Masters in US coupled along with few of my tangible thoughts

(If you have less time, I request you to read the end part at least which is really important, what I feel)

Thinking about your masters in US or in any other nation? Then this might be quite a handy to read!!!

Here I will talk about few things which we often tend to forget or rather even fail to recognize before we reach US; it will be more relevant to US but can be generalized to other countries too.

Well If I have to talk about my experiences, mine was very unique or did I make it unique? I think I made it unique. Among my classmates in CBIT, I was the first to take GRE, during those days I was very sure that though I will get a campus placement I will leave that for MS in US. But with time and all the factors weighed in well I gave up the idea of MS and got settled with my Job in Infosys. After the strenuous training and having survived the training battle at Infosys, I was able to get the real taste of what a corporate will be like; to put in simple words it will be like you being trained in Hindi to talk in English and work in something which any school kid would be able to do. I was never satisfied with the work I was given in that project. It forced me to look for other alternatives and thought of going for MBA another conventional route. The only point I can pride with it was that, I was again first among all my friends and batch mates to think of MBA in US and also went on to write GMAT. After that with thorough planning I also got admissions from three US universities and VISA too without any help from any consultancy. Few of my friends too joined me in this and they too gave their GMAT later on. But after landing in US and looking at the scenarios there I was taken aback and then started re-analyzing few factors which I never did even think of when I was in India which are quite relevant things which most of us try to evade. Having felt it is better to return back to India and I gave no second thought to it though many of my well wishers advised not to, but I stood with my decision and I did come back in a month, the educational visit turned into a tourist visit! It did have an effect on my friends who earlier were eager to get into MBA just dropped their plans- a good decision if I were to be asked!!!

Concluding my humdrum talk about my experiences, now I would like to discuss the more important and relevant points which needed to be considered or weighed before you take a decision on your further studies at US:

- Know yourself:

Identify yourself and your interests first before merely following the tide. Why you exactly need a master’s degree? Are you really interested in the subjects, you are opting for? And if you want to do master’s in the same field would the bachelors not be enough? How interested were you during your bachelors in the subject, which you intend to master? If it is just the US dreams that is alluring you? Or you have no other opportunity left out in India?

Understand your reasons and needs before jumping unto the MS. Never be under a false illusion yourself though you may try to evade people around you. This is the time when scores of IT companies in India are increasing the pressure on employees having sensed a chance to do so. It becomes an obvious choice for all the troubled professionals to think of Masters but it’s a wrong notion to take up to studies as you have nothing better to do India or as you are idle. It needs to be understood that affluent no of Indians in US who are done with their masters are no better than you, even they remain idle for months together and this recession is really giving tremors for them. They are as jobless as you are added to it a constant fear of losing their Visa status. If you have opted for masters only because you have no job on hand or lost your job do not forget that the situation will be the same after your masters you will again be in the market searching for a job of course with an added degree which will help little at the expense of all important work experience. Well yes, there you will be having the consultancies to help you out initially by faking your work experience and then squeezing you out of your salary later. Thanks to recession even hiring by consultancies have become scarce and they now seem to even charge you to file H1. Well yes, few very few actually end up offers directly without a consultancy but that’s a scarcity and now it is almost extinct.

Job is not the only option which you are left with once you are out of college, 60% of Indians are self employed, America’s GDP runs largely due to small enterprises rather than big companies. This needs to be understood we all have our great intellectual thinking and have a profound talent in a field we just need to identify it to make a beginning. And with MS or without MS you will be given same kind of work and will work in the same environment, so it is evident that an added degree will not add to your satisfaction.

- Know your Finances:

The next and the most important is how you support/finance your masters?

Most of the Indians will be of the opinion that they can find sustenance within university or outside university. But you need to identify the adversities coupled with them; American universities are not that dumb to pay your tuition fee without you adding any value to them, well they do under certain scenarios which needed to be analyzed.

