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US is the #1 choice for Indians going abroad for higher education

Today, the dream of getting a US degree is no longer something that only the “rich” can dream of. Now many students from middle class backgrounds can also get higher education in the US, without putting a huge financial burden on their parents. This is evident from the recent trends:

  • Overall, the number of Indian students going abroad for education increased 256% in 2000-2009
  • An estimated 21 million students will be admitted into American universities in Fall 2013

The facts also show that America is the most popular educational destination especially for engineering and business:

  • The top three destinations for Indian students going abroad are: #1 America, #2 Europe, #3 Australia
  • America dominates, with a lion’s share of over 50% of the students
  • The top two streams at American grad schools are Engineering & Business

There is great demand for higher education in the US.

 

What is driving the trend?

As the American economy recovers from the recent 2008-2010 Global Economic Crisis, employment rates in the country are improving. There is a great need for skilled labour, particularly of engineering graduates across fields. According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projections, US companies alone created 178,000 engineering jobs between 2008 and 2010. In fact, Engineering (Biomedical Engineers, Software Engineers and Environmental Engineers) featured at the very top of BLS list of the “Fastest Growing Occupations.” This growth is being driven by the growth of technology giants such as Google, Apple, Oracle and a sharp rise in the number of ‘start-ups’ or new technology companies. The change in traditional businesses to automated, mechanized or digital formats is another reason driving a huge need for engineers in the US.

What makes it possible for the middle class?

The key factors that make an American education possible for all types and categories of students are the availability of:

  • a variety of easy funding and repayment options
  • focused examination preparation and coaching
  • professional counseling through each and every step of the admissions process has made this possible.

Find out more on how YOU can get an American degree at our FREE SEMINAR on “Higher Education in the US”

Time: 5.45 to 8 pm

Date: Sunday the 17th of February 2013

Venue: Ganesh Kala Krida Manch, Pune.

This seminar is open to all students, working professionals and parents.

No prior registration needed!

In case you have any questions, please contact the Dilip Oak’s Academy Office

By e-mail: support@dilipoakacademy.com, OR Call: +91-020-25656237, 25678066, 25654052

Word RootsStarting this week, we are introducing a new feature that will help all you students who are struggling to prepare for the GRE test – posts that will help you learn the GRE test words using roots. Though the technical meaning of ‘roots’ is a little different, here it is useful to think of them as the original Latin and Greek words that the English words came from.

Learning words through their roots is useful in two ways – firstly, knowing the root and meaning of a word can help you understand why the word means what it means. Secondly, since there are often many words which come from the same Greek or Latin root, this helps you to learn several words at one time. It becomes easier because, as you will seen in today’s post, words from the same root look similar and also share a common set of meanings. The two lists below, which cover 32 words totally, will illustrate how this is so.

1. currere (Latin, 14 words)

The Latin word currere (to run) produces many English words:

  1. cursive – flowing, running e.g. writing in cursive hand
  2. cursor – runner e.g. the cursor runs across your computer screen
  3. cursory – running, swift, fast e.g. he merely gave the documents a cursory glance
  4. precursor – one who runs before (prae), forerunner e.g. features in a prototype are precursors of the features in the final product
  5. courier – messenger: this word comes through French, hence the strange form – the idea is that the courier, which is a swift delivery service, takes the document and runs e.g. delivery by courier will take only three days
  6. concurrent – running with (con), hence, happening at the same time) e.g. I couldn’t attend all the sessions in the conference that I wanted to since some were concurrent
  7. concur – run with (com), hence, agree e.g. most of the committee members concur with the Chairman’s ideas
  8. succor – run up to (sub), hence, run to help, aid, assist, comfort e.g. we must succor those weaker and poorer than us
  9. discourse – a running about (dis), hence, a talk that ranges over a subject, a formal discussion, conversation­ e.g. Kejriwal’s discourses on corruption
  10. discursive – running aside or about (dis), digressing, rambling e.g. his discursive essays take a long time to get to the point
  11. incur – run into (in), hence, bring upon oneself e.g. the company may refuse to reimburse them for the expenses they incur
  12. incursion – a running into, hence, an invasion e.g. Arab incursions onto Byzantine territory were permanently stopped by 872 A.D.
  13. recourse – a running back (re), hence, resorting to help when in trouble e.g. we would like to settle matters without recourse to the law
  14. recurrent – occurring again and again (re) e.g. I had recurrent problems with my computer which only stopped when I formatted the hard disk

