Fall 17 Guide for Masters in USA

(Especially for Construction Management/ Construction

Engineering and Management Aspirants)
-Manjeeth Kolli
Okay, Hi Folks. Firstly, before I get down to the gist of this whole preparation of yours for Fall
17 for Masters in any stream, specifically Construction Management or Construction
Engineering and Management (Trust me, there is a lot of difference between these two :p), let
me introduce myself. I am Manjeeth Kolli and I have graduated from BITS Pilani (Hyderabad
Campus) this May 2016. Mine is a dual degree with B.E Hons in Civil Engineering and M.Sc.
Hons in Chemistry. So, its a 5 year course which started in 2011. I had decided to go for
Masters in Civil Engineering (precisely MS in Construction Management) in around January
2013. (Dont worry, you need not prepare that much time before. I had started to gather
information in January 2013 from seniors and slowly build my profile so as to stand among the
application lot received by admission committees of universities.)

Why am I writing this guide?

So coming to why I am writing this guide, I couldnt help but observe that during this whole
process from January 2013 till recently, students pursuing MS in Civil Engineering are very
less, let alone MS in Construction Management applicants. So it was very tough to get into
touch with seniors in the same stream and then get into touch with your co-applicants.
Moreover, even if you got into touch with some seniors, they would be studying in USA which
would mean that you and he/she are staying in different time zones which would make process
of communication a tad difficult. But lucky me, all seniors I have contacted in universities have
been very supportive and helpful to me. Believe me when I say that, if not for their suggestions,
I wouldnt be going for MS right now. I almost contacted seniors in all universities offering
MS in Construction Management which provided me insights into all course program
curriculums. And I understand how helpless you are feeling at this point, some people are yet
to give GRE, some people who have given GRE may be confused about shortlisting
universities. I can clearly relate to this situation as, exactly one year ago, I was also going
through this same shitty phase. I know how difficult it can be to understand which university
may require what GRE or what CGPA etc. etc. So dont worry, this is what this guide of Fall
17 for MS is made for. I will be listing all the steps in your journey for MS applications and
will clearly detail what you will be needing and how you need to develop such skills and how
you need to build your profile and project it in front of the US university admission committee.
You need to understand that this guide is useful for students of all streams and is generic for
all branches. But, this may be even more helpful to Construction Management students since
it has many details of this stream specifically. Nevertheless, I would recommend students of
all streams like Mechanical, CS, ECE etc. to go through this guide since it has all sorts of advice
you need for applications of Masters in United States of America.

My profile:
GRE: 320 (Quant 165, Verbal 155, AWA: 5.0)
TOEFL: 106 (Reading: 26, Speaking: 23, Listening: 27, Writing: 30)
CGPA: 6.41 from BITS Pilani (Hyderabad Campus)
11 Academic Projects and 2 Thesis in Undergraduate
3 Internships (Related to Construction Management)
7 Research Publications (4 Conference Papers and 3 Journal Papers)
Decent Extracurricular activities and achievements.

I have applied to 12 universities and received 5 admits and 7 rejects in total as follows:
1. Texas A&M College Station, Texas MS in Civil Eng. with Concentration in
Construction Engineering and Management Reject (Dream Ambitious)
2. Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana MS in Building Construction Management
Admit (Dream Ambitious)
3. Virginia Tech University, Virginia MS in Construction Engineering and Management
Reject (Ambitious)
4. University of Southern California, California MS in Construction Engineering and
Management Reject (Ambitious)
5. University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado MS in Construction Engineering and
Management Reject (Ambitious)
6. North Carolina State University, North Carolina - MS in Civil Eng. with Concentration
in Construction Engineering and Management - Reject (Ambitious)
7. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida MS in Construction Management Admit
(Ambitious)
8. Arizona State University, Arizona MS in Construction Engineering Reject
(Moderate)
9. Clemson University, South Carolina MS in Construction Engineering and Management
Admit (Moderate)
10. Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, Illinois MS in Construction Engineering and
Management - Reject (Safe)
11. University of Texas Arlington, Texas MS in Construction Management - Admit (Safe)
12. University of North Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina - MS in Construction Facilities
and Management - Admit (Safe)

Acknowledgements:
I would like to sincerely thank and express my gratitude towards my friends who helped me in
formatting the guide, and adding valuable suggestions and provided support, read, offered
comments and assisted in the editing. Especially Karthik Unnikrishnan (Mechanical),
Praseedha Subramanium, Kushank Mishra, Nikunj Solanki, Sudeep Roy, Saniya Kulkarni,
Parth Korde, Aditya Manohar and many other friends of mine who have been of immense help
in proofreading and editing the guide. Last and not least: I beg forgiveness of all those who
have helped me with the guide preparation and whose names I have failed to mention."

Steps in the Journey of MS:

So, I will be listing all steps you need to do in the journey of MS:
1. Your Academics (If you are still an undergraduate and are still studying)
2. Your Work Experience (If you have graduated and have no more scope of
academics)
3. GRE Preparation
4. TOEFL Preparation
5. Publications and Papers and Research Profile
6. Statement of Purpose
7. Are Consultancies needed?
8. Shortlisting Universities
9. Details of Universities offering MS in CM/CEM
10. Applications process
10. a. GRE Score Reporting
10. b. TOEFL Score Reporting
10. c. Transcripts
10. d. Letter of Recommendations
10. e. Application formal process
10. f. CV or Resume
10. g. Financial documents needed?
11. Any Pointers regarding MS.

1. Your Academics:
I cant stress enough as to how much of an important role academics play in your
admission for MS. I also understand that if your CGPA is quite less and if you are in
your 3rd year or probably final year, it would mean you have a very little chance of
making up for the loss in your CGPA. Trust me, I was in this same fucked up position.
But I somehow managed to come up with some decent figures finally while applying.
But if there are any 2nd or at least 3rd year students who have lots of time to make up
for the CGPA you lost, here, this is for you, dont waste the time you have got in your
hand. I even know that this is the most clichd dialogue you must have heard, but
believe me when I say, that you will regret later while applying for MS and then you
realize you had the chance and you didnt utilize it to the fullest.

Okay, for the final year students and the ones who have graduated, I understand that
you dont have much time probably left now, but it is okay, all hope is not lost. You
still have a whole lot of plenty profile building which you can do without CGPA. I
know at least 15-20 friends of mine who got into excellent top notch universities for
MS in Construction Management even with average CGPA. I would first want to clear
some misconceptions regarding this point here. Firstly, CGPA is not the only criteria
evaluation, but its the first important factor the admission committees in USA
would want to look at. Please get this into your mind as much as possible. Imagine
yourselves sitting in the admission committee chair. Youve received an application of
a bunch of students. A student, lets say, X has got the best grades and excellent
academics, and the rest of the profile appears just average. Another student, Y has got
best grades and best academics and even the rest of the profile looks amazing. Now
lets see another student, Z whose grades are just average or below average, but the rest
of profile looks excellent. And consider another student, W. He has also got bad grades,
but goddamn outstanding rest of the profile than all the other 3 students combined.
Blatantly put, the admission committees mostly tend to choose Y>X>W>Z.
The thing is you are applying for a freaking Masters Degree in a specific field. If they
want you to have that chance, they should first deem you worthy of gaining such a
degree which would mean that they want to see how you fared in the same subjects in
your undergrad. If you fucked it up badly, it would be perceived that you would
probably be unable to study them in your Masters as well. And we cant blame the
universities to be so narrow minded. Come on, they arent our parents to keep on
believing us despite the evidence being contrary. All they would want to see is good
grades from an authority (your undergrad univ) which seems believable to them that
you would be studying well even in Masters. I am really sorry if I made it look harsh,
but thats how things happen. Now let me get to the good news, you can project your
profile as you like, provided that it is authentic. You can cover up your bad grades by
building up the rest of your profile as much as possible. Like, I am not implying building

simply for namesake purpose, build it so fucking strong that the admission committee
would want to overlook any kind of bad grades and would be willing to accept how
worse your grades may be. That kind of Profile Building is what I am taking about.
Remember the analysis above, maybe the low acads students (W and Z) didnt beat the
better ones, but at least W beat Z. In fact, if you ask me, if perfectly built, W will have
equal chances like X, but please let me remind you, I mean PERFECTLY BUILT. It
requires a lot which will be detailed in each point in the rest of the guide.
But all I want you to know for Academics point in MS is It is the first and foremost
important factor in your profile, it most certainly determines the making and breaking
of your application, but it is not the only point in your profile. A profile means a whole
lot of deciding factors like GRE, TOEFL, and SOP, Extra-curricular etc. You have to
understand that SOP along with CGPA here is a game changer. So, if you have got
excellent CGPA, you are good to go with. But if you have bad CGPA, I have got good
news and bad news for you. Bad news is you have probably lesser chances than the
others and you need to work hard. The good news is youve still got the time and
opportunity to strengthen the rest of your profile and make it unbeatable. So better get
to work right fucking now. Consider this personally coming from a student who has
got very low grades and who thought all hope was lost and then worked hard (maybe?)
and then got an admission from his Dream Ambitious University. So, all hope is not
lost.
Btw, when I mean low cgpa and good cgpa, its a generally vague term. So a low cgpa
would mean something less than 7/10 probably. A good and decent would mean 7-8 or
maybe 8.5. Anything over 8.5 may be considered as well-deserved and excellent
CGPA. Okay, there was this another huge misconception that people from Pune
University and Mumbai University are at a disadvantage as the toppers percentage from
that university doesnt cross 75-80% generally whereas in other univ, you can even
score around 9.5. Please let me tell you that all US admission universities know about
this. I can guarantee you that at least 40% of the students going for MS in CM or CEM
are from PU or MU. All of these students were not at any disadvantage regarding their
GPA. The US admission committees know the grading system. Trust me, they have
seen so many Indian students that they have understood the grading system even better
than some of us. So, none is at a disadvantage. Moreover, if you want a clear analysis,
65% in MU or PU is equivalent to an easy 8 CGPA in a normal college. If you want an
even more clear analysis, a guy with 62% in PU is equivalent to a guy from BITS Pilani
with 8.1 CGPA. I have stated that PU and MU students usually have low grades so
anything around 65 is equivalent to 8.5 CGPA, but this case is true only if the student
is applying till his third year grades. If he is applying after graduation, then 65% is quite
low as PU and MU tend to shower marks in last year and majority of students cross 65
very easily and there is a huge bunch of students scoring even 70+. When you say that
US universities know about the grading system of PU & MU, they are aware of this

thing as well because I have seen people from PU applying after completion of degree
with 68-69% getting rejects from the universities where students with almost similar
rest of the profile but academics of 64-65% till third year getting admits. So my point
here is to say that if a student is scoring low in three years and all of sudden in final
year he scores well and shows a decent aggregate, it wont help at least with Pune and
Mumbai universities. A friend of mine at PU in Civil Eng. who scores 66% at the end
of his graduation has received a WES evaluation of 3.9/4.0. So you can understand how
the US admission committees look towards GPA of MU or PU. The university has its
own way of calculating the GPA and considers many factors like lab hours etc. My
friend is a distinction holder but not a topper and still scored 3.9/4 in WES evaluation.

