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When applying for PhDs in the UK from elsewhere in the EU it was hard to get any response to the applications. So I booked a cheap flight to London and contacted the head professors of the departments I was interested in:

- Hey, I happen to be in town in two weeks. Can I give a talk at your group and present a paper I'm working on?

I believe it made all the difference, and got me through the door (with a lesser CV).

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I did something similar. I told that I was not good enough to do a Ph.D., then was contacted shortly afterwards and asked to be a teaching assistant. Without the burden of grad studies, I ended up doing actual teaching, leading a team of teaching assistants, being one of the representatives of the department by doing public lectures, and (incidentally) earning more than most of the lecturers. In the end, I decided they were right about the Ph.D. thing. I learned enough in my years there to figure out that I didn't have the stomach for academic politics.

You are my hero. If you need to be lucky enough to get something you want, make it (the "luck") happen.

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