I had couple of Scraps in my Orkut Scrapbook and the question was ” My Visa was rejected before through emergency slot visa appointment booking, can I appear for visa again through emergency Slot, since regular slots are not available”. first of all you need to understand the difference between Emergency Appointment and Visa Rejection, Read more

I got few more comments and questions on how much liquid cash to show as proof for visa. Refer to your I-20, you can also read the sample I-20 fees breakdown and find what is the total fee for 1 year from section 7. I will list the best case and worst case options for showing bank balance. Best case being, your chances of getting visa is more, and worst case Read more

College admission requires atleast 2 Letter of Recommendation ( LOR ). Graduate College admission committee evaluates the candidates credentials form what the recommendation providers have said about you. Some college requires LOR to be submitted online and I have seen graduate schools, requiring LOR to be sent via email directly to the graduate school. Some graduate school have their own form that has to be completed, instead of traditional LOR in letter form. But, I receive many emails asking for clarifications and what to include Read more

Do Universities really verify and validate the balance before issuing I-20 for graduate school admission? Its really a trick question to answer and I will try my best to give the exact answer. As far I know, universities Read more

Hello guys, hope everyone for Spring 2008 Semester are busy preparing for visa interview, student loan, visa documents, CA statement. If you haven’t checked the previous posts in I-20 Sample with Fees and Living Expenses Break down and other list of questions from students regarding visa and student loan. In this article, you will know how much bank balance is enough with respect to the amount mentioned in I-20, Read more

In the previous post, I had listed some common questions regarding bank statement, now I will be answering each question in separate article. In this article, I you can find information about How much bank balance to show as proof for student visa. Is $25,000 enough? Before answering the question, let me breakdown I-20 fee structure with sample I-20 from University of Houston , Clear Lake Read more

To get Student Visa (F-1) Bank Statement is one of the mandatory documents. Many students get visa rejected providing fake financial documents. And its still not clear for many students, how much bank balance to be shown and how does student loan help to get in getting visa.

The format for bank statement for visa is same as the the bank statement used while submitting graduate school application(common mistakes made while submitting graduate school application online). But the question is, how much bank balance to show and how important is to have transactions. If you are wondering to find the answer.

There is no big magic in showing bank or rocket science behind the bank statement, but it does certainly makes affects the decision of a student, who is planning to study in U.S. Some universities, are very expensive and its nearly impossible for all the parents to show financial document to support the cost of education.

Questions about Bank Statement

1. How much bank balance to show.
   

   I-20 Sample

2. What source of funds to show ( savings account, student loan, liquid assets, immovable assets, ..)
3. How to draw fund flow diagram
4. How to show proof for second year college expense
5. Does bank statement for visa differ from bank statement used for graduate school application
6. How long/how many transactions to show for the money deposited in the account
7. Can I open a new account 1 month before the Visa date and show proof form that account?
8. I don’t have enough money with me to show in bank balance, can I get Visa?
9. Some suggest to go through consultancy who will deposit money in our account for some commission, can I get bank statement in that way?
10. I have fake bank statement, can consulates find the fake document?
11. Do you have sample bank statement, I-20, fund flow diagram?
12. What questions will be asked related to Bank Statement?
13. Do I need to take passbook with me for visa interview?

If you have any other questions, speak up in the comment section. I will pen down the answers with sample bank statement and fund flow diagram in coming week.

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I came across this article from Murthy.com

…. Visa applicants are also prohibited from carrying any items other than their passports and visa-related documents. This facility will be a welcomed option, especially for visa applicants who travel to the consulates from outside Chennai and Mumbai. Individuals will be able to safely store their belongings at the lounge and their accompanying relatives and/or friends may wait there comfortably while applicants are shuttled to the consulate for their interviews.

VFS has indicated that this is an OPTIONAL service, but applicants are encouraged to use this service to avoid inconvenience both to themselves and the consulates. The fee charged for this service is Rs 200 per person, ages 5 years and over.

The lounge at the U.S. Consulate in Chennai is located at : ……

Read the Remainder of this article Report from U.S. Consulates in India and VFS Global Services

Finally after 2 weeks of importing contents into Wordpress and updating the internal links, I was able to launch this site/blog 2 weeks before I actually planned to. With my own domain, I have more features and flexibility over the contents and ad placement and possibly more revenue too

I strongly suggest the readers to sign-up for Email Subscription. It will automatically generate email when new article is posted and give you a short summary of the article. Also, you will receive featured articles that are not posted in the blog. In the featured articles, you will receive exclusive contents like, details about specific universities ( low GRE score, no GRE score admissions universities, ..) Also, I’m working on creating E-book and weekly news letters and all these features are available for Blog Subscribers. So, feel free to subscribe to email updates.

