Graduate Studies in US: Some thoughts about school selection and a few useful tips for days just before and after the journey

The last time I wrote about the US grad study application procedures, I was yet to come to the US - I had just gone through the ordeal and was set to travel. Now, after being here for more than two years, I feel obliged to share a few of my realizations.

Choice of Location:

When you are still in your home country, it is possible that you imagine US as some homogenous entity that you see through the Hollywood lenses (or your friend's facebook gallery featuring the spectacular scenic shots). Well, even LA would fail to live up to that perception! It makes sense to do a little bit of research about the place where your prospective school (university) is located. For example, try to know if the place is hot and humid (like Austin, Texas) or, cloudy and rainy (like Seattle, Washington) or, remains under snow for 6 months a year (like Minneapolis, Minnesota). PhD is a 'test-match', to use the cliche. So, it is important to know what kind of life is in store for you. Being close to a big city, like New York, Chicago or LA will enable you avail a lot of variety in food (presence of differnt kinds of ethnic grocery stores, restaurants), entertainment (movies, concerts, theatres, museum visits, seasonal festivals, night clubs, pubs) as well as easy access to a bunch of useful facilities like foreign consulates (useful to get easy visa stampings done while you travel for conferences), public transport (can get away without needing to sit behind the wheel) or generally lower air-fare deals (you eliminate the cost of flying from your small town airport to the big transit points). But all this come with significantly more living (housing, food) cost, or difficulty in finding parking (once you have a car) or more distraction than some might not be able to cope with. Compare this with life in some very good schools in the middle of no-where, like NCSU or ND. With nothing against the wonderful little places like Raleigh or South Bend, your life can be trapped in an infinite loop of "apartment-department-advisor-budweiser". But, then again, it all depends on what kind of a person you are and what kind of a life you seek. Life is, after all, what we want to make out of it.

Piling it up - shopping shopping and more shopping!

Well, this exactly has two phases.

Phase 1 is before you pack your bags. In general, you are expected to receive tons of (conflicting!) advises regarding what to buy and take to the US. I will add my two cents here. I would discourage bringing cooking utensils from india, except perhaps a pressure cooker. This is assuming you have someone to put up with initially and who will be helping you in your initial shopping in the US (will discuss this aspect later) - otherwise, it is prudent to bring some minimal stuff like a frying pan, a stirrer or spatula, a glass, a plate, a bowl, a spoon and a fork. Some people bring lots rice, lentils, spices or even notebooks. While, it is definitely cheaper when you take the conversion ratio into account, it is better to start getting used to spend dollars as they are meant to be spent. On the contrary, I would suggest you try to figure out what courses you would be doing in your first/second semester and what are the probable text books to be used - and bring those text books along with you to the US. The low priced editions are not available here, and a book can cost from $40 to $100. If you are heading for a place in fall that is supposed to have shivering winters, you are better off not buying the winter clothing - partly because they may not look trendy enough and partly because you wouldn't know what to buy!

Phase 2 is after you are in the US. Though the initial incliniation is to buy stuff at the lowest avaiable price - refrain from it if you can (I know you have a limited supply of dollars and the payroll takes about a month to kick in). You actually save money buy paying a little extra for things that would last for 3-4 years rather than ones that need to be replaced in 6 months or a year. And yes, don't buy plastic 'microwave safe' boxes (buy pricey glass ones instead - I know you will thank me later :-)) or some oversized jacket (that you will wear only one winter) just because it was on a half price sale. Also, buy stuff only that you think you will need (make a shopping list before hand) and not because it might be useful. You will be surprised to find how fast things accumulate in the US.

As for furnitures, if you are picking up used stuff (either for free from the ones dumped beside the neighborhood gargabe bins or even buying at a throaway price from a garage sale) - be careful about bedbugs - they can steal your sleep, literally.

Shopping for bargain is compulsion for some - be carfeul to factor in the time you spend on saving the 2$ on shipping. However, spend a little bit of time reading the online reviews of the stuff you want to buy - and buying electronics online is cheaper.


Surviving

Doing a PhD in US is not only about research. If this is the first time you are staying outside your home, then you will realize it even more quickly. You need to take care of paying the various bills (rent, electricity, gas, internet, cable, water), do groceries, cook, pack lunches (having lunch everyday at school might be costly, or unappetizing or both, eventually), do your own laundry, vacuum your room, wash dishes (that always seem to pile up in the kitchen sink), clean the tiolet, remove snow from the front of your house (if not living in a managed apartment that takes care of the snow removal) and all this in the little window of time you get after doing homeworks (for a first few semesters), grading (as a TA) and research. For the un-initiated, this (i.e., modern life) can be daunting.

