We provide an all-in-one, intelligent platform that enables applicants to navigate and manage their application process to secure fully funded PhD positions at universities. It efficiently and reliably evaluates the strength of your CV, estimates your chances of securing full funding, matches you with professors who have research grants, organizes your notes, and handles many other tasks throughout your application process. If you’d like to use Applyindex’s tools, please create and complete your profile if you haven’t done so yet. After logging into your account, you should complete your profile to benefit from Applyindex’s features.
Evaluate CV Strength and Funding Chance
Applyindex, as your AI academic assistant, assigns an a-index to PhD applicants’ CVs, i.e., a number between 50 and 100, that indicates the strength of your academic resume in the application process. A higher a-index suggests a stronger CV for securing fully funded PhD positions. Once your CV is complete, an a-index associated with your resume is finalized. To ensure that your a-index reflects your academic standing, please complete all sections of your CV and education history. Your CV’s a-index value will be displayed in two different sections on our website as follows:
a-index on Applicant’s Dashboard
On your applicant dashboard, the a-index is prominently displayed in two locations to ensure easy access. First, you can find it in the dashboard settings list, located just beneath the “Create an Education” button. Additionally, the a-index is also visible in the main dashboard list, situated under the “New Messages” box. These placements allow you to quickly reference your a-index as you navigate through your application process.
a-index on Applicant’s Public Profile
Your a-index is also prominently displayed on your public profile. This visibility allows supervisors, who are active users of our platform and are searching for research students to join their groups, to assess your academic qualifications at a glance. Additionally, your a-index is accessible to other applicants who might be potential collaborators or partners during the university application process. These applicants can connect with you through the Student Connect page, where they can find peers for language tests (e.g., IELTS or TOEFL-iBT) preparation, paper writing collaboration, or even share housing in the destination country.
CV Strength and a-index Relation
Applyindex’s AI-powered a-index evaluates PhD applicants’ CV strength, assigning a score between 50 and 100. This score is determined by 15+ factors derived from the applicant’s CV credentials. A higher a-index value indicates a greater likelihood of securing fully funded PhD positions. We strongly recommend PhD applicants focus on universities where our AI predicts a chance of at least 60% of securing fully funded positions. While an a-index below 50 doesn’t guarantee rejection, it suggests less than a 30% chance of obtaining fully funded positions, even at lower-ranked universities, according to the a-index University Rankings. Therefore, the a-index is a pivotal factor in today’s competitive university application landscape.
After our algorithms calculate your a-index and evaluates your CV strength, it is time to discover your chances of securing fully funded PhD positions. Once you’re logged in, head to the full funding chances (%) page to see the percentage likelihood of obtaining funded positions at universities ranked between 1 and 800 in our system. Don’t rush! These chances are valid only if the PhD program or research project positions relevant to your field are available at your intended universities. Below is an illustration of the funding chances you will see after your a-index calculation:
Highest Chance of Funded PhD
To see your max chances of securing fully funded positions, use the ‘Sort By’ box and select the ‘Highest Chance of Funded PhD’ option. This feature allows you to prioritize and view the opportunities where you are likely to receive fully funded PhD positions. By focusing on these high-probability options, you can streamline your search and target the most promising opportunities. For example, the screenshot below shows the funding chances for a PhD applicant. If you are looking to apply to a Norwegian university in biology, NMBU could be a good option, as your CV has a 75-79% chance of securing a fully-funded PhD there.
Record Your Notes About Universities
As you research and explore universities through their websites, you can conveniently take notes about each university directly on their Applyindex profile. This feature allows you to save important details like program requirements, application deadlines, and specific instructions from departments—all in one place. The notes you create are stored securely and are accessible only to you, ensuring privacy and organization throughout your application process. By taking these notes, you won’t need to: (i) jot them down on paper that could get lost, (ii) squeeze them into small cells in an Excel file, or (iii) revisit each university’s website to find the information again.
By having all your notes in one location, you can easily track and compare universities, helping you make informed decisions. No more scattered information or confusion; your personalized notes will remain intact and available whenever you need them, saving time and effort in the future.
Overview of Universities’ Profiles on Applyindex
As shown in the screenshot below, within each university’s profile, you can view your chance of securing a funded position, the university’s a-index ranking, the ‘Bio’ tab, and the ‘My notes’ tab where you can record any valuable information about the university. Applyindex also provides useful links for each university for your convenience. You can also see the number of supervisors and positions from each university in our database. However, these numbers are independent of our matchmaking algorithms. Once you open the supervisors and positions pages, the numbers will decrease as our matchmaking features are activated.
