<p>I'm about to be a third-year undergraduate student next month. There're not too many opportunities to do theory research(there are some but I think I'm not interested) especially for those without good background, and I'm the one. So I've just learnt a lot of things, read a lot of notes and books this year. I mainly focus on theoryA(I mean algorithm &amp; complexity and do not include cryptography), what I learnt from notes or books are really classic results. So when I delve into the papers, I find them really hard to digest. Another reason is that I'm not familiar with some problems at all, it's really hard to get into one specific area in the beginning, I do realize the importance of a good advisor.</p>
<p>I think I might be interested in some areas, and I think the disciplines I've learnt are really enough for me to get into research in the beginning, besides some basic lessons in school, I self-learnt something like</p>
<p>math:abstract algebra(group, ring, field and Galois theory) commutative algebra, real analysis(with some measure theory), complex analysis, some basic topology.</p>
<p>tcs: randomized algorithm, approximation algorithm, the theory of computation,computational complexity</p>
<p>I learnt most of the mathematical disciplines just for fun before I really realized that I wanna embark on tcs research, another reason is that maybe undergraduate period is the best time to learn a lot of things, though I really never see their applications in the paper I'm interested in.</p>
<p>I wanna apply for a PhD (maybe just in America, Canada?). But due to my background, A lot of people tell me that it's hard to apply for a PhD in America if I don't have a good recommended letter. I know I must work with someone as a RA if I do really need to apply for PhD directly (I understand it as it's hard to train a researcher from scratch). Therefore, I plan to start a master degree in Europe first, and then continue to pursue my PhD(maybe also in Europe as PhD in the US is really too long). Now for every day I just read some paper, watch some talks and learn something I like, that depends on the day.</p>
<p>Although I've seen a lot of questions like this and have talked to someone, but I still need your answers as you all come from different areas may have more opinions</p>
<p>(Thanks for the reminding of the comments)Indeed I have a lot of questions:</p>
<p>Read papers or study more topics, which should I spend time for more? Both really take time.</p>
<p>For reading paper, what's the best way to quickly get to know the problem and the latest progress, how about asking the experts in that field?(I'm not sure it's really appropriate)</p>
<p>About my case, what's your advice on preceding the research, I mean go on with master, or is there any way to do something like remote internship(but I do not think it's possible)</p>
<p>Besides reading papers, watching talks I mentioned above, do you know any more activity to help me understand more topics?</p>
<p>Well, if you have more advice(whatever you like), that should be great!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-05T17:59:19.020Z
"I know it's impossible to apply for a PhD if I do not work as a RA with someone to get a recommend letter": What do you mean? This seems to be more about the US than Europe. For what I know (mostly France), PhD contracts are mostly allocated according to the grades you get in Master, and you often meet your PhD advisor during a Master internship/thesis.
sparusaurata
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-05T18:01:10.370Z
Also, it would help answering if you formulated a precise question. Asking for advice without more precision is not really the point of SE.
sparusaurata
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-05T18:12:53.343Z
Related Qs: https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/9608/129, https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/46428/129,
Joshua Grochow
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-07T08:23:06.500Z
@sparusaurata thanks for your reminding! I have tried to make the description more clear
Hunter19019
<soft-question><big-picture><research-practice><advice-request><career>
Any advice for a third-year undergraduate student who wanna embark on tcs research in the future?
Hunter19019
# Any advice for a third-year undergraduate student who wanna embark on tcs research in the future?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-08-05)

I'm about to be a third-year undergraduate student next month. There're not too many opportunities to do theory research(there are some but I think I'm not interested) especially for those without good background, and I'm the one. So I've just learnt a lot of things, read a lot of notes and books this year. I mainly focus on theoryA(I mean algorithm & complexity and do not include cryptography), what I learnt from notes or books are really classic results. So when I delve into the papers, I find them really hard to digest. Another reason is that I'm not familiar with some problems at all, it's really hard to get into one specific area in the beginning, I do realize the importance of a good advisor.

I think I might be interested in some areas, and I think the disciplines I've learnt are really enough for me to get into research in the beginning, besides some basic lessons in school, I self-learnt something like

math:abstract algebra(group, ring, field and Galois theory) commutative algebra, real analysis(with some measure theory), complex analysis, some basic topology.

tcs: randomized algorithm, approximation algorithm, the theory of computation,computational complexity

I learnt most of the mathematical disciplines just for fun before I really realized that I wanna embark on tcs research, another reason is that maybe undergraduate period is the best time to learn a lot of things, though I really never see their applications in the paper I'm interested in.

I wanna apply for a PhD (maybe just in America, Canada?). But due to my background, A lot of people tell me that it's hard to apply for a PhD in America if I don't have a good recommended letter. I know I must work with someone as a RA if I do really need to apply for PhD directly (I understand it as it's hard to train a researcher from scratch). Therefore, I plan to start a master degree in Europe first, and then continue to pursue my PhD(maybe also in Europe as PhD in the US is really too long). Now for every day I just read some paper, watch some talks and learn something I like, that depends on the day.

Although I've seen a lot of questions like this and have talked to someone, but I still need your answers as you all come from different areas may have more opinions

(Thanks for the reminding of the comments)Indeed I have a lot of questions:

Read papers or study more topics, which should I spend time for more? Both really take time.

For reading paper, what's the best way to quickly get to know the problem and the latest progress, how about asking the experts in that field?(I'm not sure it's really appropriate)

About my case, what's your advice on preceding the research, I mean go on with master, or is there any way to do something like remote internship(but I do not think it's possible)

Besides reading papers, watching talks I mentioned above, do you know any more activity to help me understand more topics?

Well, if you have more advice(whatever you like), that should be great!

**Tags:** soft-question, big-picture, research-practice, advice-request, career
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: "I know it's impossible to apply for a PhD if I do not work as a RA with someone to get a recommend letter": What do you mean? This seems to be more about the US than Europe. For what I know (mostly France), PhD contracts are mostly allocated according to the grades you get in Master, and you often meet your PhD advisor during a Master internship/thesis.  
> **username_1**: Also, it would help answering if you formulated a precise question. Asking for advice without more precision is not really the point of SE.  
> **username_2**: Related Qs: https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/9608/129, https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/46428/129,  
> **username_0**: @sparusaurata thanks for your reminding! I have tried to make the description more clear  

---

## 0 answers