 

2. vertere (Latin, 28 words)

The Latin word vertere, to turn produces a large number of English words:

  1. vertex – turning point, hence, highest point, summit e.g. the angel in each vertex of this triangle is acute
  2. vortex – turning, whirlwind, whirlpool, center of turbulence, predicament into which one is inexorably plunged e.g. the ship was sucked into the vortex
  3. vertigo – turning round, hence, severe dizziness) e.g. looking down from a cliff, one may experience vertigo
  4. introvert – one who is turned inward (intro), hence, introspective, inclined to contemplation e.g. he was an introvert who rarely mixed with his classmate
  5. extrovert – turned outwards (extro), hence, person interested mostly in external objects and actions e.g. she is an extrovert whose favourite pastime is spending time with her friends
  6. diversion – act of turning aside (di), pastime e.g. in the long winter breaks playing cards was our only diversion
  7. diverse – turning aside (di), hence, differing in some characteristics, various e.g. in cities like Mumbai, you will find people from diverse backgrounds
  8. diversity – a turning aside (di) in various directions, hence, variety, dissimilitude this reef contains an astonishing diversity of life forms
  9. universal – from universus, turned into one; hence, characterizing or affecting all; present everywhere e.g. laughter is a universal human characteristics
  10. avert – turn something away (a ab), hence, prevent, turn away e.g. we must take timely action to avert a tragedy
  11. aversion – a turning away (a ab), hence, firm dislike e.g. his aversion for exercise has taken a toll on his health
  12. averse – turned away from (a ab), hence, reluctant; disinclined e.g. most people are averse to talking of death
  13. traverse – go through or across (trans, with loss of ‘ns’) e.g. the ridge is too steep to traverse
  14. convert (one who has turned with (con) another, hence, one who has adopted a different religion or opinion e.g. the system makes it easier to convert units of one system into units of another
  15. adverse – turned against (ad), hence, unfavorable, hostile e.g. their success was noteworthy since they succeeded despite adverse conditions
  16. adversity – a turning against (ad), that which turns against one, hence, poverty, misfortune e.g. having faced adversity before, he was not afraid to face it again
  17. adversary – one who turns against you, hence, opponent, enemy e.g. he defeated his adversary using skill rather than strength
  18. invert – turn upside down (in) or inside out (in) e.g. the marble will fall out when you invert the glass
  19. inverse – turned about (in), hence, reversed, opposite our eyes produce an image that is inverse to the object in the real world
  20. converse – turned about (con), hence, opposite e.g. it is true that children depend on parents in their early years, but as time goes on the converse is true
  21. controvert – to turn against (contro), hence, oppose with arguments, attempt to refute, contradict e.g. you cannot controvert facts, but you can controvert theories.
  22. incontrovertible – contraversus, turned against (contra), with addition of negative prefix in, hence, indisputable, not open to question e.g. his arguments were incontrovertible
  23. advert – turn towards (ad), refer to (ad) e.g. in discussion of economic policy, the participants often advert to political facts – it is difficult to frame economic policy without reference to political realities
  24. inadavertently – advertent, turning towards (ad), with addition of negative prefix in, hence, unintentionally, by oversight, carelessly e.g. he inadvertently knocked over the glass vase and broke it
  25. revert – turn back (re), relapse, backslide, turn back to e.g. though it exists as a vapor at high temperatures it will revert to its liquid from at lower ones
  26. perverse – turned away (per), hence, stubbornly wrongheaded, wicked, unacceptable e.g. he had been warned against walking near the edge of the cliff; his fall was the result of a perverse disregard for the warnings
  27. perversion – a turning away (per), hence, turning from right to wrong, corruption e.g. dictatorship is a perversion of the idea that people should submit to authority – it replaces ‘should’ with ‘must’ and make obedience an inescapable requirement instead of a voluntary submission
  28. subversive – turning beneath (sub), hence, tending to overthrow, destructive e.g. the police found subversive literature calling for a rebellion against the authorities.

Hope you found this helpful – roots are a great way of preparing for the GRE test words. If you did here’s a link to our next post on roots click to see next post.