Despite the euphoria of having your own private life in a cozy little studio ("I can socialize through Facebook, not a big deal!"), sharing apartment with roomies seems smarter to me. You can share a few to all of the above mentioned chores (how much depends upon the amount of raaport that you have with him/her). Even when you are just sharing the apartment and nothing else, having a real person to talk to after day's labor or get someone to taste something special that you put a lot of effort to cook (cooking can be a stress-buster) does mean some thing in an otherwise lonely life. And of course, someone to fall back on when you are sick. For those who are used to having classmates (most under-grads), it is a warning that in graduate courses it is difficult to make friends. So, when you are making new friends, most probably he/she is either your labmate or roommate.

I may sound parochial here, but usually it takes time for people to get assimilated a new country, to understand the 'obvious' social interactions or appreciate the humor. On the other hand, it is always easy to find a person like you who has gone through the same phase of settling down a year or two ago. Hook up. Make friends. Seek help. Almost all schools have some sort of Indian grad students' groups (it might to difficult to gel with the undergrad south asian groups). And most of them has webstes - like our IGSSA @ Northwestern http://groups.northwestern.edu/igssa/index.htm . You will find loads of useful information, airport pick-ups (usually voluntary by someone like me or you, fater you are here), initial week's stay (when you can search for apartments) and most importantly contacts of people that you can talk to and seek advice even before coming to the US. (Don't bug them too much!)

With this truck load of information (how many bits?? - silly joke as an information theorist) if I have presented a sufficiently grim picture for you, then here is something to cheer you up - you are traveling to a new continent, on your own, will do some worth-while research, make some really special friends, go around lots of fantastic places, taste a plethora of cuisines, get to see people from all parts of the world and ultimately feel happy about the experience you have gifted your self. Get rid of the butterflies in your stomach. Now.

P.S. 1. If you are planning to come to US without a laptop and hope to buy a new one after you come - it's a bad idea. To buy a good laptop at a reasonable price, you need to search one over the net. Risk this, if you are sure you will have alternate mode of access to the internet.

P.S. 2. If you are joining in Fall and have some plans to go back home during the winter holidays, book the tickets now! deciding in October-November might mean extra few hundred dollars. If you are not going back home, plan a trip for the winter with/to some friend, relative in the US. It's a bad idea to keep the holidays for doing some research (as if you are gaining time over your 'competitor' - it's time get over those 'rat-race' ideas dude!) and spend the whole time holed up in your apartment changing nothing except your facebook status.

To go for a PhD to the US

The best thing is to plan at least 1 and a half years in advance. That is, if u plan to join in fall (aug-sep) 2010, start acting on your plans by Jan 2009. Also, these are the few things that you must keep handy, or to get hold of as quickly as possible:

1. a valid passport
2. a credit card
3. working mail id

School Selection:
The things that matter for a school to offer you admission in a PhD program (along with tuition waiver and a decent scholarship/TA/RA) are

1. UG and Graduate CGPA.
2. Recommendations from research guides, course instructors, employers.
3. Publications in international conferences and/or journals.
4. GRE and TOEFL scores.
5. Statement of purpose.
6. Interaction with some faculty through e-mails prior to formal application.
7. Availability of funding in that school in your stream of interest.

I don' know what is the weightage that schools give to these factors, but for someone who is eyeing a top ten institute, it's required that you have no soft spot in any of these.

When you decide on the schools in which you seek admission, you should first review your strength in the above factors and then try to do a best possible match. First check out the rankings of different schools in different websites and form a fairly rough estimate of top 'x' schools in your area of research. You can make use of the following links:

http://www.infozee.com/channels/ms/usa/branch-rankings.htm

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php

It's good to start up an excel sheet with web-addresses and rankings of these schools. Search the websites of the releveant departments of these schools one by one and keep on adding notes to your excel sheet so that you have all the info handy when you make the final decision on which schools you are actually going to apply.

