SELECTING US UNIVERSITIES

Some important criteria for selecting universities:

First refer EDULIX or some good forum/site and get a list of universities that is good in your area of study(VLSI/signals/instrumentation etc.). You may apply the following filters on that list(priority in the order of listing):

1.Affordability and the chances of getting research/teaching assistant-ships:
You should not face monetary constraint once you get an admit. The maximum loan that you can take from a bank is 20Lakhs. So consider this factor carefully. Decide with your parents as to how much you will be able to spend, apart from the loan. Many people make this mistake of applying and then worrying about finance after the admits come.Very difficult situation. Also don't go for European universities unless you are confident of getting proper food and affordable residence(vegetarian food and rice is generally costly in Europe than in US).

2.The chances of getting a job after you finish your course:
This is very important because it decides your loan repayment. You can repay the loan comfortably only if you work there. Look for proximity of RELATED Industries to the university.

3.Whether the university has research related to your area:
Refer EDULIX for this. Then visit and explore each univ site and find out the research areas. (This step will take a lot of time so start it as early as possible).

4.Whether the university matches your GPA level:
This is not very strict except for the top universities which look for 85% and above. Study the statistics of each university- how the admits have been in the past years, study the pattern. EDULIX and some other sites help. Also subscribe to happy schools blog for nice info and guidance.

5.Climate:
Make sure the climate is not very extreme. Having lived in tropical climate for 20 yrs, it'll be a bit difficult to manage in harsh conditions.


This will shorten your list a lot. All the very best:) Write your GRE and TOEFL as soon as you can. The scores could take up to 4 weeks to reach the universities. So write early. And send scores to 4 universities that you are sure of applying to.

AN EFFECTIIVE WAY TO PREPARE FOR GRE: SOME TIPS

Wordlist:

• Wordlists help to prepare for Analogies, Antonyms and sentence completion.
• When reading a wordlist, keep handy a good dictionary like Merriam Webster Collegiate dictionary. Never hesitate to use the dictionary. It won’t hurt if you use it more frequently that you blink!
• Almost all wordlists have some words that elude us. Write down those words in a separate sheet of paper or flashcards. And from this list, you may form another list, thus narrowing down to a shorter list each time, containing the most elusive words.

/* a bit of psychological explanation for the above point:
This method is much better than marking those words in the wordlist itself because our mind has the beautiful ability to remember more than just a word. For instance, you may recall the meaning of some words purely based on the font color, font size, the position of the word in a page and so on. Writing down words separately in a different style, helps overcome these seemingly useful disabilities. */

• More than just reading the words, revising them is the key. Do as many revisions as possible.
• I would say BARON’S is good enough along with some supplement like taking tests from BIGBOOK.
• GRE BIG BOOK is THE BEST and the most comprehensive material you can find. It has the best tests. DO practice from it. It will be available in any local lending library or as e-book on the internet.

Quantitative:
• An 800 in quants is a very good thing. So spend some time everyday to do some quants.
• ‘Quants’ in GRE is easy, but tricky.
• Be doubly sure that you have ASSUMED NOTHING and that you have ONLY TAKEN WHAT IS GIVEN.
• Diagrams can be very misleading. Unless specified in the question, no angle is acute or obtuse or right angled. Unless specified in the question, no point inside a circle is its centre.
• I would advise you to read the question twice.
• Verify your answer once before proceeding to the next question.
• Remember: All wordlist and no quants, makes Ram an English boy. Scoring an 800 in verbal and 740 in quants is no more impressive than a 650 in verbal and an 800 in quants.

Essay:
• Essay score matters. Your admission and visa could be problematic if you score below 3 in essay.
• Make sure you write at least 4 arguments and 4 issues as practice.
• Resist the temptation to rattle off those flowery words you get to learn in wordlists.
• Employ a simple, direct and lucid style of writing. Avoid complex sentences. Communication of your idea should be your motive.
• Write the strongest point in the beginning and the second strongest point at the end. Remember: First impression is the best impression and last impression creates a lasting impression.

