applying to american graduate schools in engineering and fine arts

8/14/2019 Applying to American Graduate Schools in Engineering and Fine Arts

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Applying to American

Graduate Schools inEngineering and Fine Arts

A Handbook for Indian Students

Diwaker Gupta


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c 2008 Diwaker Gupta. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Preface v

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Note to Fine Arts Applicants . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Before 5

2.1 Do you really want to go to grad school? . . . . 5

2.2 When to start applying? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.3 Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.4 What universities want? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.5 Where to apply? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2.6 MS or PhD? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18


2.8 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3 During 23

3.1 Online Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.2 Rsum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

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3.3 Statement of Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3.4 Recommendation letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283.5 Approaching faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3.6 Sending the application material . . . . . . . . . 31


3.8 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

4 After 35

4.1 Visa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354.2 Housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4.3 Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39


4.5 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

5 Conclusion 41

A Packing 43

B English wordsfor common items 51

Index 57

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Preface

First, a word of warning: this book is an experiment. I alwayswanted to write a book, but it was one of those things thatI kept postponing for a much later time in my life, when,through age and experience, I would have become wiser andacquired expertise in the subject matter. Writing a book is a

big commitment too, so I never had the time or the inclinationto take the plunge. Not to mention that I never felt thatwriting was my true calling, though I do enjoy writing andsharing information that might be useful to others.

Having said that, I have tried my best to make this bookconcise and informative. The material for this book originallyappeared on my website as an article titled Apping for Dum-mies, and for a while it was the most popular content on mywebsite. Besides a few minor updates, that article remainedlargely unchanged for several years, until recently when I wasapproached by some good friends (see below) with the sug-gestion that I turn it into a book. At first I thought they were

joking! In my mind, that article was hardly worthy of formal

publication, let alone as a book.

But after giving it some thought, I figured if I was evergoing to write a book, now was as good a time as any, andI would give the same advice to all of you secretly-wishing-to-be-authors out there. It was also a good opportunity tomake the much needed updates to the article. In the processI have also tried to get inputs from people in areas other thanengineering so that the material can be more accessible and

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applicable for people in all disciplies. Thus, this book wasborn.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Asim Shankar, Abhay Agarwal, ManavRatan Mittal, Sravanthi and Shantanu Sharma for their com-ments, suggestions and contributions. Im also indebted toArindam Chakravorty, Akhil Gupta, Ambuj Tewari and MahimMishra for their valuable inputs. A special shout out to Ab-

haya and Jaya for pushing (well, nudging really) me to writethis book! A special thanks to my advisor, Amin Vahdat forhis valuable insights from the other side of the fence. And last

but not the least by a long shot, Im indebted to my fianceSurabhi for her support, encouragement, feedback (speciallyon aesthetics and formatting), and for designing the cover.

Feedback

Much of this book would be impossible without feedbackfrom you, the readers. I would love to hear your comments,compliments, complaints and criticisms. Heck, Id love to justhear from you! I can be reached at [email protected].

D G

San Diego, CAAugust, 2008

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mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Chapter1

Introduction

So youve somehow dragged yourself through 4 (or 3, as thecase may be) years of undergraduate studies, and you findyourself at the crossroads (yet) again what next? Thereare options aplenty: the job market in India is fantastic thesedays, you could always opt for an increasingly lucrative Mas-ters in Business Administration (better known as MBA), youmight want to join the Indian Administrative Services (IAS),or if you really like Newtons laws of motion, you might be

perfectly happy continuing what you were doing: study fur-ther.

Perhaps you are really interested in learning more; or you just dont want to do an MBA or go for IAS, which leavesfurther studies as the only option; or you havent given muchthought to the matter, and having got decent grades, are tak-ing the common course of action. Whatever the reason forgoing to graduate school 1, most likely you will have a lot of

doubts about many things and a lot of questions will comeup throughout the application process. This book is my at-tempt to answer some of those questions, borne primarily outof the frustration and confusion I went through when I wasapplying for grad school. But be warned that this is based onmy experiences and passed down word-of-mouth knowledgeand is by no means an exhaustive treatise.

1for brevity, I will say grad school when I mean graduate school

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The key to a successful application process is planning.Applying to grad school is both expensive and time consum-ing, so make sure you plan well ahead and meticulously. An-other very important point is to be realistic, but Ill come tothat later. Applying to grad school can be a frustrating ex-perience at times. Applicants often feel helpless to thepoint of paranoia sometimes at the perceived lack of con-trol on the whole application process. The key is to makewell informed decisions, give it your best shot and hope forthe best.

This book is divided into three broad sections:

Before you start the application process: the essentialquestions that you need to answer and the key thingsto think about.

During the application process itself: all about rsumsand other documents required for the application.

After you get admitted: how to plan for your first visitto the US?

Although this guide started out for applicants in Com-puter Science, it has ended up being quite general and I hopethat people from all fields can find it of some use. As al-ways, I would love to hear your comments and suggestionsto improve the book further.

1.1 Note to Fine Arts Applicants

Engineering and Fine Arts might seem like an unlikelycombination for a book covering the graduation applicationprocess. For the engineering related material I obviouslydraw upon my own first hand experience as an applicant,as well as inputs from numerous others. But you might bewondering about my authority on the Fine Arts graduate ap-plication process. I have a pseudo first hand experience by wayof my fiance, who is currently doing her Masters in Fine Artsin the US. Despite my previous experience with grad school

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applications, going through the application process with herwas still just as confusing and frustrating, primarily becauseof the lack of information on the process for fine arts. At thesame time, there were several common elements (such as tak-ing TOEFL and getting recommendation letters). With this

book, my hope is to bridge some of this gap.

To this end, each chapter in the book includes a sectiondedicated to fine arts, which outlines any differences, pecu-liarities and idiosyncracies in the process for fine arts in thecontext of that chapter.

1.2 Resources

Needless to say, there is a wealth of information on thegrad school application process. I conclude each chapter withsome online resources that complement the material coveredin this book.

h t t p : / / g r a d s c h o o l . a b o u t . c o m / : an assortment of grad

school related articles on About.com.

h t t p : / / p e o p l e . c s a i l . m i t . e d u / m e r n s t / a d v i c e / : lots ofuseful advice to students and researchers compiled byMichael Ernst from MIT.

h t t p : / / w w w . a r t a d v i c e . c o m / a d v i c e / i n d e x . p h p

: Art Ad-vice by Sylvia White.

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Chapter2

Before

Ill mention this point again and again throughout this book planning is critical in the application process. So even

before you begin the application process, you need to put insome time and thought to it. Questions like when to startapplying, where to apply, do you really want to go to gradschool etc are handled in this section. But most importantly,the question that haunts many a prospective grad students whether to do a MS or PhD is also discussed in this chapter.

2.1 Do you really want to go to grad school?

Actually, Im not a proponent of the reasoning behind thisquestion, but for the sake of completeness I will touch uponit briefly. Most people would tell you that you should applyonly if you are really interested in the subject, if you thinkabout problems and issues beyond the classroom and if youactually want to learn.

While there is nothing wrong with this line of thought,it certainly isnt always practical. I for one know many peo-ple who had no clue as to what to do after their bachelors,and decided that studying a bit more may give them somemore time to figure things out. Student life can also becomeaddictive it is a nice sheltered environment where we feelsafe and cozy in our comfort zones. Besides, good jobs maynot be forthcoming right after an undergraduate degree, and

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who wouldnt like a good stipend just for studying!

At the end of the day it is your call after all, it is yourlife. Of course, it is not to say that the matter should betaken lightly. In fact, since your decision will affect (at thevery least) a couple of years of your life, dont be hasty orimpulsive. If you have thought through all other options andthink that you want to study more for whatever reasons andhave the required patience and commitment, go ahead withit.

