Grad School Admission/GRE/TOEFL/Asstsp Help

[Shy]

US GRAD SCHOOLS

ADMISSIONS/GRE/TOEFL/ASSISTANTSHIPS THREAD

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Hi guys,

Enakku therinchavanga is planning for MS. But first GRE/TOEFL complete pananum right.. So, I need ur thoughts, directions and any kinda of help on how to prepare for GRE, where we could get most resources and stuff. Also evaloo scores is required for financial aid, entha universities apply panalaam.. eppadi whatever info u can provide!!! :D

Inga irukara super Students please let me know ur thoughts and guidance

Thanks in advance

Shy

ps: Shy.. just added a longer title, so others who have questions could use it.. Hope its ok.. v-

[sri_gan]

Yakkoi,

Enakku itha pathi romba ellam theriyathu... anna... Financial aid pathi verify panna intha website ponga...

http://www.online-education-portal.c...ance-index.htm

GRE / TOEFL Pathi intha website le irrukathu... athukku koncha naal aagumnu nenaikiren.

[Shy]

:D mikka nandri sri !!!

That is a great site !!!

Shy

[vasan]

Some stuff..

TOEFL is a must if you are NOT educated in US/England/Canada/Australia (Native language should be English !). If 'ungallukku therinjavanga' (from now on we will call them UT ) is educated in India, UT must take the exam.

TOEFL is usually two parts - the standard test, and the TSE (Test of Spoken English). TSE is not mandatory, but would be nice.

GRE is also a MUST. You need to take GRE but AGRE (or Subject GRE) is not required unless UT is planning to study some fields like English or some such.. Ofcourse if UT is planning for MBA, then UT must take GMAT.. !!

All the official information is available at ETS website.

GRE: http://www.gre.org/ttindex.html
Toefl: http://www.ets.org/toefl/

Note that for both the exams the only acceptable picture ID (in India) is the Passport.

What univ to choose, what field to study, how to get some financial assistance etc are too much dependent on UT's academic record, GRE/TOEFL scores, where did UT do his/her undergrad education etc. If UT is living in one of the Metros in India, UT can avail some excellent resources available at the US Embassy.

For more detailed info, we would need more particulars teacher.. :P

Hmm.. Please feel free to ask any other questions too, Teacher. Always available... :P :P

Vasan

ps: mine is an ok school.. chella thambi is in top five.. :P there are others too... Sabeshan and Si (I think!)... Shoot your questions... !!

[Shy]

Thanks a lot vasan...

Hes got 70% . appuram GRE/TOEFL innum yaeluthalai. So I understand about the universities and other stuff related to that depends on his exam right...

BTW no MBA, hes planning to do his MS. So appo TOEFL and GRE matum poothum correcta?

Ok hes from trichy..

Appuram few questions regarding GRE preparation...

(1) Is there any crash course or will it take a year or two to prepare for GRE stuff?
(2) Any great institutes like the IIT or other stuff for entrance exams we used to go :D . hes even ready to go chennai, if required for the courses

Shy

[vasan]

Sure Teacher, no problem.... :P

First things first - he needs to get his passport. (I got mine, like a week before the last day toapply for GRE on a specific date.. ) So, if he has his passport, rest of the stuff, is pretty straight forward.

MS... I suppose in engineering. Depending on what branch of engineering, and what specialization he wants to do, he will have to choose his schools. Unless he is from IIT (or REC Trichy, Anna Univ and PSG Tech) it might not be a good idea to apply to Top Schools. If it is for MS any school except top 20 (but in the top 100 list) in his Engg dept is pretty OK. Jobs and future would not be in any trouble.

Preparation for GRE is not that big a deal - I personally don't think any coaching classes are required. Its all so over rated any ways. If he is proficient enough to read and enjoy the Hindu, he is half ready. Rest is realizing that GRE is far too limited in its methods, and practice and picking up the tricks of the trade.

I would suggest getting hold of Barron's (a guide book for GRE, and another one for TOEFL also.. they have both..). I am told now the format is little different from ancient times when I took the test. These guides (preferably the latest or the year before!) should help him enormously. There are two main sections in GRE - Language and math. Math needs speed and a bit of practice. Language would require apart from his normal reading skills - a whole lot of usually new vocabulary skills. Barrons guide is the Bible.. Just do it.. :P :P

A decent 3 months work on these things and taking the six or so test papers in Barrons (with watch and keeping time and all!!) will help him to score well. Really, there is no need to throw good money on these coaching business...

