Happy Points Method to Select Graduate Schools

I’m getting wonderful responses from the posts. I really appreciate your comments and thanks for visiting Happy Schools Blog. If you can spread the word about Happy Schools to your friends, college juniors, it will help them. I know there are so many students looking for information about U.S. Universities, Graduate School Admission and so many other finer details. I have good news to share in this post.

1) New Blog Layout and new .com site for Happy Schools will be launched soon. It will have more features and easy to access contents.

2) I’m creating Happy Point : Method students can use to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of different universities and help you decide based on question system. Main advantage of this method is to make you think and decide for yourself, university you need to attend, instead of some consultancy suggesting which university to attend.

Suppose, if you are asking me to short list universities, I will follow the same Happy Point method I’m going to explain later. Everyone who have asked me, like

‘I have admits from SDSU, SJIC, NJIT and not sure which one to select’, this Happy Point method is the way to decide and put an end to your confusion.

It would take some 2 hours to complete the work. I just started creating the spreadsheet with questions and how to weigh each factors. Happy Point Method will work like this.

1) List of all possible factors ( Questions ) student should ask

2) Put weight ( importance to each factor )

3) University that gets the highest point is where student would possibly attend.

Factors will include long list of questions( I would call it as Happy Factors), like part time jobs, climate, cost of living, internships, …

So, hang on and wait is almost over. Just hang tight you will have the Happy Point Method available.

I started working on the Spreadsheet and some of the Happy Factors are

Tuition fee per year - Out-StateTuition fee per year - In-StateRA/TAScholarshipPart Time Job Cost of Living Jobs after M.S. Internship Length of M.S. Program Thesis/Non-Thesis International Student Population Quality of Education Climate/Location Current Student Satisfaction Can you Afford

There are so many questions you need to ask to fill the values for the spreadsheet. I’m creating the questions to that will help you to make informed decision about universities. The article is growing in length than I expected, so I need more time.

Who else wants to know about student loan?

Student Loan, if you are planning to get from your native country, continue reading, I’m about to uncover some real facts. Is it better to get student loan from my country or from U.S. based bank? … Keep reading for the answer.

About 64% of International students in 2005/2006 who came to study in U.S. use their Personal and Family funds for covering the cost of education. That includes both Graduates and Under Graduate study. But, I assume, it will be some form of Student loan will be used to fund the education cost. Most of the students fund their education in U.S. from student loan.

Student Loan will be usually issued in the form on Bank Draft in the name of the University and separate bank draft in the name of the student for personal living expenses.

Considering the the scenarios where there is no financial aid or Scholarship, only with part time job, at the end of course, there will be around $20,000 in student loan. But, the good news is, its worth every cent spent from the student loan. Usually, entry level jobs will pay anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000 per year,

Now, lets assume that after graduation, you will be still left with student loan of around $20K and that’s usual in U.S. I have seen people who have much more in student loan debt. There are so many options available here to repay the loan. But, International students loan will have different payment options.

In general living expenses will increase after you graduate. It will be difficult to share room with 4 people in job going environment. When number of people to share the cost with decreases, monthly living expenses will also increase. I was paying around $1,100 per month in Florida and around $1,300 per month North Carolina.

Here are few tips to pay off the student loan much faster:

* Watch where your spending goes, categorize them and cut miscellaneous expenses

* Avoid spending in luxury items

* Make a list when you go to grocery shop and stick to the list when you buy items.

( Trust me, when you drive to get a can of Milk, you will end up spending $30)

* Participate in companies 401(k) retirement savings plan.

* Save atleast 5% of every pay check for emergency

Above tips would help to save money and that can be used to repay student loan.

Suppose you get $3000 after tax in hand, at max you will spend $1,500 per month for living and saving $150 will give you $1350 to pay student loan. With this calculation student loan can be paid off in 14 months. But wait, you will definitely need to buy a car to commute, unless you are in Metro’s. If you buy car for $20,000, monthly payment will be around $350 for 5 years. That will delay student loan repayment. But the scenario is different if you earn $80K per year,

<p style=”float:left”><!–adsense#SmallRect–></p>I have heard about students getting loan from U.S. based banks for lower rates, but I’m not sure how feasible that will be. I haven’t explored those options. But considering the visa process, getting student loan from native country will be the best choice.

If you want to avoid student loan, here are few interesting tips to get scholarship. Here’s a way to get scholarship