MS in Engineering in the US

Part 1:
The Motivation
Every year thousands of Indians, mostly Engineering students, come to the US for higher studies (Masters and Phd).
Unfortunately, there are few students from the North East among them. The primary reason is that we have only a few Engineering colleges, and then our students don't seem to be must aware of this process.

I am doing my Masters from the University of Rochester, New York, and I believe doing masters here, has a lot of advantages.
1. Quality of Education
I am from the 8th best Engineering college in India (according to a recent survey), but the quality of Education there was very dismal. After studying in Cotton college, engineering was a big disappointment for me.I think except for the IITs,IISc, Yadavpur university etc, engineering education is facing a severe talent crunch.
MS here has been a wonderful experience. The knowledge I have acquired here will be an asset for lifetime. The best thing here is that, even the so called low ranked universities (say ranking below 70 ) have a standard found only in IISc or IITs in India.


2. Cost effectiveness
Although, tuition fee is very high here in terms of Indian rupees, in most of the cases, students earn back all the money and build a decent bank balance even before the completion of studies.

3. Employment

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Although Indian software industry is heading towards achieving maturity, the bulk of the hi-tech work is still done in the US. I have seen frustrations of a few very talented friends of mine, whose jobs are absolutely low end and with no prospect of career growth.

There is a lot to learn here. The research environment, University-industry collaboration, the professionalism and the experience (most of the engineers my company are in their 40s or 50s, whereas in India, the average age is usually around 25).

These days it is becoming more and more advantageous to go back to India and work there. Even in that case, a masters from here will make you at par with an IITian or IIScian.Two of my friends have gone back after masters and are working on cutting edge research in Bangalore.

4. Research
A few years back, China had only a few Universities of International standard. Now, the number is in the 30s and we still have only one (IISc)

A simple Google search on patents filed from China in any field will reveal by what margin they have left us behind (actually we file negligible number of patents, less patents than a tiny European country!)

Chinese students come here, do a PhD, and go back with the vast knowledge they acquire here, and then, build a similar environment back home. Indians on the other hand, see MS as a shortcut to easy dollars and end up as programmers. It's the Intellectual property owners that make money, not we programmers. So, while we are satisfied with the few thousand dollars we get, China is preparing to lead the world with their vast Intellect property and knowledge environment (no wonder less and less Chinese students come to US now)

I think our talented students should come here with some intention of serious research and contribute to our development.

I would be very glad to help any student from NER, who is willing to go for higher studies here. Although, my knowledge is mostly about engineering education, I can definitely gather information from my friends from other field like medicine and pure sciences.



Thanks and Regards
Sourabh Bora
EMC Corporation
(Mail Stop C 4-25)
21 Coslin Drive
Southboro,MA
01772
508-3825918
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Part 2 Managing Finances

Managing finances
Most of the MS admits and some Phd admits too dont come with full tuition waiver. But there are many ways you can actually have a bank balance before you finish your masters.
here is how:

1. Proper choice of university:
many universities are rip offs. Its no point gong to a very expensive university. Education standard in most decent universities is almost same. There are places which do not come on US news ranking but are very good. Your research interest may make a difference (that way you will be making your decision based on which professor you want to work with and not which university you are going to)

2. Some people manage RA/TA or GA in second semester. This is not too uncommon. About 60% of my friends managed atl east a partial waiver.(friends as in REC guys of my batch)

3. On campus job. The pay depends on the place. Expensive places pay more. There are always some exceptionally high paying jobs. Like in my university the jobs pay (including programming jobs) $7-8 OR 9. But, I know at least two jobs that pay $14.
Once you make up your mind on the university, start searching for on campus jobs from India itself. Try to get a picture of the job scene if you cannot actually apply for jobs
you can work 20 hours a week during a semester and unlimited in breaks (but most universities limit it to 40 hours)

4. Living cost: Food is cheap in the US. and unless you are lazy and eat out everyday, or a Organic Food freak, food cost cannot exceed $100 (there should be a walmart/BJs or Sam's Club nearby though).
House rent varies a lot. A house that cost $480 in texas (my friends in TAMU) will cost $1000 in rochester and $3000 in downtown Boston ( I lived in the rest).
But, usually students don't let house rent go beyond a level by using an adaptive algorithm. Say at rochester I used to have a huge bedroom and here in Boston I share a tiny room with another guy.