While entering your GPA in the application to university, you are even asked your class
toppers percentage or your WES GPA. WES GPA is the ones which show the GPA of
a student out of 4, after it considers the university grading system. If your university
asks for WES GPA (most of the universities dont and ask you to enter out of 10), you
can go for the WES evaluation and you can get a clarity over your GPA. But even if
you arent asked, dont worry as the US people know the universities grading system
just by having a look at the toppers GPA or they do the WES evaluation themselves. I
wouldnt recommend doing the WES evaluation personally as the US admission
committees would be doing that for us and we need not splurge money over this
evaluation. Instead of all this shit, you can even use the conversion table available on
Quora website. But frankly, nothing to worry much about here. Just put a rough estimate
as universities have their own calculator.

2. Work Experience:
All throughout the above paragraph, I have been speaking over and over about Rest of
the profile. In that category, work experience is the most important factor which is
probably equivalent to GRE. Okay, before I start off anywhere about this point, I want
all of you to know that Work Experience is not compulsorily needed for Masters. Unless
and until your university Masters program explicitly states that Work Experience is a
MUST for applying, you can chill. For all those undergrad students who are still
studying and dont have any experience out there, dont worry, having no experience is
not at all going to be a negative parameter in your profile. All it does is add a positive
point to your profile and maybe, a big positive point. But trust me, there is no
harm to your profile, even if you dont have any. But if your Masters degree is
something like aimed towards Management or which needs practical training to
understand the subject, Id recommend getting work experience here in India. This
work experience is not only going to benefit you here in the application process, but it
also does offer a certain advantage when it comes to Internships or Placements in your
Masters. For example, many companies offering positions for jobs have a minimum
work experience criteria to be met sometimes, in such cases, your work experience of
1 or 2 years can be used there. But its not a compulsory thing. If you are confident

enough that your GPA and other parts of your profile are going to seal the deal, you
could go forward with your plans.

Another important thing I would like to bring to attention is that, some universities
while evaluating profile MAY overlook your bad grades if your work experience is
exceptional and is completely related to the core field you are looking for a Masters
degree in. Please remember, your work experience should look outstanding among a
lot of applications, only then can you negate and nullify your bad grades, and yes, it
certainly helps if you have worked in a recognizable MNC. For example, when it comes
to our stream of Construction Management, Work experience is a very good advantage
but as I said, many students have got admits without work experience as well in reputed
universities. But as Construction Management is a field which primarily focuses on
practical training and as your learning is mostly involved in the field, Work experience
has a good amount of weightage in your profile. And another thing I have observed is
that, if you are from an Organization like L&T, please do not underrate your work
experience. The US admission committees consider it to be as one of the top recruiters
and know the works involved in L&T. So they give a very good priority to such work
experience. For example, universities like Purdue and TAMU have given admits to a
good amount of students with work experience especially from L&T. But again, there
are students who secured without such experience as well. But if you have got such
work experience, all I am saying is to mention it to the fullest and project it in your SOP
to the best.
So final word on work experience is, it isnt going to harm your profile in any
manner if you have none. But it does offer a bit preference over other students if
you have got work experience which is worth mentioning. Another point I would
like to add is, please dont think of showing non-relevant work experience. It would
probably not be worth anything and is neutral at best case and may damage your
application chances at worst case. For example, I know many of you may be working
in a field which isnt exactly resonant with the field you are applying for Masters.
Imagine yourselves in the admission committee chair, Would you consider a student
who has graduated with Bachelors in Civil Eng. or Bachelors in Architecture and has
got work experience in CS/irrelevant field and wants to major his Masters in Civil
Engineering again? Nope, at best, they are going to ignore it. They may consider you
to be as a student with wavering decisions at worse and one who isnt his dedicated to
his core field. I personally understand your situation but the admission committees in
US arent going to do so. So think twice before you are going to put any work
experience. If its any slightly related intern, its okay, you can project it in the manner
you like. For example, if its any management intern, you can show it on your resume
since management these days is more important in any field.

Another thing I would like to add here is you may not have the chance to create any
work experience out of thin air, but what opportunity you have is that, you can magnify
your work a little bit. Please, dont over exaggerate it too much, but yeah you can
probably show how well you have managed the project (even if you just attended the
office half-heartedly). Never, I mean, never create any false things on your resume such
as show fake work experience or any other shit like that. Although there is a very less
chance that they will ask you to show certificates for everything, you do not want to
face the dire consequences when they catch you showing some fake experience or
anything. You would probably be blacklisted and cannot apply for MS in USA ever
again. So chill, why take risk for something which isnt worth busting our balls.

3. GRE Preparation:
There was a post I posted in one of the Facebook groups after my GRE exam, exactly
one year ago. I am copy-pasting it here so that you can understand how I prepared.
Along with that post, I will be even writing as to how GRE plays a vital role in your
application for MS. Do try following Magoosh prep also if you want an alternative to
my prep.
The following is the list of materials I have studied in the respective order and how it
may benefit you:
a. ETS Official Guide. The bible to every GRE exam. DO NOT NEGLECT THIS. It
is exactly the level of what I faced in the exam. Took me two days to complete. Will
give you an overall view of what you are going to experience in the exam.
b. Wordlists: I followed Barron 333, Barron 800 and Magoosh decks. First complete
the Barron lists and then go onto Magoosh. You may face some similar words from
Barron in Magoosh which helps you in revision. And trust me, do whatever, by heart
or understand, whatever helps, but REMEMBER EVERY WORD possible. It gives
you a lot of confidence. All words I have encountered came from these only. Took me
10 days to complete them perfectly. Along with these wordlists, study Magoosh Vocab
e-book pdf and Kaplan GRE Verbal workbook. They have a lot of words. Trust me,
you will face at least half of the vocab words from the exam in these. Magoosh vocab
eBook helps in synonyms and hence improves your SE's.
c. Kaplan 2012 official guide pdf: I initially took all official guides like ETS, Kaplan
and Barron to get tips on how to study for RC's, SE's and TC's. Helped me a lot. Give
all the drills in the end. Took me 2 days to complete.
d. Barron Official guide pdf: Same like above, gives a lot of tips for AWA as well. Give
the exam at the end of the pdf. You will get an understanding of what you are about to
face in the mocks. Took me 2 days.

e. Manhattan 8 series: By then, I understood I was not that good as what I had thought
in math and then started Manhattan 8 series. This may be straightforward like
Manhattan 5 lb and boring and may even have simple sums. But, best for whetting your
basics and then moving onto harder math problems. If you think its a bit tedious to this
8 series, just do the drills at the end of pdf. Helped me a lot in getting a hold of all basics
and theorems as well. This even has verbal in 2 books and is decent enough. Took me
8 days to complete.
f. Manhattan 5 lb: Now that I have understood Manhattan 8 series concepts, this was
pretty easy. Even they are straightforward, trust me, solving them increased my
confidence a lot. Took me 6 days to complete. As said, solve Manhattan 8 series, this
is a cakewalk. Manhattan 1-8 is normally considered as a precursor for Manhattan 5lb.
That doesn't mean you have to necessarily complete Manhattan 1-8 in order to ace
Manhattan 5Lb. If you are weak in your basics, go with Manhattan 1-8 series and try
every problem across. But if you are confident enough that you can score 160 with ease,
do Manhattan 5 lb and GRE Nova to cross 165 and even also get a 170.
g. Princeton 1014: This is one of the best ones I have studied. If you have just one week
for preparation and havent started anything, study vocab and math formulas and try to
solve this. Has easy, medium and hard questions jumbled so that you have to comb
through all the pdf. Even though, they werent easy, I knew a lot of meanings and knew
where I was going wrong in math. Especially, Princeton 1014 has good verbal
questions. Took me 4 days to solve.
h. GRE NOVA: This was a bit boring considering I had already solved many math
questions, so just had a quick glance at the concepts and the examples and solved some
difficult drills. Took me 2 days. Best for math, but again, may take long time to
complete efficaciously.
i. RC-99: If you want to ace your RC questions, try this. The best for RC. Has 99 RC's.
Dont get discouraged by the numbers. Solve at least 15-20 each of easy, medium and
tough. Never neglect the tough ones. Best thing about this is the long passages which
you get accustomed to and read easily the ETS passages in the exam. The ETS passages
I faced were like the medium level of RC 99. Hence, dont ignore this at any cost. Took
me 3 days to complete all 99 passages.
j. AWA: I just went through the Magoosh videos of how to write syntax and all. Looked
up the pool of issues and arguments and googled them for points. Then, wrote some
AWA mocks. Took me 2 days. Dont ignore AWA if you are going for PHD. There is
a syntax or structure in the Magoosh AWA videos. Do not deviate from that. Helps a
lot to prepare in minimal amount of time. I hardly gave a day or two for AWA prep.

Just brushed up through the AWA videos and went through the ETS guide sample
essays. Looked up the AWA ETS pool and just tried random topics by listing out what
examples i can make for issue and what flaws I can point in argument. That's it. Try to
imitate the ETS guide essays as much as possible. NO, no copy paste. But try to resonate
with the sentence structure organization of the ETS passages
Mocks: The most important part. I gave a total of 17 mocks. 7 Princeton, 4 Kaplan, 4
Manhattan and 2 ETS. I scored around 315-325 among all of them. Regarding Princeton
mocks, they may look easy, but are not actually. My Original score is actually closest
to the Princeton mocks rather than the ETS mocks. Nevertheless, give them a try for
boosting your confidence. No, dont think you dont have time for boosting your
confidence and rather go for harder tests. Give them. And Manhattan mocks are
difficult, but give them, because PREPARE FOR THE WORST. And, Kaplan is
decent enough. It has progressive difficulty among the 4 tests. So helped me as I did
them in an order. And ETS Mocks, scored 322 and 321 I guess. In Princeton, average
was around 320 for all 7 mocks, Manhattan was around 315 and Kaplan was around
323. So giving mocks helped me a LOT, especially start them when you are studying.
Dont give them all at the end. Because you NEED to know how the mocks are helping
you improve gradually. One more suggestion to everyone for mocks: Don't think
that mocks are the sole determinants of what you are going to get in the main
exam. The main purpose of mocks is to make us adjustable to an environment in
which we are constricted by a time limit. Your focus in every mock should be, "With
how much concentration you have given the mocks" and "Have you been managing
time in the exam.
Many tend to just give them casually, but please, make it a habit to give all your mocks
in a confined environment with time limit and ATTEMPT THE AWA SECTION
ALSO. (Princeton mocks grade your AWA. I wouldn't tell they are the best for
evaluation out there, but yeah, they are decent enough to point out our flaws.) If you
attempt in such a way, you will get accustomed to similar situations in GRE, even if
you are under pressure. The best thing about my prep was mocks helped a lot. Even
while giving GRE, at a point in the exam, it felt like I was giving a mock. No, I am not
talking about the difficulty level of questions. I am talking about the habituated nature
to mocks. More the mocks you give, less will be the pressure in the exam and you won't
find 4 hours as lengthy time in the exam. Give as many mocks as possible and dont
fixate and get obsessed on the scores. After all, the mocks are for giving you an
experience, not for determining you main GRE score.

