Foreign students have always been instrumental in spurring a cultural and technological revolution in the US. International students not only bring ‘hopes’ and ‘dreams’ but also a major economic boost to the US. According to a report from the Institute of International Education, foreign students brought in a total of $14.7 billion to the US economy from their home countries to pay for tuition fees and living expenses in the year 2006-07. The US continues to attract lot of hopefuls from hundreds of countries. The number of students enrolling in US universities is soaring every year. The largest numbers of students to the US are from India followed by China.
The procedure to fly to the US for graduate studies is quite tedious and cumbersome. A 4-year degree is usually required to pursue a graduate degree in US. The first and foremost step is to appear for GRE (www.gre.org) and TOEFL (www.toefl.org) since most US universities require applicants to have taken both the tests. The 2nd step will be to search for universities where one wants to study. There are more than 1000 universities in US so one needs to narrow down to few universities depending one’s grades in bachelors, GRE scores, research interest, cost of education, etc. The rankings of universities for graduate programs in any discipline can be generated by plugging in important parameters on www.phds.org. A free general ranking of up to 100 engineering schools can be obtained on www.usnews.com. An extensive and thorough research should be done in the specific engineering department of the university where one wants to apply to understand the kind of research, faculty, availability of funds, etc. Students can get some form of financial aid like a teaching/research assistantship or a tuition waiver. Information about availability of financial aid can be obtained by contacting the department, current students of that university or by emailing the Professors. A full teaching/research assistantship will most likely cover the entire tuition fee and will also provide an additional monthly stipend to cover living expenses and partial assistantship will cover some percentage of tuition fee and also pays some amount of monthly stipend. Apart from these assistantships, another form of aid exists which is ‘tuition waiver’ which doesn’t pay any stipend. In almost all universities, all the applicants are automatically considered for an assistantship and no separate documentation might be necessary. If the university/department has very limited assistantships one should find out the tuition fee costs (can vary from $3000 - $10000 per semester) and if there are ample part-time job (usually $7 - $15 per hour) opportunities in the university campus or outside. On campus part-time jobs can be done in a maximum of 20 hours per week and are usually in a library, eateries, etc. One should consider living costs and job opportunities in the town where the university is located.
The information on the contents of the application package (fees, transcripts, recommendation letters, statement of purpose, resume, GRE & TOEFL score reporting, source of funding proof from your bank, application deadlines, etc) that needs to be sent to the university can be found on graduate school’s website of all universities. One will be required to send a resume with the application packet and it is always advised to prepare a 1 page only resume. Relevant work experience can add to one's prospects of admission but mostly GRE scores will influence the short listing of candidates for admission in Masters program. Only some universities have a ‘pre-application’ option wherein, potential students can fill out an online form which will ask for scores and educational background, this information will be reviewed by the university’s department and a decision will be emailed to the student, it avoids the hassle and expenditure of making a more formal application. One can contact the graduate school to find out if such a ‘pre-application’ exists. For e.g. http://www.lehigh.edu/~inmatsci/graduate/pre_app_form.htm
Most the applications go out for the fall semester (starts from August or September) and applications mostly should be received by the university by March month of that year. One should confirm the deadlines on applications on the graduate school webpage. The decision of admissions will be sent out to the applicants by May month and visa application preparations should commence.
There is considerable amount of documentation required for visa interviews. The visa interview can last anywhere between 3 – 30 minutes. The US consular officers will ask for sources of funding to ensure that the student has the necessary funds to pay for Masters in US in case no assistantship was awarded by the university one plans to attend. Visa candidate should show the sources of total tuition fee and living expenses through an approved educational bank loan for higher studies or in bank balance/ fixed deposits. It is also advised to take documentation of one’s property and other assets to demonstrate very strong ties to one’s country to the visa officer. On obtaining the US visa one should contact the Indian Students Association (most of the universities will have such an organization) to discuss the travel schedule and temporary housing accommodation.
More information on selection and rankings of universities can be found on www.i20fever.com or www.edulix.com. Arriving at the decision to pursue Masters, choice of academic programs, living, job prospects in US, etc is a very comprehensive topic of discussion. I will be able to respond to queries if you post through comments.
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