Guaranteed Postgraduate Experience Post

1 Basic Situation

Lower-tier 211 university, School of Computer Science, Big Data major, ranking (2/99), CET6 (553), three project experiences, no papers, some minor awards;

2 Summer Camp

The basic situation of the summer camp can be seen in the picture below:

Among them, I entered 13 camps, excluding some that were purely promotional and did not issue offers and the series from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (did not contact supervisors), I participated in a total of 5 summer camps. The experiences of these 5 summer camps are presented in a chronological manner below.

2.1 Jilin University School of Software

The summer camp assessment was conducted remotely from June 18 to June 19. First, each camper was asked to give a self-introduction of no more than 500 words (no more than 2 minutes); then draw questions and answer them; finally, experts asked questions and answered them.

English: How to improve yourself in the future? Computer Network: What is the format of the email protocol? Operating System: What is the data input method during an IO interrupt? Project: What is your ultimate goal to achieve? Has anyone done it domestically or abroad?

2.2 Nanjing University School of Computer Science

After registration, there will be an initial screening, followed by an online exam. Only those who pass the online exam can participate in the offline computer test and interview; the initial screening only eliminates a small number of people, most fall at the online exam. The online test was conducted on July 9, and those who passed participated in the computer test and interview offline around July 20.

The content of the online test covers everything, including traditional 408, Linux kernel, number theory, group theory, discrete mathematics, compiler principles, probability theory, logical reasoning, brain teasers, with a large number of questions and a wide range. Here is the 2021 real question 2021 Nanjing University Department of Computer Science and Technology Undergraduate Open Day July 8 Online Assessment.pdf, some original questions from 2021 could still be encountered in 2023.

After the online test, there was also a psychological assessment and an academic questionnaire, with questions as follows:

• What do you think is the course you are most interested in and have mastered best in the computer science discipline?
• Regarding this course, what training have you undergone and what achievements have you made both inside and outside the classroom?
• Do you plan to engage in research work related to this course? Why?
• Do you have good coding engineering skills? How can you prove it?
• Some supervisors point out that many undergraduates participate in activities such as publishing papers, competitions, and innovation projects mainly to enrich their resumes rather than truly completing high-standard scientific research training. They believe that such short-sighted behavior may lead to many competition project experiences becoming a minus point. Briefly describe your views based on your own experience.
• Your intended research direction.
• List the research groups or supervisors you intend to apply for at the Nanjing University Department of Computer Science, no more than 2.
• Briefly describe the process of contacting your supervisor and the feedback from the supervisor, you can list separately for two supervisors.
• Briefly describe the characteristics of the supervisor you plan to apply for that attract you, including but not limited to their representative research, published textbooks, etc. Please provide as many specific details as possible.
• List an important research problem in your intended research direction that is expected to achieve breakthroughs in recent years, and briefly describe the basic research methods in your intended research direction.

Failed the online test, so no follow-up.

2.3 Renmin University of China High School of Artificial Intelligence

2.3.1 Subjective Feelings

First, a wave of praise: Established in 2019, the High School of Artificial Intelligence, with such a small scale and young age, backed by Hillhouse Capital and Renmin University High School, has introduced various big names and achieved very impressive results. Maybe in a few years, the title of “the first choice for scientific research below Tsinghua and Peking University” in the green skirt will belong to Hillhouse. The teachers in Hillhouse include those who returned from Harvard, as well as those from MIT and the University of California. They not only have strong academic capabilities but also connections with Microsoft Research Asia, Tencent, etc. The saying “Hillhouse has no bad supervisors” is not an exaggeration.

“The greatness of a university is not in its buildings, but in its masters,” Hillhouse has both, and the picture below is a view of Zhongguancun from the Hillhouse building.

I applied for a direct PhD, so I entered the camp; the academic master’s program is a battle of gods, and the final admission result is a direct PhD backup to 22, academic master’s backup to 15; Hillhouse is the most impressive summer camp I participated in.