2.2 When to start applying?

You should start thinking about applying around a yearand a half before the intended date of joining. For instance, ifyou plan to join in September 2010, you should start planningand booking test dates around January 2009. Try to take allyour tests so that your scores are available (in hard copy) bythe time you start filling out applications. This way, you areless likely to have problems in getting your scores reported

to the universities as well. I would recommend getting overwith GRE and TOEFL by October at most, if youre applyingfor the next fall.

In the meantime, start working on your application mate-rial, specially the rsum and the statement of purpose. Andmost importantly, talk to your mentors or professors for theletters of recommendation. Make sure you have all the let-ters ready by December. Give enough notice and time to your

letter writers, and be patient but persistent. Most letter writ-ers will typically have busy schedules and might want to putoff writing your letter to the last minute. A timely notice andgentle reminders will ensure that you get your letters on timeand that they are not written hastily.

You should finish filling out the online application formsby December at most, since some universities have deadlinesin early December. Most universities also explicitly mention

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two sets of deadlines: a preferred, early deadline and a regular,hard deadline. I strongly recommend filling out your applica-tions as early as you can the sooner your application landsin the hands of the admission committee, the better chanceyou have for consideration.

2.3 Tests

For applying to grad school, you will be required to takea few tests. Pretty much all of these tests are designed and

administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). At thevery least you will have to take TOEFL. If you an engineeringgraduate, you will also have to take the GRE General Test andperhaps, the GRE Subject Test (known earlier as the AGRE)as well. Here we look at each of these in detail.

GRE General Test

General Information

GRE is the Graduate Record Examination and is required by most US universities for admission. These days, GRE isonly administered as a CBT (Computer Based Test). Thoughyou might hear often that GRE is a piece of cake, dont takeit lightly. Besides the fact that you are spending US$ 170 onit, its very easy to mess up your scores if you are not careful.

It is best to take the GRE as early as possible. Try to take itbefore your final (senior) year begins gobbling up the word

list will be much easier at that time. It might be difficult toget yourself into that mindset so early on, but trust me, it willpay off tremendously! It is best to get over with the hassleof GRE as soon as possible, more so since over the last fewyears the number of GRE takers has shot up dramatically andyou will have to rush to get a date of your choice. The GRE

bulletin can be downloaded for free from the ETS website(h t t p : / / w w w . e t s . o r g / g r e ).

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GRE is scored out of (800 + 800 = 1600) + 6 points.

Verbal: 30 minutes, 30 questions, scored on a 200800 scale.

Quantitative: 45 minutes, 28 questions, scored on a 200800scale.

Analytical Writing: 30 + 45 minutes, 2 questions, scored ona 6 point scale.

Total testing time is up to three hours. The AnalyticalWriting question usually appears first, so prepare accord-ingly. The Verbal and Quantitative sections may appear inany order. Some times the CBT will also include unidentified,unscored sections for statistical analysis. As fas as you are con-cerned, however, all sections are equally important, so treatthem that way!

Adaptive Test

The GRE CBT is an adaptive test - which is to say that itadapts the questions according to your performance. So if youare doing well, you are likely to get harder questions than youwould have had you not been doing so well. Important: neverever try to estimate your performance or second guess thedifficulty of the upcoming questions based on the hardnessof the questions that you have already answered.

Quantitative

The quantitative section is clearly the easiest with mostly8th grade math. You should try to get full marks on thissection go slow and easy, since there will be plenty oftime. Pay special attention to the graphs and plots in DataInterpretation Questions its easy to make mistake on those!Besides that, this section should be smooth sailing.

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Verbal

The Verbal section is probably the most intimidating tomost students, presumably because you have heard that oneneeds to have committed thousands of obscure words to mem-ory to ace this section. This is of course an exaggeration, butgoing through some word lists will certainly help. Barrons

How to prepare for the GRE is one of the most popular bookson the market. However, I think that any decent word listshould serve just as well. It is not easy to mug up all of the3500 words but you should certainly go over the completeword lists a few times and keep refreshing the words fromtime to time.

Analytical Writing

The Analytical Writing (AW) section involves two tasks,each requiring you to write a short essay-like answer. TheIssue task you will be presented with two topics. You haveto choose any one of the topics and present your perspectiveon it. Remember that there are no right or wrong answersin this section. While you will be evaluated on the contentof your answer, the main focus is to evaluate your writingskills. So long as you present your thoughts in a clear andconcise manner, are able to articulate your argument and dis-play a general proficiency in writing, you should be just fine.You will have 45 minutes to complete this section. There isa common misconception that incorporating elements from

American history in your answer has a better chance with theevaluators. This is simply not correct. Play to your strengths,and use the context you are most familiar with. In particular,Indian history will work just as well.

The Argument task involves a logical argument that youhave to find faults with. These faults will be purely logical,so dont worry if you dont know much about Middle Easternpolitics! For instance, there might be some hidden assump-tions in the argument, or decisions reached on the basis of

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insufficient data and so on. Again, the emphasis is on orga-nization, structuring, a healthy vocabulary, demonstration ofa clear thought process and the ability to communicate yourideas well. Going through the categories of faults that gener-ally appear in the sample GRE essays should give you a goodidea.

TOEFL

TOEFL is the Test Of English as a Foreign Language. It

is designed to test your basic skills in English includingreading, writing, listening and speaking hence no specialpreparation is really required. If you are comfortable withusing English on a daily basis, you can just walk in and takeTOEFL any day you feel like it. Among other things, it mightinvolve the following:

an audio clip will be played and then some questionswill be asked based on the clip. The main challengehere is to stay focused and listen carefully to the clip.Since the actors in the clip often have a strong Americanaccent and they speak reasonably quickly, if you losefocus, you might have no idea what the clip was about!

some really simple grammar questions, like sentencecompletion

reading comprehensions, often involving locating wordswith a given meaning

Like the GRE, TOEFL is also normally Internet based (iBT).The iBT TOEFL is scored out of 120 points, comprising of foursections worth 30 points each. While no special preparationis required, I highly recommend going through a couple ofsample iBTs before taking the actual test. Most universitiesare happy with a score of 100+.

Since the number of people taking TOEFL is much higherthan the number of people taking GRE (because TOEFL isrequired by almost every professional going to the US), you

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better get your dates as early as possible. Besides, since nospecial preparation is required for TOEFL, I would suggestyou take it even before your final year starts. In any caseyou should take it no later than October. The TOEFL bulletinmay be downloaded for free from the ETS website (h t t p : / / w w w . e t s . o r g / t o e f l

).

GRE Subject Test

The Advanced GRE (AGRE) or the Subject GRE is usually

not required, but recommended by most US universities, andrequired by some. Among other streams, usually pure sciencestreams like math, physics and chemistry require the AGRE.Prepare for the Subject GRE as if you were preparing for theentrance examination of a Masters degree program in India(for example, GATE). To give you a flavor of the level of depthrequired, here is a brief overview of the topics you shouldcover in preparation for the Computer Science Subject GRE:

1. Be very sure of your theory: automata, complexity, com-putability: I think these topics form at least 30-35% ofthe test.

2. Algorithms: worst and average case performance of thecommon algorithms and how they work.

3. Basics of programming language theory, including lambdacalculus.

4. Computer organization and architecture, computer net-working basics.

5. Operating systems material: scheduling, mutual exclu-sion, virtual memory etc.

There are also several questions that can at best be de-scribed as vague. For instance, on the Computer ScienceAGRE, you might be asked to describe what type of networkis the Internet. The test preparation booklet from ETS is veryuseful. Go through it in good detail to get an idea of the kindof questions asked and the emphasis on each area/topic.

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The rest

TSE is the Test of Spoken English. Many applicants areconfused as to whether they are required to take the TSEor not. In most cases, it is not required to take the TSE.However, it is best to confirm with the university that youare applying to. In some cases you might be required totake the TSE after you have been admitted, to qualify for aTeaching Assistantship for example. In any case it is a muchsimpler test than GRE or TOEFL, so even if you do find thatyou need to take it, it shouldnt be a problem.