When you subscribe, confirmation email will be sent to the email address provided. You have to confirm the email address, before receiving updates. Also, see if the email no delivered to your to Junk Mail Folder.

I will not be posting articles in old Happy Schools Blogger Blog. But, it will re-direct the traffic to this new blog. I’m still trying to re-direct the traffic to specific page, but experiencing some technical issues.

Majority of the posts for last 2 months were targeted for students who are planning to get to U.S. I will be equally writing contents for students who are already in U.S. and who have graduated and looking for jobs. So, the contents will include, job searching tips, proactive job search approach techniques, internship opportunities, and other similar interests.

Hope you all enjoy the new layout and fresh looks to Happy Schools Blog. You will see small purple heart icon at the end of the post. If you enjoy any particular article, post, feel free to submit to any of the social media sites. If you are not sure of what social media is, spend some time to explore those sites ( Digg, Stumble Upon, Technorati,..) It a wonderful sites to find other similar blogs. And again, pass the word to your friends.

This site is best when Viewed using Firefox.

Cheers!

Part 1 ( Questions 1 to 6)

7) Length of Masters Degree Program

This is another important factor you have to consider while deciding the colleges. Some programs are very lengthy. Majority of the masters program in the graduate college will vary from 30 credits to 36 credits. Make sure, have have information about different courses offered in the college you are applying. If you want to major in Database, check if the college has courses offered in database field.

But, if you are transferring to different department, then you will be asked to take pre-requisites courses. For example, if you are moving from Mechanical Department to Computer Science to from Electrical to Computer Science, then for sure you will be asked to take undergraduate courses in Computer Science, before you can take masters course.

Sometimes you will be asked to take up to 7 pre-req courses (7 x 3 = 21 credits). That’s 3 semesters. So, you need 21 + 32 credits to finish Masters. That’s 3.5 years for M.S. If you don’t have aid, then students will have to pay for 3.5 years.

If no pre-requirements then HP = 10

No Pre-requirements and max of 36 credits then HP = 10

1 or 2 pre-requirements then HP = 7

3 or 4 pre-requirements, HP = 5

More than 5 pre-requirements, then HP = 3

8 ) Thesis/Non-Thesis

In Master’s program you will have 2-3 options to take course. In thesis, you will have to solve a problem and present a paper. Personally I don’t like to do research, when I’m not interested to do PhD, so I did Non-Thesis Option, which is just courses and graduate with Masters Degree.

If you are more interested to do thesis, then HP to 10

If you just want a degree to get good job and salary then HP = 10

To find this, read about the program in the department website and find what options you have and give HP to 10 if you are interested to do Thesis and the program has thesis option. If a particular school doesn’t have Non-thesis option and you are not interested to do Thesis, then put HP = 5

9) International Student Population

This has both advantages and disadvantages. You will fell at home with large number of Indian students around, but fewer chances to find part time jobs and scholarship. Some colleges have very less International Students, but I’m sure you will feel very lonely; you might have to stay with students from different county. So, weigh the advantages and dies-advantages and score HP.

I would prefer to stay in school with more International Students than college where there are very less number of students from your country. Anywhere from 100 to 200 students from your country is considered good.

10) Quality of Education

Let’s say you have admission from TAMUK, University of Alabama, Birmingham and NJIT. I would decide to go with UAB. Reason, it’s cheap, much better than TAMUK with more professors and more choice of courses and cheaper then NJIT with courses almost similar to NJIT.

So, weight HP of 10 for UAB, NJIT to 5 and TAMUK to 2

11) Climate/Location

Here, you have to weigh the options according to your preference. Good college vs. Cold Temperature. If you really good college admission in North, and ready to deal with the cold, then HP to 10, if not give less value for HP.

12) Current Student Satisfaction

To answer this, ask the current students to rate their college experience in the scale of 1 to 10 and make sure you ask at least some 5 students and take an average.

Now, you will have total value for all the university that has the maximum value gets the go ahead signal for Visa.

Hope above Happy Point Method helps to decide on the university. Also, I would like to highlight one more thing here. I know information about some schools and I can give that to you through Orkut Scrap or Comments or through email. But, majority of the colleges to which I don’t have information, I will follow the same method described above to get the information for you.

I don’t have enough time to find information for every email and every student. That’s the reason to write such a lengthy article that will help you to decide which school you want to attend. As, I said before

You may have more than one Dream University to attend. But if you take the time now to carefully consider your choices, you’ll be happy wherever you go. You will be comfortable with your decisions because you asked yourself the right questions. Most of the students don’t ask the following questions and method listed in Happy Point Method.

