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Hello friends,

If you are applying for Fall 2014, it is time to tighten your belt and get ready for the ride. This is the time to take that extra efforts in making your application stand out. As a bunch of successful students who have graduated from TOP 10 universities in USA ourselves, we offer that extra polish that can help your profile shine brighter.

From careful SOP reviews to tips on managing scholarships, from reviewing your school list to suggesting schools that may be a great fit for you that you might have missed, we specialize in LAST MINUTE ADVICE.

So if you want our expert eyes to ensure that your application is the best you can, give us a call and join our High Level Counseling Package (don’t you love that name) TODAY! It is perfect for those who are already working on their own or with another counselor. Don’t leave any chances, go for the best.

How much does work experience matter for MS?

One of the most common questions we have encountered among applicants is about work experience. Remember, we are talking about MS and not MBA.

  • I will work for two years and then apply to get into better schools
  • I did not receive the admission into my desired school, so I’ll wait and join a job and then reapply
  • I want to go immediately after college and not wait for work experience
  • I have five years of work experience, should I apply for MS at all or only consider MBA?

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Importance of GPA and GRE scores in your MS applications

Often a student wonders if her GRE score is good or is the GPA OK?

Here’s how I look at it-

Admission Committees use your GPA and GRE scores to determine whether you can handle the course load or not. A low GPA or GRE score makes them question your aptitude and ability to manage the curriculum. Further, having a low Quant score and doing poorly in your core courses (e.g. Data Structures for Computer Engineers etc) raises a red flag. So, while a low GRE score on its own may not disqualify you completely, it puts you at a huge disadvantage. I have seen students with superb research profiles or good industry experience but mediocre or subpar scores struggle to get into quality schools.

A GRE score < 310 (and Quant score < 155) can be a serious deterrent and you might consider retaking GRE. We prefer students get GRE > 320 to be able to remain competitive at top schools.

Similarly, when mentioning your GPA, it is important to convey where do you stand in your class/university. For e.g. saying your BE percentage was 73% does not tell the admission committee anything unless you tell them that you fell in top 1% of the class or top 10% – it makes all the difference!

Tip: If you end up applying with low acads (GRE or GPA), do try to explain somewhere in your application that the low score is not reflective of your ability to excel at the program for so and so reason (need help? contact us).

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How does rising DOLLAR impact your study abroad plans?

Rupee has fallen more than 10% in past few weeks. As you or your children plan on applying to schools abroad, the natural concern is how will this impact you.

Here’s my take –

1. Financial Aid becomes more critical – Same school fee is now 10% more expensive for you. So, those who were implicitly relying on financial scholarships  to fund some or whole of their expenses can get more anxious now. This is tough at this point of the process but the good news is that it will only help you being more aggressive in pursuing scholarships. Our insider tips on securing financial aid just became more valuable. We are soon releasing the details of our counseling package, so don’t forget to keep an eye on our incoming posts because we are sure you will be interested in how can we help you easing your financial burden.

2. Career prospects in USA became more lucrative – Right now you are thinking about how much you will have to spend but the good news is that once you start earning (and that begins right when you secure scholarships and start earning stipend), the value of that will be so much more as well in India. So, I want you to look at the positive side and use this forex volatility to your benefit.

3. Let loans help you – Lastly, for those students who are all set to leave for Fall 2013 studies, it might be better to use loans to substantiate your finances. However, do not take out too much extra currency right now and wait for the rupee to stabilize a little if you need more money later on.

4. Be investment savvy and protect yourself against fluctuations – Now, if you are a little money savvy, you can make some investment that can protect you against further volatility in Rupee and Dollar. For details and formal advice, do ask your CA and Investment Advisor to help you plan your foreign expenses.

In the end, do NOT be disheartened. The rise in your expenses is going to be marginal in long run. So, keep focused on your original goal – STUDY HARD and SMART. BUILD a BRIGHT FUTURE. When you graduate and get an awesome job, all this will matter nothing in hindsight.