5. CPT (co curricular practical training)
US law allows an F1 to work for 11 months 29 days with CPT. You can join a CPT after minumum 9 months in school as full time.
During these 11 months, you will remain a full time student. You will get a few credits for this work, will get paid $30 an hour for 40 hours a week (roughly $5000/$7500 a month for two months) and if you are lucky and your job happens to be in the same city as your university, u can even take courses (not part time you will still be a full time student)
Beware, not all universities are so flexible. My university allows only 6 months of CPT. and say NEU CS department does not let you courses when you are doing CPT,,so long CPT will prolong ur degree.
so while selecting university, take care of location,,,and all these univ specific rules.

6. OPT: Once you graduate, you can work 12 months without H1B. You will be a full time worker on optional practical training. Companies file H1B during OPT.

So if you are smart, after 1 and half years of landing in the US you will have a OPT, a bank balance and most importantly an MS degree.

*** Update: just came to know that some classmates of mine are doing part time CPT. That is they are working off campus for 20 hours, while taking classes.
Some are working in Rochester, while others are using remote login to work for distant employers.
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Alternative courses:
Many of us. while joining engineering have no clue what we want to do. Thats why we see loads of people doing chemical- mechanical engg and ending up in Infosys. Many people , at the end of B-Tech realize that they never wanted to take up these courses and would have been better off in the IT field. MIS/IS courses are for such people.

MIS is a combination of management and information systems.In many universities the business school offers this course. My univ does not have this course though.
and my knowledge is a little limited. I have tried to put together whatever I know::

1. Its relatively easy to get into. I know people with less than 60% getting into UMCP, UFL etc.
2. Sometimes the core courses will be like introduction to C, introduction to OOP..useless for CS/ECE folks
3. Many universities allow students to take any course they like..regardless of branch of school..
so u can join MIS and take core CS courses..but again rules differ depending on Universities
4. As I said before, job and internship opportunities depend on the individual, so if you are good and alert opportunities are plenty.

Specific examples I have seen:
1. My friend joined Virginia tech, which has a entirely different campus for MIS near Washington DC, So, has been working full time/part time after 9 months of studies(taking part time courses since campus is right where he works). Also got a waiver and assistantship. CS guy , with around 65% . REC and good student.
Being a different campus, there is not much opportunity to take part in the main research activity of Vtech.

2. Another friend joined UFL, now interning in EA sports. Dont know abt research opportunity or if he can take core CS courses

3. TAMU has 70 MIS seats. Many are from other backgroups..mech chem etc.. (100% indian)
All of them were taken by dell for internship this year

4. Northeastern university has a IS course. So when a CS/ECE guy applies, he gets TA easily. NEU is reputed for campus placements. But it seems only EMC takes from this branch . But then, one can always apply on his own (most people do)
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Hi Guys,
What I am writing is the last option you should think of. USA is full of small companies. mostly owned by Indians, who call themselves consultants. It is actually an euphemism for "body shopping".
As I wrote in my previous mails that you can work on you F1 for two years without H1B and without tax. So, hiring F1 students is a lucrative business for these consultants.(These are the same people who sponsor H1B for people in India also. ) Their work is mostly software, data warehousing, backend and front end works, JAVA, SQL, website etc ..
pretty much the same kind of things you get to do in service companies like Infosys and TCS,
and kind of things you DO NOT want to do after doing a Btech in CSE from RECW. ( I personally do not know much about these things, so attaching a mail I got from a consultant in the appendix )

