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....