Education is the most important issue in any person’s life. May it be selecting a school for a 3 year old or selecting a grad school for a master’s program! Education abroad has become a common issue of today and its not just restricted to engineering and technology students. There are many steps involved in this process of reaching the desired college in US. Since the maximum number of students plan for education in the US, we shall restrict our discussion to admissions in US colleges.
The most important factor in deciding about the education in US is the cost factor involved. Thanks to the soaring dollar value, this has become a major factor in deciding which college to apply for. With the availability of Internet and the college websites, it is no longer a search in the dark room. There was a time, when, even to see the information brochure of a college one had to take the membership of the nearest USEFI (United States Education Foundation in India) Now, we can simply log on the websites and follow the links to the department we are interested in, and find out everything from admission deadlines to campus jobs, aid scene, accommodation, staff etc etc.
As said earlier, the cost of education is an important factor in deciding which college to attend. On an average the annual expenses of the colleges in US is $ 15, 000. This amount may vary from $8, 000 in an economical environment to $ 30, 000 in a state like California. Naturally, when students from India go to colleges in US, they prefer those with lower costs, which sometimes depend on the rank of the college and the location of the colleges. Some states in US are considered more expensive than others. So the more economical ones are on the top of the list of students.
Another factor is the ranking of the university to which a student is applying. National Research Council does the ranking of the universities and the rankings are known as NRC rankings. There are websites giving the detailed rankings for all branches, which we shall discuss later. Selection of the university is done on the basis of the GRE /GMAT scores as the main criteria. Academic record does come into play, but at a later stage. A student with a very good score can apply to a high ranked university and still hope to get some aid. It is always a good idea to contact the senior students in that particular university to know exact aid scene there. The colleges do not disclose, just by looking at the scores, that the student may get aid or not. The aid etc is decided department wise and it is, basically an amount given to that department to conduct a research in a particular field. So, naturally, the students who are willing to participate in that research, will get the benefit of the fund provided, in the form of an aid. So, it is important, on the part of the students to check out from the websites, the areas of research available in the department they are interested in. Getting in touch with the Indian students in the college you are interested in always helps. Every college has an application processing fee of approx $ 50. So, it is important that the student does enough research about the college, funds available, research available before applying. Hence, applying to very high ranked university is also to be avoided, incase you expect some financial aid from them because u don’t want to end up competing with Albert Einsteins to secure aid! Similarly, there is no use applying to 10-12 colleges when 8 out of them are rejected! It’s a waste of good money.
Last but not the least, the climate and other factors like the location; people etc can be used to decide between universities. Some very useful websites for searching the perfect university that matches your brain as well as wallet are
http://www.gradschools.com
http://www.gradunivs.com
http://www.usnews.com
http://www.coming2america.com
http://www.google.com and search NRC rankings + department