Frank Fang

预约导师
查看所有导师

  个人资料

Frank Fang received his B.E. degree in power engineering from Tsinghua University before attending Stanford University, where he received M.S. in financial mathematics, M.S. in computer science, and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 2009. His Ph.D. research was focused on microscale/nanoscale fluid flow and heat transfer, with applications to electronics and biomedical devices. Dr. Fang is currently working at ExxonMobil Corp. as a senior research engineer, and is the recipient of company's 2014 Presidential Award in Innovation, Creativity and Excellence.   In 2005, Dr. Fang had a successful experience of applying to graduate schools in the US, garnering offers with full scholarship from Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, Cornell, Duke, Northwestern, UCLA, GIT, UIUC and PSU, covering a wide spectrum of research areas spanning Mechanical Engineering, Financial Engineering, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, and Petroleum Engineering. Particularly, Dr. Fang was awarded the Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) as Stanford's most prestigious scholarship offered to newly admitted graduate students,  as well as the Chancellor's Prize being one of UCLA's top fellowships. Dr. Fang scored full mark in GRE general test in 2002, and was invited to teach GRE verbal in New Oriental School in Beijing (北京新东方学校) after receiving school's top GRE score award.

  导师视频

  教育背景

  • 2005.08 - 2009.06
        机械工程
    斯坦福大学
  • 2005.08 - 2009.06
        计算机科学
    斯坦福大学
  • 2005.08 - 2009.06
        金融数学
    斯坦福大学
  • 1999.08 - 2003.06
        动力工程
    清华大学

  有问必答

Q : Could I ask for some advice about applying Financial Engineering with an engineering background.

A : When it comes to assess an applicant's credential for admission to M.S. in Financial Engineering (a.k.a. Financial Mathematics or Master of Finance in some schools), four factors carry most weight, i.e. Mathematics, Computer Programming, Finance, Work(Internship) Experience. The relative importance of these four factors, however, varies from school to school. Some schools, e.g. CMU and Cornell, lay a huge emphasis on computer programming skills due to their world-leading reputation in computer science. For some schools, e.g. NYU whose applied math ranks top 1 in the world, along with University of Chicago, Columbia University, and  Stanford University, the importance of applicants' mathematical background could never be overstated, and taking GRE Subject test in math is highly recommended. For some schools which place their FE program under Graduate School of Business(GSB), e.g. Princeton University, UC Berkeley, MIT, and UMich, background in finance, economics or management would be a big plus. For some schools, e.g. UC Berkeley and UIUC, possessing relevant work experience in financial industry would be a must. Therefore,  an applicant with an engineering background should fully leverage his/her personal statement, resume, and recommendation letters to demonstrate the strength in the aforementioned four aspects. It is also essential to customize the application materials for each school such that the corresponding aspect the target school values most is given the highest weight. For instance, an applicant applying to UC Berkeley and UIUC should manage to secure an RL from the manager of the financial institute where he/she interned. Also, it would be very helpful if the applicants can demonstrate their mathematical modeling capability, and many students I guided who got admission to top FE programs participated in The Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) held annually. Last but not least, the FE program is more about professional training than academic research

Q : Briefly introduce your experience as a Graduate Research Assistant in Stanford?

A : I was offered a 3-year package of Stanford Graduate Fellowship upon admission but later also worked as a Gradate Research Assistant (RA) in medical school in order to earn some additional tuition waiver to fund the extra courses I took. I also worked as a teaching assistant for one quarter as part of the Ph.D. program requirement (Stanford adopts quarter system instead of semester system). Compared to fellowship, RA offers less flexibility at Stanford for a number of reasons 1) Recipient is obligated to spend at least 20hr on research 2) RA is funded by a specific professor's specific project. Switching professor/research group/research project could potentially jeopardize the continuity of RA support unless a good alignment is made with the professor/department in advance. 3) RA is usually only guaranteed for one year during the initial admission to the program, although in majority of the cases professor/department would make every effort to continue the RA support till student's graduation given that the student makes a satisfactory progress on coursework and research. In some rare cases where there is a sudden disruption of research funding, professor would usually ask the student to take on a TA position instead. A fellowship offered by Stanford, on the other hand, would guarantee a multi-year support, and is oftentimes portable within the department or even within the whole school of engineering (in my case). Compared to Teaching Assistantship, RA demands less incremental work and time commitment. Although RA requires 20hr/week dedicated to research work even during the final exam season, a Ph.D. student, even with fellowship, would have to conduct research anyway, so RA wouldn't add any additional burden. TA, by contrast, would require students to actively engage with teaching activities at Stanford, including preparing course materials, leading discussion sessions, answering questions and grading homework. So the time investment would be enormous.

Q : What do you think is the most important thing when applying a Ph.D. program in science and engineering fields?

A : As opposed to M.S. program which focuses primarily on professional training, a Ph.D. program is designed to be academic research focused, so the applicants should demonstrate 1) Strong interest in research 2) Ability to independently conduct research 3) Willingness/Aspiration to choose a research-oriented career path after graduation. While preparing personal statement and recommendation letters, an applicant should demonstrate in a convincing manner these three aspects. Taking my own application experience as an example. To show interest in engineering research, I used a recommendation letter written by my Dad to illustrate vividly how I got inspired by the US Apollo space program during childhood and became fascinated by engineering discipline. The letter was well received by admission committees. To show my strong ability to independently conduct research, I composed a research summary with a generous use of charts, figures, and photos to showcase the extensive and intensive research experience I garnered while studying at Tsinghua university. Furthermore, I sent the well-prepared research summary via EMS directly to those professors with opening positions, which enabled me to get my first offer in as early as December. To show my aspiration to take on a research career path, I outlined my career goal in the PS with concrete and in-depth thoughts. All these three factors collectively led to the success of my graduate school application.

  预约导师

 个人信息

 教育背景

 英语成绩