“套磁”是留学申请者较为熟悉的一个术语，专指留学申请者和申请学校的有关教授通过Email联系，并通过联系达到增加自己被录取和获得奖学金的机会。通常来说，使用“套磁”申请博士要比申请硕士有用，因为硕士是没有导师带的；申请理工科比文科有用，因为对于理工科的同学，你所拿到的奖学金其实就是教授的研究经费的一部分，因此与其说是学校给你发奖学金不如说是教授给你发。而对于文科，情况完全不同，研究经费一般由院系决定，教授可以起到的作用很有限。
为什么要“套磁”？
个人联系虽然不是申请所必需的，却是很重要的。海外求学需要投入大量精力、时间和金钱，自费就更不用说了。因此在奖学金的争取上，有“套磁”的必要性。 在各种奖学金中，TA&RA这种资助应该说是全球范围最普遍的。TA是院系招生办根据申请者在教学能力上表现出的条件给出的，影响这个奖学金的主要因素是你的口语能力包括推荐信中所涉及的内容。RA的决定权在教授手里，在审材料的过程中，如果某个教授对你表示出了强烈的兴趣，一般会从这个教授那里得到RA，也就是为教授打工的机会，这是所有奖学金中唯一和教授直接相关的，因此“套磁”也很有必要。 “套磁”还有一个重要作用，就是通过和教授、同学的联系，加上专业的咨询，可以筛选最适合自己的学校，定位自己最适合的专业和方向。
明确“套磁”的对象
一般来说，学校里的教授分为以下几种： Professor(教授)：年纪一般比较大，看过的“套磁”信也是多如牛毛，而且已经形成了固定的招生习惯，一般如果他对你感兴趣的话，一天之内就会回信，在这种情况下，你希望很大。如果他迟迟不回的话，就代表你基本没戏了。 Associate professor(副教授)：处世灵活，要求又高，当然这种类型的教授水平也是很高的，自我表现得宜是关键。 Assistant Professor(助理教授)：助理教授一般都有启动资金，需要人干活，而且还没有形成固定的招生习惯，所以跟助理教授“套磁”成功的可能性相对比较大。 建议“套磁”排序为：招过本校学生的教授>助理教授>老教授>副教授。这只是就统计结果得出来的一般性排序，事实上大部分硕士生都是由助理教授带的，博士生就是由教授带的。此外，一定要找和自己研究方面相似或相同的教授，经历相似的更好。
把握“套磁”的时间
1、早期“套磁”——申请前的联系。主要联系对象是在该校学习的朋友、校友、研究生院秘书等。 主要询问该学校该专业的招生情况、录取比例、奖学金发放比例、学费、该专业学生的组成、现在正在研究的项目、毕业去向等，还有该院系在哪方面的研究较强，学校设施以及在当地可以利用的资源等等。了解这些对于你是否选择该校，你的申请有几成胜算，是很有参考意义的。 在了解自己要申请的项目和研究方向后，就可以和相关的教授联系了。联系教授的一种方式就是不谈申请而就教授的目前研究谈起，谈谈自己的认识和兴趣。这在学术上要求较高，比较适合正在做项目的研究生或帮助老师做相关项目的本科生。另外一种方式就是开门见山，直接表示对教授的研究方向感兴趣，并针对教授的研究项目和领域提一些自己的问题。这要求申请者的学术背景很强，能谈得长久。
2、中期“套磁”——申请材料寄出前后。比较好的联系时机是在教授收到申请材料以后或是在路上的时候，大概在9、10月份左右。这时候既可以和教授谈学术问题，又可以在他对你感兴趣之后及时看到你全部的申请材料。
3、后期“套磁”——拿到AD(Admission的简称，一般指无奖学金录取)之后。每个学校都会在第一轮审核后得出一个初步的结论，这些同学会在第一时间(早的在12月末和一月初)就会得到offer(有奖学金录取)。对于大部分同学，特别是没有收到AD的同学来讲，大家并没有被拒绝，只是教授现在还拿不定主意到底选择谁。这个时候“套磁”的重要性就会发挥出来。同等条件的申请者，教授一般都倾向于选择与他联系过的人。
套磁模板
Dear Professor Smith:
I am a college graduate from ABC University, with a degree in Computer Science, currently working full time as a computer programmer with Bank of China, but interested in applying for a Research Assistantship at your school. Dr. Song provided me with your e-mail address and suggested that I write you about a possible position.
I attended the Special Class of Gifted Use at ABC University when I was 14 years old and earned my Bachelor’s Degree in computer science there in 1996. Since graduation, I have been working with the Technology Department, Bank of China. My responsibility at the Bank is to develop application software for internal usage and help managing the Bank’s database and network. I led or took part in several key projects such as Foreign Exchange Savings Accounts Networking System, the State Dragon Card Networking System and the Dragon Card-Stock Funds Transferring System. With my hardworking and continuous learning, I have gained tremendous practical experiences and knowledge in my field and also learned to be an excellent team player and a good communicator. I am quite proficient in Unix operating system, Windows NT, computer programming (using C/C++/ESQL C, and Visual Basic), and Informix database system. In addition, I have had solid hands-on experience in TCP/IP network design and implementation.
