How to select a college in US?

Selecting college in USA depends on a number of factors:

1. The program you want to pursue~Every university has its strengths and weaknesses. Some are good at engineering and some at Liberal arts. If you are a Life Sciences guy look for colleges with good reviews and faculty for Life Sciences. 
2. Your Tuition+Living Expenses Budget~This is one of the main deciding factors when it comes to deciding a college in US. The State universities are public funded(means they get grants from federal and state government). They can be cheaper than most of the private universities. Private universities are generally backed up by their Alumni network when it comes to grants. The only disadvantage of a public university is that in times of Budget Cuts, a State University suffers much more badly as opposed to a private university. 
3. Location~You want your college to be near a city or in a city. Remote places in Ohio, Texas, North Dakota have anonymity and do not serve the purpose of getting a global exposure. 
4. Diversity~This is a personal choice. Whether you like diversity or not. If you want many fellow Indians you should research about the Indian diaspora in a particular college. 
5. Placement~Often placement cells dodge this question by claiming that this data is confidential. Even if you are provided with the data, you need to observe the percentage of International students who obtained jobs. If no data is available, you need to contact students already in the college or who have graduated from there. 

I can remember these criteria as of now, if you have anything in mind that you think is important, feel free to comment and add.

Books and Material you need for GRE, GMAT & TOEFL

I think most of you must have already heard about zillions of books and material available in the market for the entrance exams. I am listing out the most popular books for the exams:

GRE/GMAT - Barron's guide, KAPLAN Prep for GRE/GMAT, Princeton Review for GRE/GMAT, The Official guide to the GRE/GMAT test, The GRE test for Dummies
Toefl - Barron's Guide (believe me you only need this one book for TOEFL)

Most of the above mentioned  guides are accompanied with CDs that contain prep exams and tutorials. I personally found Princeton Review to be closest to the actual exam as far as the simulated environment of the test is concerned. The official guide to GRE/GMAT contain the closest format of questions, comprehensions and other sections pertaining to individual exams.

Country specific Studies! USA

So lets start with the country of dreams, the United States of America. One of the main reasons I chose to discuss about this country is because I am myself pursuing my studies here. I made it to this country with the help of few friends and acquaintances without the help of consultants. And believe me anyone can do it. You just need patience and hard work.

In my last post I discussed about the standard tests. Well some more info on that. There are two ways to crack them ( I am excluding TOEFL for now). You either take tuition or prepare by yourself. Your self-esteem should not get hurt if you decide to take classes. All these tests are very different from how exams work in India. These tests are CAT i.e. Computer Adaptive Tests. They adapt to the way you answers thew question. It increases or decreases the difficulty of questions as you answer them. The main idea is to get somewhat a Bell Curve sort of thing, so most of us should expect to get average scores. Coachings have experience with the pattern of the tests and could guide you well. On the other hand the effort should come from your side too. Attempt as many mock online tests as you can before going for the final test. That is the key to success. Expect to get 100 marks less on the Final test from the average score that you have been getting on the mock tests. For example: You used to get 720(GMAT scale) on the mock tests, expect 620-660 on the real test.

TOEFL could be largely prepared by yourself until and unless you suck at English. Indians are blessed with good English and getting a Barron's with the CD and some moderate practice is enough to get 100+ score on the TOEFL. But if you don't have confidence with it again, don't hesitate to go for a coaching.

In my next post I will discuss about the material you need to study for various exams. Till then ...HAPPY SLOGGING!

How?Where?When?of Studying Abroad...

Hi Aspirants

First step to studying abroad is giving some standard exams. You cannot just decide the country of your choice overnight. Since we are an English speaking country..we need to choose countries where medium of instruction is English. That helps you eliminate a lot of countries.
So about giving some standard tests..
Indians need to give these standard tests:
1.SAT (for undergraduate studies)+ TOEFL
2.GRE (for Graduate MS studies) + TOEFL
3.GMAT(for Graduate MBA studies) + TOEFL
3.LSAT(for Law studies)

TOEFL is a necessity irrespective of your choice of course or country(be it US, UK, Australia or NewZealand. Now most of you might refute that. But a decent college of a good standing and legal framework will always demand the scores that I mentioned. If a college doesn't demand scores, there is something fishy about it.

for complete info on Toefl: www.ets.org/toefl/
for complete info on SAT : www.ets.org
for complete info on GRE : www.ets.org/gre/
for complete info on GMAT : www.mba.com/