There are thousands of small / big ..financial(mostly) institutions in the US which cannot afford the service of Infosys or TCS or may be they need only a handful of workers. So they approach these consultants. Consultants will bill them for hours you put in these companies or "clients", as they are known, and give you 70% (usually) of it. (that makes it $30 an hour, in average cases).
In my opinion here are the advantages and disadvantages ::

Good things:
1. IF u are from Mech/Chem/meta::
Starting salary in the IT field is higher than Mechanical, Chemical etc. So, if you are from these fields, these people are your best bet to get into IT.
(Even at RECW, during my time, most of Mech guys joined Infy, CTS etc...so most people actually want to get into IT)
Also, jobs are lesser in these fields for international students.(but then competition is less too)


2. Job security:
A friend of mine ,MS in mech, working with a consultant now told me this:
Apparently your job is more secure with consultants . Even if the client is unhappy with ur work and fires you, u are still employed by the consultant. If there is no project, they will keep you on bench (just pay you $500 or so,,enough for survival)


3, If you perform well and have made connections inside the client company, after you contract with the consultant is over, you can get employement with them, and the client might be Microsoft too ( one senior person, now a manager in Microsoft, made his entry this way). And it seems (again friend told me) its easier to get into Biggies through consultants than directly.
4. Even with them, salary keeps on increasing.. and might reach 6 figures in a few years.

Lets take an example of this mech guy:
In his university, you can take ALL courses online. So, just after completing one semester, he joined one desi consulting farm and flew to NJ to get trained in software. Now this was kind of illegal. You can start CPT only after two semesters. So, he was not officially employed by consultants. During the two month long training he was given just free accommodation and free food and no pay. He was still taking online courses. After that, he worked for a month and got paid (Now this was obviously illegal..getting paid without CPT, so for that month, consultant paid cash to him)
After starting CPT legally, there was no looking back. His GPA plummeted, hovering just over the minimum for MS while his hourly billing rate increased to $45 after a year (he gets $30)

Bad things:
1. Many consultants do disgraceful and illegal things that I hate. Like creating false resumes, making u work illegally etc. and its a disgrace. no wonder the derogatory work body shopping has come into being

2. No domain expertize.. you may be tossed from one project to another

Bottom line is if you sole aim is just to come to the US, earn quick money, or you do not really want to do what you studies in Btech.. or
u are in a desperate situation for money, these consultants will come to your rescue.
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Preparing the financial docs
This is a very common question visa aspirants have. I would like to tell you how I managed it. A point to note here is that many universities mention their course as 36 months long in the I-20.
Which is actually the worst case scenario. In such cases to avoid showing finances for 36 months (Hell will break lose!) get a mail from the graduate cood, saying that its a <34> or so credit course that can be completed in less than two years.

Preparing the financial docs
First of all, there is no hard and fast rule. Even the visa interviewer knows that if you are going , u must have got some source of funding.
All he sees is how genuine you are. If you are from a good college, got into a decent university, ,,and findsnothing suspicious, u are through

1.For i-20 you need to show 1 year's tuition fees + 1 year's living expense.
2. For visa u need to show the entire course's fee+ living expense
3. The I-20 will mention ur source of funding (self..or.father..or univerisity(if u get a full funding)..depending on the financial docs u send to university..
so the sponsor's name in you I-20 and your visa documents must be the same ( it was NOT so in my case, but as I said earlier..most of the times they dont care)

Let me start with what I did:
1. My total fee was 7.3 lakh for two years
( 30 credit hours x $1000 ) x50%
PLUS 24 months' living =$ 24,000

2. For I-20, as I said you need to show 1 year's tuition fees + 1 year's living expense.
so it was
24 credit hoursx$1000 + $12,000
out of the abovve,
I got 50% waiver
so ,
subtract $12,000
For the rest of the money I asked my friends to put money into my account, and then sent the university a bank statement.
So, when the I20 came , it showed myself + university as sponsor.
(it was a mistake )
3. For the main visa, I got a 4 lakh loan. I put some money in my father's account. PLUS got it form 16 salary certificate...and most IMP his PF statement ..that this money also can be used)
Remember, for the second year only 6 credits remained. So, expenditure for the second year was way less than first year.
But then, what if the visa officer questions it..? Its difficult to explain to him in 10 mins.. so I put a "sufficient" money (that is not exactly twice the expenditure shown in I20, but close to it )
All the money came from friends.
so, my father and I were sponsors for my education. Since the money was "close' to the safe one, I managed to get a certificate from a govt evaluator showing our property to be worth 17 lakhs.

