tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:07:58 +0000A Guide for successful Graduate School Applicationshttp://americaahoy.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Saket)Blogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-7419693363782571905Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:23:00 +00002009-12-04T20:23:28.149-08:00All graduate programs will require you to submit 2-3 recommendation letters as a part of your application. If you are still studying, you'll probably have to ask your professors for recommendations. Choose professors with better qualifications or teachers who taught courses related to the field you plan to specialize in. An external project guide might also be a good person to ask as well, to http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/12/recommendation-for-your-recommendation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-3158296363730759075Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:22:00 +00002009-06-07T14:30:34.666-07:00ImmigrationAn important thing to consider if you are planning to study in the US is the immigration mess. Personally if I had understood the problems in advance, I would have been reluctant to work here. So here is a brief summary.H1B visasH1B visas allow a foreigner to work temporarily in the US for 6 years. Last year it was a challenge to get one, but this year it looks okay with the recession. Depending http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/06/immigration-mess.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-8639137763506453691Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:25:00 +00002009-06-07T14:29:14.137-07:00I noticed a question from Harsh about the end of Moore's law, my personal pet-peeve, and so here I am writing this post.What do I make of it? Honestly I know little beyond what is published in the news. I don't think there are a lot of people who understand the challenges at the device level unless they actually work in the area, and even when they do, they don't understand the challenges in http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/06/end-of-moores-law.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-1671597310033731139Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:18:00 +00002009-04-20T23:28:45.339-07:00Hi saket,I have a query regarding financial support form which needs to be filled for admission. What kind of impact this form can have on my appln ? If I declare that I cannot attend the school without financial aid, whether it is good/bad ? If one gets RA/TA, then this financial doc has less importance? Any extra info regarding this, will be helpful.Hi Yogeshwar, yes you are right about this. http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/04/funding-question-from-yogeshwar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-7128411259510864566Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:45:00 +00002009-04-07T20:54:45.316-07:00Graduate school applications from India and South Korea have dropped last year. This according to a report from the Wall Street Journal:The council survey of U.S. institutions, which fielded more than 400,000 applications in all, showed growth of applications from China along with the Middle East and Turkey, up 16% and 20% from 2008, respectively. But applications from India and South Korea fell http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/04/graduate-school-applications-from-india.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-6888051071385207316Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:24:00 +00002009-03-28T12:56:51.458-07:00Harsh recently asked in the comments about financial aid. I think this requires a fresh post outlining my experiences and observations from a few years ago.In the years I was at UW-Madison (2002-2004), most Indian grad students in ECE at UW-Madison didn't get funding from the department along with admission. This was something I faced back then too, and honestly it was discouraging enough for me http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/03/another-financial-aid-post.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-3906606201230801029Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:50:00 +00002009-03-16T08:55:36.746-07:00Phd Research and stupidityA great article in the Journal of Cell Science talks about the importance of stupidity in scientific research. The important point to take home is that nobody knows the answers to some questions. Quoting:My Ph.D. project was somewhat interdisciplinary and, for a while, whenever I ran into a problem, I pestered the faculty in my department who were experts in the various disciplines that I needed.http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/03/stupidity-in-scientific-research.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-2338397315499439192Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:53:00 +00002009-03-06T12:54:54.632-08:00As expected the number of people applying to graduate school has gone up. What is surprising is that the number of people taking the GRE has gone down... Article here.http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/03/times-report-on-graduate-school.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-4512149832978440486Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:11:00 +00002009-03-04T17:53:55.893-08:00AdviceHi...first i would like to thank you for regularly posting on blogs and helping people like us who want to get into US.I am currently in my final year of computer science and engineering. My scores are not way too good, my aggregate till now is 63%. I want to do a MS from a good university. By good , I mean top 50 universities. So, what else should i do to compensate formy relatively lesser http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/03/questions-from-harsh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-4068085662101270448Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:02:00 +00002009-03-01T20:03:15.283-08:00 Quizzes by Quibblo.com http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/03/words-starting-with-letter-f.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-850675278702812880Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:20:00 +00002009-02-23T21:20:47.650-08:00GRE GMAT SAT vocabulary quiz Quizzes by Quibblo.com http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/words-starting-with-letter-e.