Exam day tips: You may look strong, but deep down, I know how you are feeling. I
even prepared for the worst thinking I will score below 300. So you may think I didn't
panic. But deep down, I was tensed. You will experience excitement or fear, whatever
you call it. But its going to eat you up. However, trust me, it all disappeared as soon
as I sat at the monitor. They will ask if you are ready for the exam. If you feel even the

tiniest bit of shiver, just say give me 5 min and step aside and just motivate yourself
thinking what lead you till here. Just reminisce all the efforts you have put till date. No,
I am not telling you to pressurize yourself. There is a fine line between motivation and
pressure. Just decide for yourself. Are you going to concede defeat without even giving
the exam or are you going to ace it with all the colossal efforts you have put into? No,
you are not.
Another important thing, you may think it is spurious, but I haven't spent a penny on
any material or mocks till now. Like not even one paisa except for the exam test fee.
All pdf materials. Like ALL of the above are pdfs. Search them online. Google, the sole
provider of everything. Even the ETS Guide, also, a friend of mine lent it to me. And
mocks, friends who were done with them gave it to me. Just search for contacts among
your friends if they have any account which they are done with. However, I am listing
all the materials which I have mentioned above in the Google drive links below. Do
download them and brush through them.
Total time I took was around a month for everything excluding all sluggish and lax
days. But if you are flexible and willing to spend 6 hours a day, you are bound to finish
all the above material within a month with ease.
Material Links:
1. Kaplan 2012:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B01ryZg8Xk2TRXBYbkxuZU16OHM/view
2. Barron Guide:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9tUCVobKTHEd1Rvam5hVmh6ejA/view
3. Princeton 1014:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3C-NvUwamJ_UGNzei1BeGtLQTQ/view
4. Manhattan GRE 1-8:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B7pHmA0_3jXRMzFxdVpock01RnM
&usp=drive_web
5. Manhattan 5 lb:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B01ryZg8Xk2TUllXdEFlS1dYa28/view
6. GRE NOVA:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7pHmA0_3jXRSmRWSE1VOVZDNFE/view
7. RC 99:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzAGuwgxcqXBZy1yWWtKNjRtS0k/edit
8. ETS Guide:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By9jKmOK17EVSmJ2WkdLYUhEU2M/view

Post-Admit GRE
I was one of the guys who thought GRE was the most overrated part of the whole
application process. Although I still stand by my statement, maybe it isnt as overrated
as I thought once. The thing is, for fall 2015, GRE was a very important criteria, almost
all seniors used to stress very important on the GRE score and as icing to the cake, the
admits of Fall 2015 for some universities like NCSU showed that GRE had a bit more
weightage than acads. Even worse, there was a rumour that NCSU needs a complete
170 in quant. So when it came to fall 2016, everyone started to prepare like hell for
GRE and especially quant. But now after the whole admits thing, let me tell you it in
one line: NCSU never did care about 170 quants in our batch fall 2016. So anyways,
let me put it straight to you, if you have good acads, nice, dont take your chances,
score a decent 315-320 and get onto the safe side. If you have bad acads and if you
need to compensate with your GRE score, you need to hit 320+ at any cost. Yeah,
I agree US admission committees give a bit more importance to your Quant Score in
GRE because most of the MS students are in CS field and are expected to excel in quant
and moreover, we are engineering students and Math is one of the most basic
requirement in engineering. So, its justified they stress on the Quant Score. But you
need not have a perfect 170 score. Anything above 165+ is great. If its less than 160,
Id advise you to retake if you are aiming for decent universities. Anything between
160 and 165, you need to retake depending upon the total GRE Score. And coming to
verbal, all the US admission committee wants to know is if you are at least above 145+
or 150+. Anything above 150 is the same. So, the ideal score I would recommend is
anything between 315 and 325 in total GRE and 145-155 in Verbal (maybe even
140 if you quant is exceptionally well) and 165-170 in Quant (maybe even 160 as
long as your total GRE score exceeds 310-315). So, thats it.
And its even totally okay if you scored 295-310, there are some universities which
dont give much weightage to GRE in profile evaluation. For example, universities like
CSU Fullerton gave admits to students for MS in Construction Management with even
a GRE score of 298. So choose your universities accordingly if youve screwed up GRE
and dont want to retake again. Another important thing, some universities dont care
about your GRE Score as long as they cross their cut-off mark. For example, Illinois
Institute of Technology, Chicago and University of Texas, Arlington mostly emphasize
on your academics CGPA and arent much concerned about GRE as long as its
something above 298-300. But the downside of this is that, such universities are kinda
particular about the academics grades. What I mean to say is they are okay with
compromising for GRE, but wont compromise regarding your grades. For example, a
student with 320 GRE and 6 CGPA has lesser chances than a student with 305 GRE
and 8.5 CGPA at IIT Chicago (Illinois Institute of Technology). Sometimes they even
dont care about your grades for some streams. But they dont give a damn about GRE
mostly. This point is what I want to stress on. Such university which dont care about

your grades are not the type of universities you want to apply to. Come on, are you
seriously willing to go for a university which compromises for a student with less
grades? And even worse, do you want to be known as a student who would go to a
university which is known for accepting students with less acads? This is why I stress
on improving your rest of the profile if your acads are less. That helps you in applying
to better universities than these. Lol, that reminds me, even I received a reject from IIT
Chicago, in fact, it was my first reject and I landed admits from Purdue, Clemson,
University of Florida, Gainesville which were loads better than IITC. So theres that.
Final word on GRE is that dont take your chances. If you messed up your
academic grades, this is your chance at redemption. Hit a score on your GRE
which should make the university invite you with a red carpet for your Masters. I
know a friend of mine who has a 6-ish CGPA but hit 336 on GRE and he secured admits
from universities which rejected profiles of 7.5 CGPA and 305-310 GRE. So remember,
every part of your profile is important. If one side is fucked up, lets carve up the other
side so good that the university cannot resist offering you admission. Many have doubts
as to whether to retake GRE or not. My simple advice would be to check the universities
you are aiming for and check whether the university has any stringent cut-offs regarding
GRE. If they do have and if you didnt cross the cut-off, Id advise you to retake it.
Dont worry. Sending scores twice to your university isnt going to have any effect on
your application. They are just going to see your higher score among the two scores.
And just because you retook GRE, they arent going to downplay your potential. This
is another major misconception which needs to be cleared.

And regarding AWA, maybe this is the least important part of your application. As long
as you score above 3, you are good to go with. I, myself, had a misconception that an
AWA of 5 would do me wonders in the application process. Although the university
did ask me for the AWA score during the application process, they dont give a fuck
about it as long as its anything above 3. But if you are a PhD applying candidate, I
advise you to score something equivalent to or above 3.5, since universities examine
your profile with a freaking optical microscope if you are PhD candidate. So you do
not want to take any chances. And another thing, use words such as moreover,
accordingly, nonetheless, however, consequentially, conversely, on the contrary, for
instance, furthermore, additionally, nevertheless, likewise, to summarize, to conclude,
briefly in your AWA essays. These words help in connecting sentences which would
prove a lot advantageous than you think. I believe these connecting words and the
convincing reasons I have given, are what helped me achieve me a decent score in
AWA.

4. TOEFL Preparation
Coming to the TOEFL exam, I would personally advise you to give TOEFL after GRE
exam. TOEFL exam consists of four sections, namely, Reading, Listening, Speaking
and Writing section, which are in the same order even in the exam. First, let me tell you
how to generally prepare for this. I just bought the TOEFL IBT guide and went through
it and understood the whole pattern and what needs to be given more concentration. So
first comb through the Guide and then give an exam. And by combing, I dont just mean
brushing through it. Study it from A-Z and get an understanding of the exam is going
to be and what you would be facing. Now go for the first test at the end of the Official
Guide. It is okay, your first exam will go worse than you will imagine. But remember,
just give the first test at the end of the guide. Now stop and go for the NOTEFUL Videos
on YouTube. They are the best study material than anything for TOEFL Preparation.
They have very detailed analysis as to how one should prepare for each section of
TOEFL. Please listen and watch every video once, twice and re-do it again. Take
pointers on your notes as to what they mentioned in the video.
Now, proceed to the next phase only if you are absolutely confident that you have
completely understood what they said in the videos and if you exactly are following
what they mentioned in the videos. To know if you are following what they mentioned
in the videos, just frame one or two questions for every sample question as given in the
1st test and try to think what you would be thinking, listening or speaking or writing. If
you feel you are following what they have said in the video, now proceed to the next
step. Now that you have completely understood the pattern of the test and how you
would answer it accordingly, go to the 2nd test at the end of the TOEFL guide. Trust
me, you will ace this one if you have followed exactly as said above. This will boost
your confidence a lot. As far as I know, this process shouldnt take more than 3 days at
worst. So if you still feel insecure about your preparation, Id advise you to search for
materials and tests which are available on the Internet. The below sections are in the
chronological order you will be facing in the exam.

1. Reading Section:
This shouldnt be much tough for you since you must have given GRE already and
these are a breeze compared to your RC questions in GRE. The only disparity you
would be observing between RC questions in GRE and Reading questions in TOEFL
is that the RC length in TOEFL is abnormally too long. But trust me, the questions are
a lot easier than the ones in GRE. They are mostly to the point straight and do not need
too much of concentration like we need in the GRE RCs. But nonetheless, you need
patience for reading the whole RC and you need concentration while studying the
question. Its even possible that you dont even need the options to know the answer.
Once you read the question, you know what the answer is and you will be searching
among the options where the answer is. But to do this, you need to go through the whole
RC patiently, only then you can completely understand what the question demands.

And once go through the pattern of questions in Reading section. From what I
remember, they follow a standard pattern. This section is comparatively a lot easier than
the others.

2. Listening Section:
Okay. Firstly, let me clear a misconception here which says that the accent here is a lot
tougher to understand. No. A big no. You will clearly understand the English being
talked. Only thing you need to be concerned about is that you need to pray that your
surroundings are calm when your Listening section is going on. For me, I took my time
for the Reading Section. But the students around me finished their Reading Section
faster and moved onto the Listening and completed it too and then went onto the
Speaking Section. So when I was in the middle of my Listening section, some students
were giving their Speaking section which made it a bit tougher for me to hear with the
noise around. So get to the Listening section as fast as you can. But that does not mean
to finish your Reading section in haste. Another thing I need to mention here is that you
need to practice scribbling notes very fast. And by scribbling, I dont mean just writing,
I mean scribbling only. You need to write notes swiftly and cover all points what you
are listening in the conversation. Scribble in a way so that you may understand. A friend
of mine scribbled and even he didnt end up decoding it. Once you have all the points
in conversations on your notes, answering the questions is a cakewalk. So the final word
is, you just need fast scribbling skills to take down notes or at least good memory skills
to remember the conversation.

