This episode is the first in our current series on PhD applications. How should people prepare their applications to PhD programs in NLP? In this episode, we invite Nathan Schneider (Professor of Linguistics and Computer Science at Georgetown University) and Roma Patel (PhD student in Computer Science at Brown University) to share their perspectives on preparing application materials. We start by talking about what factors should go into the decision to apply for PhD programs and how to gain relevant experience. We then talk about the most important parts of an application, focusing particularly on how to write a strong statement of purpose and choose recommendation letter writers. Blog posts mentioned in this episode: - Nathan Schneider’s Advice on Statements of Purpose: https://nschneid.medium.com/inside-ph-d-admissions-what-readers-look-for-in-a-statement-of-purpose-3db4e6081f80 - Student Perspectives on Applying to NLP PhD Programs: https://blog.nelsonliu.me/2019/10/24/student-perspectives-on-applying-to-nlp-phd-programs/ Homepages: - Nathan Schneider: https://people.cs.georgetown.edu/nschneid/ - Roma Patel: http://cs.brown.edu/people/rpatel59/ The hosts for this episode are Alexis Ross and Nishant Subramani.