As stated earlier, I have always been interested in both computer science and biology as both disciplines are at the forefront of rapid development. Health Informatics seems a perfect subject for me as I can learn more about the healthcare discipline while using my skills in computer, especially in database and network, to make contribution to health informatics. I am convinced that with my strong technical background, diligence and intelligence, and my enthusiasm for health informatics, I will be an excellent student in this field and a good Research Assistant to you.
I would greatly appreciate it if you would grant me an opportunity for application. You may reply to me through this email address. Thank you very much for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Mei Wong
Dear #######:
Thank you again for your email. From the sounds of your scores and grades, you should have no problem entering Princeton. I am quite familiar with the program that you are in and have had several close friends that have been there at Beijing University. In fact, ####### was in graduate school with me and she was in the accelerated program. She has done extremely well in the U.S. and after graduation went on to do some first rate science at a university in California.
Since 2001 is your target date, I can begin to arrange funding for a research assistantship for you. These are nicer than teaching assistantships because they allow you to focus only on your research. Naturally, you will not be obligated to accept should you find other options. However, I believe that you will be most welcomed here in my group.
You had asked about some of my publications, if you send me your address I can send preprints. They may take some time to get to China. You can find some of our work listed on our web site under my cv. This is an incomplete list but the PRL of last year is there and the latest hasnt yet been released from the publishers.
We have been doing some interesting things lately with topological defects on tube manifolds that you might like. We have recently imaged nanotubes which exhibit a change in chirality along the tube! Tunneling spectra show that this produces subtle changes in the LDOS as predicted in some of X. Blase’s work. We have also begun optical studies on individual nanotubes using near-field scanning optical microscopy and spectroscopy. We are particualry interested in how the surface plasmon resonances (governed by tube topology) effects the third order nonlinear susceptability in these objects.
Thank you again for your interest in our group. May I suggest that we keep in contact over the year. Let me know your progress and I will try to help with the application procedures should you decide to join us.
Dear Professor #######:
Thank you very much for your kind reply. I am sorry that during the summer vacation I cannot read and reply your email in time.
As stated in my first letter, my desired entrance date is in Fall of 2000. And I would like to provide my test scores. My TOEFL test score is 647 (Oct. 1997) with a TWE score of 5.0. My GRE test score is 2340 (Oct. 1996, V770 M800 A770). My GRE Subject score is 920 (Oct. 1998, Physics). And I will take the TSE test in the coming August. And my undergraduate and graduate GPA are both about 3.5 in 4.0, about top 10%-20% in my class.
I wish to make a note that during my undergraduate study I was quite young, and during my graduate study I take many efforts to study the basic courses in Physics by myself, which may be the reason my GPAs are not in the top 5%. But now I believe that I have been quite familiar in the knowledges of Physics, both the courses and the researches. So I hope that my test scores and grades are acceptable to Priceton with financial supports.
As to the research, I am very glad to learn the research background you provided in your letter. I am quite familiar with the works of X. Blase published in PRL and APL. I also know that J-C Charlier is a famous specialist in this field. So perhaps I could do theoretical research works in your group. Also, I am very glad to know that you have the needed main instruments for carbon nanotubes in your group, so that both theoretical and experimental works can be done.
I am puzzled at the “MRS meeting in Boston” you mentioned in your letter. What is the full-name of MRS? Is it a meeting specialized in nano-systems? I do research works on carbon nanotubes almost totally by myself, and perhaps are not familiar with such fixed terms. Would you please explain the contents of this meeting? Thanks. And you mentioned that your latest publications will come out in next months in PRL. Would you please send me the page number of this paper in PRL, and if possible, the full text of this paper? The journal PRL reaches to China very late, usually several months to half a year after published, and I don’t have the account to find the full-texts of PRL on-line.
I am looking forward to receiving your warmhearted reply.
Thanks.
Yours sincerely
Dear ######:
Thank you for the email and your interest in our research program.
I am very intersted in your application and would like to hear more. Are you interested in Fall 2000 or fall 2001? Certianly for 2001 there should be no problem getting research support, provided that your test scores, grades, etc. are acceptable to the university. For 2000, it would be a little tougher because of the short notice, but might be arranged under special circumstances.
You asked about the nature of research here. In the laboratory, students generally couple calculations with experiment. We specialize in spectroscopic determinations of transport and electronic structure using scanning probes (STM and NSOM). To gain a detailed understanding of this, ab initio calculations must be compared with data. We have worked closely with J-C Charlier in Belgium, A. Rubio in Spain, and X. Blase in France using a variety of theoretical techniques including tight binding for structural information and LDA of DFT for electronics calcs.
Our tunneling microscope is a low temperature Besoke design copied from the Julich group. We are capable of running at LHe temperatures for good energy resolution. We are in the process of constructing a near-field scanning optical microscope and a photon scanning tunneling microscope. These two new instruments should be on line around Dec.
Our group focus is to understand the quantum dynamics and optical response of individual nano-systems like carbon nanotubes, B-doped nanotubes and filled nanotubes. Look for our latest publications coming out in the next months in PRL, JMR, and Advanced Materials. The entire group will also be at the MRS meeting in Boston.
We would be pleased to consider your application for this year or next.
########
Professor of Physics
Princeton University
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