Now, select some 20 odd schools that either have a large/renowned group working in your area of interest or there is some interesting prof doing some good work. Based on your profile, you should choose some 10 odd schools which are beyond the range of your profile (i.e., they are less likely to call you), some 5 schools which you think you have got an even chance of getting in and some 5 odd which would be glad to have you as a student. Send out e-mails to one or more profs from each of these schools with a snap-shot of your credentials (make it as short as possible) and expressing interest of working with him or her. Call this 'pre-application'. In fact, some schools actually have this mechanism in place as a part of their graduate admission process. Be careful to draft your mail such that they do not get automatically filtered out of the prof's mail-box. It is highly probable that you would not get a reply to 90% of your e-mails. Try to engage in conversation with the intersted people. If there is someone like your research guide in bachelors/masters who is known to the people you have mailed, or is an alumnus of your u-grad/grad school, things can be really good. Based on your pre-app experience, make a list of 7-12 schools you want to apply. A good spread will be one-third which you think are actually above your profile, and rest where you have a fair chance. Try to keep 1 or 2 schools, which are not that great according to your credentials, as back-up, if you are really keen on studying in US.

Note down the deadlines of the schools you are going to apply. Usually it is spread between end of November to middle of February for fall applications. Be ready with scanned copies of your

1. u-grad and grad marksheets
2. passport,
3. cv
4. statement of purpose.

Order for sealed transcripts from your u-grad and grad schools in time. Almost all schools entertain only online-application and online-recommendation. Talk to your recommenders in advance. You will need 4-5 recommenders since most will dcline to give you recos for 8-12 universities.

Applications will cost USD 60 - 90 depending on the school. In addition you need to send supplementary materials like the sealed transcripts and other filled up forms. DHL takes around INR 1000 for each delivery through its 'University Express' student scheme; FedEx costs even more.

Tests and Scores:
Book your dates for GRE and TOEFL. If you are going for a subject like Comp Sc or Mathematics/Physics, which have subject GRE, it is better to have the subject GRE score as well. People in Electrical/Mechanical Engineering needn't bother about that.
Use the following link to learn in details about the tests and book dates.
http://www.ets.org/
Dates in India are usually in high demand (particularly TOEFL) and you need to plan atleast 2 months in advance to get a date of your choices. Dates are often made available in chunks of two months. Visit the website regularly to grab a suitable date / time slot.

General GRE
Note: All the numbers given here are indicative and no claim is made about their accuracies.

The test fee is USD 170. You can reschedule a date by payment of additional USD 50. A registration allows you to send scores to 4 US institutions and you need to give those names just after you have completed taking the test. Later, you can send test score to other institutions @ USD 12 per score-report (You need to make a call to the GRE office @ USD 6 per call and request a max of 6 institutions for score reporting in a single call. For more than that, you need to make another call)
The test has 3 parts.
One is the verbal ability test comprising of vocabulary tests (synonyms, antonyms), reading comprehensions and comparisons. It quizzes you on some 6-8 vocab questions, 4-6 analogies, 4-6 sentence completions and 3 RCs (usually 1 big- 100 lines and 2 small -50 lines) asking some 15 questions. There are 800 marks up for grabs. One with normal 'English-medium school' vocab and 1 & 1/2 months of scrubbing should score more than 650.
Another section is the quantitative ability tests and asks questions on high school maths. This needs very little practice but a lot of concentration to get the full 800.
The third section is Analytical writing test. There, you need to write two essays. One of the essays will be about expanding your ideas on a particular issue/opinion and substantiating the claim or oppopsing it through arguments and examples. The other one is about critically analysing one pragraph of argument given on a particular situation. The questions in this section are drawn from a pool of pre-specified stuff and the list is available with ETS. For a 'normal' person it is advisable not to mug up a lot of pre-written essays, rather to understand what is expected of the candidate through the writing exercise.
The entire test is fully computerized. During the test, one can get a section(verbal or quant) that is only for testing purposes and will not be scored. But this information is available only after you have completed the section. After the analytical writing, you will prompted to write another set of essays for 'test mechanism-evaluating purposes' which you can choose to skip. Time management is extremely essential for GRE. It is strongly advised to answer a question (whether correctly or not) rather than leave it unattempted.