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-7058512559654919144Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:39:00 +00002009-02-23T21:25:11.517-08:00hi....myself prateek singh...i m doing btech currently in third year from electronics and communication...1.i m in 6th sem right now from ECE....and m planning to give my gre in month of oct so that i can apply for fall 2010....is this a right decision....2.i have got to know the importance of projects & papers,work exp..etc recently.... plz help me out abt these paper projects... i have very http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/questions-from-prateek-singh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-631774742503925837Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:37:00 +00002009-02-23T20:59:19.103-08:00GRE GMAT SAT vocabulary quizQuizzes by Quibblo.comhttp://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/words-starting-with-letter-d.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-21102467249009864Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:06:00 +00002009-02-21T09:07:30.050-08:00GRE GMAT SAT vocabulary quiz Quizzes by Quibblo.com http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/words-with-letter-c.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-2258440414358214793Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:49:00 +00002009-02-19T19:50:11.966-08:00GRE GMAT SAT vocabulary quiz Quizzes by Quiz Statistics http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/words-starting-with-letter-b.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-3155859570025488620Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:21:00 +00002009-02-18T18:21:44.292-08:00GRE GMAT SAT vocabulary quiz Quizzes by Quibblo.com http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/words-starting-with-letter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-4414174316673552235Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:09:00 +00002009-02-17T20:09:57.747-08:00GRE GMAT SAT vocabulary quiz Quizzes by Quibblo.com http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/vocabulary-quiz-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-1266125594068127965Tue, 17 Feb 2009 06:04:00 +00002009-02-16T22:06:01.713-08:00GRE GMAT SAT words quiz Quizzes by Quibblo.com http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/gre-words-quiz.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-7803464802692130897Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:34:00 +00002009-01-08T19:34:05.972-08:00calculate gpaconvertIf you have a percentage scoring system for university exams, the ideal method is to take the top 4 students of every year in your class and average their marks. The average A we will assign the value of 4.00.Then compare your marks(Y) to the average A like so: Your GPA = Y/A x 4.0If you don't know the marks for the top 4 students, simply take the score of the person http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-calculate-your-gpa-question-from.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-8291586056945816242Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:48:00 +00002009-01-03T09:05:44.807-08:00GRE wordsfrequentimportantHere is a list of the 10 important GRE words:- heckle : interrupt (a public speaker) with derisive or aggressive comments or abuse. He was booed and heckled when he tried to address the angry mob.- prodigal : spending money or resources recklessly ; wastefully extravagant.Prodigal habits die hard- indigence : povertyA life of indigence is better than a life of corruption.- specious : http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2009/01/10-frequent-gre-words.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-8971318903321250193Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:27:00 +00002008-12-10T21:44:04.486-08:00read papersReading more papers is a sure-fire way of improving your odds at gaining admission to a top grad-school. If you are still in college in your third year or final year, you may not be able to grasp all the concepts in these papers, but you will gain some basic know-how slowly. Use your statement of purpose to display the knowledge you have gained, by reading papers regularly. You could even talk http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2008/12/improving-your-odds-read-more-papers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-401198248690998734Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:20:00 +00002008-12-06T19:54:12.130-08:00applicationrecessionGrad schoolThe word is out. Last week a group of American economists declared that the American economy has been in a recession since December 2007. The outlook for the broader economy has never looked as bleak as it now does (in my 28 years). Already many prominent engineering employers have enforced hiring freezes, Intel has predicted that it's revenues could be down by as much as 20%. Some prominent http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2008/12/applications-in-recession.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-12448995218041050Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:37:00 +00002008-12-07T09:40:57.959-08:00I'll try to address the question Sidharth brought up in the comments for the last post. So first a quick note on course selection at American universities. Mechanics of Course Selection In grad schools in the US, you have almost an unlimited choice of courses to take. You could take courses in virtually any field within your department and outside. A lot of students try to learn how to play http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2008/11/course-selection-question-from-sidharth.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-5443363470787110182Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:31:00 +00002008-11-23T09:38:09.824-08:00I see a few repeat visitors to this blog. I know not a lot, but if you like what you have read so far on this blog, I need your help. What would you like to read about on this space? If I know someone cares about the content here, I'd be more motivated to continue writing. So do chime in with suggestions for the next topic to tackle. Thanks.http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2008/11/survey.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7429869152562345938.post-5741206771709810104Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:13:00 +00002008-11-11T19:42:40.052-08:00Recommendation LettersReferencesAn important part of your applications to grad school include 2-3 recommendations. Universities prefer references from your teachers, who have some idea about your academic ability, but if you have work experience you can get references from your supervisors at work too. Here are a few suggestions about recommendation letters. 1. Get recommendations from the most qualified peopleIf you have a http://americaahoy.blogspot.com/2008/11/recommendation-for-your-recommendation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Saket)0