Q&A about MS Admissions
Here I have compiled some general queries that I and many other students have regarding admission in MS. I will put my questions one by one in this post. Feel free to put up more questions and I will be pleased to answer you or direct you to the right source for it.
Q&A before GRE/TOEFL and till before the Admission
0. What is the right time to take GRE/TOEFL tests?
The best time to take the tests is 1 year before you plan to start your MS. This will give you sufficient time for the lengthy application process. Having 2 years of work experience before MS is not essential but can help you get good understanding of what you want to do in your MS.
First I will tell you my plans, please DO comment on it. I'm planning to write GRE/TOEFEL in August, want to apply for MS in OS or computer architecture in fall next year.
Comp Arch is usually misunderstood by lot of people , this is if you wish to design processor etc. And that needs VLSI too... So truly speaking you will have to work in verilog etc, while the OS/systems comes with computer engineering, here you might be working with hardware and software... We need to talk abt this if you are still not clear.
1. Apart from GRE, what else I need to concentrate now, especially if I need financial aid or a TA job,money is an issue for me?
2. Can you give me an estimate of money I will be needing right from applying to getting admission?
Application process is usually around $100 per university( which includes the fees for GRE and TOEFL scores). Fees for state universities will be lower, Fees in certain states is lower than the other , Like California is comparatively expensive.
3.Can you provide a break up of money required at different stages?
i. For applying $100 per school.... (three things are included: University application fee, fee to send GRE score and TOEFL score)
ii. How much money need to be shown for admission and in what format?
Generally if you get admit from a good school, consulates usually respect that, so don't worry much about this. But you can't leave the ends open from your side, so you need to have sufficient financial proofs. How much? Exact figures are available on the Univ's website, usually ranges between $30K to $50K. It also appears on your I20, You are required to show that much.
How to show: I think if you get admission from good univ. anyone (may be your friend or relative or parents) can give you affidavit which says that he or she supports you. I can send you certain imp fin docs formats which are good to have. )
iii. How to identify the fee structure of a university?
Its given on the school's website usually, and it appears on the I20 also, that's what you have to show.
iv. How much money is required and in what format for the VISA. (i guess i answered it)
4. Please tell me any consultant in Bangalore for GRE admission and all.
I had it done with IMS but didn't like them much. People say VISU international is good, but I think for a good student, you can do it all on your own. Please feel free to ask me for the formats for SOP, and other letters that are required for applications.
5. The need for a consultant is for the procedure of application. How does one choose the right course in the right university, given that there are too many options and too many permutations and applying to all is not possible.
Universities have some strongholds, some weak areas.... so it needs to be seen which Univ is good in your field. Good way to find out this can be by looking at the good international conferences in your field and seeing who publishes papers in those. Rankings in the respective field also gives you some idea.
6. What if I want to write some paper and get it published related to my subject will it help me? (definitely it will..)
7. I have figured out that the will to write a paper and writing a paper are two very different things. How to get started or well re-started?
Publishing in an International publication is a challenging and time taking task. You know it ... what is required, some solid work which you have done... and thats it ... will and writing are consequences, drive will be automatically there once you have something good done in your hands.
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Q&A after the Admission
1. What is the good way of identifying which courses we are interested in? I mean if I am interested in OS or comp arch, how can I know the content of the course what is a good way to research this.
You might not be able to access the course contents of a particular course. If you can find it on the web, that's good, but otherwise, contact the students of that particular school to get the same. 'First hand info' from people can be very useful. Also most schools allow some initial "add and drop" period during which you can try to audit (sit in) all the classes of your interest and then add or drop some courses after meeting the prof in the class and knowing about the course content and efforts required for it.
2. Will my work ex, help me to get TA or any campus job?
Definitely it will, See if you can write some papers based on your work. So that helps company and you as well.
Other than scholarships and fellowships, you can also apply for a research or teaching assistant's job or work as a grader. For this you also fill the application online, but mostly the chances are to get them by personally meeting the professors with your resume, once you land into one of your universities.
When we reached UT Austin, we had no funding or job in hand. We then, made list of all the undergrad classes that we thought we could TA or grade, and met with the professors of each of those subjects personally to ask if any positions are available with them. Also you can meet the Profs in your area of interests to find any RA position. But underline, that you need to meet them personally. Don't hesitate in that.
Once you get a job as a TA, RA all of your fees is paid by the department that employed you and also you are paid enough to bear your living expenses.
I thought this conversation might be useful for all !
All the best !
Respected Sir,
ReplyDeleteI am Ashish from NITC.I wanted to know the tution fees and living expenses in UT Austin.I will be glad if you can help.And is it true that UT Austin has been very generous in giving admits this year...and if yes do you expect this trend to continue(I am in CS)..I will be applying the next year.
Thanks and Regards
Ashish
Hello Ashish,
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting the blog. The tuition fees in UT is around $7000 per semester for a 9 hours (3 course) registration. The amount reduces to around $4000 if you get a 20hr job in UT (and is usually totally borne by UT if you get a TA/RA position).
Living cost in Austin is comparatively low and you can easily survive with $800 per month including house rent, food(mostly when you cook at home) and commutation. This is our present experience ... You can get more accurate numbers from the UT website, maybe.
I cannot comment on the number of admits but you can certainly get some idea by last years trend.
In the end, UT is a good school, cost of living is not high, once you are here its not tough to manage, except for the first sem.
All the best..