For specific inside strategies on how to get admitted to top schools, check out our bestselling MS Book: Smart Engineer’s Complete Guide to MS in USA.

Happy Sunday 🙂

How to utilize your summer to improve your admission chances

Are you planning to apply for MS this year? Then, don’t let your summer go waste!

If you are studying in final year or have just graduated (applies to BE, BPharm etc), then this is last chance to improve your profile. Many students spend summer in enjoying and traveling but if you are serious about your applications, then gear up and make the most of this summer. Here are some ways you can utilize it to get ahead of your competition-

1. Intern somewhere and do effective projects – Interning is the best way to add some meaningful experience in your resume. If you didn’t plan ahead, try to find last minute internships using www.letsintern.com These can give you 3-4 solid lines for your SOP. For e.g.-

While interning as a data analyst at Flipkart this summer, I was exposed to upcoming technologies such as Big Data. One of my projects went live that added the capability to track the duration for which a product was looked at before being added to the cart which in turn helped determine the sales probability of products. This has only piqued my interest in the field of data analytics that I shall focus on during my Masters program.

As you can see, talking about internship projects is a great way to tell the school that you are capable of job hunting on your own (which is always nice to improve placement statistics of any school) and that you have some work experience in the field of your interest. It ALWAYS helps to do internships.

2. Hands-on training – Not able to manage a good internship? No worries, look around for what help you can offer among family and friends businesses. May be you can learn a new software to help manage accounts at your friend’s Dad’s shop? Any kind of real experience will give you something to talk about!

3. Skill development – You can also look at improving some skills that might be helpful in your further studies. You can self-learn or look at some courses online too (check out www.udemy.com) Developing good projects in these classes can be a great way to show you are a pro-active learner! Few skills that are helpful to be learned are web development (helpful in getting assistantships), excel modeling etc.

4. Community projects – Engage in any community help projects to add that human element to your profile. Working with a non-profit, tutoring kids or teach for India kind of organizations can show that you believe in contributing to positive causes. Take leadership roles if possible. Teaching subjects in your fields may be better than teaching generic ones.

5. Miscellaneous – If nothing else, go and meet people in your stream and get insights into what path you are trying to pursue. Meet Profs at IITs with insightful questions and who know you might get some interesting lead for a project. Use your imagination, the only thing that limits you is YOU. So, think what can you do in next few weeks!

Need more ideas or advice? Contact us.

Is IIT JEE worth it?

IIT Mains are around the corner and I thought it might be an apt time to talk about the pressure IIT exams cause on engineering aspirants. It is like the be-all of all exams and the holy grail for academically good students. But why are we so blind about it? Lets look at the bigger picture. And then, I’m going to share an insightful post with you from someone who succeeded without caring for IITs.

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Find your dream career first

I was talking to a prospective candidate today who wanted to find out the options about studying abroad. After talking for a few minutes, I realized that he was going on the same route I ask students not to. He was brainstorming what course to do and what major to go after and whether his profile is strong for it or not but not once did he mention what is that he wants to become in life. What is his dream career profile?

What’s the point?

You don’t pave the path to your destination and discuss if the path should be covered by marble or grass without knowing your destination first. If you just start paving the path in any direction, you may have a good path that leads to nowhere. The point is you don’t decide the path first. You decide what is your destination first and for that I again plead you to INTROSPECT. Once you know what it is that will make you happy, you figure out what path will take you there. Simple, no?

So, I asked the student to do some introspection and then we can figure out how to reach there. This post is not to find fault with anyone’s thinking but just to drill down the importance of introspection. Most of us Indians think like that and I hope I can encourage students to not fall into that trap. You will be amazed at how easier it is to reach your goal once you have defined it.

For specific reasons why you should do MS, check out our bestselling MS Book: Smart Engineer’s Complete Guide to MS in USA.