General instructions:
• Write tests continuously- from BIG BOOK (THE BEST MATERIAL) or GRE BIBLE (secondary option). There is no hard and fast rule that you have to take a test only after finishing wordlists. Taking a test can impart you a healthy perspective in learning wordlists as you will get to know in which form to expect the words.

• The two best tests are Kaplan and Power prep (by ETS). Reserve these tests for the last five days before your planned GRE date.

• You may find some good tests with GREBIBLE, although a couple of questions may be wrong here and there. (From personal experience. No offence to anybody).

• (You may get those softwares on the internet: esnips.com and www.ets.org. Alternately you may visit skblogbuster.blogspot.com for a common direct link to all of them)

• Take all tests fully, along with the essays. Time the tests strictly. Take all the practice tests seriously and take the tests at the same time of the day as you have scheduled your GRE. This would help your mind to get used to being active during those hours.

• Analyze the outcome of each test section wise and question-type wise and track your progress. Read and prepare for each test based on your performance in previous test(s).

• Generally, an average of the two Power prep scores gives a rough estimate of your likely score in the main GRE. Kaplan score give your likely score MINUS 50. That means, generally, your Kaplan score can be expected to be lower than your Power prep score.

• I would suggest you to NOT take any test on the day immediately before your planned GRE date.

• Take the 3 tests provided by Kaplan and the 2 by Power prep alternatively as below. [read (D-n) as Dee minus en]:
(D-6) day: Kaplan 1
(D-5) day: Power Prep 1
(D-4) day: Kaplan 2
(D-3) day: Kaplan 3
(D-2) day: Power prep 2
(D-1) day: Chill and do some light revision
D day: Go write GRE and then celebrate your good score :-)

In the exam:

• Assure yourself that you are going to give your best. Positive thinking brings about a positive energy and good confidence :-)

• Allocate a little extra time for the first ten questions as they carry a lot of importance and can boost your score greatly- if answered correctly.

• Don’t spend a lot of time reading a given comprehension passage and analyzing it. Better skim it once first and then go on to the questions. Knowing the question will help you look for what is needed, efficiently.

• Just keep calm. Simply forget the questions you have already answered. Remember that time is unidirectional. The best bet you have at any point of time is to make sure you answer the current question to the best of your ability.

I wrote GRE in July 2009 and score 1420(V: 620 Q: 800 Essay: 4.0).

Visa procedure

VISA PROCEDURE:
• Get I20 from university
• Visit the link specified in the I20 and pay the SEVIS fee($200)
• There are two forms for the Visa. First is the application form (and it is unduly long) and the second is the form to schedule the appointment.
• Pay the Visa Appointment fee ($140) at HDFC bank and obtain two receipts (one for you and one for the Visa office). This receipt will have a barcode that you have to use while scheduling your Visa appointment. This Barcode will be activated only after two working days. So better get it early.
• Fill the application form first and then once the Visa fee barcode gets activated, fill up the Visa appointment form.
• The application form is huge, as mentioned earlier. Allocate 1-2 hrs for the same. There are many pages in the form and you can save the form (to your computer) after each page. It will also ask for a photo. I used the same photo as I used in for my passport. But I heard there is a different photo format for US visa..Check it out. This application form will ask for the name and address of all schools you’ve studied in(after elementary class) and all organizations you have been employed with. So have all those stuff ready before sitting to fill the form. As for myself I used GOOGLE ;-)
• After that, fill the appointment form and fix your appointment. Ta-daan…your appointment is ready 

See this: (MUST)
http://chennai.usconsulate.gov/howtoapply.html


ALL THE BEST !!