2.4 What universities want?

Universities take into account a lot of factors while con-sidering prospective applicants you need to think from theuniversities perspective to get a better feel. It also helps totalk to people at the places you are applying to. Try to get intouch with seniors, friends and acquaintances and ask them

about the school, the working environment, the faculty andso on. But please, be considerate when you approach people never spam or pester any one for information it will doyou more harm than good.

The admission criteria are never public. Admission is usu-ally handled by a committee of faculty and some times othergrad students, few others have much visibility into the ad-mission process. The criteria also vary vastly from school toschool, and more so from field to field. So the admission cri-

teria in fine arts will not surprisingly be quite different fromthose in engineering schools. However, there are still somecommonalities, trends and just common sense.

In my opinion, the priority for science and engineeringschools goes something like this:

1. Letters of recommendation

2. Grades

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3. Performance in entrance examinations (if applicable)

4. Work experience5. Statement of purpose

6. Publications (if applicable)

7. Test scores

As you can see, test scores count the least theyre justlike coarse filters to make a cut-off among the applicants.While bad test scores are likely to hurt your chances, hav-

ing great test scores is not going to significantly boost yourchances for the final admission. So shoot for a decent score inthe tests, but there are plenty of other things that you shouldfocus on as well.

Now, publications are usually not as much under yourcontrol as, say, your GRE score. Of course if youve beenguided properly, you might already have a few papers by thetime you apply, in which case you are among the minority.Which is precisely the reason why publications can be very

important. Note that publications at random/mediocre work-shops and conferences dont count much. If you have top tierpublications , however, they can easily compensate for otherfactors such as grades. And good publications will often beaccompanied by good recommendation letters, so that helpstoo.

If you dont have publications , play to your strengths. Thenext most important document is your statement of purpose.

I cant emphasize more on its importance it can really makeor break your selection. I spent a lot of time on my statementand then came up with a totally ordinary looking piece. Thereason? I had already looked at some other sample state-ments. Moral of the story be original! More on the SoP inSection 3.3.

Having good grades always helps, but their importancemight depend on your field. In arts, for instance, grades reallydont matter too much. Even in science and engineering, it

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helps to be at the top of the pack, but it doesnt guaranteeadmission. Bottom line: if you have wonderful grades, goodfor you but dont become complacent; and if not, dont loseheart since you might still be able to make up for it elsewhere.

Rsums are mostly factual, so while they are important,they really dont offer that much scope for innovation. Astatement of purpose (SoP), on the other hand, is where youcan really shine. I cover SoPs in detail later in section 3.3, butfor now just suffice to say that it is one of the most importantdocuments in your application. Note that recommendation

letters are by far the most powerful documents in your arse-nal far more powerful than a good statement of purpose,simply because there are very few exceptional statements.Getting a personal and strong letter from a faculty at yourundergraduate institution is much harder, and consequentlymuch more important.

Performance in entrance examinations, in particular theJoint Entrance Examination (JEE, the qualifying exam for the

IITs) can matter a lot as well. This might come as a surprise tosome of you, it sure did to me! It seems counter intuitive thatsome exam that you took before your undergraduate shouldstill matter. But the fact of the matter is that often timesthe applications of Indian students are so similar that theadmission committee has little recourse but to look at gradesand JEE ranks as metrics for evaluation.

In fact, if your grades are not spectacular but you had areally outstanding rank in the entrance examinations, it might

be a good idea to highlight this fact. The basic idea is thateven if your final grades arent that great but you were oneof the top rank holders, it gives some confidence to the com-mittee that you have the capacity to do well in a competitivesetting, which is one of the qualities they look for in goodgrad students. Of course, try to be a little smart and strate-gic about how you mention your rank. Here are a few styledepending upon your rank:

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20th rank among 120,000

Among the top 0.05% examinees

99.999% percentile

A solid work experience has a strong positive impact onyour application, especially if your employers are well re-knowned in their areas. In science and engineering, havingreal life industry experience at research labs or companiescounts a lot. If your employer is well known in your particu-lar application domain for example, Microsoft Research inComputer Science or if you have done some really goodprojects in your company, it adds more weight to your appli-cation. The same holds for business schools. In fine arts, themore professional experience you have with exhibitions andperformances, the better it is. Work experience could alsotake the shape of internships at other academic institutions(even international) or some other form of non-academic em-ployment relevant to your applications, perhaps demonstrat-

ing your leadership or team building skills.

2.5 Where to apply?

This is perhaps the most crucial step in the applicationprocess. While deciding which universities you want to applyto, you will want to take into account a number of factors:

Reputation of the university in your areas of interest

(PhD students should focus on the research groups orthe individual faculty members, and not university rank-ings)

Responses received from faculty (if any) Please refer tosection 3.5 for more details

Your own credentials

Other factors like financial aid, geography, type of pro-gram and so on

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First off, do not blindly follow rankings, whether from USNews or any other source. Rankings inevitably trail reali-ties and are usually biased towards to strenghts in one ortwo popular areas. Of course, you should probably alwaysturn down an offer from the top 3 schools for any othertop 10 school. Talk to your faculty about which universi-ties are doing good work in your areas of interest and thenpick the ones you want to apply to from among these. An-other approach is to think about what you want to do aftergrad school, then look at what recently graduated students

in different schools are doing.It is not unusual to have a situation where the top stu-

dents from different colleges in India all apply to the sametop 68 universities. While this is to some degree inevitable,it is not necessarily in the best interest of everyone. In par-ticular, try to talk to other applicants within your school andask which schools they are applying for. If everyone with a

better application than you is applying to the top 10 schools,you might have a better chance at one of the top 20 schools

instead. Besides, blindly applying to the top 10 schools willnot help even if you are at the top of the pack at your college,

because it is highly unlikely that any top school will make of-fers to multiple students from the same college. So selectingschools simply to ensure coverage is not likely to increaseyour chances, and in fact might hurt your fellow applicants.Be smart and apply to the places you really want to go, not

just the top ranked schools.

If you want to approach this a little more formally, here aresome guidelines to organize the application process with yourfellow applicants. Note that this is probably most applicableto science and engineering:

1. List out all applicants along with areas of interest andperhaps also their respective letter writers.

2. Check out the last few years trend at your college ifstudents have been receiving admissions from the same

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set of schools, then your chances might be better at thoseschools.

3. Make sure that at most two or three applications aresent to any one university from each department. Ofcourse, this should be done bearing in mind the areasof interest, and consent of everyone involved.

I must point out, however, that universities have enoughexperience with Indian applicants that their admission pro-cesses have been appropriately adjusted. For instance, if four

people with a 9.8/10 grade point average from the sameschool apply, it doesnt necessarily diminish the chances ofa student with a 9.5/10 GPA from the same school. In otherwords, the universities realize the absolute value of a highGPA. If they end up taking many students from the sameschool a particular year, it simply means that they will adjustthe intake from that school in the next few years. The depart-ments know where they stand relative to the applicants andother departments.

Another common question is how many universities shouldone apply to? There is no right answer, but the typical num-

ber is between 610 schools. Keep in mind that applicationsusually come with a fee, and shipping your application ma-terial might incur additional expenses. Dont spread yourselftoo thin and apply to too many schools preparing applica-tions takes time and effort and you dont want to compromiseon the quality of your application. When choosing universi-

ties, also make sure to pick out at least two universities thatyou consider as safe that is, where the likelihood of yougetting admission is relatively high. It might not be your fa-vorite place to go, but it is always good to have a backupoption that has a good chance of working out.

Last, but not the least, your choice of program should alsobe considered while choosing universities. Whether you wantto go for an MS or PhD can have significant impact on yourchoice read on the following section to find out more.