Application TipsSo, you’re in the thick of things. You have written out your SOP, you have got the transcripts and letters of recommendation, and you have filled up the University application. But, you still have a question: “Is this enough? Or, is there something else I can do to make my application really stand out from the rest?”

Before you submit your application, consider this: what makes a “good” application a “great” one is the extra effort you put in. So, here are our three top tips for fine-tuning your application and making it one that is really great:

  1. Research the school website – There are a lot of subtle hints which you can pick up from college websites, so take a little time to browse through the sites carefully. One thing to look for is the graduate student handbook which you should download and read. It is important to go through details about the faculty research and labs. Doing this will help you to to get a clear idea about what you can focus on during your studies in the university you are considering, and it is therefore very important in deciding which universities to apply to. It will also help you to decide which research areas to highlight in writing your SOP.
  2. Connect with somebody – It’s a good idea to connect with either staff or seniors at a grad school beforehand (preferably do both). You can email the member of faculty that you find most impressive and would like to work with in the future. This will help if you want to establish contact – a bonus when you already have a proven and focused research interest. But remember, that it is dangerous to do this without having a clear idea of what you want to do, or why you want to do it. Also, don’t overdo it – you might end up boring the professor and make him or her completely unwilling to respond to you.
  3. Proofread your documents – Make sure that you don’t end up sending SOPs to a university which mention a different one as the one you are applying to – at best this will be seen as a sign of carelessness, at worst it may even be taken as an insult; and it’s surprising how many students make that mistake. But also, send copies of your draft SOP to to a teacher, or guide who knows your work and progress and to at least 3-4 trusted friends. They can tell you whether what you are saying makes sense or not.

And do take the time to draft a good SOP– it has a weight and importance of its own and can give you the opportunity to present your strengths in a way that no other document can. (Click this link to get an idea of how to do this.) But don’t get too worried if you can’t do this, the staff at DOA’s counseling center can help you put your SOP into top shape!

Related Links

The importance of the SOP (or application essay)

How to write a good SOP

Post: Did You Know these Facts about GRE Math?

Question: How many positive integers, less than 20, are either an even multiple of 2 or, a multiple of 9 or, the sum of a positive multiple of 2 and a positive multiple of 9?

Answer: There are 11 such integers:

  • Multiples of 2 – 4, 8, 12, 16 (total 4)
  • Multiples of 9 – 9, 18 (total 2)
  • Sums of a positive multiple of 2 and a positive multiple of 9 – 11, 13, 15, 17, 19 (total 5)

 

Post: Quantitative Comparison Questions: Doubtful D!

 

Question:

X < (1/X)

Column A Column B

X X2

 

Answer:: (D)

The given inequality is X< (1/X).

This is possible only in two cases:

(1) If 0 < X < 1 OR

(2) X < -2

Now, you need to compare ‘X’ with ‘X2’

If you pick the value of ‘X’ from 1st range, let’s say ‘X’ = ½, then X > X2, thus the possible answer is option (A) and hence, options (B) and (C) can be eliminated.

But if you pick up the value of ‘X’ from the second range of values, lets say X = -3, then X < X2.

That means we are not able to reach to any unique conclusion using the information given, thus the answer is option (D)

 

On 5 June 2012 the GMAC launched the Next Generation GMAT which has the following structure:

Section Content and Time Score Scale
Analytical Writing Analysis of an Argument – 30 minutes 0-6
Integrated Reasoning 12 questions – 30 minutes 0-8
Quantitative 37 questions – 75 minutes 0–60 Total 200–800
Verbal 41 questions – 75 minutes 0–60
Total Time 3 hours 30 minutes

There will be optional breaks before and after the Quantitative section. The time for the exam will be about 4 hours, inclusive of breaks.

What’s changing

The Integrated Reasoning Section

The major change in the Next Generation GMAT is that it will contain a 30-minute Integrated Reasoning section instead of a 30-minute Analysis of an Issue Task. The GMAT Integrated Reasoning section will start immediately after the essay question (Analysis of an Argument) and will contain 12 multiple-choice questions in the following 4 formats:

Other Useful Links:

Additional information/overview

See integrated reasoning video

Listen to integrated reasoning webinar

View integrated reasoning pdf

Integrated reasoning FAQs

Do I really need to worry about integrated reasoning (mba.com blog)