2.3.2 Summer Camp Assessment

Hillhouse’s assessment is definitely one of the most standardized, and the details of the assessment content can be found on the official website, mainly including written tests and interviews. CSP meeting the standard can add 10 points to the written test (take the CSP if you have the chance);

First Day Written Test:

The written test mainly assesses data structures and algorithms, English, and mathematics (linear algebra, matrix theory) as well as basic artificial intelligence; the test paper is roughly divided into these three parts, the first part is basic data structures, linear algebra, probability theory fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice questions, with difficulty similar to final exams, the second part is English translation from Chinese to English (scores are less than a fill-in-the-blank question), the third part is algorithm design (pseudo-code required) and mathematical proof optional.

Third Day Interview Process:

Before the interview, there is a moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor section, 5 minutes, asking the following questions:

• Introduce yourself (in Chinese)
• You mentioned the project you did just now, can you say what you think is the most difficult part and how you solved it?
• What kind of people do you dislike the most, and how do you deal with them?
• If during your graduate studies, for example, in your first year, others have published many papers and have many outputs, but you still have no results, what will you do?
• If during your graduate studies, you and your supervisor have different opinions, what will you do?
• Do you have conflicts with your parents, and how do you resolve them?
• If you encounter difficulties or problems in life, what will you do? Digest it yourself or?
• Do you have any leisure activities?
• Do you have good friends? Can you introduce them?
• What qualities attract you to them, and have you learned anything from them?
• During your graduate studies, will you participate in club activities?

After finishing, go to another meeting room for the interview, strictly timed, if you can’t finish answering in time, it’s not allowed:

English Assessment:

• Introduce yourself, one to two minutes.
• How to achieve your short-term goal and long-term goal?

Professional Interview:

• Dean Wen: Here are envelopes numbered one to five, choose one.
• Comprehensive Question: Introduce the project that impressed you the most, what difficulties did you encounter during the project, and how did you solve them?
• Algorithm Question: A graph has red and blue points, possibly with self-loops and parallel edges, find the shortest distance from point 0, alternately passing through blue and red points.
• Math Question: How should a histogram be constructed, what is the impact of too small resolution, what is the impact of too large resolution? Is there a way to make the resolution adaptive?

Some students also drew calculus and advanced algebra questions, as well as their applications in artificial intelligence during the interview.

The interview process is very standardized, the order is drawn on-site, and during the waiting time, you are locked in a small black room and cannot use your phone (so you need to print review materials), and those who have completed the interview are prohibited from contacting those waiting, with someone supervising the whole process; unlike Che University, where everyone waits outside together, and those who come later have already figured out the teachers’ question bank.

Second Day Academic Fair: Interview teachers during the day, interviewed at night

The second day’s activities are not included in the assessment, mainly providing a mutual exchange opportunity; the academic fair during the day is where teachers or their students introduce their research directions at the booth, and campers can also submit resumes and add WeChat. I saw that teacher Song received countless resumes, and a student from Xi’an Jiaotong University with an A-zone paper was promised to be accepted as long as he was an excellent camper.

The interview in the evening is officially called a meeting, which needs to be scheduled with the teacher in advance, but it is essentially an interview, mainly to grab good supervisors, but supervisors generally cannot promise offers because it is a super strong COM.

2.4 Central South University Big Data Research Institute

The Big Data Research Institute is not like the School of Computer Science, which is a sea king, but the excellent campers and backups are on the same list (excellent campers 20-30 people, admitted 10-20 people). The feeling from understanding the summer camp is that the academic level is average, there are many horizontal projects, the research atmosphere is strange, relying on the resources of Xiangya Hospital.

The assessment includes written tests, computer tests, English+PPT interviews, any score less than 60 is unqualified (in fact, many people in the computer test only did two out of five questions and were still qualified).

Written Test includes four subjects: computer organization principles, operating systems, data structures, and databases, each subject has a test paper, with a total duration of 2 hours. The question types include multiple-choice, true or false, fill-in-the-blank, and short answer, with a volume that can be completed, and difficulty similar to final exams.

Computer Test was conducted on the second day at the new campus, with 4 hours and 5 questions, one sign-in question, three graph theory questions (two similar shortest path problems, using Dijkstra template level), and one DP question. The overall difficulty of the computer test is not high.