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2.6 MS or PhD?

For many people this is really a no-brainer. If you alreadyknow what you want to do, you are all set. This section isfor those of you who are unsure of what they would like todo, not quite sure if they will enjoy the research life of a PhDcurriculum and dont want to make the commitment to a PhDprogram up front.

Lets get the basics straight first. If you want to get intoteaching, academia or any kind of research position, you most

likely want to do a PhD. If you just want to further youreducation and then find a nice job, or perhaps do an MBAlater on, you want to do an MS. Also, funding for an MSis extremely rare. You might get funded after you join, butthere are no guarantees. So if you are financially constrained,really want to study further but are not able to generate thefunds by loans etc, getting into a PhD program might theonly alternative. Of course, PhD programs are a lot harder toget into than MS programs, so there is a trade off.

The reason most PhD students will get funded and MSstudent will not is because to the university, a PhD studentis like an investment. The university expects that you will dogood research which will benefit the department directly orindirectly.

A lot of students want the best of both worlds a fundedMS. It is rare, but it does happen, so you should definitelytry to find funding for MS programs as well. However, since

there are usually no officially funded MS programs, peoplecame up with a round-about method take admission intothe PhD program, and quit after an MS. Sounds good, doesntit? Well the bad part is that in many cases, you wont be ableto pull it off without spilling some bad blood. Of course thereare short term consequences, like parting ways with your ad-visor on bad terms. But there are long term repercussionsas well. For instance, it might build a negative impressionabout your undergraduate college or even about Indian stu-

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dents in general. This might impact future admissions andfunding for prospective applicants to your university. Clearly,I strongly recommend against this approach.

Note that people leave PhD programs all the time, but withgood reason. There might be personal constraints, or youmight feel that it is just not working out for you, or you wantto switch fields or advisors. So a PhD program is not like a

jail or a contractual agreement that you are bound to honor.As long as you have a genuine reason, you will always finda reasonable way to resolve the situation.

The final decision is of course yours. If you can handlethe expenses and are not sure of your commitment, go for anMS. If you know youre made for research, PhD is for you.If you are hanging somewhere in the middle, perhaps the

best option is to go for a PhD and who knows, maybe youllindeed finish it.

Funding

There are usually three types of funding (or financial aid)given by universities. These are:

Fellowship (FS) This the best type of aid. Basically, youregetting paid for doing nothing. Well not quite, you willstill be working, but it is certainly the least pressurefunding source.

Research Assistantship (RA) This comes next. As the name

suggests, you will assist a faculty member with his orher research work. If you are a PhD student, this usuallymeans that you are getting paid to do you research,which is not a bad deal at all. One can make productiveuse of an RA getting papers published, learning newthings, bonding with the faculty and so on.

Teaching Assistantship (TA) As a TA your job will be toassist a faculty member with a class that he or sheis teaching. Your responsibilities might include grad-

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ing, preparing exams, proctoring exams, holding officehours and taking tutorials, among other things. Whilethis type of funding is the least productive in terms ofthe time you get for your own research, it is nonethelessa valuable learning experience. And if you are shootingfor a faculty position whether at a teaching schoolor a research school having been a TA is not justrecommended, it is required.

Very often, most online applications will ask if you are

interested in getting university aid (and who wouldnt!) andif so, your preferred funding source. Make sure you check allthe relevant options, which in most cases will means checkingall three FS, RA and TA in that order, if you are allowedto specify ordering.

Typical stipend amounts will be in the range of $1500 to$1900 per month, which is usually more than enough to coverall your living expenses. If you are in states like Texas or

Kansas, you can live royally in $1500. But if you land inCalifornia, then $1500 will just about cover your expenses.This stipend is excluding your tuition fee, which will usually

be waived in any kind of funding scheme. Typical tuition feewould be anywhere between $30,000 and $50,000 per annum,depending on the university.

As Ive said before, if you are going for a PhD program,you can be almost 100% sure that you will get funded. Thetype of aid you get will depend on a number of factors

like the funding amount available with the department, num-ber of admitted applicants and your standing among thoseadmitted. If you are applying to an MS program, ask theadmissions office in each university for funding options. Un-fortunately Indian students are not eligible for the majorityof scholarships and fellowships. Another alternative is to trycontacting some faculty in the department (see Section 3.5). Ifyou can interest a faculty enough, they might consider sup-porting you. Most commonly though, students often come

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without funding but generally manage to find some fundingsource within the first year usually as a TA or RA, or someother on campus job.

But if you are indeed going without funding, make sureyou know what you are getting into. If your parents canafford it, then nothing like it. Otherwise, be prepared fortaking an educational loan. These days, there are excellentschemes for study-abroad loans from several government andprivate banks. Getting the loan is usually quite straightfor-ward, provided you can supply the bank with the requisite

security/collateral. If you do take a loan, make sure you haveall the supporting documents when you go for your visa in-terview (see Section 4.1).

As far as living expenses are concerned, they vary highlyfrom place to place. So its difficult to give a general estimatewhich would be applicable everywhere. However, one cansafely say that your living expenses would be a direct functionof your housing expenses since that is the dominant expen-

diture. Typical housing expenses would range from $300 to$600 per month. Monthly expenditures for food and utilitiesshould be in the $200300 and $50100 range respectively.


Unless you are doing an interdisciplinary course that in-volves engineering, you should not have to take the GRE.Some fine arts programs do require that in addition to TOEFL,

you to also be measured by the International English Lan-guage Testing System (IELTS). The IELTS is similar to TOEFLin structure and spirit, but there are key differences in themethodology and the scoring. For instance, the speakingmodule in IELTS requires a face-to-face interview with anexaminer.

Just as good publications can compensate for non-superstargrades for engineering applicants, high quality art work can

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more than compensate for non-superstar degrees for fine artsapplicants. One of the primary challenges for fine arts in In-dia, especially for grad school applicants, is the lack of goodundergraduate curriculums. Very few art schools in Indiaare well known and acknowledged in the international artcircles. As a result, if you dont have the stamp of a greatschool on your rsum, you need some other way to makeyourself stand out. And there is no better way than to letyour work do the talking for you. If you have held solo exhi-

bitions, or done collaborative projects with other promiment

artists, or participated in group shows or performances, makesure to highlight them in your application.

Except art history, most graduate programs in fine artsdo not offer a PhD. The implication is that there is a highprobability that you will have to fund yourself at least forthe first semester or so. Check for merit based and need basedscholarships with your school. Also explore options for parttime on campus employment in each school.

A final aside: from my understanding, the grades dontmatter as much in fine arts as it does in engineering. Workexperience helps in both, but perhaps more so in fine arts.The more shows/performances you have, the better it will

be.

2.8 Resources

h t t p : / / w w w . m n e m o n i c d i c t i o n a r y . c o m fun and easy

way to build your vocabulary using mnemonics, wordtests, games and more!

h t t p : / / w w w . u s i n g e n g l i s h . c o m /

several tools, refer-ences and tests for learing English as a second language.

h t t p s : / / w w w . m s u . e d u / ~ d e f o r e s 1 / g r e / g r e . h t m

to helpyou improve the performance in the verbal sections ofvarious tests.

h t t p : / / w w w . e n g l i s h - t e s t . n e t / Free English testsfor GRE, TOEFL and other tests.

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Chapter3

During

Once you have made up your mind about applying to gradschool, you need to actually start the application process. Be-sides filling out applications, this is a good time to take careof other important things as well. This chapter will coverseveral topics such as writing a good rsum and statementof purpose, prepping up your online presence and advice onrecommendation letters.

While youre filling out the forms (most of them online),you should have your rsum and the statement of purposeready and you should get to work on those recommenda-tions. If you have a credit card of your own, thats great.If you dont, make sure you make some temporary arrange-ments, because the ability to make payments online makesthe application process much simpler and faster and allowsyou to focus more on other important things than just fillingout application forms. One possible alternative is to ask your

seniors who are already in the US (or anyone else in the USyou feel comfortable asking this favor) and have them makethe payments for you. You can send them the money later atyour convenience.

