THE APPLICATION PROCESS
TRANSCRIPTS: The Universities need a detailed listing of subjects and marks of
your Undergraduate (Degree) course. Usually all colleges have set formats. You have to take these in sealed envelopes.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Two or three recos are required from professors or supervisors.
Make sure that the people you choose for your recos will give good references. Tell the recommenders your ranking in class(that you stand
in the top x% of the class) and make sure to include all your achievements(like organizing annual festivals, tours, fluency in English, etc.)
Most Universities provide reco forms which the recommender has to fill out. This usually takes a lot of time, so start early. November is a good time to start.
You have to get these also in sealed envelopes from the recommenders.STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:This is perhaps the toughest part of the application process. A SOP determines
your financial aid, admission, etc.(basically your future!). SOPs have to be concise and must clearly express your goals and also your background. Put a lot of thought in your SOP
and make sure you dedicate at least a month to your SOP. Have people who know you less read it, and ask them for their suggestions and comments. Take a look at
a few SOPs.(NOT AVAILABLE YET, WAIT TILL AUGUST 1998)
FILLING FORMS: This takes longer than you expect it to, so as soon as you finalize your Univs(about 10 are good enough) start
filling out the forms without any delay.
BANK STATEMENT: You have to provide a written statement for funds for one/two years. Banks issue these statements without much problem, but be sure the statment
is not more than 2 months old. Students who donot wish to pay for their expenses and will go to the USA only if the Univs fund them can happily ignore this part of the application process.
DRAFTS: Each Univ has an application fee ranging from $0 to $75 (for MS/Ph.D) and $140 (for MBA). Usually banks take 2-3 days to issue drafts and the response
is tardy if many drafts have to be taken. They also charge a commission of about Rs.100. Also, the TOEFL, GRE/GMAT scores must be sent to each Univ by ETS. This requires Drafts of $11 and $13/$15
per University.
SEALING APPLICATION PACKETS AND DESPATCHING: This can also be time consuming as each Univ requires you to send material to different addresses. Hence the application
material must be carefully and thoroughly read. Its a good idea to send(by courier) all the packets to a relative in the USA who can then post them individually for you. See that your applications
reach way before the deadlines. Madhavi Desai gives a coupon for Rs.50 which entitles you to a Rs.1000 discount on DHL couriers. Arjun Classes also gives some discount on Blue Dart couriers.
For additional information email me at gaurav@bitsmart.com
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