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The first requirement before you start applying is to have a list of Universities where you intend to apply.
How
do I come up with a list of Universities?
You need to do a lot of research on the Universities before you can come-up with a list,for List of universities visit here. By the time you are preparing your list, you might have given your GRE and TOEFL. You’ll have to make a rational decision as to what are your chances in various Universities that you are evaluating. You'll have to evaluate the department and program ranking of the University and whether the researches and courses align with your interests. List of universities How many Universities do I apply? It depends on your profile, your personal mindset, and the money that you have kept aside for application. Generally an application for MS will cost you anywhere between Rs.4000 to Rs.6000 (All inclusive of the application fee, courier cost, GRE/TOEFL reporting fee, transcript fee and other small expenses). This is what the average cost . Most people I saw in various forums apply to about 8 to 12 Universities in general. How do I make my list a balanced list? Generally people have a simple logic of choosing Universities. You need to divide your list into 3 categories of :
Rankings
of Universities help in this process of short listing. Click here for
UNIVERSITIES RANKINGS.
Depending on your personal approach, you can choose 2-5 universities in each of the categories mentioned above. For ex: If one decides to apply in 10 Universities, he may opt 3 Ambitious, 4 Moderates and 3 Safe Universities. Different people have different logic for the composition of ambitious, moderates and safes. I divided my list heavily in the favor of ambitious and had very little moderates and safes in my list. There is one faction of people that believes that ultimately you have to go in one single University, so having too many safes in your list will result in a couple of safe admits too. Hence one school of thought says that having more moderates/ambitious in the list at the expanse of safes can be justified. If you get lucky and get on ambitious University, you are on the top of the world. |
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Now begins the most involving phase. You need to go to the
admission websites of the University and look for the 'Prospective Students'
or related link. Carefully study the requirements/deadlines and other
admission related information for your program.
Does sending applications early gives an advantage? In most cases, Yes !! Some Universities follow a rolling process of applications. Rolling process means that the University will not wait for the deadline to begin its application evaluation. Universities with rolling process of admission will evaluate applications as and when they come. If they find an application suitable, they'll send the offer. In such cases, sending a application early will definitely improve the chances. In some other Universities, where they start processing the applications only after the deadline, I don't think there is any substantial advantage in send the applications early. However, as a principle, you should never wait for the deadline and send/submit application as soon as possible. This will help them to check whether all aspects of your application are complete and they can revert back to you in case something more is expected. You should always leave enough time for such contingencies. For students who are applying for financial aid from University, it is imperative to send applications very early. In fact, most Universities have a separate early deadline for students applying for aid.
Various
elements of Application
A application for MS in a US University consists of various elements. I'll discuss the most common requisites of an application below: GRE Score reporting: In almost all cases you'll have to report your official GRE scores to the University. Universities won't accept the photocopy of your GRE scorecard. You need to report the scores directly from ETS. Score is reported by calling the phone numbers given at the GRE websites. You will require the Institution code and the department code of the University before you call. Keep your GRE registration number and credit card details ready when you call. You will need to key in the CC number on the IVRS. Each additional score will cost $20.
TOEFL score reporting: TOEFL scores are
also required in almost all the Universities. The information at the
admission website will specify whether TOEFL is required or not. You need to
log in to your iBT profile at the TOEFL website to order additional reports.
Statement of Purpose/Resume: Most online applications facilitate uploading the SOP and Resume on the online application itself. Otherwise you'll require to send them with the courier packet. In case you are uploading your resume, you can also append scanned copy of various certificates to the resume.For more information on sop's click here SAMPLE SOP'S Letters of Recommendations: You will need to send your letter of recommendations. Most online applications now-a-days allow LORs to be submitted online. Submitting LORs online is easy and convenient for student as well as professors. At the online application, You need to give the email addresses of the professors who will be giving your LOR. An automatic mail will be sent to all the professors with the URL of the page where they'll need to submit the LOR. Most interfaces facilitate uploading the pdf/word file. You can ask your professor to draft a LOR on MS-Word and upload it while submitting your LOR. An online LOR usually has some general questions in form of checkboxes/radio buttons and a place where the LOR can be uploaded. In cases where submitting online LOR is not possible, the applicant is required to take LOR in sealed envelops from the professor and send it along with the application packet that will be sent to the University. Transcripts: Transcripts are to be sent by post. You need to send them in sealed envelops by courier/post along with other application material that is required. Financial documents to be sent with applications:
Some Universities ask some financial documents to be sent along
with the application. These documents maybe custom documents/forms that are
to be filled and sent back with bank seal etc. Basically they may ask for
financial proof for some amount of money. Most students who will avail loan
for their studies are not in a position to send those documents at this time.
Ideally you should send authentic proof of whatever amount that is possible.
In case it is not enough to cover the expenses they have asked for, you can
write a simple application stating that since you are planning for a bank
loan and it is not possible to initiate loan processing without a offer from
University, therefore it is not possible to furnish specific loan documents
at this point of time. Further you can write that you will get the loan
processed and send the documents if you get a offer. You can take a clue of
such a letter from a sample letter here. Such
a arrangement works fine and since this is a genuine problem, the
Universities consider such cases.
The
application packet to be sent via post: There
are a few documents that are to be sent via post. Transcripts, LORs (in case
you are sending written ones), Resume, SOP etc. are a few documents that are
sent via post. Basically whatever documents/proofs that aren't uploaded in
the online application are sent via post.
What should be the contents
of the application packets?
Take one large A3 size envelop and put all the documents inside
this big envelop. A group of documents can be grouped and put in a envelop.
Don't forget to write a cover letter mentioning all the documents you are
putting in the envelop. You may take clue from a sample cover letter here.
Which courier should I choose? There are various couriers you can send the documents. Even speed post delivers in about 10-15 days. In case you need your documents to be sent in shortest possible time, go for DHL. DHL's University express program enabled students to send application packets to USA in mere Rs.1037 (in year 2008). Max people sent every packet to universities via DHL and they take precisely 3 days to send the application. In one case where all really escalated the matter with one of my shipments, DHL were prompt enough to send the docs in 2 days time. |
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In case you are applying to 8-12 Universities, you may find it
difficult to track the progress of all the applications.
A application is considered complete by the University when it has received all of the following:
You can make a excel sheet (application_tracker.xls) with a row for each University. Something like this:  You can maintain all pertinent information of an application in a single row. As and when you keep completing various elements of the application, you can choose to color the cell with a color (say green). When all the elements of the application are individually green, you can color the entire row green to denote a complete application (as in row 2 in image above)
You will get notified by email (or your online application login
will get updated) whenever any of your professor completes your online
recommendation.
My friend made similar sheets to track various credit card
payments that he made and to keep the DHL AWB numbers of all the shipments he
sent. This made the process pretty easy for me.
FOR MORE ABOUT GRE ,IELTS,MS IN US OR TO KNOW WHICH IS BEST OR DIFFERENCE IN STUDYING IN CANADA, UK,AUSTRALIA,GERMANY OR US OR TO KNOW INFORMATION VISIT HERE |
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HOW TO APPLY FOR UNIVERSITIES EXPLAINED IN DETAILED
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