3.1 Online Presence

To start off, make a simple website, simple being the op-erative word here. Avoid Java appplets like the plague, and

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stay away from flashy Javascript, DHTML and Flash contentas well. I also strongly recommend against putting personaldetails such as horoscopes, photographs and your variousfavorite lists on that website. Put all your professional in-formation on this website rsum, details of projects andinternships, courses taken, perhaps even grades. Now youcan simply include the URL to this website in your emailsand other documents rather than attaching files.

The Internet is a very powerful tool, and you can leverageit to work in your favor. However, the flip side is that it is

equally accessible and available to everyone else as well. Itis not uncommon at all for the members of the admissionscommittee or even other faculty members to look you up onvarious search engines. Make sure you search for yourselfon all major search engines and are satisfied with the searchresults. Of course, if you have a very common name, this isusually not something you can do much about.

Be particularly wary of your presence on various social

networking websites such as Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace.These days it is quite common to find faculty members onthese social networks as well, and so you can rest assuredthat someone somewhere is bound to look at your social net-working profiles as well. Before you send out your applica-tions, make sure you go through all your social networks andclean out your profiles remove any material (comments,pictures) that might come back and bite you from behind lateron.

3.2 Rsum

Your rsum is mostly factual, so in that sense there isnot much creative wiggle room. Make sure it is short andsweet no nonsense, and full of information. List out yourachievements (academic and otherwise), skills, research inter-ests, publications (if any) and hobbies (optional). Dont gloat,

just state facts. Try to itemize or enumerate as much as possi-

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ble no paragraphs! Keep in mind that the person scanningyour rsum probably has several hundred rsums to gothrough, and so he or she will not be able to devote morethan a minute for a first scan of your rsum.

Whenever youre sending out your resume in email, sendit in plain text format, or attach as a PDF. Never send a Mi-crosoft Word or OpenOffice document, or an HTML page.Make the rsum available on your website as well, perhapsin different formats plain text, PDF and HTML. Make surethe rsum looks professional unlike the statement, it is

OK to use standard templates to format your rsum. Alwayskeep your resume up-to-date. When mentioning awards andachievements, do not go back earlier than high school (so skipeverything under 10th grade).

3.3 Statement of Purpose

The statement of purpose (SoP) is probably one of themost important documents that you will author for your ap-

plication. So be very careful in preparing your statement.Remember, the SoP should not resemble your rsum putin paragraph form. It should convey information which isnot available through your rsum. A rsum is just a place-holder for factual information about yourself, while the SoP isa platform where you get a chance to present yourself beyondthe facts. For instance, a rsum may show that someonedid particularly bad in one semester, and the SoP gives one

the opportunity to explain the situation. Perhaps it was dueto bad health, or a lack of interest in the subject, or a badteacher, or simply some other priorities. Whatever the reasonmay be, it can not be brought out in a rsum, so the SoP isa perfect place to discuss it. The SoP also lets you talk aboutyour ideals, philosophy and your dreams. Think of it as awindow into your own personality, that you are opening upfor others to look inside. Since you control the window andwhat appears on the other side of it, you should make the

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most of this opportunity.

A SoP typically consists of the following sections:Objectives and motivation This section should focus on why

you want to pursue higher education, the factors thatshaped your decision, and perhaps your future plans.

Background and research interest Here you can give somedetails about your education (like how you got inter-ested in your area), your family background (education,economic status, values etc) and your research interests.

You can talk about what you found exciting in yourcourses, projects and about your internships and publi-cations.

Other relevant information Here you can talk about youractivities and interests outside of academics: sports, finearts, hobby projects, social work etc are some examples.

Why you wish to join the program Try to give a specific andto the point answer. As a general rule, stay away from

boilerplate answers. People who read your applicationand SoP have seen every possible kind of response, sothey will know in an instant if it is a generic template

based answer or you really had something genuine tosay. Make sure youve done your homework and re-searched the department well mentioning specificprojects and faculty may prove helpful.

Just as with the rsum, skip everything before high school.

Only mention incidents/experiences that had actual impacton your thinking dont just make up stories that sounddramatic and impressive! Avoid trivia like school day stints,they will not impress your readers. Focus instead on yourresearch work or course projects you really enjoyed.

The most important thing is to be original. Focus on thecontent, what you would like to bring out in your statement,and not how others have written theirs. An original state-ment will go much further than a really polished statement

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that lacks originality. Of course, you should have other peo-ple proof read your statement for formatting, errors and in-consistencies it is always a good idea to get feedback fromas many people as you can.

Never ever copy anyones SoP, whether in style or con-tent. A statement is meant to be a personal document, andis expected to be unique to every individual. It might helpto look at other peoples statements to get ideas, but I rec-ommend against doing even that. Once you have looked ata statement, it is hard to pretend as if you never saw it, and

directly or indirectly it will taint your statement. A good strat-egy might be to start from scratch and once you have a firstdraft of your statement, then you can take a look at someother statements to refine your own.

Also avoid going over factual information unless abso-lutely necessary that is precisely what the rsum is for.Dont be verbose either. A typical SoP will be no longer than2 pages. Write clearly and concisely: your goal is to commu-

nicate, not impress the committee with your command of theEnglish language. It might be a good idea to prepare twoversions of your statement a short one-page version, anda longer two-page version. Depending on university require-ments, you may chose to use whichever is more appropriate.

Keep in mind that writing is an iterative process onceyou have a first draft of your SoP, read it over and over again.On each reading, you will find something that can be im-proved. Remember the PQP rule for writing: praise, ques-

tion and then polish. That is, identify what you like, critiquewhat can be improved, and then use this feedback to refineyour writing. Rinse and repeat till you are satisfied with theoutcome.

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3.4 Recommendation letters

A strong and personal letter is by far the most powerfuladdition to your application even more important than astrong rsum or SoP. The reason a great letter is so valu-able is the same reason that it is rare: establishing a strongpersonal relationship with a faculty or mentor during yourundergraduate education is not an easy thing to do. It takestime, commitment, maturity etc all qualities that are markof a great graduate student as well.

A strong recommendation letter can give a significant boostto your application, even compensating for other factors, es-pecially if the letter writer is well known and respected inhis or her field. Give your letter writers enough warning, soask for letters well in advance. Some students are shy in ap-proaching faculty for letters. Dont be. If you have workedwith the faculty and feel that they would be willing to write,

just go and ask them. Remember that as mentors and faculty,most people already expect that students will come to them

for letters it is a part of their job. And in the worst case,they might say no, in which case at least you know who notto approach for a letter in the future!

I should note at this point that there are rare cases wherea recommendation letter might have a negative impact. Theseare typically called negative recommendation letters. Ethicalletter writers will generally tell you if they will not be able towrite a strong or positive letter, in which it is better to politely

back away. Why would some one ever write a negative rec-ommendation? Reasons are usually highly context specific, soit is impossible to generalize. A letter writer might not havehad the best experience with a student and may feel their pro-fessional responsibility to let potential employers know abouttheir experience.

Getting good letters also requires some long term plan-ning from your side. If you just blend in the crowd, no onewill be able to write a very strong letter for you. Remember

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that just as boilerplate resumes are not popular, boilerplateand generic recommendation letters are not very helpful ei-ther. For a letter writer to be able to write something specificabout you, they need to know you better. Classroom interac-tion can only go so far. Try to build a professional relationshipwith potential letter writers. Get involved with projects andactivities outside the classroom. Share ideas with them andask them for advice.

3.5 Approaching faculty

One of the ways of increasing your chances of admissionand/or funding is to approach some faculty in the universityyou are applying to. Having a faculty be interested enoughin you is an indicator to the department that he or she might

be willing to fund you should you be given admission1. Thiscan work in your favor.

