Higher Education from US universities and Colleges – My First Hand Experience

Higher Education in the present scenario, when world is facing brunt of recession, is turning out to be best option for majority of the students either at undergraduate level or graduate level. This piece of writing is aimed at helping those students who are planning to go for higher education abroad (specifically US universities and Colleges). Although the article may have Indian flavors (as I’m an Indian and one of the candidate aspiring to go abroad) however I feel issues and problems faced by students more or less remains the same across different geographies.

I have just tried to gather information from my friends, seniors who are joining top us universities such as MIT Sloan or Stanford in 2009.

So if you are one of the candidates applying to Top US Universities then here is an important checklist for US universities and colleges’ admissions.

1. What are the Top Universities, Colleges and B-schools in USA?

o It is wise to have list of top US universities rankings. But it is wiser to look for the top
ranking universities based upon the stream and your current level. For ex: Some
engineering universities might be best for undergraduate program in specific stream such
as Aerospace Engineering, Architecture Engineering, in spite of being placed much lower
down the ranking chart.

o It is advisable to check top 50 US Engineering Colleges and Universities and prioritize
them based upon the desired courses. Same goes with the medical stream as well.


2. Once you have short listed the top universities you should be ready with following information:

o What are the US University Deadlines?

o Then comes writing the SOP, getting recommendation

o You should always have a back up plan if you don’t get admission for undergraduate or
graduate program in the Top US universities and Colleges. To hedge your risk you should
apply in some low ranking universities as well.


3. Managing your financial resources during recession is probably the most critical part. If you receive
acceptance letter from any US university and don’t get scholarship or fellowship from the university
then you can look for following options:

o Do Google search to make a list of different scholarships offered by Corporates or any
international organization or websites that are in to Study Abroad.

Few Which My Friends Used:
1. Scholarship Offered by corporates such as Reliance Industries for Admission to
Stanford Universities (It covers everything but the competition is high. I will try to
arrange the info for the same).

2. Scholarship offered by LearnHub.com. (They have some unique criteria of writing
Essays which is judged by their counselors.
For more info: Study Abroad Scholarship

o You can also go for Student Loan in your respective country.


Hope this was helpful.

One thing is sure Study in USA is no cake walk.