3. Speaking Section:
The most important part of TOEFL and if the university is looking forward to your
TOEFL Score, that literally means they want to take a look at your Speaking section.
Although your overall score is important, if there is any section important than the
others, its this section. This is due to the reason that speaking section determines your
speaking skills and convincing ability which is vital for your Teaching Assistantship
opportunities in MS. So coming to this section, Id advise that you need to score at least
22 or 23 to have a good chance and not face any hiccups in the admission process.
Although Ive seen students with 20-21 reading score too getting an admit, but Id still
recommend you scoring at least a decent 23 to be on the safe side. If you are hell bent
on getting a TA opportunity, you need to have a 24 at least. I understand that as much
as we are confident, we may still have problems talking. But Id just advise you to
practice as much as possible. This is the only solution. Prepare for all possible
questions. Give as many as practice tests for this section especially. Id advise you to
team up with someone who is also preparing for TOEFL and frame some questions for
him and vice-versa. For each question in the whole test, prepare 2-3 sample questions
for your partner with easy ones, moderate ones as well as difficult ones. Let him also
do the same for you. This will help you face questions of any sort in the exams. As long
as you are speaking something relevant to the question, you should be fine. But dont

blabber shit which is completely irrelevant to what he asked. And I know its difficult,
but try not to stammer or give too many pauses in your sentences. Although some
pauses would be understandable, if 30-40% of your given time is for pauses, it would
be perceived with some negativity. So practicing is the only solution. Read Aloud.
Newspapers, books or articles, initially focus on reading them aloud and getting the
pronunciation right. If you're doubtful of any pronunciations, look it up on a reliable
dictionary. At first, break the words into syllables and then pronounce it. Some mistakes
which are often repeated in this section is that students generally speak too fast. When
you are nervous in an exam, people tend to go quick and mess up their pronunciation.
Go slow. Imagine you are talking to someone whose mother tongue isnt English. So
talk slowly and pronounce words with stress, but not too much also. And imagine you
are speaking to someone who is several metres away from you in your room, which
would ensure that you dont mumble a lot. And sit up straight and keep your chin up
which will make sure you have a good posture, because if you are slouching over the
desk, it will affect the quality of your speech. I observed this while listening back to my
conversations after recording them. And most important of all, be confident. Be fucking
confident even if you are speaking wrong. Lack of confidence is exactly what paves to
pauses and eehhh, ummmm, etc. And another thing, never ever use fancy vocabulary
to show off your skills. What they want to know is if you are able to speak fluently
and decent English, not measure and assess your vocabulary skills. So dont try
showing how good you are at vocabulary by using words which we may have just
half-learned. Show how much well you know things, not how much you dont know
things. And in the starting seconds of the allotted time during which you will be
preparing what you would be speaking, take short notes. SHORT NOTES. Just one
word for each point which will remind you what you need to speak once you take a
glance at that word. This is very much needed so that you list down all points what you
can talk. I am again stressing on this a lot. You need to scratch down all points which
are relevant to the conversation and what can be talked. Just one word. Take at least 67 points so that you will not end up short of your allotted time.

4. Writing Section:
If you scored well in AWA, I would advise you to chill and follow the same preparation
blindly. In fact, you dont even need to do a lot of preparation. Just follow the
suggestions and advices as given in the NOTEFUL videos. I would advise you to just
prepare for this the same way as you prepared for AWA. To score the perfect score of
30 in writing, you need to make sure the criteria of 5 points is satisfied:
1. The essay should be fully developed and never be distracted while you are
attempting the essay. Imagine you are facing the problem personally, being
mentioned in the essay and write it accordingly. Simply said, immerse yourself fully
into the situation and write it.
2. The essay should be coherent and consistent. Coherent, in terms of convincing. You
should convince the reader as to why he should believe your essay. Consistent, in

terms of flow. Never suddenly increase or decrease the flow of the essay. Dont
keep your major points and minor points randomly. Follow an order. Build it slowly
and accordingly. It should present a consistent flow of ideas which should
absolutely and certainly support your side of the argument.
3. In the Integrated writing question, your essay primarily gains points for reading and
listening. If these points are well organized and if presented in the right manner of
essentially connecting reading and listening to writing, you are good to go.
4. Your essay must be correct grammatically as well as in the usage of vocabulary.
Dont overuse any word or dont go for flowery words and do not show off the
words you have read for GRE. Your essay should demonstrate your proficiency in
the language and shouldnt demonstrate your pompous use of the language.
Many may have this doubt as to attempt IELTS or TOEFL. If you want to have an easy
exam without much hassle, probably IELTS is comparatively easier among them. More
info regarding this comparison can be found here:
http://magoosh.com/toefl/2013/toefl-vs-ielts/
http://www.i-studentglobal.com/learning-english/ielts-vs-toefl-which-is-better
https://www.quora.com/Which-one-is-easier-IELTS-or-TOEFL-How-much-time-isrequired-for-the-preparation-if-I-have-good-English

5. Publications and Papers and Research Profiles:

First, let me tell you that publications in journals and conferences are only possible if
youve done projects in your undergrad or some innovative research during your work
experience. Sometimes you can even extend your final year projects or you can even
go for review papers. Although Id recommend actual papers entailing projects over
research papers, you can even write review papers. When it comes to Civil Engineering,
getting papers published in journals or conferences during work experience is pretty
difficult. But if you are in your undergrad and if you are still studying and have a
semester or two left, Id advise you to take projects under Professors who have active
research interests. If you have completed these projects with results which are
convincing and if your professor thinks you have done enough work to get your paper
published, then you are good to go with the next step. If you have got good results and
if you know the methodology, creating a paper from scratch isnt a big task. You can
download any paper of IEEE Format from the IEEE Journal or Springer Journal and
understand how a paper is formatted normally. And you can start preparing a first draft.
You cannot write a paper in normal language just as you use in your final report of the
project in your undergrad. Journal papers require a different mode of conveying. You
cant just simply end your whole methodology in a small paragraph. You have to write
in detail as to how you did the whole project.

Normally, the first part of your paper would be the Abstract. Your abstract should
essentially contain what is the gist of the whole paper and the need of this project and
your methodology briefly and your results and what they convey. Abstract should not
be length. It shouldnt exceed a maximum of 12-15 lines. Now to the next part of the
paper, Introduction. Your introduction should contain information as to why you have
selected this project (need of the project) and in what way it helps to the environment
and technology and its applications. Let me remind you again, please follow the
language generally used in Journals. You cant write I have taken these and these
materials because of these and these reasons. It should be written as These and these
materials were taken because of these and these reasons. It cannot be written directly
from your perspective. It should be written from an observers perspective.

So moving onto the next part, Literature Review. This is the most crucial part of your
paper and conveys how much you have researched regarding your project topic.
Literature review consists of the review of the project topic until then. For example, if
I am writing a paper on Geopolymer Concrete with additives, your Introduction
normally contains information about concrete in general and how geopolymer concrete
is beneficial to the present generation and in what way it does not pollute the
environment. Your literature review regarding this topic should contain information
about Journal papers which have been published about Geopolymer Concrete on the
earth. Your literature review should contain information in detail as to what all these
journal papers have tried to convey through all these results. And you should also try
to tell what these papers have been aiming on and in what way your project topic is
different from them and in what way your paper adds a little flavour to the research
topic. For example, you should convey how all the research conducted until then on
your topic has been focusing on one side of the issue and how your paper would be
emphasizing on all sides of the issue.

Now the next part of the paper would be your Methodology. Methodology includes the
basic core syntax of your project. It consists of what you have used and how you have
used in a detailed manner. IN A VERY DETAIL MANNER. This is another important
part of your paper since this is what tells how you have done the whole project. Do
include any images or pictures of your methodology for evidence. It helps a lot. Next
we come to the Results part. You just briefly mention what you have obtained in the
results category. You have to list out every detail what you have obtained. Please do
not manipulate any results whatsoever to make your paper stronger. Even if the
examining committee overlooks, there are many students and professors who would be
looking up to your paper for their own research. And providing false results would
confuse them even if their research is genuine. And if you are unfortunate enough, some
professors may do the same project in some part of the world and if he comes to see
your paper by any chance, and if he observes the disparity in the results, he may contact
the journal committee or even contact you. Please dont get into such embarrassing

situations. Dont think that the chance of professor doing such a thing is very minimal.
It is very common for Professors and Students to google their research topics and find
journal paper published on this topic. So there is a very good chance that if your paper
is published in a good journal, then remember that there is a student or professor who
is looking up to your paper for his research.
Now as we have established as to what is needed to publish your paper, lets go forward
to the next step which is understanding how to publish your paper. Normally once you
have prepared the first draft of your paper, you have finished your major part of
publishing a paper. Next important part is to know where to publish and how to publish.
Okay. Please pay attention to the following things. Generally, you have two ways of
publishing your paper. First way is to get it published in a conference and the second
way would be to publish it in a journal directly. Let me explain the processes for both
of them. First for publishing in a journal or conference, you need to search as to what
are the best journals, in which a publication would boost your profile. For conferences,
mostly you will know about conferences happening in India as well as in foreign
countries through your professors. If your professors are aligned towards research side,
trust me, their mailbox will be filled with invitations to conferences happening in India
as well as in other countries. Try to talk with your professors and among the available
conferences, search which are reputed ones by looking to the organizations which are
holding the conference. Along with this, try to see if these conferences are associated
with any journals because normally every conference is associated with journals and if
you present your paper in an excellent manner at the conference, your paper even gets
published in the journal for free of cost. At least 30-40% of the papers presented at any
conference gets published in these associated journals. So search for conferences held
by reputed organizations and associated with journals with good impact factors and also
make sure that these conferences you attend to are International Conferences because
National and Local Conferences arent going to strengthen your resume as much as an
International Conference.
So once you have selected the conference, check out the conference website and see the
due dates by which you need to send the abstracts. Normally for conferences, you first
need to send in your abstract by some mentioned due date and after some shortlisting
of good papers, you will be notified to send in your whole paper. This is why I
mentioned that abstract should contain the whole gist of your paper and should make
the reader understand why your paper is going to stand out among a bunch of papers.
Basically this first round of shortlisting which is the abstracts shortlisting is a fast thing,
what I mean is they just go through your abstract and make sure it isnt anything
spurious or isnt some meaningless shit. Most likely, your abstract will be selected and
you will be notified to send your paper in the prescribed format sent by them. So all
you need to do now is, you have to change the initial draft of your paper and edit it
according to the format they sent. Here, you have to be extra cautious as they check

your paper confirming if its according to their format and they will go through your
paper deeply making sure it isnt without any irrelevant information and if there was
any proper research conducted. Remember, for conferences, your paper neednt be
extra ordinary to get selected in the conference. So as long as your paper doesnt contain
any mistakes in results or as long as it doesnt contradict with any baseline research
done until then, the organizers or committee dont have any problem for selecting your
paper. Please note that it isnt anything wrong for your results to contradict with other
paper results. All ground-breaking research done until now have always contradicted
papers of legends. But you need to mention in what way your results are different from
baseline research and why it is different and what was wrong with the previous research.
If your paper does include things like these, believe me, you have a decent chance of
making it to IEEE or Springer journals. Okay, once your paper has been selected in the
conferences, they will let you know the conferences dates. You even have to pay the
conference fees which they charge for the conference dates lunches and goodies etc.
You need to go to the venue and present your paper in a PowerPoint presentation. There
will be some heading committees who will be evaluating your whole presentation and
paper on multiple aspects and will deem if your paper is worthy of being published in
a journal associated with the conference.
So let me list you some advantages and disadvantages of conferences. Pros- You can
build up your network within your respective branch and you can talk to various
students and professionals at your conferences. This is a huge pro since you need to
have a huge network for your career. As mentioned, if your paper is good enough, you
even have chances of publishing it in a conference and then your paper can also be
selected to a journal. So its like one stone and two birds logic. Disadvantages would
be, its a very tedious process of presenting it at the conference. But please do not get
lazy regarding this point. Publishing your paper in a conference and then getting it
selected into a journal is a huge point in your resume which is always underrated. You
dont have any clue as to how it can strengthen your profile.
So now lets explore the journals thing. First for selecting journal, you have to know
which journals are worth publishing your paper. There are many journals out there in
the research world. So you have to be very careful while selecting a journal. First,
approach your professor and ask him if there are any journals whose deadlines are
approaching. As far as I know, if you are genuinely interested in publishing a paper,
any professor or lecturer will help you searching a journal. There are many factors
which need to be considered while selecting a journal. Impact factor is one of many.
Impact factor is the sole measurement parameter which tells us how much popular a
journal is or how many times the papers of this specified journal have been cited in
other reputed journals. So, you have to make sure the impact factor is decent. One more
thing you need to be cautious here is that many journals put fake impact factors on their
websites. Dont get fooled by such journals. And another important thing you need to
be careful is that dont try to submit your papers to journals who charge you for

