Higher Studies in USA

I'm writing about yet another career option: graduate studies in US. I have been in US for a semester and a half now and have seen two large Universities. Some of this stuff is from my own experience and others from many other sources (special thanks: A&S). Some stuff is from the good articles/sites on the net.

Most college students don't go on for grad studies (on the average, college costs about $85,000. To contrast, you can get a new 1999 Merc for less than half that). So, after finishing college, most go on to well paid jobs. And often spend years paying off loans they took to pay for college.

Currently (1999), the US economy is doing very well. That in effect means that only people who are academically oriented go on to grad school. This reduced inflow is partly offset by industry's need for highly skilled people. But still, things are easier than the '80s, when lot of people went to grad school 'coz there weren't employers around.

A word about GRE: Having been through CET, maybe JEE, it is natural to think of GRE to be yet another in the series. While ETS has found a strong correlation between success at graduate studies and GRE scores, US schools look into the application "AS A WHOLE". No single factor determines what happens to your application. GRE is a way of making sure you have adequate skills for the graduate program, not a means of deciding admissions. A good GRE score is only one of the many ways of impressing the committee.

If you still don't believe me, visualize this: a bunch of Professors with million dollar research funding reading essays written by students and racking their brains on that dull photocopy of BU marks card - mighty expensive proposition for the University. They sure wouldn't do it if GRE could decide your admission.

Don't think you are competing against your classmate who happens to be applying to the same university. You are competing with people from all over the world - look at the big picture. Being from IIT/IISc is a definite advantage, but here the emphasis on PRESENT rather than PAST. If you can convince the reviewer that you are good, that's all that is required.

So you need to carefully work on highlighting all your strong points. Never think that something is too small - if YOU think it's important, then it IS important. On the other side of the coin, these are the people who have spent 20+ years listening to excuses from undergrads ("my pet chichuana peed on the term paper", "DOD classified my project", "my new scsi drive conflicted with my 3d-accel"), so they have a finely tuned sense of know what isn't true. So, your app is the place to be truthful but certainly not the place to be modest.

About USNews school rankings: Look at the department rankings first and then the engineering school overall rank. Both matter. I have been at two Univs with very different rankings (#25 and #2) and this is my opinion: Almost all grad schools do good work. It's mostly that lesser ranked schools have smaller programs and hence very focussed. You should see if a school is in Top-5, Top-25, Top-50. Make distinctions based on the research, concentration, activity etc. to decide within these groups. Given the current situation, I would suggest an optimistic selection of schools.

Miscellaneous notes: Department awards TAs while Profs award RAs.RAs are generally not given to students until they meet the student. Many states require TSE score of 50 or better before the school can award a TA. Take it up well in advance. Fall gives more choices than Spring. Spring sem (which is actually winter) is also a bad time to come to cold parts of US.

A closing word - there are two issues involved: grad school and coming to US. Treat them as separate issues. Speak to people in wide range of age groups in US to make a educated decision about latter. Be warned that there are very few people who come to grad school with the intention of staying back. But very few end up going back! So know what you are doing, from a long term perspectives too.

Terms that used to confuse me:

Regards,

Sriram