Basically the goal is to identify faculty members that youwould like to work with, based on the research they are doing,

the projects that are going on in their group, other studentsin their group and so on. The idea then is to approach suchfaculty members and try to get them interested in you. Theresponses you get from faculty members might also give youhints about your prospects at a particular school.

You might also want to take into account age when de-ciding who you want to work with. Younger professors especially those that have yet to receive tenure are typically

more energetic and driven. But they are also likely to be moredemanding from their students. So if it is a fast paced, highenergy, high effort environment that you seek, you might pre-fer younger faculty. Senior faculty might be more laid backwith their students, but then they might be less adventur-ous with their research interests. There are other trade offsas well: younger faculty might be hard pressed for funds, se-

1Though I keep saying funding from the department, usually the moneyto pay for grad student stipends comes from grants given to faculty members

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nior faculty might be busy with administrative duties and somight have less time for their students, younger faculty might

be more aggressive in driving their own research agendathereby leaving less freedom for the students to chose a re-search topic of their liking and so on. As with all sweepinggeneralizations, there are always exceptions. The bottom lineis that you might want to keep the seniority of faculty in mindwhen choosing a potential advisor.

But approaching faculty is delicate matter and should bedealt with as such. Most faculty members have a strong bias

against unsolicited emails from foreign students seeking theirattention. You can rest assured that they have received hun-dreds of such emails in the past, and depending on their ex-periences in the past, they might not even open your email.So you want to make your approach as gentle as possible.

As with most other things that I have talked about, thebest approach is to be honest and genuine. If you really liketheir work and have something intelligent to say about their

research or any particular project or paper, just sending anemail giving your comments is a good start. At the otherextreme, if you have actually used his/her research for yourown work, sharing your results and contributions with themwill leave a very strong impression. Once you have opened aline of communication, you can mention at some point thatyou are considering applying for grad school in that univer-sity.

Boilerplate and template based emails are a sure shot invi-

tation to the spam folder and might even strike your chancesdown. Faculty members are often sensitive and ruthless about spam. Whatever you do, never send mass emailstrying to blanket cover all faculty members in all areas in allthe schools that you are applying to. Faculty members dotalk to one another, even across departments and schools, soany such mass mailing behavior will get noticed, and it willnever work in your favor.

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It is always a good idea to go through a faculty membersweb page before sending them an email. You will often finda list of their current students, which is a good way to findout how many of the students are graduating. Faculty mem-

bers with recently graduated students or with students whoare about to graduate are more likely to be looking for newstudents. Sometimes contacting a faculty members gradu-ate students first might actually be more useful than directlycontacting the faculty member.

When writing to faculty members, never request them

to consider your rsum or profile. Dont attach your rsumor publication list or anything else unless explicitly asked todo so. A good rule of thumb is that the size of your emailis inversely proportional to the chances of it actually beingread. You may instead point them to your webpage (or justput the URL in your signature). If you send an email anddont get a response, it is probably best to just leave it at that.If you still feel strongly about it, send a gentle reminder aftera couple of weeks. And then if you still dont hear back from

them, just let it go.

Note that at least in engineering schools, faculty memberscan only influence admissions in the PhD program. So if youare applying to the MS program, it is probably not worththe effort. MS admissions are typically controlled completely

by the admissions committee and faculty have very little saysince they are not responsible for funding admitted students.

3.6 Sending the application material

Back in the day, applications had to be filled out on pa-per and individual mailed to all the universities. This wasnot only expensive, it was time consuming, error prone andwasteful as well. Thankfully, these days the majority of theapplications can be filled online. In fact, most schools willsimply email your letter writers and have them submit yourletters of recommendations electronically as well.

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Your test scores will also be reported to the universitieselectronically. Typically, when you register for a test (say GREor TOEFL), you will have the choice of reporting the testscores to four schools of your choice this is included inthe test fee. However, for additional schools that you wantthe scores reported to, you will have to pay an additional feeper school. Unfortunately, this electronic reporting is not al-ways perfect. There have been cases where the universitiesnever received the electronic scores or didnt get the scoresin time. So to be safe, it is a good idea to make copies of

the hard copy of your test scores and ship the copies to theuniversities. Most schools are fine with processing your ap-plication just with the photocopies they only require theoriginals for the final admissions paperwork.

Some of the application material will always have to beshipped, such as your official, sealed transcripts. Some schoolsstill require the letters of recommendations to be sealed andshipped as well. If you are shipping some documents any-ways, it is a good idea to include your rsum and statement

of purpose as well.

International shipping is quite expensive, especially withthe rising oil prices these days. You probably want to use areliable service that provides you with a tracking number, sothat you can monitor the progress of your shipment online. Itwill be quite expensive and inefficient if you were to ship sep-arate packages to each university individually. Instead, finda reliable friend or family member in the US and ship all the

material for all the schools in one big shipment. Make sureto still make separate packets for each school, clearly markedwith the school name and address. Then your contact in theUS can simply ship each packet to the respective school do-mestically. Most courier services in India (like DHL) have upto 50% student discount on packages destined to universities,so make sure you check with your courier service for anyapplicable discounts.

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ence on the admission procedure or the funding of students.Which in turn means that if you do approach faculty at all,dont let funding or admission be your motivation. Estab-lishing a rapport with faculty members prior to admission isstill helpful professionally, and if you do get admitted, thesesame faculty may become valuable source of advice and men-torship.

3.8 Resources

h t t p : / / w w w . g r a d s p o t . c o m / C a r e e r / P r e p a r i n g + f o r + t h e +

J o b + H u n t / C l e a n i n g + U p + Y o u r + O n l i n e + P r o f i l e Clean-

ing up your online profile.

h t t p : / / p e o p l e . c s a i l . m i t . e d u / m e r n s t / a d v i c e / r e q u e s t - r e c o m m e n d a t i o

h t m l Requesting a letter of recommendation.

h t t p : / / w w w . a r t s c h o o l s . c o m / a r t i c l e s / p o r t f o l i o /

Preparing Your Portfolio for College Admissions.

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http://www.artschools.com/articles/portfolio/http://people.csail.mit.edu/mernst/advice/request-recommendation.htmlhttp://people.csail.mit.edu/mernst/advice/request-recommendation.htmlhttp://www.gradspot.com/Career/Preparing+for+the+Job+Hunt/Cleaning+Up+Your+Online+Profilehttp://www.gradspot.com/Career/Preparing+for+the+Job+Hunt/Cleaning+Up+Your+Online+Profile


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Chapter4

After

You should start hearing back from universities sometimearound March/April. Some universities send out interna-tional student notifications only after they have notified andheard back from domestic applicants, in which case you mighthear back from them much later. If all goes well, you hope-fully will have a few universities to choose from. Besidesdeciding which university you actually want to go to, thereare several other things to be taken care of at this stage, which

are the subject of this chapter.

4.1 Visa

The first and foremost requirement is of course the visa.If youre funded, then you neednt worry much gettingthe visa should be a breeze. If youre not funded however,then you might considering consulting a Visa professionalwho could help organize your interview and plan your doc-uments. While it is rare for students to be denied Visas, itdoes happen. Your best bet is to do everything you can tocover all your bases. The fewer holes your documents have,the fewer opportunities you leave for error, the better yourchances will be.

You will be applying for an F-1 visa. It is a non-immigrantvisa for international students in the US. Since the procedurefor getting the F-1 is a bit involved and often changes from

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time to time, I am not going to describe it in any great detail.Please, do not treat the material here as authoritative as faras the visa application procedure is concerned. You will bemuch better served getting the information directly from theUS consulate(s) in India.

Here is a high level overview of the application process(please visit the VFS website at h t t p : / / w w w . v f s - u s a . c o . i n for more information):

Step 1 Pay the application fee at a designated HDFC bank.