Finally I got a consolidated CA certificate with all the above.

Now what did the visa officer check?
Visa officer never takes CA certificate as a proof.. its just serves as a look up table, for ready reference.
In my case, he just saw I-20
flipped my huge citibank statement (huge thanks to my large expenditures and good salary ) and said "o u got scholarship"
thats all....

SOP/RECO/Resume

You will have too many things to write in SOP, but SOP should be small.
Here is what u can do:
1) although its not an requirement... they expect a resume. so do make a one page resume.
so that SOP remains SOP and resume remains resume
2)you will not have space to include much technical details in SOP/REsume..
so the things you CANNOT include in SOP/resume, let the reco letter include it.
For example.
you did project A under prof Sharma.
So let prof sharma write all the technical details in the reco latter..

The gist is .. let SOP/Resume and Reco letters complement one another.

MS or Phd?

While answering queries on higher studies in the US, I frequently face this question : Should I apply for MS or Phd ?

The common thing I hear is "If you apply for MS, there is less chance of aid, but Phd comes with aid. On the other hand, Phd is difficult to get into, MS is easier."
I think this is a very wrong way to look at things. If you are willing to dedicate five or more years of your life into research, go for Phd. But a good job with quick good money is your aim, MS is the way to go.
However, after two years in the US, I feel that everybody should apply for MS first and then decide about the next step.
1)Right after B.Tech, with almost no research experience, it is difficult to decide for the next five years. Quite a few friends of mine came here for Phd, and half way through realized research is not their cup of tea, and quit.

2)Sometimes, the choice of professor and university may not work for you. I know one person in our university who came for Phd, and in the end, the prof and the guy could not stand each other. He had to leave the US without even an MS.
It is difficult to know ground realities from there. You can change your adviser, but, its not always possible, and probably wont be in an amicable way.
3) Your profile may not be strong enough to get into a Phd in your dream university. Same way you should want to have a first hand experience working with the professor before committing five years, the professor also prefers a person he has already met and worked with. In the absence of that, he will be extra careful in hiring Phds, and even if you deserve it, you may not get it.

Here is what my opinion on doing the right thing:
1) come for MS. Most likely it will be without aid. ( Read in my previous posts, to see how most people manage to get almost free education here)
2) Initially you may or may not be sure if you want to go for a life of research..and on what.
I have seen crazy transitions: Friends coming for Mechanical Engg and ending up being a statistician.. ECE to computer vision etc etc.
Talk to people, get to know the professors and their work and take diverse courses and start working on research under a prof.
And from your friends in other universities, you will have better idea about those places too.

3) If you have convinced yourself that research is the way to go, talk to your profs whom you would like to work under. In most cases, application for Phd is just a formality once your prof knows you well. If you feel your department does not offer what you want to do, you will be in a better position to apply to other dept.s or interdisciplinary areas.
Also, witha decent GPA, and some research work and your prof's blessings behind you, you will be able to target higher ranked universities for Phd.

4) I have seen that in many cases when you commit for Phd, your funding starts, even from second sem. (Before the qualifiers!)

I would like to know what others think about this.

Higher studies in the US: The basics

American education system is fundamentally different from ours. The basic differences are

1)While we specialize starting from higher secondary (11 and 12th class) , here, specialized divisions (or schools) exist only in masters level.

