About the Contributors:

• Rushi Bhatt - ECE, 4 admits
  Carnegie Mellon university
  University of Southern California
  University of Washington Seattle
  University of California, LA
  Job offer from - United health group(UHG)

• Deep Jariwala - ECE, 2 admit
  University of Waterloo.
  Monash University.
  

• Darshit Patel - Mech, 3 Admits
  Virginia Tech
  Michigan Tech
  Clemson university
  

Masters Abroad - an interactive session with DANK WHY MASTERS

• Better study and Research opportunities.
• Get in depth knowledge of the particular field you want to pursue a career in.
• Chance to study from some of the best institutes in the world.
• Better facilities and resources for research.
• Better job prospects.
• A way to change the career field or the field of interest.
• Bridge to pursue a career in academia.

FALL V/S SPRING (Mainly USA)

Fall

• The number of intakes is higher.
• The amount of courses offered are higher.
• Can get a CPT to work in summer after the first year.

Spring

• Number of applicants are less hence better chances to get admit.
• If you want to pursue research at you university itself in summer, Spring intake is beneficial.

TIMELINE :- FOR FALL(SEPT) 2021

• For USA / Canada: -- Before August 2020 GRE/ IELTS/ TOEFL
• August 2020 to September 2020 College Shortlist
• September 2020 to November 2020 SOP / LOR / Resume
• November 2020 to Jan 2021 Application Completion -- March 2021 to June 2021 Admit
• July 2021 Visa
• August 2021 Fly Note: University deadlines start from 15th November to February end

TIMELINE :- FOR JULY 2021 INTAKE

• For Australia:
  • Before August 2020 IELTS/ PTE
  • August 2020 to September 2020 College Shortlist
  • September 2020 to November 2020 SOP/Resume/Interview
  • November 2020 to Jan 2021 Application Completion
  • Feb 2021 to April 2021 Admit -- May 2021 Visa
  • July 2021 Fly Note: University deadlines are around 31st January

TIMELINE :- FOR WINTER SEMESTER(SEPT 2021)

For Germany: - Before November 2020 IELTS/TOEFL/German language certi. - Nov - Feb 2020/21 University shortlisting - Jan - Feb 2021 Resume and LORs - March - June 2021 University application deadlines - June - July 2021 Admits - July-August 2021 Visa - August/Sept 2021 Fly - Note: University deadlines start from 1st March and goes upto June.

IMMIGRATION POLICIES

• For USA:
  • CPT: For internship/ practical training during the Masters. -- OPT: 3 year work permit for STEM job.
  • H1B: Non-immigrant visa to work in US with an intent to apply for green card (Permanent resident).
• For Canada: -- Visa Duration (2 Years) -- PGWP : If course length is less than 15 months then 1 year work permit/ > 15 months 3 years work permit. -- Apply PR with proper work exp.
• For Australia: -- Visa Duration (2 Years) -- PGWP : 2 to 3 years based on course and study area -- Complicated system for PR based on occupation and labour requirement of country.
• For Germany: -- 120 day permit to work during the studies (internships). -- 18 month work permit after the graduate studies to find a job and apply for permanent residency (EU Blue card)

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

• GRE - At least 310. Great if 320+
• TOEFL/ IELTS -- At least 100 TOEFL (7.0 IELTS)
• GPA/ Transcript -- Ideally 7.5+
• Resume/ CV/ Portfolio
• SOP/ Personal Statement
• LORs -- 4 to 5 from faculties/ project supervisors/ managers

UNIVERSITY SHORTLISTING

Example for applying to 7 Universities:

• Ambitious: Difficult to get. High requirements with huge competition. Should select 3-4 of these.
• Moderate: Moderate chances. Similar profiles getting admits in the previous years. 2-3 of these.
• Safe: High chances of getting the admit. When your profile is better than average admits of previous year. 1 or 2 of these.
• Research opportunities & Labs
• Department Ranking/ University ranking
• Job/ Internship prospects & career fairs
• Location
• Courses and Specialization
• Fees
• Public v/s Private universities
• Alumni network and Brand value

COURSE BASED V/S THESIS BASED

• Not applicable to EU Universities.
• Thesis based requires you to take up fewer number of courses but a full fledged research is required to be conducted during the masters and a thesis has to be submitted.
• No thesis is required in course based studies but the number of courses to be taken are more than thesis based.
• Students with an intent to further pursue PhD or get into academia usually take up the thesis option. Chances of getting Graduate Research Assistantships are comparatively higher.
• Course based students are flexible with taking up anything after the Masters i.e. either PhD or Job.
• Mostly in US, it is up to the candidate to pursue a thesis or course based masters.
• In Canada/Australia, one has to apply to MENG program for course based masters and MASC/ MSC for thesis based masters.

PROFILE BUILDING

• Research Projects/ Publications
• Internships
• Competition Awards
• Scholarships and Honors
• Online Courses
• Try to get or maintain good CGPA

EXPENSE

• GRE Test: $205 (additional $27/ university to report score)
• TOEFL: $180 (additional $20/ university to report score)
• IELTS: INR 13250 (additional INR 1200 for 5 universities to report score)
• Application fees: from $70 upto $150 Approx total application expense could be anywhere from $800 to $1500 (for 8/10 universities)

SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

• Graduate Research/Teaching Assistantships (GRA/GTA): Employed by a professor/lab to help them in their research or teaching activities. They give you stipend for this work. These are the most usual type of funding received by students.
• Fee waivers: These are very rare type of funding where the whole tuition fee is waived off for the student by the University. Some Universities have a policy to completely waiver off the tuition fees for the GTAs and GRAs.
• Partial Scholarships: These are small amount of scholarships(5000 - 10000 USD) provided to good students with impressive profile in the pool of applicants.
• Third Party: These are the highly competitive scholarships with different eligibility criterias and different funding criterias. For example Fullbright scholarship for US studies, Mitacs for Canadian studies, DAAD funding for german studies.

RESOURCES

• For GRE/ TOEFL: -- ETS -- Manhattan, Kaplan, Princeton, Barrons, Magoosh, GregMat Youtube
• For Application -- Yocket -- LinkedIn -- US News, QS rankings -- DAAD website for Germany -- Facebook MS in US/ Canada groups

MATERIALS (GOOGLE DRIVE LINKS)

• GRE
• GRE, SOP, LOR

TIPS

• Try to get GRE/ TOEFL/ IELTS scores as soon as possible (ideally before August 2021).
• Be in contact with college faculties to ease out the process of LOR.
• Use grammarly for writing all the necessary stuff.
• Get in touch with seniors who have gone through this process and are admitted in the universities that you want to get into.
• Email professors for thesis based programs (usually Canada) / PhD programs .
• DO NOT COPY SOP from any online resource/ seniors.
• Prepare a different SOP for each university.