Save your receipt, it will needed later.Step 2 Schedule an appointment online through the VFS web-

site. This will require filling out an online application.

Step 3 Show up for your interview at the scheduled time.You will need to carry all supporting documents, a validpassport, photographs, receipt for the fees etc. Again,check the VFS website for details.

Note that before you even begin your visa application,

you must have received your I-20 from the university thatyou have finally decided to join.

Once youve scheduled your appointment, start preparingthe documents. Its best to put everything in a big folder withseparators. If youre on university funding, you will need thefollowing documents:

I-20 and offer letter

Proof of property or some other fixed asset to showbinding ties

Your undergraduate degree and grade sheet

GRE/TOEFL and other test scores

Responses from other universities, especially rejects

Print out of your online visa application forms Visaforms

Photographs

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Actually the only critical item is the I-20. But you dontwant to take any chances, so carry all possible documents leave nothing to chance. It is also a good idea to takesome bank statements or other sources of funding to showsome extra financial support. If youre not getting funded,then you need many more supporting documents mostly toestablish financial ability. If you have an educational loan, getdocuments from the bank for proof. Also get bank statementsfor your checking and savings accounts, mutual funds andinvestments (if any). The more money you can show, the safer

you will be. A statement prepared by a certified CharteredAccountant (CA) detailing all your funds and assets shouldalso suffice.

The US Immigration Services has laid out very specific re-quirements for the photograph. You will find the details onthe printed receipt that you get. There are precise require-ments for the background, the position of the head withinthe frame, the maximum dimensions of the head within theframe and so on. Check your local photo studios it is

highly likely that youll find some that are already aware ofthe rules and are well equipped to take a professional picturemeeting all the requirements.

4.2 Housing

Housing issues and requirements vary greatly from uni-versity to university. In places like Texas, on campus housing

is more expensive than off-campus, and people prefer to liveoff campus. On the other hand, in states like California, oncampus housing is much cheaper, but people are forced tolive off campus since the wait list for on campus housingruns into years at times!

The first thing you should do is find out other Indian stu-dents who are going to your university that year. Try to getin touch with them and get into a group of 2/3/4 so thatyou can share an apartment when you get there. Next, get in

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touch with seniors or other acquaintances in your universityand talk to them about housing. See if they can make sometemporary arrangement for you so where you can stay whileyou look for a more permanent accommodation; or if theycan do some permanent arrangement directly. Often univer-sities already have procedures in place to manage housing forincoming students. For instance, there might be an Indianstudent association responsible for taking care of incominggrad students.

Most landlords will ask you to sign a contract/lease be-

fore you take the apartment. Typically, you will have to de-posit some security money and also pay 1-2 months rent inadvance. Note that most non-trivial economic transactions inthe US, including housing leases, are subject to what is knownas your credit history or your credit score. Your credit score is

basically an indicator of your credit rating that is, givenyour economic history, how likely you are able to fulfil yourdebts. Of course, since you dont have any economic historyin the US at this point, you basically dont have a credit score

either. Similarly, the Social Security Number or SSN is also an-other vital piece of information typically required to sign upa housing lease. You will not get your SSN for atleast a fewmonths after you reach the US.

The upshot of all this is that it is unlikely that you will beable to sign a lease entirely on your own. If you are eligiblefor on-campus housing, it is not likely to be an issue sincethe universities already know that you dont have a SSN or

credit history. For off-campus housing, you might want toconsult with other students and specially your seniors foradvice. Often times senior students will be happy to put theirname on the lease. Once you get your SSN, you can transferthe lease in your name. Of course, even off-campus leasingcompanies realize that you can not possibly provide themwith a SSN or a credit score, so most apartment complexesagree to work around this requirement, provided you pay amuch higher deposit and/or 12 months rent in advance.

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4.3 Travel

Since July September is a rush season, make sure youbook your tickets in advance. Most airlines will allow you to block tickets much earlier and you can purchase them at alater date when your plans have been finalized. A few years

back the only way to get a good deal on tickets was to getthe booking done through travel agents. While this is stillcertainly a feasible route, particular for Air India, you should

be able to find equally competent deals online yourself. Ipersonally recommend

h t t p : / / w w w . k a y a k . c o m but there are

several other good ones such as h t t p : / / w w w . m a k e m y t r i p . c o m and

h t t p : / / w w w . y a t r a . c o m .

If booking through an agent or directly through an air-lines, do check for student discounts. A form from your un-dergraduate college may help. You may also try using theInternational Student Travel Card ( h t t p : / / w w w . i s t c . o r g ).

Pack your baggage carefully. Most airlines will allow 2pieces of roughly 24-lbs (roughly 11-kgs) each. There are also

usually dimensional restrictions check with your airlinesfor details. Try and stick to the rules to avoid any unwantedhassle. If you are changing flights (as you most probablywill), make sure you book your luggage straight to the finaldestination. Dont carry any knives, scissors or liquids inyour hand luggage. If you have any doubts whatsoever, talkto your agent or someone experienced.

Depending on whether you are going to the east coast

or the west coast or somewhere in between, the prices ofthe tickets may vary from route to route. For people on theeast coast, generally flying via Frankfurt or London will becheaper. While for those on the west coast, flying via Singa-pore, Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong might be cheaper. Thereis a trade off between flying time and ticket prices if youdont mind a few hours extra layover, you might be able tofind cheaper tickets.

There are a lot of very good options to fly these days.

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http://www.yatra.com/http://www.istc.org/http://www.istc.org/http://www.istc.org/http://www.istc.org/http://www.yatra.com/http://www.makemytrip.com/http://www.kayak.com/


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Several airlines such as Continental, Jet Airways, AmericanAirlines and Air India fly direct non-stop flights from Indiato select destinations in the US (usually on the east coast).When booking your tickets, make sure you specify meal pref-erences (if you have any) this is especially important forvegetarians. Always reconfirm your tickets two days prior tothe day of travel. I personally prefer aisle seats for longerflights it is easier to move about the cabin and go to therest room but if it is your first time on a plane, you mightwant to take the window seat!


Post admission there is not much difference between engi-neering or fine arts applications it is pretty much the samefor all students essentially. Some things to keep in mind whiletravelling though. If you plan to transport bulky items (suchas large paintings or canvases, or sculptures etc), make sure tocall your airlines in advance and enquire about their policies.

Another minor (but unfortunate) practical considerationis that the number of Indian students in fine arts is far fewerthan in engineering. As a result, it might take a little moreeffort to arrange for housing or even pickup when you firstland. But as I mentioned earlier, most schools have dedicatedresources to help international students with precisely thesekinds of things.

4.5 Resources

h t t p : / / w w w . t s a . g o v / t r a v e l e r s / i n d e x . s h t m US Trans-

portation Security Administration (TSA) guide for trav-elers.

h t t p : / / w w w . u n i t e d s t a t e s v i s a s . g o v /

more informa-tion, straight from the horses mouth.

h t t p : / / w w w . u s j o u r n a l . c o m / e n / s t u d e n t s / i n f o / v i s a . h t m l

more info on student visas.

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http://www.usjournal.com/en/students/info/visa.htmlhttp://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov/http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/index.shtm


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Chapter5

Conclusion

The reasons for getting a graduate degree are as varied asthe numerous degree programs out there. Regardless of themotivation, all applicants aspire to get admitted to the bestgraduate schools out there. The grad school application pro-cess spans several months, non-trivial planning, significantexpenses, and most of all, it requires patience and optimism.But the sheer amount of information out there can be over-whelming for many students. Compounded with the number

of doubts and confusions one might have, the application pro-cess can become quite challenging without proper guidanceand support.