If you enjoyed the post, you can do any of the following things..

1) Help this information get to your friends, by doing a scrap in their Orkut Profile.

2) Email the link to your friends to visit Happy Schools

3) Add link to Happy Schools Blog in your Orkut Profile

4) Set the Messenger Message to Happy Schools Blog.

5) I appreciate your efforts in helping to spread the word.

Long wait is coming to end for many students who are waiting for this post. Happy Point Method outlined in this article will help you to decide which university to attend. If you one among thousands of students confused on which universities in U.S. to attend, keep reading.

You may have more than one Dream University to attend. But if you take the time now to carefully consider your choices, you’ll be happy wherever you go. You will be comfortable with your decisions because you asked yourself the right questions. Most of the students don’t ask the following questions and method listed in Happy Point Method.

Happy Point method takes time to complete. It’s readily now the off the shelf product to give you information to select universities. You have to find answers to questions that will be listed below for each category and fill in the spreadsheet with the values 1 to 10. 1 is the least score and 10 being the highest for satisfaction.

When finding the answer, you need to consider Worst Case Scenario and put the weight’s (1 to 10) and then university that get more value will be the best university you can attend from the list of universities you have admission from.

Download the Spreadsheet from this link

1) Cost of Education in U.S. - Can you afford it?

What is the total expense per year?

Total Expense = Tuition Fee + Insurance + Cost of Living

If you can afford HP = 10

If you have afford at least 70% of the total expense then HP = 5

If you cannot afford then HP = 0

2) Tuition fee per year - In-State

In-state fees varied between University System. For example, in University of Texas System, if you get RA, TA, Scholarship, you are eligible to pay in-state fee. And In-state fee in University of Texas is 1/3rd of Out of state fee.

Example: Out of State Fee = $6000, then in-state will be $2,000

In some colleges, you don’t need to pay anything, maybe less than $1000 for health insurance and other small fees when you get In-State fees.

Example: University of Memphis, Out of state is $5000 then In-state will be less than $1000.

If In-state fee is minimal fee then HP = 10

If In-state fee is 1/3rd of the out-state or less then HP = 5

3) RA/TA/Scholarship

If you have admission with 100% RA/TA/scholarship then HP = 10

If you have you have partial scholarship/RA/TA then HP = 7

If you have like $1000 to $4000 in Aid then HP = 5

No RA/TA/Scholarship then HP = 0

4) Part Time Job

Find from the current students, about availability of the part time jobs.

If almost every students gets the job then HP = 10

If 50% of the students gets job the HP = 5

If No Part time jobs are available then HP = 0

5) Internship

As International student you are eligible to work for 1 year in CPT (Curriculum Practical Training). Students usually get internship in summer, but some schools allow students to work to 2 full semesters like UTA, UTD.

You have to find if the university you have the admission allows students to do internship and how long. Kansas State University will allow students only in Summer in CPT. Were as UTA will allow students to do internship for 2 semesters ( like Summer and Fall or Fall and Spring or Spring and Fall ).

Next you have to ask if the internship is under CPT or under OPT (Optional Practical Training). If the school allows internship under CPT then you are ok. If the school allows internship under your OPT, then it’s NOT ok to attend that school. For example Clemson University, internship is under OPT, which is not good. I will explain in later post on what is OPT and CPT.

So this is how HP has to be filled for this field

Schools also internship for more than 1 semester in CPT = 10

Schools allows internship in Summer ONLY in CPT = 5

If school allows internship in OPT = 0

If school doesn’t allow Internship = 0

6) Jobs after M.S.

But, majority of colleges, students have to look for jobs.

Majority of the colleges have Career Fair, where companies will visit campus and collect resumes. But the number of companies that usually come are very less. Some universities like NCSU have very high profile career fair.

If the college has campus recruitment program, then HP = 10

If you have to look for jobs then HP = 8

If majority of the students find jobs through consultants, then HP = 3

For example I have heard that in NJIT, majority of student don’t search for jobs, they graduate and join some consultancy firm. That’s not a good sign. It’s students responsibility to search for a job, if you are willing to put that efforts and expect the job offer to know on your door, without applying for jobs, then I’m sure student will have tough time. I know I was little harsh on the above statement, but I have seen so many people who after graduation, don’t apply for job proactively and end up joining some consultancy. (How consultancy works, that’s another topic to talk about in detail)

Continued in Next Post…Questions 7 to 12