Chapter 5, Musings of an internship applicant, Examination marks?
Hope everything is okay and going all right with your intern application. But what about your semester marks? Did you screw up your tests (as I did [:(] .. hi hi ) while busy doing these things? If you hold a marks in exams and have a decent CGPA, then no problem. By 'decency', I mean something greater than 8.5 or alike. If your average (NOTE: you should do a linear averaging of your SGPSs, do not do any weighted mean business even if your college does it) is greater that 8.5, well, you can consider yourself in a safe state. If you could impress the prof, he would at least not raise his eyebrows for your marks. But there are many of us, who may be quite efficient in doing the work, but low CGPA stands in his way.
Now there is no direct way to get rid of this problem. However you have to adhere to indirect ways and tricks. It depends very much on how you present your marks. If you have less CGPA or widely varying SGPAs ( more Standard Deviation [:D] .. a bit maths [:P] ) it is worthy not to mention your marks semester wise – just give the CGPA and that will do. If you describe your semester marks, that too low, in a detailed fashion his eyes will fall on you marks only ( as Educational details should come first in your CV). While with less marks, you may face problems in convincing the prof, that you can really work, again with high marks does not convince him either that you can work. You should not think that getting good marks is by any means, a criterion for fetching the intern. Thus matching of the mutual interests of research between you and your professor, (and of course publication in related field) continues to remain the most dominating factor. And marks, as a matter of fact – as a general rule (for the sake of a format rather) must be mentioned in your CV, that too in the beginning. So it is your duty how to present your semester marks. For example, if you have a trend of marks gradually increasing from the first semester until now, and the average CGPA is around 8.5 you can mention your semester marks – he may feel, this guy is getting better now [:)]. And another thing – don't boast of your marks, if it is on the higher end. Simply and politely mention it in your cv. What on earth do you assure your prof by standing first in a semester exam? “I have been regularly the first boy/girl of my class” – this type of statements have negative effect on your mail, he will no longer read the rest of the mail [:(]. Finally note, that how you convince the prof depends upon you and your style of saying. Don't screw up things by sending wrong mails to wrong persons or wrong details etc. When you click the 'send' button, the episode is over with that prof (however, if you feel that the particular prof is very likely to take you and he doesn't reply you are always free to send him a second mail , but do mention that you sent a mail earlier). Don't worry! Be Happy – after all – All is Well. Isn't it?
