nehadhar1986 Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 hi ppl.....im a lil confused bout which univ i shud apply to...although ive chosen d colleges i wanna apply to i donno if i hv a gud chance @ getting an admit.......my scores r like: gre general test:1520 toefl ibt:111/120 me applying for MS(Chem engg) to d following........ georgia-tech,caltech,cornell,utex-austin,minnesota,berkeley,purdue,uiuc,waterloo(canada).... shud i apply to average colleges as well...????? i feel i hv a gud profile but nt really feeling optimistic bout my admission to ne of dem.......PLZZZZ IF NE1 CAN OFFER NE KINDA ADVICE.......PLZ FEEL FREE TO MAKE NE SUGGESTIONS.........DATS ASAP....!!!!! thanx in advance.........!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahl Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 Research experience? Undergrad university and GPA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 17, 2007 Author Share Posted November 17, 2007 ohhkkkk.....so a detailed profile required.... me doing me B.E from DCE.....which is among d top 10 engg colleges in india...... departmental rank is 1....we get scores in %ages n not GPA's........so my cumulative %age is arnd 85%.......(which by indian standards is very gud....)....been a meritorious student throughout school n college.....got merit certificates 4 clearing maths olympiads n many others.......... unfortunately dont hv much research experience.....i did one industrial summer training in Reliance industries(well known)......a minor training in college n a minor project in another college........n am currently doing a gud project in thermosensitive polymers..... apart 4m dat....ive lotsa ECA to talk bout in school as well as in college.... PPL...PLZ REPLY ASAP COZ IM REALLY TENSED UP......N NEED D ADVICE...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 17, 2007 Author Share Posted November 17, 2007 ohhkkkk.....so a detailed profile required.... me doing mY B.E from DCE.....which is among d top 10 engg colleges in india.....ranked after IITs...... departmental rank is 1....we get scores in %ages n not GPA's........so my cumulative %age is arnd 85%.......(which by indian standards is very gud....)....been a meritorious student throughout school n college.....got merit certificates 4 clearing maths olympiads n so on.......... unfortunately dont hv much research experience.....i did one industrial summer training in Reliance industries(well known)......a minor training in college n a minor project in another college........n am currently doing a gud project in thermosensitive polymers..... apart 4m dat....ive lotsa ECA to talk bout in school as well as in college(both technical as well as non technical activities).... PPL...PLZ REPLY ASAP COZ IM REALLY TENSED UP......N NEED D ADVICE...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahl Posted November 17, 2007 Share Posted November 17, 2007 Sounds like your grad project counts as research! The work experience also helps. How long have you been in grad school working on that project, and what was your contribution? I guess I'm really confused because you're applying for an MS, but already doing a grad project. What's the story? I ask about the research because that's going to be a big deal for schools like Caltech, Berkeley, Minnesota... BTW, I'm at Caltech. Are you sure we offer an MS in ChE? There are requirements listed for this degree, but I think it's just something people pick up along the way to the Ph.D.: I don't know anyone in that dept. whose terminal degree is an MS. I'd look into that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 17, 2007 Author Share Posted November 17, 2007 ill xplain...im in fourth yr completing my B.E degree.......d proj im talking bout is a winter training project...Yea its a gud research project....i said its GUD....not a GRAD project......cud u suggest sum other schools....coz my aim is an MS n not a Phd.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancalagon The Black Posted November 17, 2007 Share Posted November 17, 2007 neha: You might find this interesting: India Today Ranks VIT UNIVERSITY as No.1 Private Engineering Institution in the Country ‘Outlook’ Ranking of Top Govt. Engineering Colleges-India « AdmissonSync Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 17, 2007 Author Share Posted November 17, 2007 hey ancalagon the black...i donno bout dis outlook wala issue....coz d top iit college is iit delhi n not iit kharagpur(latest survey)......so dere goes.....d list topper in d outlook list is debatable........wat matters is d reputaton of a college.....hope u get d drift........