2) There no concept of competitive examination here.
For example, in IIT/JEE only the top 3000 scorers can get into IITs.
However, in the US , there is no such examination. Each individual application is considered on the basis of Test Scores (say GRE , or SAT) , the grade (in high school or at undergrad level), letter of recommendation,statement of purpose, overall profile and sometimes essays.

Many university websites however advise a minimum score in GRE etc. and rarely, mention undergrad percentage also .. (The language will be like, "Typically, over the last few years it has been observed that successful candidates have a GRE score of 1200". ) However, this should NOT be assumed to be any cut off, an exceptional profile, can easily override these.
(For example , for MIT, it seems GRE scores matter the least :) )

3) Except for having to complete some minimum requirement for the Major, a student has absolute liberty to chose subjects from any department, and sometimes from other universities too.


First of all, lets be familiar with the terminologies:

1) School
This is a somewhat confusing word, and used in a variety of situations.
High school is from age 14 to age 18 (class 9,10,11,12)
Undergrad school, is after that for four years. Typically it is used for specialized institutes for masters level studies. Like graduate school, law school, medical school, engineering school etc etc.

2) Undergraduate studies:
What we call graduate studies in India, is undergraduate or bachelors here.
It is typically for four years, irrespective of the subjects studied. (In India, only Medical and Engineering courses are of four year duration)
A student has a choice of taking subjects from any discipline, (from any department like Engineering, Arts and Sciences etc etc) and then during the 3rd year, he /she has to decide on a major. One can do a double major too. For a major there are university specific requirements on what courses have to be taken up.

3)Graduate studies: Masters and Phd. are together called graduate studies.

Admission process:
For undergraduate studies , students have to take an examination called SAT. Otherwise, the process is similar to graduate admissions. I will write only about graduate studies here.

The basic requirement of admission into a graduate school is 16 years of schooling. This is the reason why non engineering/medical students from India fist obtain a masters degree or just complete the first year of masters before they can apply for another masters here.
However, as with other things in the US, there is no hard and fast rule here. For example two of my friends got in just with BSc degrees from India, because their respective professors here liked their profile.

Graduate Records Examination: GRE
Taking this examination is the easiest part of the process! Especially for Indians, who are used to Examination-leading-to-Admission concept. Again, if the professor likes you, university might take you without GRE. For example , one Serbian friend of mine had to take only Toefl.
GRE format changes from time to time and the best source of Information is the official website of GRE. In a nut shell, this has three parts
1) Quantitative:
A bunch of high school maths questions, and with a little practice, most people score close to the full mark (800).
2) Verbal
Involved mugging up close to 3000 words , many of which we would probably never use in life. The most difficult part is comprehension. Yes, it is just like our high school comprehension questions, but with incomprehensible words, and choices which all look correct. Total marks 800
3) Analytical Writing
I don't know how much "analytical" this writing is, but basically its an essay on some subject (the list of ALL subjects have been declared by GRE). Graded on a scale of 6.
This looks easy, but is known to have deceived many aspirants. I am also not too sure how much importance universities give on this score. (It was introduced during our times)

Being computer based, Verbal and Quantitative scores become available seconds after completion of the exams. But, one has to wait, typically for a month to get the writing scores.
Keep this in mind while planning for applying.

TOEFL: Test of English as foreign language.
During my time, it was the easiest examination I ever took. Its usually a cakewalk for most Indians. The pattern changed some time back , and I am not sure if it is still easy.
Admission decision never depends on TOEFL, but, one has to clear a cut off, which is a stringent requirement. (After all you are going to study in English!)

Subject GRE
As opposed to the above general tests, this examination measures your skills in your field.
I never took it, nor do I know anybody who took it. So, I would not comment on this.

The difficult part:
The test scores are valid for years and hence one can take the tests and then apply anytime.
My suggestion would be to take the tests, say, during second or third year of undergraduate studies (I am going to use American terms here). The reason is, a good application takes a lot of planning and preparation in addition to good scores.
USA offers too many choices, and since application fees are high, one has to target the right set of Universities for him/her. The key is to start early...the earlier, the better.