Interview on the third day, including English Q&A and PPT interview, in two classrooms. In addition to regular Q&A, the English interview may also ask professional-related knowledge (guided by you, not tricky, such as classic network models in computer vision). The PPT interview first introduces according to the PPT, then experts ask questions, generally about project experience and results.

After all the processes were over, I played in Changsha for two days, Changsha is very suitable for tourism.

2.5 Southeast University School of Computer Science

Che University opens the summer camp the latest every year, when others are almost starting pre-recommendations. The process is at the pre-recommendation level, with only an interview, including travel time, it only took three hours. Although it opens late, contacting teachers and PALM still needs to be done early. In 2023, like last year, a teacher’s recommendation is required, and the college screens before entering the camp. Last year, it also required a subject evaluation, but this year it seems not to.

Prepare a PPT for the interview, first introduce with the PPT, then English Q&A, and finally teachers ask questions, my questions were:

• What are the innovation points of the project?
• Under what background was it done?
• The most difficult work?
• Your contribution?
• Domestic and foreign research progress, performance comparison with others?
• You studied optimization, so what if the loss plane is discontinuous or non-differentiable?

3 Pre-Recommendation

Due to the concentration of time, I only participated in three pre-recommendations, namely Zhejiang University’s Data Science program, the Institute of Computing Technology, and the Human-Machine Institute.

3.1 Institute of Computing Technology

This is the official notification

Institute of Computing Technology 2024 Pre-Recommendation Admission Interview Process -Distributed Systems Research Center First, the interview group leader announces the start of the interview, asking the candidate to state their name, ID number, undergraduate school, and undergraduate major. (Interview duration is about 20 minutes)

1. English test (the interview group experts can freely play. Mainly assess the candidate’s listening and speaking ability) [About 3 minutes]
2. Business ability interview: [About 17 minutes]

Please introduce your personal situation with a PPT. For example: undergraduate courses, professional interests, research experience, and aspirations, etc. (about 5 minutes)

The interview group examiners ask questions to the candidate, and the candidate answers. The interview group sets the questions. Mainly assess the following aspects (about 12 minutes): business ability, comprehensive quality, ideological and political morality, etc.

Candidates need to prepare the following materials:

1. PPT (email to *@ict.ac.cn before 12:00 on the 13th)
2. The electronic materials mentioned in the third item of the Institute of Computing Technology’s official pre-recommendation admission brochure (please prepare 5 copies, double-sided, black and white printing)
3. Short-term accident insurance (including the interview period, if already have, no need to buy)

The interview was very casual, and the teachers didn’t seem to care about the specific project details.

English Speaking:

• Introduce the person you admire most and why?
• Introduce your hometown
• Introduce your family
• Introduce your growth experience

Three-minute speaking, all questions were asked in Chinese (first time seeing this), last year it was said that there was no speaking at all.

Introduce according to PPT.

15min Q&A:

• How does your project achieve cloud-edge collaboration?
• What is cloud computing?
• In your project, you used Kafka, why use it or why choose it over other middleware? How does Kafka achieve message distribution? Will messages fall to the hard disk? Is there a way to improve performance?
• What role did you play in the patent? Writing or contribution? What work did you do?
• Do you have other offers? Why choose here?

Finally got the offer and signed the dual-selection agreement, but eventually backed out, so if juniors and sisters are watching, I’m really sorry, the Distributed Center of the Institute of Computing Technology can be ignored, but you can still choose other laboratories of the Institute of Computing Technology, like a senior from the previous year went to VIPL.

3.2 Xi’an Jiaotong University School of Artificial Intelligence (Human-Machine Institute)

During the interview, according to the interview order, every 5 students form a group and enter the Tencent meeting waiting area in advance. After entering the interview meeting from the waiting area, turn on the camera for the interview, first introduce yourself in turn (no more than 3 minutes per person), and then experts ask questions. The total time for each group does not exceed 30 minutes. Wish you all a smooth interview!

