University Selection

 

The most critical part of the MS application process is the selection of universities. You can also attend the seminar on university selection at USEFI. The resources at USEFI are not of much help, though worth a visit.  This depends on a variety of factors which are listed below :

 

Program of Study

1. Is the program of your choice is available at a particular university?

2. Is specialization and PhD program is available?

3. Do you satisfy the admission requirements like test scores and undergraduate GPA etc?

4. Will you be able to meet the university deadlines. (IMP for DCE guys)

5. University rankings.

 

Research

1. Is there Adequate research is going on in the department? (This indicated greater funding.)

2. Does the ongoing research match your interest?

3. Research history of the department.

4. Amount of money spent on research.

5. Research facilities and labs.

 

Faculty

1. Does the faculty research interests match yours?

2. Are there enough faculty members in your desired specialization? For eg. in mechanical a department may have its concentration in Thermal and hence more faculty members in Thermal than Design. So in such a department you would prefer to apply for thermal or prefer not to apply if you want to do Design.

3. Are any of the faculty members Indian or your own college alumni. Not critical but may be some guy may want to help you because he is from your college.

 

Funding

1. Is sufficient  funding  available and if yes its nature. (TA/RA or instate tuition status). You can write to Profs as well as current students before selecting universities to find out if they have funding.

2. Amount of Funding available.

3. Do check out the website to find out how many of the present graduate students have aid.

4. Find out if there are any specific requirements to be eligible for funding.

 

Job Prospects

1. It is important that you take into account the placement history of a particular college or department before choosing to apply to that college. After all nobody wants to be unemployed after doing an MS.

2. States like Texas, New York, New Jersey, California are better off in this aspect although as of today the scene is pathetic all over the US.

 

Costs Involved

1. Cost of tuition and living expenses. Undoubtedly very important.

 

Other factors

1. Number of current Indian graduate students and also Indian alumni.

2. Climatic conditions.

3. Whether any of your relatives stay in the same state or a neighboring state.

4. Whether you know anybody in the university. Obviously you would prefer to apply there.

5. Quality of student life on campus.