Bachelors Or Masters Abroad ?

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by hrastro, Jan 21, 2021.

  1. nuss

    nuss Platinum IL'ite

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    I am noting experience with my nephews: I have dealt with this question with my three nephews.
    Nephew 1: Thought about doing UG from the USA but didn’t get any scholarships. Decided to pursue UG from a state college (Biotech Engineering) in India. During BTech, interned in a lab at IIT Delhi (my former lab) for 3 semesters, published papers. Learned programming on his own and developed websites for his department and few businesses. Decided that biotech wasn’t his cup of tea and applied for MS in software engineering (and also in biotech) in the USA and Australia. Got in good schools (fully funded MS in biotech in the US but no scholarship for Software engineering). Decided to go to Australia. Two years of MS (~$40k), two years work experience, and is a PR now.

    Nephew 2: Mechanical Engineering. Good score in SAT, IB curriculum 12th (was able to transfer a few credits), applied for UG in USA, admitted with partial scholarship and also got admission in IIT Mumbai. Decided to attend IIT.

    Nephew 3: Computer Engineering. Okay SAT score, 88% in 12th, no internship experience. Was an exchange student at a German institute during 11th and spent 3 months there. Captain of soccer team of his school. Applied to three universities in the USA. Two offered partial scholarship. Starting school this fall at my university and will be staying with us. Partial scholarship brings his tuition down to $16000 a year plus he is eligible for merit based scholarship and research grants (which are plenty at my institute). He also has a confirmed 15 h/ week job in student bookstore and hopefully he can save towards tuition or living expenses after a year of staying with us.

    I helped a young woman from my village and she was offered full scholarship for UG in the USA. Universities are committed to equity, inclusion, and diversity and her essay was well received by the diversity members.


    While helping international students, I realized that international scholarships aren’t advertised well by the universities. Students need to contact the International students and scholars office and talk to the representatives about the possibility of any scholarship and how/when to apply. In every case, I found out the information and asked the student to speak with the officer.
     
  2. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Any idea about IISER? Isn’t it a good school? I was impressed with the curriculum and structure at iiser. I heard they have their own entrance criteria. Didn’t research it much though.
     
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  3. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Is he able to manage this and study? Especially since he’s in a CS class? Kids seem to be doing added classes to stay on top of the game. Will he be able to do that and work 15h/week?
     
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  4. MalStrom

    MalStrom IL Hall of Fame

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    Lots of American students do this. Once they get their time management in hand it is very doable. These students do miss out on the party scene but they get valuable life lessons.
     
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  5. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    Old posts from these two threads may be useful - slightly tangential, but I'm sure you'll get the drift. I'm trying to steer carefully between repeating myself and quoting myself, but given that other posts in these threads are useful as well, I trust you will forgive the self-indulgence!
    More, later.
     
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  6. AppuMom

    AppuMom Gold IL'ite

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    My niece and one of my distant cousin have joined IISER ..one in Pune and other at TVM.
    My niece had 96 percentile in 10th and 92 in 12 th.always wanted to take up research based career.She miserably failed in engineering and medical entrance but listed high in IISER entrance test.After IITs ,IISER is the top notch
     
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  7. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    I'm just saying that in a highly competitive CS class, when everyone is doing more than one major, having enough credits from HS to go in at sophmore level, won't the kid be under tremendous pressure already?
    Nuss is a professor, so she knows better than me but things are not as it was a couple of decades ago in a CS undergrad.
     
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  8. hrastro

    hrastro Platinum IL'ite

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    Thanx for Responding @nuss! Great to know that you're very knowledgeable about admissions!

    Yeah. Several students are opting for Masters abroad! Also it is quite affordable with many aids and scholarships available. Also the student is no longer 17 but at least 21, so parents are prepared to let go. And it is only 2 years, even without scholarship/aid, a student can work for some and parents are able to sponsor some!

    Would like to know details on how he interned at IITD ? During the semesters or during breaks?

    Thats great! IIT Mumbai is top univ in India! Nowadays, Students work from 6th std onwards to get into IITs!

    Many parents might be able to plan the tuition fees, but living expenses are also a huge drain on finances, unless the student is able to work towards some part of it!
    Most students here in India might not be pampered, but they definitely grow up protected from finances and work details! I'm sure many don't even know complete details of what their parents do at office!

    Please point me to some more resources on this topic - what are the scholarships available?
     
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  9. hrastro

    hrastro Platinum IL'ite

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    They have 3 entrance paths - you can use your KVPY ranks OR your JEE advanced ranks OR you can get into it using your board exam marks + an IISER Aptitude entrance test.
    So for each path, they have a few quota.

    I know many brilliant students who aspired for it - but didnt get through - not because of their (in)abilities, but because of the high competition and limited number of seats.

    They promise NO placements - so students looking for huge packages and placement right out of college - they dont want it!
    Only researcher profiles aspire for it, more than 80% of these students go for PhD and go on to do some real path-breaking work in Sciences. Or teach!
    They get exposed to "inter-disciplinary" pretty early on !

    IISERs are pretty inexpensive - maybe max 1 lakh per year! And they get scholarships - most are at least KVPY or Inspire scholars, so they get 5000 per month! It is fully residential ! Even local students have to stay in hostel.

    All IISERs only provide 4 year integrated BS-MS courses, only Bhopal IISER has a few BS only courses!
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2021
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  10. hrastro

    hrastro Platinum IL'ite

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    Thanx sokanasanah!

    Any wisdom you can share is diamond for me! Please do self-indulge!

    Will check the threads you shared!
     

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