publishing. If its a nominal fee, thats okay. But if they take anything above Rs 500,
consider the journal a lite one. Trust me, such journals wont even add any weight to
your profile. And the US admission committee knows that such journals are dead easy
to publish and they specifically know that such journals just need money to publish and
arent genuine journals. I understand that at least 75% of the journals out there in the
research world charge money, but please dont go for them. I know its very difficult to
publish in the genuine journals which are authentic and dont charge any money for
publishing, but those are the journals you need to aim for. For publishing my paper in
one such genuine journal, I had to send my papers to 8 journals. It got accepted in the
9th one. Such is the difficult to publish in a genuine one. But this doesnt mean that the
money charging journals are the one you should go for. Please go for the genuine
journals. Remember, always take the high road. This is why I always suggest you to go
for conferences over journals. Although you pay conference fees, you have a very good
chance of publishing in a conference and also in a journal directly. So if you present
your paper good in a conference, you can just bypass all the journal selection process
and get your paper published in a journal also. And moreover instead of paying the
money for journals which charge you for publishing, pay it in a conference and publish
in the conference and also win a chance of publishing in a journal. And even if this
associated journal in which you publish from a conference is an average one, the US
admission committees know that your paper was selected among a whole lot of papers
from conference which is an achievement which many couldnt achieve. 2 of my 3
journal papers which I have published have been accomplished in this manner, by
presenting it in a conference and then getting selected to a journal.

Okay, I think I have covered the whole process of writing a paper and editing it
according to prescribed format and selecting a journal or conference and publishing in
it. Final word is if you publish your projects as papers in conferences and journals, your
profile will be better than at least 80% of the applicants to the universities, even if you
have got average grades. The golden rule which seniors have been telling me is,
Always try to have good grades, or at least have a good reason for the bad grades.
The best reason you could show for your bad grades is your paper publications in
conferences and journals which have slightly deviated you from your subject lines or
academic lines. In my SOP, I have clearly convinced the admission committees that my
projects, lab-work, internships and publishing journal papers and conference papers,
the intense hands-on approach to learning made me compromise a bit on theory courses.
I let them also know that while my achievements of good grades in lab and projects
work and excellent research in journals and conferences, I have scored at average levels
in theory papers which resulted in the average GPA. I also let them clearly know that
such level of academic performance at my undergrad level was certainly not a reflection
of my potential to succeed in an industry oriented higher learning program. Please note
that how I deliberately used the terms theory courses and industry oriented program
so that the admission committee would not concentrate on my GPA too much. So you
must now know how much of value, research such as papers in journals and conferences

can make up for your bad grades. In fact, they would even make your profile better than
those with good grades, if the admission committee is slightly biased towards research
work and publications.

6. Statement of Purpose
Imagine you are attending an interview and you are somehow not able to be present
physically at the interview venue, but you need this job desperately. VERY
DESPERATELY. But suddenly, out of blue, you have got this amazing chance to talk
to the interview committee. But the catch here is that you can talk to the committee only
by listing out what you want and explaining it on a sheet of paper. So you literally have
to assure the committee as to why they should select you among hundreds of
applications just through a single sheet of paper. Now you probably understand the
gravity of the situation. This single sheet of paper is exactly called a Statement of
Purpose in MS applications. A statement of purpose is how you have a conversation
with your admission committees. Not literally have a conversation, but this is how you
list out all achievements and what they should exactly see in you to allow you to have
a chance to study in their organization. They should understand how your inclusion into
their university is going to help them and what advantage you have over others. Okay.
Now that you have generally understood what a Statement of Purpose means, lets
move on to how you write a SOP draft.

Many of you probably would want to get your SOP written by consultancies. But
once try thinking once, Do you know your life story better than them? Do you
know your strengths and fallacies better than them? Do they know the drive
behind your willpower and your motivation for MS better than you? NO. Only
you know your story. Only you can convince the admission committee why they
need to select you.
I have seen many writing their first draft and get the editing done by consultancies or
professionals where as I have also seen some get the whole entire essay written by
consultancies. Dont submit the personal statements or Statements of purpose written
by consultancies blindly. Have you ever run plagiarism check on these essays? Do it
now. Use google or any sort of plagiarism check and see from where the content has
been copy pasted. I agree that there are some authentic consultants who write SOP
genuinely, but believe me when I say at least 75% of the consultants out there steal
content from old SOPs and some even steal the whole essay and change it to your
profile accordingly. I know some friends of mine who literally got their whole SOPs
made by consultants and they realized later that the consultancies have just ripped of
the SOP off from sample SOPs available on the internet. In fact, if youd ask me,
instead of submitting such a SOP, submit a blank piece of sheet for better chances of
consideration. The consequences of plagiarism in US are worse.

So my first suggestion to anyone for Statement of Purpose would be to write the

Personal Statement on your own. I understand that this isnt possible for many working
professionals applying for MS or for those whose writing skills arent that good. For
such ones, Id suggest you to search genuine consultancies whose SOPs have known
to be outstanding and genuine. Dont believe the consultancies reviews told by them.
Talk to your seniors and ask those, whose SOPs have been written in an exemplary
manner by professionals. But even then, Id suggest you to prepare your own SOP at
any cost. Graduate studies is your dream and no one can put your dream onto a
paper better than you. You never can pay someone to write what was the purpose
for your dream. I admit that none of us here are born writers and we obviously need
some help. So, if you insist you want to opt for a SOP written by someone, then its
your call. But dont blame the consultancies for plagiarism for lack in your efforts. I
understand that I may be harsh, but I hope you realize my concern. Sometimes although
you get your SOP written genuinely, it may look okay for now. But that will come back
to bite your ass later for people who suck at writing. In your MS, you need to have these
writing skills.

I understand if a person is passionate about his MS but is poor in English and he may
need to take help from consultancies. But main problem arises when these people take
help not only because they have below average English skills, but also because they
have nothing good to mention on their SOPs and so that these consultancies can add
all sorts of toppings which create hurdles for genuine people who actually have such
sorts of achievements to provide a base for their desire. Simply said, if you are not
genuine and want to ask for the fake info from universities to strengthen their profiles,
you cant survive a foreign Masters degree. I apologize if I have been harsh or too
blatant anywhere, but this advice is much needed in the whole MS process.
Another misconception I need to clear here is there must be many doubts as to how
many words should essentially be in a SOP. I know that many universities have word
limits for SOPs. But dont worry, they arent that stringent and particular about their
word limit. They are always flexible. As long as you have relevant matter in your SOP
which pertains to your profile, you can include it in the SOP. For instance, all the matter
in my SOP was totally needed and it was exactly two pages, approximately 1430 words.
I have uploaded this SOP for all universities irrespective of the word limits they
mentioned. By then, I have already mailed to all universities graduate departments
asking if there would be any problem if I exceeded the word limit and if my SOP was
2 pages. They said that as long as the SOP was under 2 pages and as long as it is relevant
to my profile, it is totally okay for the SOP to exceed the word limit. I understand that
many would be confused here. So I am again specifically mentioning that you can
absolutely exceed the word limit if you require to do so to include relevant matter to
your profile.

Normally during the application process, there are two ways to send your SOP to the
admission committee. One is uploading your SOP. If you are uploading, then you can
exceed the word limit if you want to. Second is you would be pasting your SOP in the
text box they provide, like in TAMU Application. This textbox has a word limit as to
how much you can paste. Only here you cannot exceed the word limit. One alternative
to this is that you can ask the admission committee if they can attach your SOP to the
application if you send the SOP through mail to them. Then, you can paste the truncated
version of the SOP in the textbox and also send your original SOP version to the
graduate department mail ID. Anyways, let us move onto what you should write in your
SOP. For this step, I will suggest what I have done with my SOP so that you could have
a clear idea.

In the first para of my SOP, I have written as to what is the importance of my stream in
the present generation and what has made it so important. For instance, my stream is
Construction Management. I explained how construction industry is in the midst of a
transformation and what challenges it faces for better regulation of customers. I also
mentioned the Make in India program which attracts investments in infrastructure
from all over the world. I briefly told how technologies and projects management
strategies help in managing complex construction projects. After explaining all this, I
mentioned that, in such a scenario, my passion would be to contribute to the
construction industry and such passion is motivating me to gain relevant knowledge
and skills to manage construction projects which can only be fulfilled by having a
graduate study in Construction Management. I also mentioned that my long term goal
would be to become an entrepreneur in construction industry and fulfil the dream of
many average Indian households of owing a house. So, basically in the first paragraph,
I let the admission committee know the importance of my industry in the present
generation and what needs to be done to make the industry more efficient and I
connected the industry with my graduate studies and let them know that I had a passion
for this field and also mentioned my long term goal. Your goal of first paragraph should
be to establish a foundation as to why you want to pursue these graduate studies and in
what way these studies would contribute to your specific industry.
Coming to the second paragraph, here is where you start your whole background. I let
them know what made me influence over the years to pursue my undergraduate majors
in Civil Engineering and how I got into one of the top ranked private university in India
BITS Pilani. I gave an introduction of my undergrad life. For instance, I mentioned
how the colleges academic environment suited my penchant for hands on learning and
how my college life buzzed past with me nurturing an interest in Construction
Management. As you can see that I have done many projects in my undergrad, I also
mentioned the hands-on approach learning or practical learning which made me
compromise a bit on theory courses. Here is where I briefly mentioned that my GPA is
a bit below the baseline. But dont stress on this too much because you dont want the

committee to remember this too much. Just make sure they know the reason, but your
other profile should be strong enough to cover this reason. So your second paragraph
should contain an introduction to your undergrad life and what made you pursue this
undergrad majors and how this has led to an interest in your graduate major selection.
Moving to the third paragraph, this is where you let the admission committee know
your projects in undergrad in detail. Please note that you shouldnt go into too much
detail and write the whole project here. You just have to mention what your project was
and was the gist of the project and what was the distinct thing in your project which
makes it so special. To know how much to write about projects in a paragraph,
remember this. Three projects make up a paragraph. Each paragraph was of about 1215 lines, not more than 15 lines. I followed a chronological order for projects. I
mentioned three projects in a paragraph and then moved onto the Internships paragraph
which is the next one. You have to also mention how these projects have made you
develop an interest in your graduate major and how they contribute to the stream
specific industry.
Now in the fourth paragraph, I mentioned about the internships. I have mentioned all
three internships I have done and in what way they helped me increase my interest in
Construction Management. You have to list out all what you have done in your
internships. Dont try to curb down the details like you did in the projects here. You
need to tell as much as you can about your interns because for internships, you dont
have much to talk about. But at the same time, dont repeat the same things you have
done at your internships over and over. Remember, you have to stand out among
hundreds of applications. So imagine yourself in the admission committee chair and
imagine what it takes for a SOP to impress you. Write in that manner. Your internships
and details at internships should be distinct and exemplary. Try to magnify the work
you have done, but dont add any fake shit. You have to let them know that these efforts
in internships have strengthened your belief and ardent desire to pursue Masters through
a formal learning process.
Now in my fifth paragraph, I again returned back to my academic projects as we are
following a chronological order. I mentioned another three projects and in what they
are contributing to the research world and in what manner they are distinct from other
projects. Along with these projects, I mentioned some achievements of mine such as
prizes I have won in technical festivals of my college in paper presentation, poster
presentation and other events. I let them know with such achievements due to my
enthusiasm and gusto, my faculty advisors motivated me to take up projects in other
areas.

