University + Location = Easy Job ?

Question

How important is the location of a college wrt jobs?

Example

People say you have to apply online to get jobs in Electrical domain, but if you study in Texas or California, its a lot easier. Studying in a good university with a job guarantee in the same field is of equal importance. Tell us where to draw the line in choosing a university based on its location. To what extent can we compromise on the university?

Example

Is Clemson, being a University town good for studying EE(it has a great course) while we have to apply for jobs online.
SDSU has a good course and is located in San Diego where getting an EE job is not difficult. But the course is relatively not as good as in Clemson.

Thanks Vishak for this question. There are so many small things to consider here before I can answer the above question.

I have couple of questions

1. You have asked current student from Clemson University and SDSU about how students find jobs after graduation, how many universities have you heard about that has companies coming in for Campus Placement? I assume, you should have applied for SDSU and Clemson, did you find about other universities too. If you what was their response?
2. I guess your assumption of finding the job is same as how companies come for campus placement in colleges in India?

Answer

Universities have Career Fair usually. So far I haven’t heard any universities that have Campus Placements we have in India, where companies visit the campus on a particular day and conduct tests and interviews. I’m sure they have that process for MBA Schools. But, as far Engineering Degree is concerned, I haven’t meet anyone personally who got job in such way.

99% of the students apply for jobs online who is looking for permanent positions. Some, don’t put in efforts to search for good jobs, join consultants. With permanent full time position, you get to work in same company as long as you stay with the company. With consultants, you will have small projects and have to move around.

Unless, you study in Top Notch schools, chances are 100% you will apply for jobs online. But, applying online itself won’t get the job for you. there are so many job search techniques, you will have learn to find the job. If you keep visiting this blog, I will post some 10 job search ways, which one works better, how to write a resume that will get you hired, salary negotiation tips and much more. So, location doesn’t make much difference in finding a job, but certainly the friends and people around you in the university certainly affect your job search techniques.

If you study in the university or have friends who are not interested in putting efforts to find a job on own, they will join consultancy companies. And I don’t like working through consultants. They take 30-40% of what company pays you and will give the rest to you. They might do resume fraud by adding additional experience.

Virginia Tech or UTD for Master’s Degree

Reader’s Question

I happened to see your Happy Schools website. Found the contents in it very informative and useful. I am stuck in a weird situation here. I have got an admit for UTD and Virginia Tech. I had got my stamping for UTD before my Virginia tech admit came. I have two questions at this point of time.

1. What is the easiest and safest way to actually transfer my US visa from Dallas to Virginia.
2. Another important point to note is that I have got an admit into the National Capital Region (Northern Virginia Center) campus of Virginia Tech rather than the main campus at Blacksburg. Is the MS CS in this campus of VTech better than the one offered at Dallas?

Kindly request you to revert to this query of mine as I am in a very confused state.

Answer

Read my post about transfer between universities. You can transfer only after 1 semester. Virginia Tech has good name and quality of the education would be also better than UTD. So, it better then UTD. Go to UTD and get transfer after 1 semester or apply for visa again.

I would suggest getting transfer is best option.

Find out how many credits you can transfer to VT and take courses in UTD that will be accepted in VT. Also defer your admission in VT to next semester.

I assume the person is attending Spring semester. Its only October End, there is still lot of time left for Visa. My best suggestion is if you are waiting for admission from better universities, then delay your visa dates as lat as you can.

You would need only week or so to pack your things to U.S. If your classes for Spring semester starts in Jan 7th 2007, you can delay your visa dates till Dec last week. This would help you to get the I-20 from the college you wanted to go.

If you like the posts, let your friends know about Happy Schools Blog

Graduate School admission without scholarship: How to manage expenses

I’m back after visiting New York and Boston. It was very busy last week at work. Hopefully I should write regularly.In this article I’m answering one of the questions from my scrapbook. I have answered the same question, but it was spread among several posts.

Question

My GRE score1160 and many consultants are saying that it is difficult to get the TA/RA/Scholarship. I can manage fees for 2 semesters but can I pay the fees by doing job for 3rd and later semesters.

Answer

You are not the only person who is facing this situation. 75% of the students who get admission are without scholarship. Unless you have very good credentials graduate school admission with scholarship difficult. But still some 80,000 student from India came to study in U.S. In total only 25% of student gets admission with some form of scholarship. 1160 is decent enough to get admission in good graduate school.