The interview at the Human-Machine Institute was very magical, possibly due to limited time, so they organized everyone to participate in a group interview. Students within the province participated offline, while those outside participated online. After 5 people introduced themselves, 20 minutes had already passed, and 10 minutes were spent asking questions related to personal experiences, mainly project-related. Xi’an Jiaotong University as a whole values background very much, and the admission list of the Human-Machine Institute in previous years did not have anyone who was not from a 985 university.

3.3 Zhejiang University Data Science Program (ZIBS)

Self-Presentation

The interview content for each applicant is no less than 20 minutes, with the whole process recorded. The interview content includes ideological and political quality and moral assessment, personal presentation, comprehensive knowledge Q&A in the major, and English Q&A. Applicants need to present their personal study and research or engineering experience, achievements, awards, research aspirations, and development plans (personal presentation time is controlled within 8 minutes, including 2-3 minutes of continuous English content).

Professional Knowledge

Three envelopes, choose one, containing two questions, one math question, one machine learning-related question;

The person before me drew:

1. What is a continuous function?
2. What is the KMeans algorithm? - The teacher followed up with how the “cluster” in clustering is reflected?

I drew:

1. What is the singular value decomposition of a matrix?
2. What is the gradient descent algorithm? - The teacher followed up with what is the stochastic gradient algorithm?

After answering the envelope questions, the teacher saw that my resume stated a probability theory score of 100, and followed up with “What is a probability space?”

Ideological Assessment

Do you practice kung fu?

Others

This part is about filling the time after the process is completed in less than twenty minutes, with all kinds of questions, previously someone was asked “Why do you want to come to Zhejiang University?”

I was asked about the project: Why do you use semantic segmentation for this task, introduce your network, is this signal processing and maximum likelihood done by you?

English seems optional during the PPT presentation stage, and a temporary English question will be asked, mine was: Introduce one of your favorite algorithms.

Overall, the assessment is extremely standardized, similar to Hillhouse, where all interviewees are gathered in a waiting room, not allowed to use electronic devices or communicate with each other, and leave immediately after the interview, while using envelopes to draw questions.

4 Summary

The major variables in the 2023 guaranteed postgraduate form are:

Shift from online to offline - Although some schools still conduct assessments online, the summer camp should still be extensive, without ranking or papers, the difficulty of entering the camp has not decreased

Increase in guaranteed postgraduate quotas - Schools like Harbin Institute of Technology and Beijing Jiaotong University have even reversed the situation by pigeonholing students to ensure their own students

First year of the Strong Foundation Plan transition - Mainly occupying the quotas of top universities, no direct impact on computer-related majors but still has a transmission effect

First year of the National Excellence Plan - 30 universities, dual degrees without mandatory teaching, personally feel very attractive, but many schools only recruit their own students, even if they recruit external students, it is based on entering the summer camp

Engineering master’s and doctoral programs - This year, many engineering degree quotas have been added, with the first year attending classes at school, and the next two years interning at enterprises, requiring a competitive enterprise agreement upon graduation (can only work in my company, cannot go to competitors). Most enterprises are state-owned, as well as big companies like Huawei (Huazhong University of Science and Technology) and Tencent (Southern University of Science and Technology). Many schools added engineering degree quotas temporarily, and even after the pre-recommendation ended, there were still many vacancies in October, including some from Qingbei Huawu. In addition, this recruitment is not organized by the Ministry of Education, but by the Organization Department, although it also fills the same system, but the admission priority is higher than the professional master’s and academic master’s, meaning that if admitted to the engineering degree, other professional master’s and academic master’s offers are invalid (hearsay, no official documents found).

Contacting supervisors should be done early, many top groups in Qingbei Huawu have no internship vacancies even by the end of the previous year. If you don’t have a good ranking or expect no papers now, you can try contacting supervisors to request internships, many teachers will state on their homepage that they are recruiting interns. USTC, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nankai, and Beiyou have the authority with the teachers, if the teacher accepts, they can be admitted; Xiamen University and Che University require recommendations from their own school’s teachers.

Personally, I feel that the winter vacation can be used to find supervisors for assessment or review professional courses, prepare materials and final exams in April and May, and after June, various registrations and camps begin, making it difficult to find large chunks of time.