In this sixth paragraph, I mentioned another 3 projects and my final thesis. If you have
a thesis, try to stress on it as much as possible. Having a thesis is very rare in your
undergrad. Having a thesis on your resume is going to make the admission committees
believe that you are inclined towards research and that you have a proclivity towards
the research side of the subject. This will increase your chances of getting a Research
Assistant also if you get admission in the university. If you are mentioning a thesis,
your paragraph may go until ten lines only with the thesis. You have to fit the remaining
projects within these lines. I understand that you may have less academic projects. Its
okay, then its even better since your SOP will be under the word limit and within one
page. I have written so many paragraphs because I had 11 academic projects.

In this seventh paragraph, I have explained how all the above projects validated my
belief in learning by doing. I have mentioned how my desire to showcase my
innovative projects to a global audience made me publish papers in journals and
conferences of international repute. I explained all the journal papers and conference
papers I have published. I have also mentioned how I was handed charge as President
of one of the associations in my college acknowledging my leadership and
communication skills. I also mentioned my other stints and how I have contributed my
fullest to them. I even mentioned my social contribution to the society. Remember, you
just cant mention a single line about your extracurricular and end it. You have to
explain how these stints of yours have made you a better person.
In this final and eight paragraph of my SOP, I have convinced that all things considered,
my undergrad study has primed my basic skills in civil engineering and all these selfinitiated projects have inspired me to pursue graduate studies in my passionate field. I
explained how their globally recognized graduate program is going to empower me
with all round knowledge of achieving greater success in future endeavours. I explained
a bit about their course offerings and mentioned a few subjects and how their flexible
course system would let me show focus on such areas. You have to let them know that
your learning, software skills and leadership abilities support your credentials to excel
in your industry oriented course structure. I also mentioned that I was interested in their
departments focus areas and their faculty supporting them and mentioned two
professor names under whose guidance it would be my privilege to work. As the final
nail on the coffin, I explained that their program gives me the momentum to follow my
passion and realize my vision of becoming an entrepreneur well known for constructing
affordable housing to sustainable standards. And as a final note, I thanked the admission
committee for giving me the opportunity to present my credentials and requested them
to consider my applications on its merits.

So that was my whole SOP. Basically, you dont need to write these many paragraphs
if you have 1-3 academic projects. If thats the case, here is how it should go.
First Paragraph- Your introduction, and your industry introduction and letting them
know that you want to pursue graduate major, same as like I wrote.
Second Paragraph Introduction to undergrad and how it improved your skills and
mentioning your academics and your background which made you pursue this major.
Third Paragraph Your academic projects
Fourth paragraph Internships
Fifth Paragraph Any other research works and achievements or extra-curricular
Sixth Paragraph Final note mentioning how their graduate program helps you and
professors whom you want to work under and how their research interests incline with
yours and thank them for considering your application.
For a SOP, the best thing to do is to create a chronological order of all your
achievements and spend time on condensing it down and send it to your trusted friends,
seniors, anyone with good English skills. Just ensure that no one is going to plagiarise
it. And never try copying phrases from your seniors SOP. Come on, you would be
kidding yourself if you do such a thing. The universities can realize it in a second
checking it on their plagiarism software.

7. Are Consultancies needed?

Personally, Id never recommend consultancies unless until you are jam packed 24x7.
Among the students I know who went for consultancies, not even one person till date
gave me a positive review or told that the money splurging was worth it. Trust me, you
are better off without a consultancy. Okay. I know I just cant say things and expect
you to believe me. Lets analyse this whole thing. Let me tell you all the situations you
think you may need a consultancy. Shortlisting Universities, Rating them ambitious or
mod or safe according to your profile, Application processes, SOPs, LOR drafts,
financial docs for i20 processing.
Okay, lets cross each thing down one by one. Shortlisting Universities? Lol, if there is
anyway consultancies can fuck up your whole MS plan in a single shot, its this point.
Never ever let consultancies shortlist universities for you. I have seen hundreds of
students go to consultancies for shortlisting universities for their profiles and ruining
their MS chances for better universities. Let me explain you in detail, basically at least
80% of the consultancies suggest you universities in which you are guaranteed an admit
even if you score 280 in GRE or 70 in TOEFL. Please dont fall for such stunts by
consultancies which say you will be provided with a guaranteed admit. They are
absolutely bullshitting you. Even if they are going to provide you a guaranteed admit
like they say, in any such university, I am sure the university is probably a blacklisted
one or C-grade university which are not even worth applying for, lest forget studying

in one. Remember, shortlisting universities for your profile in your stream is a tough
task, I agree, but that doesnt mean you can just put it in the hands of someone whom
you dont even fucking know. Note that you are applying to universities which they are
suggesting and you may end up studying in one of them. Do you really want to study
in a university which you dont even have a fucking clue about? Dont worry. We are
here to assist you about such things.
Do you know that some consultancies have tie-ups with some sub-standard, mediocre
and second rate universities so that these consultancies are given some commission
from the applications they make you apply to? This is why consultancies make you
apply to those low grade universities. All they care about is fucking money. Never have
I ever heard students say that they have been given a list by their consultancy that
matches with their own shortlisting. To prove a friend of mine wrong, I went to a
consultancy and handed them my profile saying that I want to apply to Spring 17. They
told me that they would charge me 10k just for shortlisting universities and add-ons for
SOP, LOR, Application processes etc. When I asked them to suggest me a university
or two just for now so that I would be confident of them, the guy told me Lawrence
Technological University, University of New Haven, Bellevue University. And as icing
to the cake, he told that he cannot guarantee me an admit since my profile has very low
acads and he didnt even give a fuck about my research side of the profile. Lol, you
should have seen his face when I told him I already had an admit from Purdue. All the
universities he mentioned are completely lite ones, trust me, some even offer an admit
if you just leave the application incomplete and dont even pay the application fees.
One university even offered admit to a student without him submitting his academic
transcripts or GRE scores. He just filled his name and address details. And 10 days
later, he checked to see, VOILA! There it is. An admit. So you have to be extra cautious
about what universities you should shortlist for your profile.
As I said, shortlisting universities is a bit difficult, but it is no herculean task. If you
spend enough time, at least 1 hour a day and for 20 days, I will guarantee you that you
will come up with your own list and I assure you will land admits in half of the
universities you applied to provided that you have shortlisted universities according to
your profile. Anyways, I will explain in detail all you would be needing to shortlisting
universities and how to shortlist universities according to your profile. All you need to
hear now is, dont think consultancies are better at shortlisting universities for
your profile than you do. Right now, they may be better. But once if you spend
enough time on shortlisting universities and if you follow the process, which I will
detail later in the guide, I can promise you that you will have enough confidence
to set up a fucking consultancy and guide students regarding shortlisting process.
So if you want to go to a consultancy for this point, DONT.

Application processes? Okay. If there is anything in the whole MS application journey

which is over rated, Application processes is the one. I will give this to you as much
straight as I can. If you have submitted your GRE and TOEFL scores and if you have
your SOP ready with you, your whole application filling process wont take you more
than 30 minutes. Okay, tops one hour. Not a minute more than that. I know students
who have gone for consultancies specifically for application processes and once they
got to know the whole process of application, they regretted spending that amount.
Instead of paying money for filling applications to the consultancies, take the money
you are thinking to splurge over them and treat yourself. Filling in the application and
submitting it is the easiest thing. It just asks for your basic details and info and asks you
to upload your academic transcripts and upload your SOP and ask some more personal
details and asks you to fill in details of your Recommenders and then you submit it.
Trust me, its just like I told. Nothing more than that. However I will detail regarding
everything you need to do in the application process in this guide. What I want you to
know now is you dont need a consultancy help for application process. If you cant do
an application on your own, come on, you cant expect to pull yourself through MS for
two years doing assignments. I agree that you may be working and its probably a bit
difficult for you to fill the applications and do the process and submit it all by yourself.
But please understand that as long as you have all the required matter and details for an
application, it wont take you more than an hour to complete and submit the application.
But if you still insist that you cannot afford to waste time on such things, your call it is.
Remember, filling your first application is always a bit difficult, you will be hesitating
to click on every button. You will be asking yourself the questions in the application
twice and you will be pondering over what to enter and what not to. Its totally okay,
all of us have been through this stage. Message any co-applicant who has already
submitted his application. Or ask any senior. Remember, this problem is only with the
first application. Once you are done with it and submit it, by then you will have
understood every bit of the application process. Even I was also a bit wavering in the
first application process, but once I was done with it, rest all applications felt like a
breeze. Never have I come across a hiccup in any other applications. Even if you fuck
up anywhere, the US Graduate departments are real helpful and will assist you in every
step and will answer every query. Not fooling exactly. Basically submit it then or
submit it later. If you submit it during the application process, you'll receive the i20
without having to submit financial docs. That's the only advantage. The only problem
is that bank certificates are valid only for 6 months. So essentially you'll have to create
another one. So, to reduce the work, we submit it later.
As far as I know, only 2-3 universities ask for financial documents during application
time. Anyways, if the university is asking for financial proof or financial documents,
check their website. Their website specifically states if you need to submit these
documents while application process or if you need to submit after you receive an
admit. From what I have seen, most of the students tend to choose consultancies
because they believe the consultancys word blindly that you need to upload financial