“My Notes” Tab
This tab is one of the most important components of university profiles on the Applyindex website. For your reference, you can copy and paste the link to view the minimum requirements of the university and department you want to apply to, or to check the application deadlines of the relevant program. You can also copy key information you’ve found into the “My Notes” tab for each university, saving time in the future.
For example, see the screenshot below to take notes about each university and department. Be sure to rely only on official university websites, as external sources may not always provide up-to-date information. Things like application fees, deadlines, or the requirement to contact supervisors may change from semester to semester or year to year. Once you’re done, submit your note.
After submitting your notes, they will be stored and displayed as shown in the following screenshot. The date and time you took the note will be recorded, and you’ll see an “edit” option at the top right if you want to make changes later. The “reply” option at the bottom left allows you to add specific comments or updates to the notes you’ve already taken about a university or department.
Applyindex’s Automated Data-Driven CV Generation
When crafting a standout CV for your university application, Applyindex excels in delivering tailored, top-tier documents that set you apart from the competition. We understand that a strong academic resume is more than just a list of credentials. It’s a powerful narrative showcasing your achievements, skills, and potential. Our data-driven approach ensures that every CV is structured according to university expectations, highlighting your strengths in a compelling and professional format. With Applyindex, you are not just submitting a document; you’re presenting a strategic, well-crafted profile that maximizes your chances of securing admission to your dream institution. Here is why you should craft your CV using our feature:
- Tailored Content: Our system crafts a CV that highlights your academic achievements, research experiences, and skills, aligning perfectly with what admissions committees seek. We are dedicated to helping you make a lasting impression and secure your place in the educational institution of your dreams.
- Time Efficiency: Generate a personalized CV within seconds, allowing you to focus more on other critical aspects of your application.
- Cost-Effective: Eliminate the need for expensive services offered by student agencies or education consultants.
How to Export Your CV
1. Complete Your Profile: Log in and fill out your academic and professional details.
2. Generate Your CV: Navigate to your dashboard and click the ‘Click to get your CV’ button.
3. Download and Customize: Within seconds, download your CV in Word format and make any necessary personal adjustments. After downloading the document, it’s important to fine-tune it to reflect your unique qualifications and experience. Make sure to:
- Remove any sections and headings that are irrelevant to your background.
- Include any additional information that may be necessary.
- Modify the formatting or spacing to ensure the document meets the required length. While two pages are the ideal length for a resume, it can be extended to three pages if you have a significant amount of relevant experience to showcase.
The final personalization of your resume takes less than 15 minutes. Still, it ensures that it accurately represents your qualifications and stands out to prospective universities to win a fully funded PhD position. If you want to prepare your CV independently, samples from applicants who have successfully secured funded positions at the master’s and PhD levels are available in your Applyindex profile.
How Applyindex Helps You Approach Supervisors
Candidates can streamline their supervisor outreach using our comprehensive tools. From viewing detailed supervisor profiles to accessing information about active grants and research activities, our platform facilitates efficient connections. Email supervisors directly through Applyindex, track your interactions, and organize important notes within our platform. It eliminates the need to juggle multiple websites and software such as Gmail, ChatGPT, Word, etc. This streamlined approach saves you time and helps keep everything organized in one place. Whether you are searching for a host for your postdoctoral fellowship application or a PhD supervisor, our platform makes it easy to initiate contact. We’ll guide you through each step to ensure a smooth and efficient experience.
Supervisors Search Page of Applyindex
Applicant-Supervisor Matchmaking
On our supervisors page, we connect you with supervisors working on research topics that match your interests or background. Thus, completing the research interests section of your CV is crucial when creating or updating your profile. For detailed instructions, please read our guides on creating an account on Applyindex and completing an Applicant profile. On this page, you’ll see a list of supervisor profiles with detailed information, tools, and features. These include the supervisor’s name, university, academic rank, current local time, a progress bar to track your contact stage, an eye-shaped button to remove irrelevant supervisors from your list, and more (see the screenshot below). We’ll explain each of these tools and features in detail.
Supervisors with Active Grants
Before we delve into our platform’s tools and features, it’s crucial to note a strategic approach: contacting supervisors with active research grants/budgets is often more fruitful. These supervisors are more likely to offer RA-funded positions, as they have already secured the necessary financial resources. We have employed a special badge highlighting supervisors with active research grants to simplify your search. However, this badge and grant information are exclusively available to premium members. The badge looks like this:
Progress Box
At any stage of your communication with supervisors, you can record your interactions by selecting an option from the drop-down list under their profile photo, as shown in the screenshot below. Recording and saving your correspondence will be invaluable when you choose your final universities to apply to.