GRE preparation help

The following are sonme of the useful links for GRE prep


http://www.freegrematerial.blogspot.com/

http://www.greguide.com/GRE-Score/Good-GRE-Scores.html

http://bdcube.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/barrons-wordlists-with-good-explanationsgre-krupa/

http://bdcube.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/gre-analogies-audio-by-gre-krupa/

www.mnemonicdictionary.com

www.freerice.com

*************
KAPLAN

Kaplan tests CD:: click here

Use This software to run Kaplan CD:
MAGIC ISO DISC:: click here

*************


essay from ets:: click here

also see this important link from ETS

and the most important:

www.ets.org

OF VISUALISATION AND DIMENSIONS

Visualisation is a term we use when we have to imagine something. When we read a story, learn a new concept, think about the future or the past, we visualise things to get a feeling of reality thus enable better understanding (wherever applicable).
What is visualisation?? In most cases it is just correlating stuff with what we have already seen.
Visualisation is the base for an artist, a sculptor or even a businessman .All said and done, let us take a look at this:
VISUALIZATION is a word that you and me can afford to use. All that we can ever VISUALISE is in 3dimensions.For example; try to imagine, for a moment, a 5 dimensional space. What parameters do u think an object can have in 5D?? When I say, "object", what comes to your mind is a 3dimensional body. So, our spatial ability that is, our ability to visualise things, is (unfortunately) limited to 3dimensions.This is because we tend to relate to what we have seen (and we have not seen anything but 3D.).

Consider a man who is visually challenged from birth (note the term "visually challenged”. I think it is inappropriate to use it. Explanation will follow.). He has literally no idea as to what is visualising, or what is dimension or even what is light!!!
He is told that there is something called light. But one can never "explain" to him what is light. It has to be felt. You may tell him that there is a road, a house, a dog, a building... but to him, everything is new; unimaginable; unproved.
And to him, the world is more than 3dimensional.When we see an object we see it in terms of its “height, width and breadth”. But when a visually challenged man “sees” an object’s feel, its position (in his own terms), and probably has more parameters associated with every object, say, regarding the way he confronted it or something.

If you are in a room with no light, u will find it very difficult to navigate let alone do some work. So we can claim that LIGHT is the thing that aids us. Suppose a visually challenged person is in a dark room, he will work with at least twice your speed, despite not having light.

Now THINK and tell, who is visually challenged? Is it the one who is totally dependent on light or the one who is unaffected by light- one who can “see” all the time?
Light is our greatest strength and weakness too!! That is why I said; the term “visually challenged” is not apt.



VISUALISING MULTI-DIMENSIONS:

Dimension as told in physics is a physical parameter that describes a body. Somehow, I feel that in order to truly (and somewhat easily) experience more than three dimensions, we just remember the following:

Dimensions are not always specific to physical attributes. They can also be abstract parameters that are independent of one another.


Suppose there are 5 factors governing the sales of a product (take economics for example), the economists write some equations containing the factors that are independent of one another.
Attempts to "visualize" 5th(or more) dimension, as coordinates and spatial attributes is not a healthy habit.

Alternately, let us try to experience multi-dimension in an abstract way.
Think of (visualise) a cup of coffee.
What you VISUALISE is a multi-dimensional image; wondering how??
Its because a lot of parameters that feature in your imagination can be defined explicitly:

1.A cup (3 dimension-physical)
2.Colour of the cup
3.The place where you see it is (say on your dining table)
4.the amount of light incident on the cup (so that you can see it)
5.The amount of coffee in the cup
6.The colour of the coffee
7.The temperature of the coffee (say, you always expect steaming coffee to be served)
8.The position of the cup’s handle (variable in 0-360 degrees)

And some more parameters that you might have imagined:

9.The colour of the table
10.The texture of the cup

Aahhh…who said multi-dimensions were tough?
We have indeed done some mental work that has the potential of being equated with those mathematicians and scientists who talk in multi dimensions and live in an entirely different universe. And the best part is, we have not written any equations (I hate equations and derivations).

So let your imagination sprint. Break away from all dimensional barriers and visualise the ultimate. For what stops you, also has the potential to inspire you!!!



____________________________________________________________________
REFERENCE (one of the reasons for me writing this blog)
nationalpolicies.blogspot.com
(there is a post under the heading MULTI DIMENSIONS)

_____________________________________________________________________