Pros and Cons while preparing for a PhD Admission.  

Pros 

• Contact the scholars in the university about the process and what is expected. The scholars are easy to find on the web. if not, that tells you something 
• in India, the process has an interview and written test. The interview has a panel of senior academics. so, look at their interests and be aware 
• if there are any professors in the dept whom you would like to work under, do the work about their work and become familiar 
• prepare the presentation well and be prepared for the questions 
• In the PPT, members expect a broad idea of the domain and some literature, and some plan
• Be clear about what you know and be upfront about what you don’t 

Cons 

• introduce the domain and instead focus on your problem 
• take a lecture about the domain. There are students who do a complete lecture about cloud computing in the interview and finally say one slide about the topic 
• avoid including references. References slide is a must. Take a printout of the 2–3 papers which you read the most 
• talk about problems which were the norm 5 years ago. We saw a candidate who wanted to work on fingerprint recognition. Yes. It was fine 20 years ago. not now. 
• rely on journals with a poor reputation. This reflects poorly on you.