The following resources might be of help to test takers. Basically, it's best to google the free stuff and take practice tests.
http://www.greguide.com/gre-practice-tests.html
http://www.testprepreview.com/gre_practice.htm
http://www.mygretutor.com/
http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/testprep/testprep.asp?TPRPAGE=80 (practice the demo here)
http://directory.edufeeds.com/testprep/practice_test.asp?id=1295&sponsor=1&path=gr.pft.gre

It is advisable not to waste any money in buying online/offline test preparation kits or getting into coaching centres with a hefty fee. The Baron's or any other GRE guide (containing a set of high frequency words) , the ETS testing CD (will be home delivered once you register for the test - but since this is sent by ordinary post, it can take a lot of time reach your place) and some free online stuff is good enough to equip you for the test. Do not get bogged down by the fact that you need to know these many words and practice that many number of tests. Some 5-6 full length practice tests can be considered good enough. Try one or two in the beginning to get the feel and practice the rest when when you consider yourself to be some what prepared. Do not sit for practice tests just before the exam. Bucket words which you have difficulty to remember, and practice them often. Try to remember words through examples that you can visualize. One hour per day concentrated study for a couple of months should be enough for a 'normal guy'.

GRE Subject Test
This test is available for
Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology
Biology
Chemistry
Computer Science
Literature in English
Mathematics
Physics
Psychology
The test fee is USD 150. Tests are paper-based and can only be taken in specific times of the year - in October, November and April. Since only 3 days are available in a year, you need to contact the nearest test centre well in advance, even before dates are open for booking.
I did not take subject test, so cannot give any insight about how to prepare for it.

TOEFL iBT
The internet-based TOEFL is what is now only offered in India. This has 4 sections - reading, listening, speaking and writing - each having 30 points each to be scored in a specific time. Preparation required for TOEFL is much less than GRE. Infact, a week or two's preparation is enough. Since this is a new kind of test, the resources that are available for TOEFL iBT is lesser than GRE. There is no pressing need to spend INR 500-1000 to buy a book with audio CDs. You will get a free sampler when you register for TOEFL. This will help you to get a feel of the Reading and the Listening sections. The speaking and writing sections will not be addressed. Try to locate online practice tests which are free. For the reading and the listening part, try to practice taking notes while you read or write. Working on speaking clearly is essential. Do not try to put an affected accent. A score of 105 or more overall is deemed pretty good.

You can check out the following online resources:
http://www.free-english.com/toefl-ibt-practice-test.aspx
http://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/

TOEFL also allows you to name 4 schools to which you can send scores without extra cost, at the time of booking the test. Later, you can order more score reporting at an extra cost of USD15 each.


Offers and Rejection :
The offers and rejections will start pouring in from middle of February and it can go on till end of May. But most likely, if you are being seriously considered by some school, you will be contacted by middle of march. In most cases, you need to convey your decision of accepting an offer by mid-april. It is advisable to confirm your availability to one institution, rather than being ambiguous to multiple. Once you confirm, the university will initiate the process of issuing a document called I-20. Some schools need you to send a filled up request form for I-20 with all the relevant details. This is a very important document and once issued by some school, it will be difficult for you to change your school.

Visa:
This is the last important hurdle that you need to get past. You will need to apply for a student (F-1) visa. This can be done online through www.vfs-usa.co.in . But first you need to visit an HDFC bank (that is listed in the site) and pay the requisite fees (USD 131 + service charges) to get the set a set of slips with stickers. Take the money and a copy of your passport for the fee payment. Next, book your appointment with the consulate through the vfs site. You should book date with a consulate that is nearest to your present place of residence. Usually for fall applicants, Chennai consulate is extremely crowded and you might possibly get only an emergency appointment. You can book in emergency quota only when the date of booking is within 120 days of the start of your academic program (as mentioned in the I-20). You also need to pay the SEVIS fee through www.fmjfee.com . The fee is USD 100. Take a printout of this receipt as the actual receipt takes time to arrive. (There is no need to spend another USD 25 to ask for speedy delivery of this receipt.)

The documents that you need to take are mentioned in the vfs site itself. For people who are going with full financial support from the school itself should be having a smooth experience. It is advisable to take along with you some proofs of your intent of return, like property documents. I f you are married and your wife is staying back or you have a B1 visa already, these are added advantages. Do not worry about the visa too much; it will be actually much smoother than all that you will read on the web. Also, don't contact visa consultants as this is a waste of money. Donot forget to take print-out od DS-156 form back to back and sign it. Also, remember to sign the I-20 before going for the interview.

And Finally...

1. Get your vaccinations/medical tests done as per your school/state requirements.
2. Apply for university housing or decide upon your apartment. You postpose it till you reach the place if you already have somone to stay with.
3. Book air-tickets. Try to get a ticket with through check-in if you are travelling abroad for the first time.
4. Read survival guides on net, about the place where you are going.

All the best!!!