documents at application time. One consultancy even told that if we dont submit our
financial documents during application time, we will even be rejected. Sad to see how
these consultancies bank on students fear factor. Let me explain you in brief. All that
the US universities want to know about primarily if your profile is worthy of an admit.
If it is, then they will send you an admit. It is your academic background they are
worried about more than your financial background. They ask you to submit your
financial documents for checking if you are able to sponsor yourself for MS only after
you have been given an admit. So, dont surrender yourself to the consultancy people
and agreeing to whatever they demand.
My final word on whether to opt for consultancies is, Dont choose consultancies to
write your SOPs or do your application processes unless until you are working 24x7.
You can always make time for yourself. This is your desire. This is your goal. So,
this should be your work. But if you are absolutely sure that you cannot make time
due to your arduous schedule and if you are certainly confident that the
consultancy will do a good job like you would have done, then go for it. And if you
are choosing consultancies, make sure you are in contact with them throughout the
whole part of the application process. Keep calling them frequently and get updates.
Ask how your SOP is coming through. Make sure they have their best people on it.
Dont let them rest on their feet and keep them on their heels until they are done with
your application and until its the best. Demand them of their best work. Dont give
into any of their demands. Remember, it is we who are paying them. We should be the
one making demands, not the other way around. If not these people, you always have
the other best consultancy just a message away which is Your Seniors.
8. Shortlisting Universities
This is where you shouldnt mess up at any cost. This is where your whole MS
application boils down to and determines where you are going to spend the next two
years studying MS. I know, I make it sound very important, but trust me, you dont
want to be regretting later that you could have landed a better university for your profile
and you didnt even apply to the goddamn university. So, now lets discuss what you
need to do for shortlisting universities according to your profile.
First go to your Facebook account and search for MS groups for the past three years
and your year as well. For example, if you are a Fall 2017 student, search for groups
named, MS in US 2014, MS in US 2015 and MS in US 2016 and MS in US fall 2017.
Join the MS in US stupidsid group of the past three years at any cost. Try searching for
fall groups and try searching for spring groups. I dont know what you will do, just join
in every Facebook MS group you come across. Just allot complete three hours for this
work. Search specific branch groups like, MS in US Mechanical fall 2016, MS in US
Civil Fall 2016, and MS in US Civil Engineering etc. etc. Believe me, if you have the
patience and internet (: P) you can join into as many groups as you can. Try searching
for groups using various terms. Put joining requests for those groups. Dont rest until

you feel like you have covered almost all groups you could. Probably by the time you
are thinking of shortlisting universities, you must have given your GRE and TOEFL
and you must have built your profile as much as you could. So now, write your profile
on a piece of paper. Dont list out all the minute details. Write your academics. Your
college. Your GRE and TOEFL. Your projects? Your Publications? Decent
extracurricular or excellent extracurricular? Dont go into too much detail. Now type it
one of your sticky notes and save it. Now go to the all the Facebook groups you are
added to and use the search option in the group and type in WhatsApp. This search
will probably result in all the newly formulated WhatsApp groups for applicants since
2015 till your batch. Comment your phone number on every post and join every
WhatsApp group you can. Rather than commenting on all posts, you can also ping the
group admin and know if he is a genuine aspirant and then join. Because there will be
many consultancy guys out there who will be creating such WhatsApp groups and then
disturb you frequently since they have your contacts. Join your branch specific
WhatsApp groups especially. I know, you may feel like this is all trivial. But WhatsApp
groups and Facebook is where I have gained a whole lot of my knowledge for
shortlisting universities. So comment on those posts and get added into those WhatsApp
groups as well. If you are lucky enough, you may get added into those Fall 15, Fall 16
WhatsApp groups where you can have a chance to interact with hundreds of seniors
from your branch. But dont, do not get into contact with them on day 1. You need to
know many things before that. So the all above tasks are your work for Day 1. Join all
Facebook and WhatsApp groups of Fall 15, Fall 16 and Fall 17 for branch specific and
general. ALL.
Now onto the next days work. Take each Facebook group one by one. Use the search
option and search for your stream word. It will result in all admits or rejects since the
past two years. Go through each post carefully. Every post will have the students whole
profile and admits and rejects until then. Try to get all those universities names into
your head. Go through all these groups in this way. You dont need to remember
anything. Just make sure you are understanding what universities are needing what
kinds of profiles. See what universities are accepting students with high GRE
specifically or with any of your customary requirements. Now, you need to understand
that there are approximately 40 universities at maximum in any stream which are most
popular, what I mean to say is, almost 90% MS students apply to universities within
these 40 universities only. Although there are hundreds of universities for MS, these 40
universities are the ones which all MS students end up generally applying to. Remember
that these bunch of universities need not be same for two different streams. One
university which is excellent for a stream may not be good for other stream. So always
search for your stream specific universities. Let me explain it to you more clearly. When
I was shortlisting my universities, I searched for all posts regarding my stream in
Facebook groups and tried to understand what was the requirement of all these
universities and tried to jotted down all these admits and rejects for universities in a
notebook. I understand its difficult to write down all admits and rejects for different
profiles. But it would be very helpful. So once you have gone through all these posts,

you will clearly understand what are the most applied universities to in your stream and
what the most reputed and most popularly known universities are. Write down all these
universities onto a paper. You will probably have 20-40 universities now in this list.
You need to cover all groups you have been added to prepare this list. As you are
preparing this list, you will even start to memorize most of the universities names which
are reputed for your specific stream. Your first major task is done here. Your first rough
draft of universities is done. Make sure you at least have 30 universities to shortlist
from. You also need to make sure that these 30 universities are the ones which have
been applied to mostly in your stream and are also reputed. If you have done your
research with patience in the Facebook groups regarding your stream, you can even
find useful comments under every post as to what the university requirements are and
you will even come across university reviews. Okay, now that you have prepared your
top 35 list, you just need to bring down that list from 35 to 8. These 8 universities are
what you will be applying to finally.
Your major part of application shortlisting is done. Now take one university from your
top 35 list and go to the university official website. You need to be very careful while
taking note of your university name in the top 35 list. There may be universities with
mostly similar names. For example, there is OSU (Ohio State University) as well as
OSU (Oklahoma State University). You may even get confused between TAMU CS
(Texas A&M College Station) and TAMUK (Texas A&M Kingsville). So be careful,
even one word can change your whole MS destination. For some more clarity, UT
Austin>UT Dallas>UT Arlington and TAMU CS>TAMU K>TAMU Commerce. So
now go the university official website where you will be given links to your stream
department website also. There will be many tabs on the departmental website like
Research, Academics, Faculty, MS Programs offered etc. etc. Visit every tab and
understand how reputed the program is. See as to what areas the departmental research
programs are inclined to. See the faculty profiles too and make sure the faculty has a
good teaching experience and are from reputed institutions. Once you have gone
through every university website, you will understand what the research area interests
of different universities are.
Now, take each university from your list and use the universitys name (short form and
abbreviation) and search in all the Facebook groups and include your stream name too
along with the university name. This will result in posts of applicants from your stream
and who have applied to university and if they received an admit or reject. This will
also result in knowing regarding any seniors who got into your desired universities.
From what I know, each Facebook group will have at least 20 posts for your stream and
for that specific university. So get a notebook and on the first page of the book, write
down all the top 35 university names. Now allot each page to every university among
the list. And from the search results in Facebook groups for your stream and the specific
university, write down all the profiles of those who have applied for this university and
if they have received an admit or reject. Some students may have put up admits or
rejects posts without their profiles. Then open the group in another tab and search using

their name. They are bound to comment their profile in comments of any other posts.
So you will have profiles of all those who have applied to that university and if they
received an admit or reject. Make sure you note down their profiles on your university
page in the notebook carefully. Write down their CGPA, GRE, TOEFL, Research,
Projects, and Undergrad College. Once you have all the profiles which have been
admitted or rejected to the specific university on a single page, you can clearly analyse
as to what has been the major requirement for the university. You can clearly
understand as to what is the general GRE or TOEFL cut-off they have maintained in
the departmental decisions. You need to analyse with utmost care. If there are two
students with drastic differences in their profiles and if they both received an admit,
you need to see which factor in their profiles played the crucial part. By analysing all
these profiles, you will understand whether acads was the major preference or GRE or
overall profile evaluation.
Now once you have gathered this profile analysis for all universities, your job is dead
easy. Bring down the 35 university list to 25 by removing the deadly ambitious and
impossible universities as well as the dead safe universities. You dont want to waste
your money by applying to universities like Stanford or Princeton when you have a
very mediocre profile. In the same way, you dont want to apply to dead safe
universities when you have a profile which is worthy of getting an admit from the Ivy
League universities. So remove the universities which are too over ambitious or too
dead safe. More simply speaking from a statistical point of view, remove the outliers
(points which are very distant from normal points of observation and may be generated
due to experimental errors).
Now at this moment you have 25 universities in your hand. This is exactly where,
having contact with seniors doing MS in US comes handy. I previously told you to get
added into Fall 16 and Fall 15 groups for this reason precisely. If you get added into the
Facebook and WhatsApp groups of Fall 15 and Fall 16, you will have a chance to
contact seniors. Now prepare a draft message starting with an introduction saying
whats your profile and all relevant details of your profile in MS aspect. Now tell the
seniors that you would be glad if they could offer you a lending hand in shortlisting the
university list even further. Never ask them to do the shortlisting in the first message.
Firstly, ask them if they could help you regarding this. If they reply, then message them
the university list and ask them to choose the best 15 of them according to your profile.
Please do not pester them if they dont reply immediately. If they dont reply, give it a
day or two and let them subtly know that their guidance is of utmost importance for you
right now and do tell that you would be grateful if they could help. I assure you, all of
us seniors have been through what you are going through right now and we dont want
you to suffer. So most seniors will reply. If they don't, you need to understand that they
are very busy in their graduate studies and pretty much occupied. But don't worry, I am
confident that most of us will make time for you and reply in detail. Anyways, be very
thankful to all the seniors who reply to your first message saying that they would be
happy to help and now put up your university list of 25 and ask them to bring it down

to 15, if possible. These 15 univ should be of 5 ambitious, 5 moderate and 5 safe. You
need to let the seniors specifically know that the shortlisting has to be done according
to your profile. Or else the best 15 universities among the list will be chosen and all of
them may turn out to be ambitious. So the shortlisting by seniors has to be done from
25 to 15, according to your profile. And make sure there are 5 in ambitious category, 5
in moderate and 5 in the safe.
Now lets say that your seniors have replied to you giving their choices of 15
universities. In my case, I had constant contact with around 15-20 seniors who have
been very helpful to me. You need to understand that opinions mostly tend to be the
same, but sometimes one may differ to think with another. So take the majority opinion.
In these 25 univ, see how many seniors voted for each university. I followed this process
and I had the 15 university list in my hand. And for me, it was a clear majority for the
15 universities suggested by my 15-20 seniors. All of them mostly chose the same 15
universities. However you just cant blindly rely on someone's research. So before you
cross down the 25 list to 15, you need to verify if the 15 universities which you have
shortlisted are better than the 10 universities you are crossing off. For this, you need to
again go to their website and see research opportunities and subjects curriculum and
how they incline with your research interests and if the academic curriculum is flexible
or not. Even if you have the slightest doubt, do not hesitate to message any senior. Ask
them specifically why they had suggested the 15 over the other 10 and what was better
in these 15 and what lacked in the other 10. Remember, seniors are sometimes busy, so
ensure that they are free when you are messaging them. If you are lucky enough, they
would even call you to verify all your doubts. All my seniors used to call me since I
had tons of doubts and replying to them on messaging wasnt that easy. Anyways, make
sure that your final 15 university list is better in many aspects than the other 10. By
aspects, I mean, part time availability, internship opportunities, placement fairs, job
opportunities in the state, research going on in the dept., RA/TA chances, academic
flexibility etc. You cant expect your 15 universities to trump the other 10 in every
aspect. But make sure you have strong grounds as to why you are choosing these 15
over the other 10.
Now you have the final 15 universities in your hand. If you want to cut it down to 9
universities, apply for 3 ambitious and 3 moderate and 3 safe. Make sure that each
category consists of different level universities. What I mean to say is, for example, in
ambi category, choose one dream ambi, one ambi, one moderately ambi. Same for the
mod and safe categories. If you are shortlisting from 15 to 8 universities, choose 3 ambi,
3 mod and 2 safe. Follow the same method above for ambi and mod by choosing
different level universities, but when coming to safe, you need to make sure that the
one is moderately safe and other should be sure shot safe one. Not dead safe, but should
be a pretty sure admit. Don't compromise on the quality of university you are going to
just because you are desperate for an admit in any kind of university. You dont want
to end up two years later with an MS degree in hand but no knowledge in brain. You
need to make sure your final university list has universities in all categories of ambi,