For our paid professional counseling, check out our counseling packages.

Introspection is the key to happy money

There is a big problem with Indian society – they interfere too much in a child’s life. The decision of what a child should become professionally is unfortunately decided mostly by parents and not the child himself.

The bigger problem is that parents’ decisions are driven by social norms.

Therefore, they will try to coerce their children into becoming socially acceptable professionals like engineers, doctors, lawyers, CAs instead of something which the child would enjoy more.

I encourage our student readers to go for a profession they would enjoy. As someone has said, you should be doing what you do when your mind wanders off studies or work. Understanding what is it that you like is INTROSPECTION.

  • Do you love socializing and get people excited about something – you could be a great sales person or a HR manager!
  • Did you love assembling PCs for your friends and families? – Great, get into hardware consultations.
  • Do you want to play games all the time – why not be a game engineer?

That’s very simplistic but I hope you get the drift. Find out what excites you and you shall never have to work a boring job again.

It is never too early to introspect. It is ideally done before Class XI but even if you do it before joining college, it’s ok. Forget that, it is even beneficial to do this while you are in college because you still have time to choose your first job.

Lack of exposure in our schools and colleges has aggravated this problem many fold and I see students following herd mentality instead of listening to their inner voices. I have covered this topic more extensively in this article-

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Once you can do a thorough introspection, you can figure a career path that will keep you inspired. We cover this in our career counseling service as well as help incoming Grad Students get more clarity on what career to pursue in Grad School.

I don’t want to earn my living, I want to live

Oscar Wilde

Now, we are not blessed with automatic means of survival and livelihood, so we do need to do some work. But work doesn’t have to feel like ‘work’, you can enjoy what you do. So, find out what is it that you will enjoy doing 🙂

Need help? Contact us.

Best career options for engineering students

Know what Arvind Kejriwal, Vikram Pandit, Shankar Mahadevan, APJ Kalam, Mukesh Ambani and Harsha Bhogle have in common? – They are all Engineers!

Engineering has become a multi purpose degree these days. Anyone who has good aptitude decides to go for Engineering as this is one program that can open your door into virtually anything (except Medical or Law, possibly). Here, we discuss what are the different career options for an Engineer –

Engineering jobs in your field – It is the most common option when an engineer takes up a job profile directly related to what he studied. E.g. a software engineer joining Microsoft as a programmer, a mechanical engineer joining Tata Motors as a design engineer and so on.

Engineering jobs in a different field – Sometimes an engineer shifts gear slightly and takes up a job profile not related to his area of study. E.g. an electrical engineer joining Morgan Stanley as a banker or a civil engineer joining TCS as a software analyst. Joining as a consultant, marketing analyst etc. also falls under this category.

Further specialization through MS, ME, MTech – This is the route engineers take when they think going to a better school can improve their job prospects. Here MS from esteemed universities in US and Europe is a more lucrative option as it opens the door to jobs abroad.

Switch to business roles through MBA – Usually done to get into higher paying jobs, many engineering grads try to get into IIMs and other elite management schools in India right out of college. Rare few from IITs are able to get into Business Schools abroad as well but it’s still a very small percentage since MBA in America, Europe etc requires non-trivial work experience.

Entrepreneurship/Family Business – Still fewer end up working for themselves or their family owned businesses. Entrepreneurship or startups are particularly in rise in recent times as students find it best to experiment ideas during college and pursue any viable ideas upon graduation when the opportunity cost is still low.

Non-traditional roles – There are handful who spot lucrative opportunities in totally non-related fields such as civil services (0.3% success rate), teaching (yes, a few academically successful engineers join as teachers in coaching institutions which offer handsome packages), creative fields etc.

In next couple of articles, we will elaborate over each option and provide a clearer picture on why you should go with one of these. We will also tie up this to why an option of going abroad can be a smarter choice in the long run. Stay tuned. 

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