General Info

Obama to Announce Immigration Reform: Will it Affect Students Who have Done an ‘MS in US’?

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Tomorrow morning (Indian Standard Time, and 8.00 p.m., Thursday evening Eastern Time) President Obama will announce executive action on immigration reform. Though this announcement is mostly going to affect illegal immigrants in the United States, there may also be implications for Indian students who have graduated with a master’s (MS) or doctoral (PhD) degree from American universities. They belong to the pool of highly skilled labor that American businesses need, so there is some anticipation of a positive fall out for them from this announcement. More specifically, the Indian student community in America will be waiting to hear whether the measures Obama announces will help make getting green cards and work permits easier and whether there will be an opening up on the H-1B visa quota front. Will they? Won’t they? It could mean dreams come true or anti-climaxes. Keep watching this space we’ll let you know.

Update check out these two posts:

Why the White House Wants You to Stay in America After Your ‘MS in US’

Obama Announces Executive Action on Immigrant Reform: Good News for Your ‘MS in US’ Plans

Master’s With Thesis or Non-Thesis?

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Once you approach the first semester of your degree program in an American University you will be asked to meet the academic advisor. You will have to decide on your academic plan, during which you will select whether you would like to complete your master’s course with or without thesis. Almost all American universities offer an option for thesis.

Why should I choose thesis option while pursuing Master’s degree in USA?
Course structure varies from university to university. If you apply for master’s with thesis option the course gets divided into research in a specific area, after completing your core courses. Under the thesis option, you will work under the guidance of a professor with a focus on a specific research area. You would are required to successfully complete and defend the thesis after which it could be published in journals or conferences.

Expenses during your degree program can be taken care of, as you may get funding from the professor in form of teaching, research or graduate assistantship. However this should not be the consideration for taking up the thesis option.

Master’s with Thesis option may help you to get a good research-oriented job. Even if you are not inclined towards a research-oriented job, such research-based academic background can help you land a better job as you have an edge over your peers who chose to do their master’s without research. Additionally, your professor will highlight your research capabilities such as creative problem solving, knowledge, motivation, and intelligence. His / her recommendation letter will hold a lot of weightage at the time of campus recruitment or application to doctorate programs, if you may so decide after your master’s.

If you plan to pursue a doctorate, the university you will be applying to would be interested in knowing more about the thesis topic/s and the reasons behind choosing it. Thesis is a very important factor for getting admission for PhD – it acts like rungs of a ladder leading to admission to a good PhD program in a university of your choice.

The Credit System for Master’s Courses in American Universities: Part 2

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Credit hours are a way of numerically representing all work completed. They are not the same as the actual ‘classroom contact’ i.e. instructional hours. Most institutions of higher education in the U.S. operate on an academic year divided into two equal semesters of 15-16 weeks’ duration, with a winter break of 2-3 weeks and a summer session of 10-12 weeks, plus additional shorter breaks. The actual amount of academic work that goes into a single semester credit hour is often calculated as follows:

  • One lecture (taught) or seminar (discussion) credit hour represents 1 hour per week of scheduled class/seminar time and 2 hours of student preparation time. Most lecture and seminar courses are awarded 3 credit hours. Over an entire semester, this formula represents at least 45 hours of class time and 90 hours of student preparation.
  • One laboratory credit hour represents 1 hour per week of lecture or discussion time plus 1-2 hours per week of scheduled supervised or independent laboratory work, and 2 hours of student preparation time. Most laboratory courses are awarded up to 4 credit hours. This calculation represents at least 45 hours of class time, between 45 and 90 hours of laboratory time, and 90 hours of student preparation per semester.

A master’s degree program requiring at least 33 credit hours and including a research thesis or project represents over 4,000 actual hours of supervised and unsupervised (independent research) study, while a doctoral program can represent 8,000 or more actual hours of advanced study and research beyond the master’s degree.

The Academic Year in American Universities

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The academic year in American universities is usually of a total length of 9 months (excluding a 3-month summer holiday). But the division of these 9 months into terms varies from university to university. Generally, the system will be one of these 3 types:

The Quarter System

In this system the academic year is divided into four quarters of approximately 10 weeks each.

 

The Trimester System

Here, the academic year is divided into three periods of 12 weeks each.

 

The Semester System

This is the most common system. In it the educational year is divided into 3 semesters:

  • the fall session which commences in August
  • the spring session which commences in January
  • the summer session which begins in June.

 

The Cost of Higher Education in America

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Many Indian students are concerned about the cost of higher education in America and seek information on opportunities for financial assistance. The cost of education in the United States ranges from $14,000 to over $40,000 per year, with State universities and institutions in the South and Mid-West are often being cheaper than private institutions and those located in California or the North-East region. In addition to tuition fees, books and food, you have to plan for expenses towards housing, health insurance and transportation. In fact, a student’s major expenses will be on two major items: tuition fees and living expenses.

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Jobs After Studying in America

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Is there scope to take up jobs after studying in America? Most students do take up a job in the United States after they have finished their course of study there. However, the student (F1) visa that you get from the US embassy in India does not permit you to take up full-time employment. You have to take permission from the Immigration Department first. The good thing is that obtaining this permission is not very difficult. You are allowed to work after finishing your MS, MBA etc. under Optional Practical Training (OPT).

Once you have got a job it often happens that your employer will request the authorities for a change of status in your visa from F1 (education visa) to H1 (work permit). This can be renewed for 3 years more. During this time many people apply for a Green Card i.e. permission to live in the United States permanently. Once you get your Green Card you will be able to live and work in the United States for as many years as you want.

