Experience & Reflections

This post comes rather late — mostly because I procrastinated, partly because I needed distance to understand it all. Looking back, 2025’s application season was a strangely emotional yet enlightening ride. Background and Outcome I work on video world models, with previous experience in LLMs, agents, and interpretability. I did my undergrad in Computer Science (IEEE Honor Class) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and applied to both PhD and Master’s programs. ...

When requesting a recommendation letter from professors, it’s increasingly common to be asked for a timeline, a summary of your work, or even a draft of the letter itself. Professors are often extremely busy—you might be surprised by the number of emails they handle daily—so such a request is generally reasonable (though some professors still dedicate time to writing the letter entirely themselves). In fact, this can be seen as a good opportunity: it gives you more control over the content of your recommendation. As a result, it’s important for students to learn how to write a recommendation letter, even if only as a draft. ...