Grad School Prep Series !!!
What is this series all about ? As the name suggests its about Grad School Prep.
In the year 2014, there was approximately 1,000,000 admits to international students in the US. amongst them 49% were from India, China and Korea. The number of students who want to pursue their higher education especially from India has been constantly on the rise. The primary reason being the opportunity provided to upgrade our skills.
If this is the stat of people who got admitted, take a second to think about the number of people who applied. The number might be far greater than 1 million.
For a second, lets take a look at the application process. There are 3 kind of applicants.
Applicant 1: His/her relatives and friends have already gone through the process and are very much aware of what needs to be done. Their guidance provided by them, helps the student to prepare properly right from his/her 4th semester.
Applicant 2: Inspired by Applicant 1 and the desire of learning more, applicant 2 scrambles for resource here and there, starts preparing for grad school from 6th semester. Scores good/average marks on entrance exams (GRE, TOEFL, IELTS), approaches a consultancy and spends 30,000 to get into an university.
Applicant 3: Has the desire to pursue his/her education, due to lack of seriousness, guidance and over exposure to mis information decides to drop preparing in his/her 6th semester. Finally when in 8th semester he/she wants to pursue their Masters/Ph.D, realize its late and thus get to a consultancy to shell out 30,000Rs and get into an university that they did not desire.
When you see the success rate of these applications, you will find applicant 1 has a higher success rate. If you question the success behind them, its not only because they start preparing by 4th or 5th semester, its mainly because of the guidance. Applicant 2 and 3 want the same guidance and approach a consultancy. That is where they go wrong.
The guidance coming from someone who has gone through the process outweighs the guidance bought by 30,000Rs.
In a way Grad School prep is a series that will bring you guidance from people who have gone through the process. We are bringing you past and present grad students to share their experience with you.
Some of the topics that we will be covering during this series is,
1. When and how should one start preparing for Grad school
2. How important is GRE & TOEFL? Are they important than the coursework ?
3. How should I select my universities? Should I go by safe and ambitious?
4. When I pick a university should I look for university ranking, or my program ranking?
5. What are the funding options? How to avail funding?
6. How should we approach Professors to get to work for them?
7. How is the coursework designed?
8. How to search for an internship and Job opportunity?
9. How about OPT, CPT and EAD?
10. What about H1B?
These are some of the many topicswe want to cover in this series. The first episode of our series will be online tomorrow @ www.edxengine.com or “https://www.facebook.com/edxengine?ref=hl”.
In our first version we will have Sandeep Viswanathan, Ph.D Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisonsin-Madison speaking to you all about these topics. Watch it at www.edxengine.com