JOURNEY TO UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR MASTERS
United States of America is highly known for its fast changing scientific environment.
Education in USA is Six years advanced than any other country in this world. They focus more on the
practical implementation with a real time experience. That is why most of the students rush to USA
for their Masters.
DECIDE YOUR COURSE OF STUDY:
First and foremost thing to start the process of Masters is by deciding the course of study.
Usually, Nobody cares about the Course they gonna take. They ultimately want to study in US,
Finally end up taking the course which they are not at all interested in and which doesn’t have any
future wide range of opportunities. So, before getting in to the universities it’s better to have complete
background knowledge of the course we take and prefer only the course that is in your interest. It is
always better to study what you love so that you can give your best in that field.
GRE AND IELTS/TOEFL PREPARATION:
When you go to US for MS, you are investing a lot of time, money and hard work. So, keep
in mind that the end result should be fruitful, not just satisfactory. Don't be lazy on little things like
GRE Preparation and IELTS/TOEFL preparation. If you don’t prepare well, then you choose to miss a
good University and go for one which is way less than what you deserve just because you are lazy to
sit for 3 hours a day. I see many students with more than 75% or GPA more than 8 were scoring 280s - 290's in GRE. You
have an awesome academic record. If you can concentrate and prepare properly for 1 month, you can
easily score 300+. I mean, if you have 290 GRE and 8 GPA you would get into a mediocre
University; that's it. If you have 300 GRE and 8 GPA, you are literally qualified for almost all good
Universities and you can also get into one. Do you wish to sacrifice your whole career just because
you can't give your best for only 1 month?
Universities consider the application for admission based on the GRE Score. So, Every Single
Mark plays a crucial role in the decision. GRE is for 340 marks, in which 170 is quant and 170 is
Verbal Out of which 260 are given on default. Most of the universities mainly want the Quant score to
be high and also they consider only QUANT score for Scholarships. So, Score more than 155 in
Quant and more than 140 in Verbal. Everyone bothers about Quant and Verbal but completely
neglects the AWA (Analytical Writing Assessment). In AWA, you need to write two essays, one is on
issue and the other is an argument. Don’t Neglect the AWA score because a high GRE score with a
low AWA is of no use. So, try to score more than 3 out of 6.
IELTS or TOEFL Exam is just to test your English proficiency which contains four sections
Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. IELTS score is presented in the form of Bands out of 9
whereas TOEFL is for a score of 120. Alike GRE, IELTS/TOEFL is just a cut-off mark for any
university. Suppose, if the university cut-off mark is 6.5 in IELTS or 80 in TOEFL, Any score above
the requirement mentioned is accepted. So, always aim to reach the required score.
GRE and TOEFL exams are conducted by ETS organisation. Book only the prometric centres
for the exam because they are more comfortable than the ordinary ones. You can also report the
scores to four universities after writing the GRE exam which is of free of cost. You can view the
scores once just after you complete the exam. AWA scores will be available after a week. You can
send the scores to any number of universities through the www.ets.org site by paying fee for sending
the scores which is approximately equal to Rs. 1250/-. TOEFL scores are available in 10 – 12
business days. IELTS is conducted by two organisations British Council (Shortly as BC) and IDP.
Prefer British Council over IDP because the scoring is more student friendly in BC than ADP. Further
BC exam hall is very spacious and comfortable to take the exam than IDP. In IELTS, Speaking test is
conducted within three days before or after the LRW exam. Both the exams are conducted at different
locations. IELTS Score is available in 13 days. You can send the scores to the universities by going to
the respective offices where you need to fill an application. The fee will be approximately Rs. 1250/-.
IDP and BC have a separate list of universities where you can send the scores for free of cost to the
university which is present in that list. Please check that list from the official site for the universities
which you would like to send the score. (LRW = Listening, Reading and Writing)
SHORTLISTING THE UNIVERSITIES:
This is the most crucial step in the entire process of MS in USA. One wrong step will lead to
many complexities as the entire process is linked to the university which we are going. So, we should
be very careful while choosing the universities. Alike Universities in India, The courses are not
equally good in every university. If a university is good at CS it can be worse in EE. So, before
choosing a university we have to look at the Specializations which it is famous for. They are so many
things we should think of a university before applying to it.