I suggested US Embassy in Chennai, because the USEFI (US Educational Foundation in India) has some useful guidance information on every concievable thing for a student -and the people working there are pretty nice and friendly. Also they have a wonderful library that has catalogs of most of the gradschools in US.

http://usembassy.state.gov/chennai/

Left column of this website you will find links for USEFI and other related info.

Usually a check list would be:

1) Get passport.
2) See what area of studies you wanna do.
3) Pick some 4 or so good universities where you might have reasonable chance of getting admission/assistantship
4) apply for GRE/TOEFL/TSE
5) Prepare and crack them
6) At the time of exam (right after you are done with answering stuff) you will be asked if you wanna score the exam and report the score to any schools. You are give four free choices where you can report your scores. More than that you will have to pay. (thats why I suggested picking up some schools...)
7) Every school and every department worth considering is on the web. Get familiar with some schools.. and what they do, what courses they offer, what sort of research they do and so on..
8) Apply to schools.
9) Pick up a few professors in each school and write to them and ask if they wanna take you as their students. Profs have infinite authority in most schools to do what ever they want concerning student admission. If you can get a prof to commit, then you are done.. :P :P
10) Get visa, land up, do well and live 'happily ever after'...

I realize much of these would sound sort of general and vague. Please feel free to ask any thing specific also. You could ask your friend to write up too.. We should only be more than glad to help out.. If he is uncomfortable to ask 'personal' doubts, ofcourse, there is always the private message.. :P

Its a period of mild anxiety - the effort, the unknown and such. But please tell him not to worry. It only appears so - and one month after he is in US he will look back and have a huge grin - if not a hearty laugh at himself.. Not a cake walk, but if he is well prepared, it should be pretty straight forward.

Vasan

[Shy]

infinite times vasan !!!

Wow, "I" am very clear now on how to proceed on this :D kandeepa it will be very helpful for him !!! Ellam solraen and more important olunga padika solraen :D

he will be getting the passport in a week or so..

Hes planning to write coming october/November.. its ok right??

MS... I suppose in engineering. Depending on what branch of engineering, and what specialization he wants to do, he will have to choose his schools. Unless he is from IIT (or REC Trichy, Anna Univ and PSG Tech) it might not be a good idea to apply to Top Schools. If it is for MS any school except top 20 (but in the top 100 list) in his Engg dept is pretty OK. Jobs and future would not be in any trouble.

Puriyalai vasan?? yaen appadi?? is there anything specific??

Thanks a lot again vasan :D

Shy

[RaasuKutty]

Hes planning to write coming october/November.. its ok right??

convinient test dates are very tough to get... Now-a-days, univ semester exams too come by Nov.. So he needs to plan well for a date and get that booked...

Its a tight call for preparation... He still has 2-3 months.. he needs to be very focussed...

and, My wishes to him... :D :D

[gokulan42]

my wishes too

[Shy]

Thanks RK and gokul :D

Cho chweet of you all :D

Shy

[Shy]

Hes planning to write coming october/November.. its ok right??

convinient test dates are very tough to get... Now-a-days, univ semester exams too come by Nov.. So he needs to plan well for a date and get that booked...

Its a tight call for preparation... He still has 2-3 months.. he needs to be very focussed...

and, My wishes to him... :D :D

Acho sola marathutaen..he just finished his BE.. so sincerea padicha it will be ok right RK?

Shy

[yogesh220]

oops, seeing this topic just now...Already there are a lot of explanations....anyway, for my part, I did study for the GRE in a coaching class called DATAMATICS, in Chennai...since I was in Chennai it was easy...though I wont say that it was a must, I would say that it definitely helped me a lot...(Actually, naan DATAMATICSla particularaa seera kaaranamee veera, but that is not appropriate here...)

Further, since he is in Trichi, he can join Visu consultants, a few of my friends(All of them are now in US) studied in there...yeah it is expensive....but it is just better take no chances....

And about the colleges, it is too early to decide, it all depends on the GRE score he gets....if you know what I mean....and if he joins VISU consultants, he will get a good guidance on the selection of colleges tooo....hey I am not campaigning for VISU, just my opinion...

Again, Barrons is the Godfather.....BARRONS HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE GRE...is a must for any GRE aspirant....

and after that, there are a lot of practice available(Computer based) taking that would help a lot.... in GRE, PRACTICE MAKETH PERFECT....Good luck...

[Shy]

Thanks pa yogi :D

That is helpful... visu consultants pathi solraen.. yes I understand that GRE score vachundu thaan we can decide further, so let him concentrate on that first :D

olunga padika sonna... DATAMATICSkku actualla ponna reason vera irukka.. mm.. irukkum irukkum..

Shy

[RaasuKutty]

Hes planning to write coming october/November.. its ok right??

convinient test dates are very tough to get... Now-a-days, univ semester exams too come by Nov.. So he needs to plan well for a date and get that booked...