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancalagon The Black Posted November 17, 2007 Share Posted November 17, 2007 Opsie !! Pressed submit by mistake: As you notice, DCE is ranked 14 and 12 respectively by India Today and Outlook in 2007. The hard truth is that preference is always given to IITs. So, if you are up against an IITian, you are dead, as am I (I am from Jadavpur University, Kolkata ranked 11 in both rankings) Your GRE and % is excellent. I suggest using WES to convert the % into the GPA. They are bound to mark it as 4.0 --- that will help. Finding funding is difficult for MS programs and indeed most top schools do not have MS only programs as wahl suggests. However, for Fall 2007, my friend from Stephens chemistry got into Brown PhD with a 1440 GRE so all hope is not lost. Having said that, I think that you should apply to any school you feel like as you have a damn strong profile. (I only have a 1470 GRE) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahl Posted November 17, 2007 Share Posted November 17, 2007 Oh, "GUD," haha. Would have guessed you were Jamaican! Your scores are great for an MS program, but you're going to have to find schools that offer them yourself I think. I really don't know anything about that. Also, I think there is a concern for foreign grad students applying to MS programs when it comes to getting a visa or being admitted: you have to prove you can afford the program, and you won't have any time to work on the side. Your problem as an international student is that you can't take any of the gov't. loans that all the domestic students rely on to pay for their MS, so you might need to have cold hard cash sitting in a bank somewhere in order to get in. Is your plan to stay in industry in the US? You might need a PhD at any rate. Another bit of advice: extracurriculars are not important for grad schools. I've done many myself but won't be mentioning them on applications (few applications even have a space for that). It's not like undergrad, where they care whether or not you're a well-rounded person. Grad schools just want to know about how you'll succeed in their field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancalagon The Black Posted November 18, 2007 Share Posted November 18, 2007 neha: See, the perspectives are as follows. My uncle is a professor in University of Wisconsin, Madison, Bio department and he told me that IITs are seen as equal in every respect. If you are up against IIT, then other candidates will lose out simply because IITs are tried and tested. Of course, there are other tried and tested schools as well. For instance, the universities of delhi, bombay, madras, calcutta are seen as solid, excellent schools - so it really doesn't matter whether you come from st. stephens or some other "lesser" institution as long as you are under the main university. Other universities such as BITS, Anna, JU etc. are also regarded as being very good since they have been sending students to schools for ages. And it depends on the school, if they once start taking students from a particular institution, then they can take in more students from that school as well.Eg: JU has many, literally, many students in MIT since JU engineering program is one of the best in the country and profiles are generally better. DCE is also regarded as a "good school" from India and has students in many universities in the US. That is not a problem. But, if you are up against an IIT, then nobody, you and me, stands a chance. (my class rank is 1 but we are given lower percentages, around 70%) Do a WES equivalency because then they will consider that. Let us know what it is, I am sure that it will be a 4.0. Do you need funding as well? MS only programs have generally no funding and good programs cost a lot. Lets hope that you can arrange that. I am sure that wahl will be able to appraise you on the status of caltech. It is a very difficult school to get in. Thankfully, you are in chemical, which is relatively easier to get into. But, search for MS only programs in good schools. Personally, I am going to do a PhD as I want the US government, or other associated rich men and women to pay for me... :D Accha, another thing, cut out on the textese, its hurts the eyes... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 18, 2007 Author Share Posted November 18, 2007 @ Ancalagon The Black hey...wat is WES? n ure not supposed to convert scores to gpa bt state d system of grading ur college follows.....ive read dis in many univ sites......its better nt to convert %ages to gpas......neways thanx 4 d info bout rankings.....do u think d list of colleges ive drawn is k???? i hope its not too ambitious.....ive listed only dose univ which say dat student aid is available 4 grads applicants..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 18, 2007 Author Share Posted November 18, 2007 @ wahl well i knw for MS... u hv to pay 4 d first yr...n thereafter u cn get fellowships n stuff.......BUT unfortunately if I apply for a Phd program...it will b lik "sudden death"....my application will go into d dustbin coz i hvnt got much undergrad research experience to crow about......SO I dont think applying 4 PhD directly is a very nice idea......neways i cn always mention in d online application form dat my ultimate aim is to acquire a PhD..... I knw extra curriculars nt essential..dey r jus a part of my resume...... hey thanx a lot 4 replying to my query.....i wanna knw if d list of univ i selected r k or nt??? i mean i hope im not tooo ambitious in univ selection.....ne other univ i shud consider?????? u said i shud look at univs which offer terminal M.S "themselves"....ive searched a lot for univ n only after careful scrutiny i selected d list...obviously I considered only M.S programs....n univ which gv graduate aid......do u think I mistake in interpreting sumthing wrongly bout dese univ even after careful search....I mean i hv a very bad feeling dat im nt doing sumthing right......plz reply asap......thanx a lot!