Saurabh Arun Samdani and his friends went abroad on a shoe-string budget. Now they tip you off on how to do the same based on their experience
ONCE you have decided to go abroad, there are certain stages (some of which overlap) that you have to follow.
1. Networking with seniors (TIMELINE: start when you enter your undergraduate institution) Keep in touch with seniors who have passed out from your institution. Seniors can talk from their experience about good programmes and universities, professors from whom you should take recommendation letters and the kind of funding available with prospective professors. Collect application and test preparation material from as many seniors as you can. If your network of seniors is strong, you will never need to go to consultants and you will be able to save a lot of money. Sometimes you can also ask close seniors in the US to pay for your application fee, test fee, etc.
2. Choosing the programme of study (TIMELINE: end of pre-final year) As you go through your undergraduate studies, you will discover a penchant for a particular subject. Explore that subject by doing advanced courses and projects. After that, go through websites of universities and find programmes that suit your requirements. Ranking of universities are available at USNews.com. Pay for USNews by pooling in with a group of friends. In IIT, our professors also told us about good programmes.You should decide what universities to apply to on the basis of your academics. Using past record of seniors you can gauge the universities you are likely to get admission to.Try to apply to two universities which are hard to get into, three within your reach and two that you will definitely get admission to.This choice also depends on the application fee of universities. (For example, Stanford has a high application fee of $105 while SUNY Buffalo has one of only $35).
3. Taking standardised tests (TIMELINE: August of final year) The website of your dream programme will mention requirements of standardised tests like GRE, TOEFL, GMAT, subject GRE, etc.These are computer adaptive tests conducted by ETS and you will get a CD of sample tests and preparation matter like POWERPREP when you register for the test online. If you are the kind that devours books, preparation time for GRE, TOEFL will be considerably lesser. For GRE, we had used Barron’s GRE guide (Rs150), ‘Word Power Made Easy’ (Rs 70) and softwares available on IIT LAN (Kaplan, Princeton Review). We also developed softwares to memorise the wordlists.TOEFL preparation being relatively simpler, using Barron’s and POWERPREP is adequate. You can save money by sending your scores free to four universities when you take the test, so decide early the universities you want to apply to.
4. Essays and filling out online forms (TIMELINE: Deadline November) Most universities now have online applications and the site also mentions essays required to be submitted. Guidelines for writing essays like your statement of purpose (SOP) are available on the Internet. Essays submitted by seniors will give you a good idea of what to write in your own essay. If you copy, coherency of your essay will be lost and your application will suffer.Take help from friends who know you well for writing your essay rather than giving it to consultants who are often more interested in their fee. Essays consume a lot of time and hence start writing them as soon as you finish taking GRE and TOEFL. Essays play a very important role for people with minor academic glitches as you get a chance to highlight your strongest points instead. Although writing essays looks formidable at the beginning, you can slowly carve out a good essay by revising your drafts with suggestions from friends, seniors and professors.
5. Collecting recommendations, mark sheets/ transcripts (TIMELINE: After selecting universities) After consulting your seniors, narrow down people you will ask for recommendation letters. A good idea would be to ask professors with whom you have worked on a project and/ or completed courses. As generic recommendation letters are usually discarded, it is important to get someone who knows you well to write a truly unique recommendation letter.You can also ask employers with whom you have worked with as a summer intern for the same. A recommendation from a professor who has an impeccable reputation can take you places. Recommendation letters can be submitted online in some universities.You might have to run a lot for them so get down to it as soon as you narrow down your universities. Some professors might ask you to write a draft and such drafts are available with seniors. Mark sheets/ transcripts should be collected well in advance as this involves lot of red-tape and invariably the concerned person is on leave when you urgently need it.We missed some deadlines because we couldn’t collect recommendations and transcripts on time.
6.Mailing application packets (TIMELINE: One month before application deadline) Prepare application packets of all universities at the same time and put them in a large envelope along with your friends’ packets.Mail this to a senior in the US who will post them locally.Each packet costs around Rs 1000 if sent individually by FedEx, DHL, etc.We had put 14 packets in a large envelope and sent them to a senior in California for just Rs 2000, thereby saving Rs12,000.Send the packets well in advance if you are lumping them together as local postage in US will also take time.
7. Apply for scholarships from Indian Sources (TIMELINE: Start in December) There are many Indian trusts which offer scholarships for studies abroad.We obtained a comprehensive list of these trusts in Natasha Pratap’s book, Wanna Study in the US.Updated information is also available on the Internet (use keywords such as ‘scholarships + india + study abroad’to search). Some trusts like JN Tata Endowment accept applications even before your admission is confirmed while others like American Alumni Association accept applications with your admission letter.These scholarships come in handy to cover incidental expenses and travel till you land on American soil.Moreover, you will have an opportunity of networking with interesting people when you attend their interviews and award ceremonies.
8.Visa and travel (TIMELINE: the final countdown) For your US visa, get the list of relevant documents from the VFS website (www.vfsusa.co.in).Beware of consultants, who advice you to produce forged documents and conceal true facts from Consular officers. You might not only lose money by going to them but some consultants are in the bad books of the Consulate and your visa will be denied if you seek their help.We had an opportunity to meet Consul General and Vice Consul; they gave us only two tips: Don’t lie and don’t get fake documents.A column dedicated to visa queries comes in Economic Times on Mondays in the page on “Global Indian Takeover”, where you can ask your queries for free.After getting your visa, book your tickets with airlines which have student concessions.Don’t forget to contact the Indian Students Association at your university to arrange for a free pickup at the destination airport!