You might have heard your friends having their education while a professor pays for him/her, wow what a nice guy he must be!! But sorry this world is not very nice at least it is not nice with most of them. There is variety of aids that you can get from US universities, like

- Fee weaver that comes on i20, the rarest of the all; it can vary from a part of fee to even cent percent. It is given based on the academics and score in GRE/GMAT, TOEFL. A best form of aid you can hope for after which you need not worry much about what you have to pay for this fee concession. But yes the universities and US on whole have gained and will keep gaining a lot from these bright intellectuals, so they never mind in paying your fee that is why most of the times you need to promise them that you are interested in the research. The recession has turned the tables down and now this kind of aid has been confined to a lot of extent.

- RA/TA, the research assistant or teaching assistant. In this category you might be given a fee concession, hourly (20hrs a week – generally 10$/hr) stipend or both. But for this you need to assist the professor in his research or in his tutoring. And your future always depends on the kind of professor you land up with. Most of them were able to land up with RA/TA earlier in many universities baring a few, but now even this has become scarce.

- On Campus job, the other opportunity which can be, a s varied as lab assistant, librarian, hostel in charge and even serving in the university cafeteria. This again is a hourly (20hrs/week) paid job mostly again 10$/hr. Even this has become very scarce now in most of the universities.

- Of Campus jobs, an illegal way of finding a living in US which many even now trade into. These include jobs in Motels, Gas Stations, in malls etc (most of the times owned by Indian or Pakistani owner). Here the pay will vary largely as it is illegal and thus depends on mutual understanding but may not exceed 10$/hr. Few of them will go onto work for more than 40hrs/week by skipping classes and studies and diluting the main aim for which they are in US. It is so puzzled to know now that even these jobs have become so scarce that few of my friends have transferred from their universities only to land in an Of Campus job in some other city!!!

Here, it needs to be out rightly discussed that neither the On Campus nor the Of Campus can help you pay your fee in entirety; only a part of it can be paid, with what remains off after the monthly budget. You have other ways too here, like trying for internship in between, opting for CPT for a semester and landing into a job. But jobs/internships now are scare and no less than an endangered species, again due to recession. Sorry, I have to use this term again and again as I just can’t think of its synonyms.

Indians largely depend on the loans back home, hoping that they can repay it with just few months’ salary once they land in a job. But they need to calculate this very cleverly, as you may not be in a position to repay the loan along with the regular semester fee. So, you can think of repaying the Indian Bank loan only once you land in your job, which might easily take a minimum of 2 yrs or might be even a lot more than that with the present situations taken into consideration. So, a minimum of 3 yrs of compound interest added to what you have taken earlier. Even if we consider that the loan was just confined to first semester fee, it would generally be around 5 – 7 lac for a decent university; but after this you should have paid your fee all with the money you have earned in US. So, I consider a best case scenario that you might have done so, still a basic loan of 7 lac added to it will be an interest of around 3 lac. A complete 10 lacs loan will be lying to be cleared (considering the general situations). But, again you might have taken money from the loan for further semesters as well or from the credit card. Then, you might have to face a situation where you have to clear your credit card debt + Indian bank loan. Thus, even if you land in a job just after your graduation it might take two long years to clear these; that mean’s five long years you will take to start earning, even when I consider the best case scenarios!!!

Yes, in between if you were able to get fee concession or an internship then the situation will well be different but these situations are the very rare and do not take it for granted that you are so fortunate. Five years for settlement is a long big sacrifice and you also would have lost five years of work experience which is clearly invaluable.

- Know the Masters life in US:

The most exciting part to talk about, well everyone will be excited when they see their seniors or friends pictures take in US, when they see them speeding away in their own cars in the videos, but little do they understand the real MS life!!!

You have to be millions of miles away from your home land and more importantly your family, in a small room shared by many friends. The room might look awesome to see in pictures and videos but really needs a lot of adjustment and have to get used to it. You, have to manage your food needs at same time complete the strenuous assignments and manage the monthly budget. Well you might say that’s what teaches you life and make you stronger, sorry then what about the scores of Indians living in Indian itself they haven’t they learnt the hardships? Or is it that they never face them? You have to decide!!!