This book does not aim to be the bible of the graduateschool application process. My goal was to to present infor-mation relevant to Indian students applying in engineeringand fine arts in a clear, concise and accessible fashion andI hope that this book delivers on its promise. I would still

strongly recommend that in order to make the best informeddecisions, you should talk to as many knowledgeable peopleas you can information is the best form of preparation.

In the appendix you will find two lists that I wish I hadknown about when I was applying:

things you might want to pack for your first trip, and

a handy English Hindi dictionary of non-obviousitems

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AppendixA

Packing

While I recommend traveling light in general, your first tripto the US might be an exception. It is not that you wont beable to find something in the US most of the things listed

below are readily available but it might take a few daysto a few months before you are able to comfortably movearound on your own. Your goal when packing should be tocarry essential things to sustain yourself for the first monthor so. Depending on where you are going in the US, Indianfood and spices may or may not be easy to come by, in whichcase you might want to pack in some more of those.

I have tried to exhaustively enumerate the things that youmight want to pack for your first trip. As always, one sizedoesnt fit all, so use your own judgement and discretion.Though I have tried my best to include everything, the listis by no means complete. Please feel free to suggest anyadditions. Also note that this list was original made with

guys in mind. I have since tried to make it gender neutral, butif you see any anomalies, rest assured it is only my ignorancein editing and not due to any sexist bias. And finally, donttake this list too seriously! Think of it as a list of thingsyou should keep in mind while packing, and not necessarilythings to pack.

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A.1 Documents

S.No Item Qty Comments1 Passport with

stamped Visa2 All relevant

correspon-dence with theUniversity

letter of financialaid etc

3 I-20 1-24 Grade sheets 2-3

5 Test scores6 Photocopies of

all the above3 sets Leave 1 at home

and carry 2 withyou

Table A.1: Documents

A.2 Financial

S.No Item Qty Comments1 Travelers

Checksmake sure youdont sign them!and have differentdenominations

2 Cash dont carry toomuch

3 Credit card(s) 1 have the cus-tomer care number

handy in case oflosses

Table A.2: Financial

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A.3 Apparels

S.No Item Qty Comments1 Formals 23

sets2 Casuals 46

sets3 Linen

Bedsheets 4 Double bed sizePillow covers 4Light blanket 1

4 Footwear (ladies exempt!)Formals 1Sports 1Casuals 1Bathroom slip-pers

1

Socks 1dozen

5 MiscellaneousTraditional In-dian outfit

1-2 for festive occa-sions

Handkerchiefs 1dozen

if you are like me

Towels 2 big, 3small

6 Winter clothing might be better off

buying this fromUS

SweatersScarf/Muffler

continued on next page

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continued from previous page

S.No Item Qty Comments

Woolen cap

Table A.3: Apparels

A.4 Stationary


1 Scissors 22 Regular/Packing

Tape2

3 Permanentmarkers

2

4 Writing instru-ments

6

5 Course notesand related

books

As much as youcan gather

6 Books for ca-sual reading 2-3

7 Handbook forIndian students

1 Obtained fromUSEFI

Table A.4: Stationary

A.5 Medicine and First Aid


1 Antiseptic 1 bot-tle

2 Bandaid 1 pack3 Common

medicinesWith prescriptions(if required)continued on next page

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Cough andColdDiarrheaConstipationFeverMouth ulcer

4 Cosmetics enough to last aquarter

DeodorantMoisturizerHair oilShampooAfter shaveShaving creamand spare

blades

Table A.5: Medicine and First Aid

A.6 Kitchen


1 UtensilsPressure cooker 1Extra gasketsand safety

valvesVegetablepeeler

1

Kitchen knives 2Spoon, Fork,Plate

6


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Non stick pan,tava

2-3

Utensil holder(sansi)

1

Tea strainerStrainer spoon 1 for deep fryingKadhai 1-2Wooden spatu-

las

1-2

2 Cooking materialPicklesSpicesSpecializedmasalasPulses

3 Recipe book 1

Table A.6: Kitchen

A.7 Utility items


1 ToiletriesToothbrush andtoothpasteToilet soap and

soap caseShaving kit 1Soap and soapcase

2

2 Screw Driver Smalltoolkit


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3 Shoe brush andpolish

4 Mugs5 Detergent pow-

der/bars6 Sewing kit get some extra but-

tons7 Umbrella

8 Torch/Flashlight9 Lock and key 2 sets10 Plastic bags11 Indian postage12 Nail cutter13 Safety pins14 Combs 215 Backpack16 Handbags

17 Big bags soft bags18 Passport size

photographs19 Telephone

diary

Table A.7: Utility items

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AppendixB

English wordsfor common items

One of the challenges students face in a new country, speciallyif the language is unfamiliar, is to identify familiar things bytheir local names. Here I have tried to compile English names(as used in the US) for common items in India. Of course,I have left out obvious things such as potato and tomato,with the exception of items whose common English names

as used in India are different in the US. For instance, bhindiis not called lady fingers in the US.

B.1 Vegetables

Hindi name English name

Arbi ColocassiaBaingan Egg plant

Bathua White goose-footBhindi OkraBhutta/Makka CornChaney ki bhaji Bengal gram leavesChauli/Chavleri AmaranthChukandar Beet root


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Chukka bhaji Red sorrelDhania CilantroDhoodhi Bottle gourd/Opo squashFlas beans French beansGoochi MushroomsGowaar phali Cluster beansGulsuchal Salad leavsHalim Gardencress

Hari Phool Gobhi Broccoli Jaitoon OlivesKakdi CucumberKamal kakdi Lotus stemKarela Bitter gourdKasmi saag LettuceKhatti bhaji Indian sorrelKunthroo/Goli/Tondli GherkinsLauki Bottle gourd

Lobia CowpeaMakhanphal Avocado/Butter fruitMasoor bhaji Khesari leavesMoonga / Seeng DrumstickMuranka bhaji Drumstick leavesMusli / Shatwar / Soot-mooli / Halyan

Asparagus

Paniphal/Tikora ArrowrootPetha Ash gourd

Shakarkand Sweet potatoShalgam TurnipSimla mirch Bell pepperSimla aloo TapiocaSinghara Water chestnutsSuvabhaji Dillweed


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Tinda Gentlemans toesToraii Ridge gourd/Zucchini

Table B.1: Vegetables

B.2 Fruits


Aadoo Peach

Aloobukhara PlumAmrood GuavaAnanas PineappleAnar PomegranateAnjeer FigAnwla Indian gooseberryBel/Siriphal Bael/Stone apple/Bengal

quinceBer Zizyphus

Chiku SapotaFalsev Blueberries

Jamun Jambul fruit/Java plumKat-hal JackfruitKela BananaKharbooja Mashmelon/

Muskmelon/ CantaloupeKhoobani Apricot

Lichee Chin fruitMosammi Sweet limeNashpati PearPomelo ChakothraSheh-toot Mulberry


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Elaichi CardamomHaldi TurmericHeeng AsafoetidaImli Tamarind

Jaiphar Nutmeg Javitri Mace Jeera CuminKalaunji Onion seeds/Nigella

Kardi/Kusumbha SafflowerKari patta Curry leavesKhas khas Poppy seedsLaung ClovesMethi dana Fenugreek seedsRai Mustard seedsSaunf Aniseed/FennelTej patta Bay leafTil Sesame

Tulsi BasilTable B.4: Spices

B.5 Nuts


Akhrot WalnutBadaam Almond

Kaaju CashewsKhajur DatesPista Pistachio

Table B.5: Nuts

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B.6 Dairy Items

Hindi name English nameDahi Curd/YogurtGhee Clairified milkMalai CreamMattha, Chhachh Butter milkPaneer Cottage cheese

Table B.6: Dairy Items

B.7 Miscellaneous Items


Gud JaggeryIsabgol Psyllium Husk (?)Kesar SaffronKhameer YeastMaida Refined/Bleached flourMurmure/Laee Puffed rice

Nimbu ka sat C