Supervisors Local Time
You need to be mindful of the timing when contacting supervisors to ensure that your emails are noticed and not lost among others. For instance, if you email at 2 am in their local time, they are likely asleep and may miss your message. Similarly, approaching supervisors over the weekend is a common mistake. Some students manually check supervisors’ local time using their phone’s clock, searching on Google, or visiting relevant websites. With Applyindex, you no longer need to worry about this. The platform automatically tracks supervisors’ local time for you. Under the “progress box,” you’ll see the local time of each supervisor indicated by red, orange, or green lines (see the screenshot below). These colors represent the following:
- Red: It’s out of working hours, don’t contact them.
- Orange: It’s during working hours, and they might be in lectures, meetings, or labs. But it’s still safe to contact them.
- Green: It’s highly possible that they reply to you at this time.
Add Supervisor Manually
Although we provide a comprehensive database of supervisors for applicants, you may want to reach out to specific supervisors based on certain criteria. These could include supervisors with industry connections, those with an h-index above 50, full professors (rather than assistant or associate professors), or any other preference you might have. On the research supervisors page, an “Add Supervisor” option is available to click to add any supervisor you are specifically interested in. After clicking the option, you will see the form in the screenshot below. This detailed form lets you input the supervisor’s name, university, department, research profiles, biography, and research activities.
Remove Irrelevant Supervisors
After reviewing a supervisor’s profile, you may realize that a supervisor is not aligned with your research interests or CV. In some cases, research interests can overlap across different fields or disciplines. For example, epidemiology is relevant in both medicine and plant pathology. Similarly, biochemistry applies to both biology and chemistry, but these are broad fields, and supervisors from one discipline may not necessarily be relevant to applicants from the other. As a result, you might occasionally find supervisors appearing in your profile who aren’t a good fit for your specific focus. You can easily remove these supervisors by clicking the eye-like icon in the screenshot below.
Chance of Getting RA Funding From Supervisors
If you are applying for PhD positions, understanding your chances of securing funded positions before contacting supervisors is crucial. At Applyindex, we estimate your likelihood of receiving RA funding from specific supervisors. This way, you can decide where to focus your efforts. The screenshot below shows our algorithms calculating your RA funding chances. Hovering over the chance range reveals a detailed estimate in a pop-up. For example, the right-hand example indicates: If this supervisor has an available PhD position, your chance to get their RA funding is 65-69%.
This feature helps you prioritize supervisors and programs with the highest likelihood of success, saving time and resources in the application process. Instead of contacting supervisors randomly, focus on those most likely to offer financial support, increasing the efficiency of your search for fully funded positions.
Supervisor Profile
Overview
By clicking on either the “View Profile” option, you can view each supervisor’s detailed profile on Applyindex. The supervisor’s profile offers more in-depth information and features than those on the Supervisors Search page. These include the “Active Grants” tab, which displays any current grants they hold, and the “My Notes” tab, where you can record personal notes. The profile provides insights into their research activities, university affiliation, and links to their research profiles such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and ORCID. For more information, refer to the screenshots and sections below:
“My Notes” Tab
This tab is a vital part of supervisor profiles. By recording your correspondence and important notes, you can make well-informed decisions when narrowing down your target universities. This feature helps you avoid the need to: (i) jot down notes on paper, (ii) fit notes into small Excel cells, or (iii) revisit university websites for information. See the screenshot below for how to take notes about each supervisor, including an example of a professor requesting a research plan. Additionally, any action you take from the “Progress Box” will automatically be recorded as a note with the exact date and time. Only premium members have access to the “My Notes” tab.
Contact Supervisors via Applyindex
This is one of the most valuable features on Applyindex! You can contact supervisors directly from our platform, eliminating the need to leave Applyindex whenever you want to email a supervisor.
(i) Select the “CLICK TO SEND E-MAIL” button to enable us to approach supervisors on your behalf.
(ii) If they have posted positions on the Applyindex website, you can contact supervisors and apply for their positions directly on Applyindex simultaneously.
To be continued…
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the a-index, and how does it help PhD applicants?
The a-index is an AI-generated score between 50 and 100 that reflects the strength of your academic CV. A higher a-index indicates a stronger application profile and a better chance of securing a fully funded PhD position. It helps applicants target universities within their realistic funding range.
How can Applyindex streamline the PhD application process?
Applyindex tools help you create academic CVs, match applicants with supervisors, estimate funding chances, evaluate CV strength (a-index), and monitor university information. It saves applicants a great deal of time and effort by combining all the steps onto a single platform, eliminating the need to visit several websites.