Working while Studying: On Campus Jobs

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Working while studying in America is quite well-accepted. You can work on campus for 20 hours per week. Almost all students studying in a university find on campus jobs. The pay varies from 6-9 dollars per hour depending on the area and the type of work you get. Even if you get an average of $7 per hours, you can earn around $500 per month which is more than enough to take care of your costs of living. You may even be able to pay part of your tuition costs out of your savings.

On campus jobs can vary from working in a computer lab, or in a library or cafeteria. In America all work is respected because Americans believe in the dignity of labour and in being able to pay for one’s own education. Indians are widely accepted in computer-related fields. You should try to get a job in this area since the jobs are more comfortable and the pay is better.

Changing Your Field of Study

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The American system is very flexible, so changing your field of study is acceptable even in the middle of a course. So, for example a student doing his or her MS in the engineering department of a particular university might shift to a program in the computer science department of that university.

Though this is acceptable, you must remember that when you transfer to a new department, the department may not accept all your credits. They may treat you as a fresh admission and accept only those credits that are common to both programs. So, before you change your course find out what credits will be accepted, see how many you will have to do all over again and then see whether it is really worth it. Only then is it worth thinking of changing your field.

Changing Universities

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Changing universities is possible and is allowed in the American system of education. You may want to change your university for a number of reasons:

  1. You were earlier not given financial assistance in any university, so you took up the best available, but now you have been offered financial assistance by a university that you would like to go to
  2. After you have joined the university you may find that it is not exactly what you wanted – a faculty member who you thought would be teaching is on an assignment elsewhere or the course that you had wanted to study has been changed for some reason and so on
  3. You had to take admission to a low-grade university since your GRE/GMAT scores were not good, but now you have done well in the first semester and on the strength of your improved academic performance, you want to transfer credits to another university.

Change universities for any of these reasons is quite acceptable to and you can change universities at any time but, this is normally done after the first or second semester. Also keep in mind that there are some potential problems that you should be aware of: because of the differences between one university and another, your new university may not accept all your credits and may ask you to take some extra credits.

Great FREE Application Tools on DOA Online: Part 3 – Question & Answer Forum

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Question & Answer Forum

Question & Answer Forum

– What are transcripts?
– When should I register for the GRE test?
– Where can I find university deadlines?
– From whom do I need to take recommendation letters?

The list of questions that come up when you are applying to American universities is endless. Most probably you won’t know where to look for solutions or, whom to ask for the answers. That’s where the next of our great free application tools comes in – the DOA ONLINE Q&A FORUM.

 

On the Q&A Forum (click screenshot below for enlarged view) you can:

  • ask any questions you have regarding the application process for American universities
  • get answers and expert advice from the academy (look for answers by the admin!)
  • get valuable tips and insights from other registered users – since they have gone through the same situations and problems, their advice is often the best: no one understands your situation better than those traveling on the same path!
  • consult the vast database of questions and answers already on the Q&A forum.

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Dr. Harchol-Balter on the Statement of Purpose

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The statement of purpose is an extremely important part of your application packet (click here for an explanation). A well-written SOP that brings out the most important facts about you as a candidate for higher studies, can open the doors of opportunity for you. On the other hand an SOP that tries to impress but focuses on facts that the admissions committees consider irrelevant can lose you the opportunity that you have dreamed of.

In the extract below Dr. Harchol-Balter, an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon University points out two common mistakes that many applicants make:

• The grade regurgitator – “In my high school, I was ranked Number 1. Then I got a perfect score on my college entrance exams. Then I competed in a statewide math competition and I was the best. Then I competed in a national programming competition and I was 5th. In college, my GPA was 3.95 out of 4.0. For these reasons, I believe I will do well in your graduate department.”
What’s wrong with this? This portion of the essay is a waste of space. Awards are certainly relevant, however any award you won should be listed on a separate piece of paper which is titled “Awards and Honors” and which you can include with your application. There is no reason to tell us all this in your essay. It will only piss-off the people reviewing your application because they already read all this information earlier in your application and they now want to hear about research.
• The boy genius – “When I was born, my mother gave me a glass ball to play with. I would lay and look at the prisms of light shining through my ball. At age 3, my father brought home our first computer and I disassembled it and then put it back together. It was then that I knew I wanted to become a computer scientist. By age 5, I had taken apart every appliance in our house. At age 6, I became a chess whiz ….”
What’s wrong with this? We simply don’t care what you did as a child, and we don’t believe you either. You’d be surprised how many applications from Einstein-wanna-be’s we get. If you really think this is relevant, put the important facts on a separate sheet of paper, and include it in your application. It’s best if your essay can stick with stuff you did in college and later.

 

Related Blogs on Application Documents

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5 Reasons Why Students Going to America Should Join LinkedIn

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LinkedInIf you are reading this blog the chances are that you are a net savvy user, you have accounts on Facebook and Twitter and you are a student going to America for higher education. But have you ever thought of signing up for a LinkedIn account? Probably not: LinkedIn is supposed to be meant for professionals, and none or few of your friends are on it, so what good would it do a student to have a LinkedIn account?

When you don’t know many people on LinkedIn, it is easy to think that it doesn’t matter. Actually however, there are 5 reasons why having a LinkedIn account is very useful if you are heading for higher education in the States.

 

  • LinkedIn offers several tools to help get information and ideas from experts in your field viz.:
  1. LinkedIn Groups
  2. LinkedIn Answers
  3. LinkedIn Today

For college students these tools offer a great way of learning the professional language of your field, keeping up with the latest trends and topics in the field and becoming a well-informed ‘insider’. With more than 120 million users worldwide, LinkedIn offers a lot of potential avenues for learning.

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