There are so many graduate schools in U.S. and you have so many options of courses to select from each graduate school. When you don’t have good score in GRE and academic credential, you will get admission from graduate school, but not any form of aid. Reason is simple, Professors have no way of knowing your credential, capacity, research potential unless you have very high GRE score. Every graduate school have their way of evaluating the students who apply for graduate school admission.

Concept is simple:

Would you lend say $20,000 to some stranger who walk to you and asks for money? University when pays you, wants you do do research work for them. They pay you for your work and your potential to create new research ideas. If you are a complete stranger, and if your GRE and academic credential don’t speak about you, they are not going to give scholarship or RA/TA.

After you get come to gradate school, introduce yourself to a professor and work for him. Volunteer to work in his/her lab. Based on your work and research skills, they will give you funding. Hard work always pays. Usually student manage to complete graduate school. There are so many ways to pay for school. If you can afford for 2 semesters, get student loan for 2 semesters, you can pay off the student loan after you get the job. I have written articles on saving on student loans and other articles that talks about ways to reduce your educational expenses.

Low GRE Score and High Profile University Admission : Readers comment

I’m responding to a comment about the article Secret of Getting admission with Scholarship.

Comment

I’d disagree with the part where you said “Why would someone has to waste few hundred dollars in college application fee and GRE and TOEFL score forwarding, application documents courier fee, when grad school admission is not sure.” -> You haven’t at all factored in the case that a university where you will very easily get into (with the exception of some like USC), is simply not worth it?
If you’re considering spending a sizeable portion of your savings on graduate school, why should it not be on some place where you’d be proud of attending?
In the end, you will be going to just one university and abandoning the other admits, and hence, its only that one good admit that matters, instead of a dozen mediocre ones.

My Response

@ Home Simpson

I agree to you that you disagree on the statement I have written.

But, I meant that statement to go with above few lines too, not stand alone meaning.

“.. I would like to relate the word Ambitious to Luck with less probability. Why would someone has to waste few hundred dollars in college application fee and GRE and TOEFL score forwarding, application documents courier fee, when grad school admission is not sure…”

We all know and agree to study in school where we would feel proud, but at the same time we need to be aware of our achievements in terms of GRE, TOEFL, and other credentials that is taken into account.

Even though we believe within oneself that we are much more capable, even if we scored less in GRE, TOEFL, Academics, it doesn’t show out anything to committee reviewing graduate school the application.

When deciding on schools, students categorize the list of universities as Ambitious, Moderate, Safe for getting graduate school admission.

If your score and all credentials satisfies only say 50 - 70% of what a universities minimum requirements, then you can apply for it and consider that school as Ambitious. but, its waste of money when you have “less than 5%” of their graduate school minimum requirements satisfied and applying for such schools is what I say as waste of money.

Most of the profiles I’m evaluating, they have ambitious schools listed as follows. For instance, someone with GRE of 950, TOEFL 66, academics of 55% with 4 backlogs and no research experience has UT Austin in their list for M.S. in Computer Science… That’s what I call as waste of money…

Hope you can understand what I’m trying to explain. I appreciate your time in visiting my blog and valuable comments.

Student Loan: How to use the money and save more?

I had this question from one of the reader about Student Loan,

If I apply a loan for say $20,000 for the full course..it will include what all? How can I pay for my room rent, groceries, recharge, books,etc? How much will these expenses come to in a month?

Before continuing with this post, If you guys haven’t read Who else wants to know about about Student Loan, I suggest you to read , I have also discussed about monthly expenses, how much it would cost, what expenses are involved and how place of study will affect your monthly expenses.

Now, you should have clear idea about monthly expenses. So, part of the question about monthly expense is answered. Now, let me say about how to use the loan amount.

When you get loan approved, usually banks will ask for your I-20 which will have the amount listed for Tuition, Living Expense, Book and Others. Banks in India will use that as a proof for confirming your admission to U.S. Universities. Some banks will not issue for loan less than the amount stated in I-20, but majority of the bank will issue the loan. Its always better to get loan approved for amount atleast equal to the your total expenses. I-20 will list the expenses only for the 1st year of studies.

Masters degree will usually take 1.5 years to 2.5 years to complete. So, even though you your parents can cover your educational expenses, its nothing wrong to get loan approved for say 15 to 20 Lakhs( India ). It will be useful when applying for F1 student visa.