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 18, 2007 Author Share Posted November 18, 2007 ohh.I am sorry about the textese.Didnt notice it before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancalagon The Black Posted November 18, 2007 Share Posted November 18, 2007 WES refers to World Education Services - International Education Intelligence This is an evaluation service and is well recommended by most universities. In fact, places like Chicago and Columbia insist that you get a conversion done. They are pretty lenient on India. Apparently First Class and up is 4.0 GPA. And for engineering its First Class with Honors. I do not think that that will be a problem for you. Otherwise, you can just leave the GPA blank or write NA in the online application or give your score and add "%" sign after that in the GPA textbox. Well, things might be different for chem engineering because I think that chem engineering being an application of a "hard" science gets many NSF grants. However, MS generally you pay for one year and then "maskafy" the professor so hard that he gives you a TA. :D Your list is good. I do not think that you will have any problem. Lastly, there is the question of competition. In fact, international students are so desparate to go to the US that they take admission into all sorts of weird departments. I read about this guy from DCE who later went to Stanford for PhD but did EE from DCE. First, he got MS in Journalism from UGA, then another MS in Education from GTech and finally PhD from Stanford in Education Sciences (a far cry from EE) Then of course, there is the legendary story? of the IITian who went to an Ivy League to study Slavic Studies, took a host of CS electives and got a job as a research scientist somewhere. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 18, 2007 Author Share Posted November 18, 2007 hey Ancalagon The Black Thanks a lot for the information.Really appreciate it.By the way...I was going through this fulbright program on usefi site and was surprised to find out that they have no grants for M.S people.Do you know about institutes in India which provide scholarships etc for graduate studies.I dont want to know about banks just institutes like ford foundation.Ive checked some institutes and they give literally peanuts as a scholarship amount.for eg Rs 50000??!!!! So I wanted like a good amount of scholarship around 3 or 4 lakhs atleast and not just Rs 50000....Do You have any info about some good scholarship programs??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancalagon The Black Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 neha: The reality check is that no foundation will give you any significant amounts money, short of getting the Rhodes or the Cooke or the Goldwater et al. But, them are reserved. So, either you get funded by your school or your dad dishes out the dough or you cry out in front of the SBI bank manager (never go to ICICI, they are cheats) and he gives you 15 lakhs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancalagon The Black Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 There is a Ambani scholarship or a Tata scholarship but they are all reserved for IIT and IIM students... seriously, that is one of the qualifications... shrewd businessmen, they reckon that investing in IIT/IIM students are better returns guaranteed. Pity about us poor mortals no? The other day, this IIT K guy I know challenged me that he could get into any US institution he wanted to and I couldn't. Guess what, I had to keep quiet. There was veracity there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahl Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 Hi, I looked into it and ChE does offer MS only - my bad! There's no reason to believe you made mistakes when researching the other schools, either. I think the set of universities you've selected looks right, but I'm not in ChE, so I don't know what places would make good backup schools. And you're right that applying to MS programs first will help your chances for PhD admission and reduce your chance of rejection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 19, 2007 Author Share Posted November 19, 2007 hey Ancalagon The Black Thanks a lot for the help.But would you mind being a little optimistic.As in I know getting scholarships etc is tough because the competition is very good.But you never know.It depends on the applicant pool.If they are much better than you, then you're done for. Yea.you're right.M.S in Chem must be slightly easier to get in than M.S Computer science(half the world wants to pursue this course!!!!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehadhar1986 Posted November 19, 2007 Author Share Posted November 19, 2007 hey wahl.Thanks a lot for all the advice you gave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancalagon The Black Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 neha: Optimistic !! Tell me, how can I be optimistic if I compete with 500 other students in any random application pool, 300 of whom have better profiles than I have... :( You have a much better profile than I have. But, I am applying to PhD in business programs. I reiterate, I do not think that you will have any problems. In fact, high chances are there that you might get a TA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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