Though you might have fantasized about having your own car after seeing your friend’s pictures on orkut /facebook, the fact remains is that the MS students usually set their hands on used cars which comes in just a throw away price. If you have fantasized about huge roads and classy infrastructure then fact remains that most of the life you will spend in your tent like room. If you have fantasized about spending a gala time with friends yes you do and most of them make very good friends but again fact is that everyone will be so busy with their own life that you will be glued to your laptop all day and nights too!!!

- Know the life after Masters:

So, finally you are done with masters! Next what? And these days almost every MS student think of this question and they are so bewildered when they face this!!!

Well the option what the previous batches has set is to join a consultancy, when I talk about most of them, then they go through a 2-3 month training usually imparted by the Indian consultancies. Then market their faked resume with the companies and join in as a contract employee. Very few fortunate also get into the job directly without a consultancy. And few who were really interested in the subject or for the aid reasons continue with their phd’s. But these are things of past…

Now, many who have completed with their masters, of whom I know are just clue less. As, the Indian consultancies which earlier used to take in with open hands have shut the doors and taking in the students after lot of apprehensions. Still they do not prefer to file H1 this year at least, and they will file only when you pay for it. Thus, students are continuing their OPT status; it has its own advantages when it comes to Tax. But, then you are cut out from one of the two valuable chances of filing H1. With H1 or with OPT getting a job is all the more important, which is very hard to get now!!!

Few of my friends who have not yet completed their graduation have plans to extend their courses by taking in few irrelevant courses etc as they have a supporting aid, hoping that when they come out into market, this recession would be a past. But, I feel what they fail to recognize is even if this recession ends now which is unlikely to happen. Job’s will still be hard to get for at least a year. They also are not realizing of losing precious and the most productive years of their life!!!


What every Indian needs to understand?

It is my earnest plea to every Indian to read from here even if you haven’t read the earlier part. My aim of writing on this topic is also more and largely to make every Indian realize the following….

America has pioneered its university system by this I do not want to emphasize on its leadership in education. But the strategy it has been following over the decades, America has built fully ultra modern world class infrastructure over the years with its revenue and may not be completely its but that’s not presently the focus of our discussion.

Every Indian joins a US university pays double the fee than what an American pays called as Out of State fee if I am not wrong. That means every Indian when he pays for his education in the university he also sponsors for an American. May not be literally, but that money reaches the university or to the government who in turn transfers that to their nationals. It is so amazing to even think that we who think twice thrice and may not even agree to sponsor the education of a person very close to us are actually sponsoring the education of a foreign national!!!

If that was not enough the prominent Indians like the politicians the top notch businessmen mainly are in the advisory boards of many US universities and its equally surprising to find their children studying in those universities considered the best in the world which is really tough to get, in a competitive manner; then how are these guys able to get into it? If it’s the case with one or two then it might have been really because of their caliber but almost every prominent Indian has their children studying in best of the business schools and other best universities. Here it needs to understand that these politicians and businessmen transfer scores of revenue in form of funds to the universities in return of few seats for their closed ones.

We need to realize the bad we are doing to our nation intentionally or unintentionally, if only we chose to study in Indian universities the colleges and universities of India will take no time in developing the infrastructure with that huge amounts. But when it comes to India we think of government subsidy, we need subsidized education. I know few of them who even having come from decent families used to apply for BC, SC, ST scholarships during B.E in Hyderabad. That means without even paying a penny they have graduated from Indian college at the same time the govt. has paid them in return and what a shame now they are in US paying huge amounts of fee, sponsoring Americans education too. We all have enjoyed our subsidized living in India and we crib about the graduate education in India which costs just a few thousands due to govt. funds. And every time there is an increase in the fee by a fraction there’s a huge hue and cry but the same persons are able to pay lac’s for US universities.

This notion needs to change and it has to change for our own and for our future generations good, we are being forced to leave our home; for which we cite the infrastructure and facilities as a reason. Then the onus lies with us to at least see that the coming generations do not cite this as a reason. Of course the equations of the world are changing thanks to recession again. And thanks the huge consumer base that India has the companies will have to reach out to India for their own survival and the development will shift it gears from western countries to India and other developing and largely populated nations but importantly India because of its young population. No Obama, no bailout packages can stop this.


GOOD for India is going to happen.
But let’s not wait till it happen, let’s make it happen!!!