Bank will issue 2 demand draft’s. That’s the case with majority of the bank. Suppose you are going to do Masters in University of Florida at Gainesville. Then, your first demand drat will be issued in the name of the university and another demand draft will be issued in your name.

Total Student Loan Amount = Living expense + Tuition fees

Some bank will issue you just one demand draft for entire amount you request. One you reach U.S. it would take only few minutes to open a bank account in your name and deposit the demand draft.

Example:If your 1st year tuition fee = $15,000 ( University of Florida )

Living Expenses = $5,000 ( Your Name )

I usually prefer to carry only your first semester fee with you and living expense. Both in the form of Demand Draft.

Reason why I recommend to carry Demand Draft instead of Travelers Check.

Before your next semester begins, you can ask your parents to send next demand draft for paying college tuition fee. This would save you interest rate for some $7,500 as per our example for 5-6months.

Next question that will come in mind..

How much will be my exact fees?

What if I get Demand Draft more than the tuition fee.

Masters in Network Security : Readers Question

I’m planning to do M.S. in Network and Security and going to apply for Fall, but I heard people face problems in getting a job after doing M.S. in that field. This is what I heard…”though network and security is a really good field for research and job prospects,the only concern is as an International student, you will need a H1B to work in USA.

And if you look for a job in Network and security, you might need a security clearance from US Department of Homeland Security, which you wont get as a Fresh International student. So, many companies won’t like to hire you. There are companies who sponsor the H1B as well as a security clearance but the chances for that is very very less.”

Is this all true? Did something like this happen to anybody. I’m halfway through deciding my universities when I heard this…please help.

Well, there are lots of questions within one question that needs to be answered. But, I amazed to see how people relate so many simple things together and complicate things. I’m going to split into separate questions and answer them.

Network and Security: I heard people face problems in getting a job after doing M.S. in that field?

No, people get jobs in Network and Security. There are so many companies that have jobs in Network Security. All major networking based companies have jobs. If you say the network, security by default comes with that. If its companies internal network or Internet. You name it, network and security goes hand in hand.

As an International student, you will need a H1B to work in USA?

Yes, you need to H1B visa to work in U.S.A. After you graduate with Masters degree, you will get Optional Practical Training ( OPT), which will allow you to work for 1 year from your graduation date. Then you need to get H1B visa.

For Network Security job, you might need a security clearance from U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Now, I wonder how you can associate Network Security jobs to U.S. Homeland Security. Maybe because Security comes in both places. As, an International Student, you will be get Security Clearance. Generally, you would need to have atleast permanent resident status to get Security Clearance. I’m not sure about that process. Job that require Security jobs after like working in Defense companies, government security sensitive areas,. They will ask for U.S. Citizenship for those kind of jobs. So, Network Security is no way related to U.S. Department of Homeland and Security unless you are U.S. Citizen and planning to work for security sensitive jobs. I would rather suggest to get a decent job in networking area and forget about security clearance.

There are companies who sponsor the H1B as well as a security clearance but the chances for that is very very less.

Its not chances are very less, its highly impossible. Major networking based companies like Cisco, Nortel Networks, Network Appliance, EMC, will have nice jobs waiting for you.

Any IT firm will have network and if network is there, security measures has to be

implemented. So, you will find nice job.

Now, my question to you:

How did you find schools and program in Network Security, if you have found the schools, can you comment for this post, it will help others who are interested in Networking.
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Hope I answered the questions. Cheers and good luck with the application process.

You got questions, I got answer.

I was looking in orkut and there are so many questions for which I have answers. But I don’t have time to read all the questions in different communities. So, I decided to start my own thread here.
If you have any questions regarding application process, post as comment, so others can see. I will answer it within a day.It will be difficult for me to answer questions regarding shortlisting universities on every individual, but I will try my best to do so. Send personal email for university related questions.

If you have questions like

1) My name on Certificates/passport/all official documents is Manoj Kumar. But, while registering for Universities/GRE, it is asking for Last name!(and it is mandatory to write last name), now what should I do?

2) What does Print name in the application mean?

3) University lost my documents, what should I do?

and so on…

Reader’s questions

I got lots of questions from the readers. Here are few frequently asked one’s.

1) Credit Card games

2) Baggage delay and claims

3) Cell Phone Buying guide

4) How to get Driving License and how soon

5) How/ Where to look for Part Time jobs

6) How to approach professor for scholarship/aid

7) University Application process

Checkout some of the previous most visited popular posts. I will try to find time this weekend to answer few of above questions.