Its a tight call for preparation... He still has 2-3 months.. he needs to be very focussed...

and, My wishes to him... :D :D

Acho sola marathutaen..he just finished his BE.. so sincerea padicha it will be ok right RK?

Shy

That should be a good time then...

[Shy]

Also oru question for all of you.. may be ithai pathi appuram worry panalaam.. but just thought of asking u now itself...

I hear peopel saying that USla unnoda family, relatives irukaangala kaepaanga, appo if they say yes, its hard to get student visa. Poi sonaa, if they find that out appuram ennum problem varum right...

Hope many of u guys had close family and relatives here, eppadi handle paneenga???

Thanks

Shy

[yogesh220]

hear peopel saying that USla unnoda family, relatives irukaangala kaepaanga, appo if they say yes, its hard to get student visa. Poi sonaa, if they find that out appuram ennum problem varum right...

Its news for me....I have never heard of such kind of question...anyway, if they find out ellaaam, chummaaa...do you think they have no better thing to do, than bugging a student... once he had got his stamps, nobody is gonna worry about him...until his visa expires....if you know what I mean....

but I know I am not veyr much helpful in this query since I have never heard of such thing.....I remember putting that I have no relatives here in US in some visa app, but that was a fact....sorry for not being useful...

[vasan]

Teacher,

Yes.. Oct/Nov is the best date. Also remind him to write a preapp (a pre-application form) which is like a short resume and send it to schools requesting their brochure and Grad School admission forms. Its kinda should be done soon, as it will take a while to get them.

He needs to finish up his applications latest by december (ideally). So people will have time to look at it. Usually they have a clear idea of how much money they will have (schools and profs!) by then for the next academic year, and they will start looking out for new students.. Early birds, as always, catch the worm...

Later than Jan is really late.. Also processing visa etc by the school takes a bit of time.. so its better to be early.. Okvaa?

This time schedule is meant for Fall season - which is when most admissions take place. All schools with sem system start their fall quarter late august and the schools with quarter system start during mid sept..

More later,

vasan

ps: You are very welcome teacher... Glad to be off help.. if you have more questions too, please ask.. any time... :P :P good luck to your friend..

[yogesh220]

Vasan, on a note, I dont think early bird catches the worm....since most of the colleges have a stipulated last date for receiving the application and the review of the apps starts only after the date and most schools does not entertain applications after that...correct me if I am wrong....(But I am sure that is what happens in my univ..)...

But I agree with the Preapp part.

I would also suggest him to get in touch with some of the professors of the colleges whose reserch projects interests in the colleges which he is tentatively going to apply to....just let the prof know that there is this boy existing and is interested in doing a project in his lab.. Take it from me, this really helps....

[madhu_aish1]

Wow !!! Vasan Teacher has explained every nuances to get admission . I cant even throw my few cents here..

Anyways TOEFL and GRE are mandatory and its good sense to wrtie your TWE if yur UT is going to pursue a PhD after M.S ..

When it comes to admission in schools .. the general equation works Top Tier from Indian schools get admission in top 10 in US and so on . Its just that admission committee is ignorant about the presence of other schools ;( . GRE and Grades are basically threshold for any school admission policies . Your resume and recommendation letter comes to play later . It very crucial to decide on whom to get the letter of recommentation . You have to go with the odds.

Funding Phew !!! Fellowships and Departmental Funding are granted only for 10 % of the admitted students and likely to be given to IITians . Its very wise to contact the prof in your field of interest to establish a rapport. There is a very high possiblity you may end up with funding.

PS : its not advisable to choose security , core network as your domain because it requires security clearance and other admistrative procedures in the future . Just a line ...

Hope I had something to offer.

Madhu

[suryan]

Shy, I dont know much abt the GRE/GMAT stuff.. so, cant say much..

as far as I know, it seems the questions during the visa interview would be a bit tricky. But every answer would have to give them a guarantee and justification that you will NOT be staying (permanently) in the US after your studies. So, as long as the student gives that impression, student visas would be easier without any disappointments. With respect to that specific question, if he has any (close) relatives, let him mention it to be on the same side. It seems not-mentioning-it-and-finding-out-later would be a bigger problem. I dont think you need to mention relatives like "onnu-vitta periyappavoda akka payyan" and all.. ;-)

Nowadays, with the visa hue and cry from the US, getting a student visa could be difficult. So, ask him to be mentally prepared for anything. Also, ask him to write his GATE. There are some very good institutes in India viz. IISc, Anna University, IITs, BITS etc. for post graduate studies. Ask him to chk them out.