MS in US: A Year Later

This is the continuation to my previous blog: Buckling up for MS-The Story so far.
To recap the blog a fresh MS aspirant after lot of efforts and hardship (physical and mental) landed in US and now the story continues.

Surprisingly even though US is a huge landmass and depending on where you land the experience may differ but everyone still shares a similar journey. Let me play Dumbledore and pull out the some thoughts off of an MS aspirant in US for the first time. (These thoughts transcend gender bias)

• How come every car is behind the other in a single line? These guys seem to be really disciplined drivers.
• Almost all roads are like highways!
• Black or Nigger is taboo. Use African American
• Anyone who walks by me greets me!
• Remember the wolf from looney toons cartoons with jaws open and tongue rolled out and eyes popping out watching the seducing dancer come on stage?: girls and their attire
• After getting over jet lag all there has been is look for assistantship, look for part-time job, look for apartment, and look for roommates….hufff….

• Some Americans are really very fat! No wonder they are the biggest consumers, literally.
• African Americans –babbans, Mexicans- makhlu, chinese or Japanese – chinki White Americans – amru, gore; American born confused desis(ABCD) ….
• Need to improve my culinary skills, food is expensive here!
• Better get used to western toilets quickly. Tissue please
• Can’t have a mobile unless I have SSN….
• Thank God there is laptop in this world. What would I do without one!
• Z is not pronounced zed but zee!
• It’s a law to mow the lawn in front of the house and keep it clean!
• Coin operated laundry: Hate the dryer, shrinks all my clothes
• People pick their pet dog’s poop with tissue and throw it in the dustbin!!!!!!

• Coffee to go or food to go sounds so much cooler than pack the coffee or pack the food.
• At least 15% tip in restaurants, barber’s shop, and cab! Money hungry thugs!
• What??? If more than 4-5 people go to a restaurant 15% tip is compulsory!!! It can be seen in the bill as gratuity!!! Insane…
• American food: So bland…
• McDonalds is not the same as it was back home :(
• Finished a subway footlong! Never thought I could eat this much!

• Honking is considered rude!
• The streets are so empty…
• Only a handful of national holidays…
• Driving: Aarrgh ! I hate the discipline…
• Oops I am driving on the left lane, I missed a stop sign. What!!!Now I have to yield for vehicles before merging into traffic!!! Why can’t I just make a cut and whizz away…
• There is no signal at a cross road just a stop sign and still the traffic is regulated without a cop controlling it!
• I want to see exactly how and when does my credit history build… arghh

• What’s with the thanksgiving shopping craze! Stand in line at night and wait for stores to open in the morning! Sounds interesting! Things people do to get stuff cheap! What the hell its worth all of it!

• Indian street: Reckless drivers honking, Indian restaurants, groceries, saree shops, pan shop along with Pakistani restaurants and shops. Feels at home.

(Region dependent thoughts)

• Why aren’t people more excited about first snow?
• Four to five layers of clothing every day, it’s so irritating.
• I don’t want to go out for groceries I just came from outside… Again put on all that clothing … arghhh
• Enough with the snow already, its been four months now. No wonder people were so excited with first snow!
• Temperature today is >0 deg C: Yay! It’s a beautiful day (Now I know what this phrase actually means!)

• Got a mail from someone asking me to evaluate his chances in my university…he he I was in that place a year ago…. I better reply quick as I know how anxious aspirants can be since I was one.
• Forgot to reply, somehow got busy, can’t even find that mail now…. And I was thinking the senior who did not reply to me a year back was a jerk… but I guess it happens. :P
• A new batch of students joining…it’s amazing how I am a senior to them even though some of them are elder to me by age, by experience….. I guess it’s because I have one year US experience. :P
• Better start preparing for full time job interviews/internships…..
• One year done and I hope more to come…..

These were some thoughts roughly summing up the experience of living in US for a year. Dumbledore is tired now. But feel free to dig in to the magic pot and pull out some more thoughts….

Buckling up for MS – The story so far (Part 1)

Every six months thousands and thousands apply for MS in the US from India. Well this is their story.

Its not always that the American dream drives people to MS in US, it may be peer pressure, it may be money, it may be thirst for knowledge, it may be convenience, a matter of heart or redemption; simply anything. You may find a wide ranging reasons, but whatever the reason may be the place to look for abroad is undoubtedly the United States.

The process starts with uncertainty and doubt which lasts throughout. It starts with the preparation of GRE. You come across thousands of words never seen, never heard or never used before nor will ever. It doesn’t even matter how good your English is was is or will be! The uncertainty of which words will be flashed in the exam haunts always. Unless you are a lexicographer no one is sparred from this uncertainty. After dealing with a giant headache a smaller headache pops up in the form of TOEFL, sometimes the more irritating of the two.

Two exams and we are just getting warmed up, now starts the horrendous task of actual application. Each task in this process is a mammoth and no lesser a trouble than the GRE itself.
SOP(Statement of Purpose) : When you take a look at one of these you feel that the person who is reflected could do nothing wrong ever. You could actually visualize an ideal person with enormous aspirations tremendous ideas and ……well almost a saintly person. You feel how can I even get close to being such a person. But eventually you too find out those streaks of sainthood in you and you are done with your SOP : fabricated and perfect!

LOR(Letters of Recommendation): Find three people who will write in a good word for you on your academic standing….well for some even this is a difficult task. Adjectives like ‘the best’ , ‘most promising’, ‘one of the top’ will be abundantly seen in these. Seldom ever are you conferred these prestigious adjectives!

Transcripts: The feeling of helplessness and hopelessness is at its epitome here. You may feel getting an admit at times is easier than getting transcripts in time. But yes it’s a learning experience , you get a real essence of Indian Babudom: the lethargy, the indifference and the apathy.

Financial Documents: All things come at a price and MS is all about the price. All things you do, will do or ever think of is ‘can I afford it?’. The decision of pursuing MS starts and ends here. Gather the finance, get the documents ready and you are set to send your applicaton packets.

What follows is a really long wait. Its is like sowing seeds and waiting for the plant to grow. It literally takes that long. You develop an involuntary muscle which pulls you to open your inbox atleast twice a day to check for replies, admits , rejects. In the meantime you try to lessen your anxiety by getiing a profile analysis, asking seniors, and surveying but in the end none of these really answer your questions. Finally the day of reconing comes in the form of an admit letter and sooner but most probably later the all important I-20 form.

End of story…..? Well no, it has just become interesting. Now you have to take a VISA. A dozen of forms and documents, a long wait at the crowded American counsulate and a highly hyped but a turn down interview. Thats it! Now you are authorized to fly but just not yet. Invariably all universities in the US have an Indian student organization or groups which I must say help enormously in making your transition from one part of the world to the other pretty comfortable. (Hails to all these organizations!!! )You get in touch with these groups or organizations, place your residual queries of how’s , when’s etc before leaving. An important factor is also shopping. It may be fun shopping things you feel will be costlier or unaffordable but more often than not it is funnier when you find out a lot of your shopping was really unnecessary. You might have fun shopping but the joy is short-lived.You may have everything you need but you still need to pack them. The optimization problem that you face of packing ALL your world into 2 or 3 bags with size and weight constraints is one problem even optimization specialists will have to rack their brains on.However with the bags packed, VISA in hand and a few awry emotions you set yourself to enter a new place! The flight takes off and after a long, gruelling and nauseating(depending on the airline company) journey you set foot in a foreign land

Hence forth things are different.This point is like a threshold; analogous to a point described in physics where classical mechanics ends and quantum mechanics begins. Well simply putting it an intermission in the story…..