Outline
 Why MS?
 Application Process
 Relevant Exams
 University Selection
 SOP
 Letters of Recommendation
 Your Questions
 How to help chances?
 Getting aid
 Life @US
 Current areas of research
 Jobs/Internships etc
 Questions
 Links
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Why MS?
 Graduate Education
 Has become almost necessary (MS/MBA/PhD)
 MS/MTech gives an exposure to
 Learn advanced concepts desired area; opportunities to extend
it by research
 Meet people with different schools of thoughts
 Makes you eligible for advanced technical opportunities
 Tradeoffs?
 Better understanding of the field
 Better job profiles, salaries, career advancement opportunities
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Application Process
 GRE
 Assessment of English, math and analytical abilities.
 Good score is 1300 – 1400+
 Relevance of score is subjective
 TOEFL
 Tests basic english language abilities (listening, speaking etc.)
 Relatively easy exam compared to GRE
 Subject GRE
 Necessary for some universities (sometimes not explicit)
 Gives a better shot of getting into top universities if score is good
 Questions are not very difficult but its difficult to get a high
percentile
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Selection of Universities
 Check US News Rankings
 Disclaimer
 Ranking process is highly controversial but a good avg.
indicator
 Getting into a lower ranked university may not be strictly
easier than getting into a higher ranked one
 Check for individual areas by visiting the CS department
websites and seeing people working in your area of interest
 Strictly course oriented MS
 CMU INI, Cornell Meng. etc
 Good, if coming to US for just for a job
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Selection of Universities
 Check the profiles of already admitted students and make
a honest judgment of your profile
 Admission criteria is usually
 Undergrad institute
 Undergrad GPA, Subject GRE score
 Nature of projects/papers
 Letters of Recommendation & SOP
 Test Scores, Work-ex (if applicable)
 Test Scores become more important as rankings of
universities decreases
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SOP
 Statement of purpose for application for a particular
degree goal in a particular area of interest
 Do not describe everything achieved in your life
 Resume should cover this information
 Describe your projects in detail
 Describe key learning, obstacles from the projects
 See online samples from a decent source
 No fancy quotes, fluffy literary material
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Letters of Recommendation
 The recommender should know you really well
 Can help him by reminding of the class grade, projects etc.
 Able to give a brief overview and describe your
performance in courses, projects and be able to rank you
quantitatively amongst other students
 Should not describe intangible or irrelevant details
 Punctuality, honesty, attendance have little value
 Make sure the recommender does not use strong words like
“very”, “extremely”, “genius”, “child prodigy” etc.
 Realize how you should stand out in a global pool of
applicants and convey the same to recommender
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How to help chances?
 1st Year/2nd Year
 Do good projects
 Papers/Posters at national conferences rather than footechfest at
NIT foobar.
 3Rd Year
 Internships
 Paper, posters…
 Tests
 4th Year
 Tests, Subject GRE
 Get relevant product/research based work experience
 Work ex also helps fund the application process
 Many students also enter the PhD program after MTech at IITs/IISc
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Funding
 Getting aid is subjective and very university specific
 Overall aid situation is healthy
 Better ranked universities, research oriented universities
have better chances of financial aid during admission
 Usually, one will get some form of job to cover living
expenses
 Tuition expenses (& living) covered by TA, RA, GA
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Life @ US
 Again, subjective
 Dependent on which city you end up in
 Financial Aid
 Overall,
 A funded MS is very comfortable and offers a good standard
of living
 Indian student organizations to help you settle in, keep
culturally close to India
 Tradeoff between staying away from home country and
being exposed to the better opportunities
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Jobs/Internships
 Usually available in abundance (limited by your own
abilities)
 Current Situation
 Recession is global
 Bad idea to define long term career goals on recession cycles
 Graduate applications are expected to rise, application
process more competitive
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Conclusion
 Graduate application process, long drawn but rewarding
 Long term planning usually helps the process
 Being a good student with high GPA and good projects is
helpful
 Graduate experience is very rewarding
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Links
 Rankings
 http://grad-
schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/com/search
 GRE/TOEFL/Subject GRE etc
 http://www.ets.org
 India internships for undergrads
 http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/jobs/intern/about_india.aspx
 http://bangalore.yahoo.com/labs/
 Other product based internships
 Application Info
 http://www.edulix.com/forum
 http://www.urch.com/forums/
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