- Specialization in the University
- Research work in the university
- Course Curriculum
- Chances of Scholarship
- Safety (Most important of all)
- Availability of Part times
- Cost of Living
- Weather
Give the rating for the above mentioned constraints for a university. The rating gives you the
preference order of the universities. Once the preference order is done, check with the reviews in
www.usnews.com and www.forbes.com etc., There are several websites which give you a clear idea about the university. Inquire about the university with the students who are
studying there and also your friends, well wishers and seniors. Don’t stick to a university just by
hearing a single person’s piece of advice. Do the research on your own by referring various
websites and also thoroughly check the official university website. Prefer the university which gives
you scholarship because you will be spending lakhs of rupees on your education, at least Scholarship
helps you in waiving your fee.
APPLYING FOR UNIVERSITIES:
The process of applying to the universities is more of a hectic work as you need to get all the
required documents ready. For any university there is an application fee which should be paid only via
credit card. The fee varies from one university to other. You should have a valid passport for applying
the universities. The list of documents required for applying are
- Passport Copy (Front and Last page – Colour)
- Provisional Certificate or Original Degree
- S.S.C and Intermediate Mark lists
- Letter of Recommendations – 3
- IELTS / TOEFL Score Card
- GRE Score Card
- Bank Statement
- Affidavit
- Resume
- Statement of Purpose (SOP)
- Transcripts
- Certificates of Extra Curricular Activities
- Experience Certificate (Only If Employed)
Apply to the universities only when you are done with all the documents because you have to
send the documents to college in less than a week. After applying online send the scores of GRE or
TOEFL from the ets site. In USA everything is considered based on the First Come – First Served so,
it’s advisable to apply as early as possible. Apply by October for the term Fall and by May for Spring.
I personally suggest applying for 5 universities of which 3 must be safe universities and 2 are
ambitious because though you may apply to more number of universities you end up going to only
one university. So, it’s better to shortlist to five universities it can save you a lot of money. Three safe
universities are preferred because sometimes due to heavy number of applicants universities cannot
give you admission. So, it’s better to have three safe universities. Applying only to ambitious
universities is not at all recommended because we don’t know whether they give us admission or not.
WAITING FOR ADMISSION:
This is the worst period of the entire MS process because you have to wait for your admission
for a longer period. You don’t know how long they will take to process your admission request. So, you have to be
patient on the admission.
After applying to the university, you will be given a portal where the status of your
application will be shown. The documents which you send will be updated there so, kindly check the
portal frequently to get the updates. Sometimes, they want you to upload the documents or want you
to mail them the documents. Respond fast to these kinds of situations. Once they receive all the
documents which you have sent then your application will be sent to the department for the review.
Here they will be checking the entire application. After looking all your academic performances the department finally come up with a decision which will be informed to the
Admission Office. Then the admission office people will mail you regarding the decision. It may take
usually 4-6 weeks of time. Keep mailing them asking for the status of your application and also call
them at times to know the status. Once the decision is made they will send you the i20 form which is
the official document for your admission into the university. It contains a SEVID ID which is the
Homeland security ID given by the government of USA without which we can’t proceed to VISA
CONCLUSION:
Mountains look very smooth when they are viewed from a long distance but when you
approach them you can see the rough surface of it. MS in US is not an easy task to proceed in a
dilemma. One should be very much dedicated to study abroad.
We are leaving our mother country, Family, Friends, Home town where we lived for around
22 years only for Education. So, keep in mind that your primary intention is to study. We have to
study hard in masters not to score but to have a huge grip on our field of study. There are wide ranges
of opportunities everywhere; all you need is to showcase your talent to survive in this competitive
world. No matter which university you study ultimately your hard work matters not just the degree.
Most of the students think that only studying the higher ranked universities is worthy. But we should
be aware of the fact that the role of college is only to provide you a platform to study; it is you who
has to explore the world to gain the knowledge about the present technologies. You should interact
with the professors to know about the ongoing research work in the university.
During this entire process, you may come across several people coming with different kinds
of opinions on your study. One may support your decision and other comes to you only to bring down
your confidence. Do not even consider their words just follow your heart. Only suggestion is to think
twice before you act. Our parents are investing a lot of money, so whatever we do now will make
them happy for lifetime.
Everything I mentioned in this document is from my experience so; forgive me if I’m wrong.
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