and go to Hanoi to
prepare for taking the exam again for the international business field. Then I
lay in the dark and fought against continuous high fevers. At that difficult
time I thought about giving up, and then about my childhood dream, being
born in a labor family in a small provincial city, that is to become a self-
respected and independent woman.
• (the saga continues…) During my study in FTU, I had an opportunity to
study Marketing. I was immediately so intrigued that I applied for a vacancy
of PR consultant and… commit to becoming marketing specialist.

55
 SENSE OF PURPOSE
• Why this is important?
– set oneself on the right track
– avoid wasting time and opportunities
– improve application success rate
(A feedback from a former student) About the Harvard plan, after I
received the SOP with your advices, I realized that I had
followed something that is not really for me. It was the reason
why I found so difficult to write it. I do not want to bury myself in
books at that top university. So I decided to find another place
more appropriate to me. I feel happy with my current choice
now.
• Why is it difficult to fake one’s sense of purpose?
– More practical ways for finding and refining one’s sense of
purpose?
56
 SENSE OF PURPOSE
• Strengthen sense of purpose:
– CV ↔ sense of purpose: research interests ↔ academic
activities ↔ professional activities ↔ academic goals ↔
professional goals
– Strong commitment to the target program of your choice
– Specific goals clichés
– Process-orientation
→ sample SOP 3
Q: Supervisor, bố mẹ, bạn bè của em
đều không ủng hộ đề tài nghiên cứu
cho khóa luận tốt nghiệp của em vì
nhạy cảm và không phù hợp với Việt
Nam. Cô supervisor của em nói nên
đổi thành colloquial language, mà cái
em thích nghiên cứu là swear words
cơ ạ.
57
SENSE OF PURPOSE

58
 by Bronnie Ware, an
Australian nurse who
has been working in
palliative care, caring
for patients in the last
12 weeks of their lives.

→ watch sample videos

59
 REASONS FOR APPLYING
• Why this particular country?
– Explore the relationship between the two countries, esp.
possible lessons → important to ODA scholarships
• Why this particular program & university?
→ a common mistake: an one-fit-all generic paragraph
– show that you had done thorough research
– discuss the offered curriculum, referencing specific courses
and specific professors
– explain specifically how the program would help with your
current problems and career goals

60
 FINANCIAL NEEDS
• Address your financial needs (full scholarship to tuition
reduction)
– list relevant experiences and opportunities for on-campus
employment → put yourself on sale

61
 POSSIBLE CONTRIBUTIONS
• Explain clearly how you would make a difference
– to your home country (important to ODA scholarships)
• put in perspective (if necessary)
– to the program
• how your unique background and life experience add to
their diversity

62
POST GRADUATION PLAN

63
 DAMAGE CONTROL
• Justify disadvantages and/or gaps in your CV
– low test scores and GPA
– career changes and setbacks
– no-activity gaps

64