mod and safe. At the same time, you have to ensure that these universities are worth
pursuing MS and spending lakhs. Remember, in university shortlisting, there is a golden
rule, "Don't undersell and dont oversell". You need to find the right blend of
universities in your final list. Don't ever overestimate your profile, hence you need to
apply to some safe ones. Don't ever underestimate yourself, so apply to a couple of
pretty ambitious universities. Trust me, have at least one dream ambitious in your list.
You never know what may happen. If someone met me a year back and told me I would
land Purdue with this profile, I would laugh my ass off and walk away. So never
underestimate yourself. You never know when and how things may work out for you.
For shortlisting the 15 universities list further to 8 or 9 or 10, I would advise you to
again follow the same process of contacting seniors and talking to them. But this time,
things will be different. Dont ask the seniors to shortlist it from 15 to 9, ask them
specifically about every university in your top 15 list. Ask them about every minute
detail about the university. The professors, the courses, the jobs, internships, every
single thing about the university. You need to evaluate all these 15 universities in terms
of reviews given by seniors. I know it appears like a very difficult task maybe. But once
you have done all this work, you will gain enough confidence to shortlist these 15
universities to 9 universities. Anyways, just shortlisting those to 9 by yourself doesnt
suffice. Once you have done your own research and shortlisted these 9 universities, you
need to re-check if everything is perfectly sorted into their own ambitious, moderate
and safe categories. Now as a final task, re-send this 9 university list to all seniors you
have contacted through Facebook and WhatsApp. ALL. You need to let them delicately
know that this is the final list and you need their valuable suggestions if any universities
can be added or deleted from this list. Again, dont get lazy or sluggish here. You have
put a whole amount of hard work till now, dont let this all work get spoiled just because
you became lazy in the end. After your seniors reply to you regarding the final 9
university list, again evaluate every detail of their review and talk to them over and over
again regarding every specific point and now formulate your final 9 university list.
Voila! Here is your 9 university final list at last. Just remember that having them doesnt
seal the deal. You need to know them in and out.
9. Details of Universities offering MS in CM/CEM
Okay. This section is specifically mentioned in this guide for Construction Management
/ Construction Eng. And Management aspirants. I am listing out as many universities I
know which offer Masters in Construction Management or Masters in Construction
Engineering and Management. I will mention any details about the university only if
necessary. If there isnt anything mentioned about the university, consider that there
isnt anything to worry about in the course curriculum. But if I come across anything
which needs to be mentioned like two degrees being offered or if you need to be aware
of something fishy, I will mention it below the list. However, I will be mentioning at
least the names of all universities offering MS in CM/CEM so that you can already have

your primary 35 university list here. If you want detailed specific info regarding any
aspect of the university, please feel free to contact me any time of the day.

1. University of Texas Austin, Texas.

2. Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
3. Purdue University, Indiana.
4. University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
5. University of Southern California, California.
6. Virginia Tech University, Virginia.
7. Georgia Tech University, Atlanta.
8. Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania.
9. Columbia University, New York.
10. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan.
11. University of Washington Seattle, Washington.
12. North Carolina State University, North Carolina.
13. University of Florida, Gainesville.
14. University of Cincinnati, Ohio
15. University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado.
16. University of Maryland College Park, Maryland.
17. Arizona State University, Arizona.
18. Clemson University, South Carolina.
19. Iowa State University, Iowa.
20. Rutgers University, New Jersey.
21. Colorado State University, Fort Collins.
22. North Eastern University, Massachusetts.
23. Michigan State University, Michigan.
24. Michigan Technological University, Michigan.
25. Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, Illinois.
26. University of North Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina.
27. University of Texas Arlington, Texas
28. Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey.
29. NYU Tandon School of Engineering, New York
30. Vanderbilt University, Tennessee.
31. California State University Fullerton, California.
32. California State University East Bay, California.
33. Kansas State University, Kansas.
34. University of Houston Main Campus, Texas.
35. Drexel University, Philadelphia.

TAMU is one of the best universities right now in USA offering MS in Civil
Engineering with concentration in Construction Engineering and Management.
This can be ranked among the top ten institutions offering this course. One thing
students need to be careful about while applying to TAMU CS is that it offers two
degrees, namely, the first one is Masters in Civil Eng. with concentration in CEM
and Masters in Construction Management. The former is offered by Civil Dept. and
is a STEM degree whereas the latter is offered by Architecture Dept. and is a NonStem degree. If you have done Bachelors in Civil Eng., I would definitely
recommend you to apply for the MS in Civil Eng. with concentration in CEM. But
for those who did Bachelors in Architecture, you can prefer either of them. If youd
ask me personally, I would recommend MS in CEM over MS in CM any day. But
if you are an Architecture student, maybe you would have better survival rate in
CM rather than CEM. Although TAMU is an excellent university in all aspects, CM
is not exactly encouraged by any senior who did their MS in CM at TAMU.
Especially due to the academic rigidity and too many pre requisites, students dont
prefer CM. So my advice would be to apply to MS in CEM offered by Civil Dept.
at TAMU. And regarding the professors and academic curriculum of CEM in
TAMU, its one of the top notch advantages you will be availing at TAMU. Faculty
at TAMU are highly reputed. TAMU fees is dead cheap compared to other
universities due to the Texas Advantage. And due to the low intake of TAMU CEM,
you have a better chance of landing a RA/TA with your professors.

Purdue is also one of the best universities offering MS for this course in USA.
Ranked mostly among top ten in many ranking journals. Offers MS in Building
Construction Management and MS in Construction Engineering and Management.
Unlike TAMU, both degrees offered at Purdue are Stem degrees. If you ask me, Id
advise you to apply to both degrees if possible. But if you want to just apply to one
degree, apply to MS in BCM at Purdue. BCM degree has some advantages over
CEM at Purdue. Firstly, BCM students can take electives offered in CEM, whereas
vice versa isnt possible. Secondly, there is a whole separate fair conducted for
BCM students where 150 companies attend the fair. On the other hand, CEM also
has an organized fair with the rest of civil departments. Although both departments
have excellent placement rates, BCM has a bit advantage owing to the fact that the
recruiters coming to Purdue for career fairs are mostly BCM alumni and prefer those
students. BCM has a compulsory thesis which may extend your program to 2 years.
But CEM can be completed within 1.5 years. And as usual, excellent faculty and
research is going on at Purdue. And due to the extra low intake of Indians for BCM
at Purdue, the chances of RA/TA are very good for students. Purdue fees is a bit on
the higher side, but due to the good chances of RA/TA for students, you have a
decent chance of waiving your whole fees for those semesters and getting a stipend.

As far as I remember, USC also offers two degrees. Both are offered by Civil Eng.
Dept. One is CEM and the other is CM. Both are excellent programs. Apply to the
program whose academic curriculum interests you a lot. The fees here costs a bomb.
You need to be careful regarding this aspect. It costs around 50 lakhs. Except for
the fees factor, rest everything about the university is perfect. Excellent alumni
network, huge reputation and job opportunities in the state are also decent.
The program at CMU is offered by Architectural dept. from what I remember. So
check whether its a STEM degree and apply to it only if the course curriculum
appeals to your interest. Same goes for Columbia University. University of
Michigan Ann Arbor is very costly. So be careful regarding this aspect. And it offers
MS as well as M.Eng. in CEM.
For UFL, you need to be extra careful. You have to apply to Construction
Management program under the Rinkers School of UFL. Don't apply to
Construction Engineering and Management program under the ESSIE Dept. The
professors of ESSIE Dept. have only advised against from applying to the program.
Moreover, unlike TAMU CM, UFL CM program is STEM program and has a very
good blend of courses. Although the only negative is that you need to take 3-4 pre
requisites depending on your undergrad course curriculum, due to which your fees
may be a bit on the higher side. But its totally worth it from what I have heard from
seniors at UFL. Your tuition fees maybe around 40 lakhs. But the placements are
really good and the Construction Placement fair happens especially for Rinkers
School where companies from all over USA come to recruit students. Rinkers
School is very old and has a huge reputation among the construction industry.
You may ask that why I am recommending UFL CM whereas I am not
recommending TAMU CM. Here, I posted a detailed analysis of TAMU CM vs
UFL CM few months ago on Facebook. I am posting it here for you. Okay. Let us
lay a deep analysis on the CM programs offered in UFL vs TAMU.
Jobs and Placements: No doubt, both of the universities are ranked in the top tier
category for placements and landing a job, although difficult for us civil engineers
would be a bit easier considering the reputation of universities. Moreover, the
placement fairs at these universities are one of the best. But on deep dissection, our
jobs are going to stick to us only we have good chances of VISA conversion from
F1 Student to H1B through the lottery process. Here is where we can distinguish
both the programs offered by these universities. Construction Management program
offered by Rinker School in UFL is Stem whereas the same Construction
Management program offered by TAMU is Non-Stem. If you go with UFL, you
will land a job (You have to obviously struggle to get placed, I wont say its a
cakewalk, at the same time, I wont say its a Hail Mary situation. You will
eventually land a job.). So if you graduated from UFL and got placed into a
company, you have an OPT period of 3 years, where your chances of getting your

VISA converted through the lottery process are very good and you will have a
chance of going through the lottery every six months (I dont exactly know the
period, check?). So you have 6 chances of going through the lottery. On the same
hand, if you graduated from TAMU and landed a job with whopping salary also,
your OPT period is just one year and you just have two chances of going through
the lottery process, VERY SLIM CHANCES. So, when it comes to placement
scenario, TAMU and UFL have one of the best placement career fairs organized.
But the even most important thing we have to note down is, although you may earn
90k$ per annum (Very high for civil.), it all boils down to the VISA conversion
lottery process and if you dont get through it, it would be tough. So its better not
to go for the non-stem course of Construction Management at TAMU.
Course Structure and Academic Curriculum: I have heard from some seniors of
TAMU studying Construction Management that the course structure is not at all
flexible and students are not satisfied. I have even seen students applying for
transfers to universities like UIUC after completing their 1st semester at TAMU.
So although the course structure and subjects being offered may look tempting
enough, the review is kind of bad. On the other hand, UFL also has a very unique
course structure. UFL's Construction Management program needs you to take a
number of pre requisite courses. Some seniors at UFL have taken pre-requisites of
9 credits up to 15 or 18 credits. Again, the number of pre requisites needed to be
taken depend upon the subjects you have completed in your undergrad. Actually
upon going to UFL, we meet our grad advisor where he examines our transcripts
and points out to the pre requisites we need to do. It is in our hands to convince our
advisor that we have enough knowledge of that particular subject so as to waive the
pre requisite. If the subject is completed in our undergrad, he will waive it. If both
of us dont arrive to a mutual conclusion, he may ask you to take the final test of
the pre requisite in which we are JUST supposed to pass. No passing with flying
colours. JUST PASS. If we pass that, then we will be waived that pre requisite. And
the subject wont be counted in our GPA as it is waived. Good, right? Again, you
dont need to do these pre requisites in the 1st semester you go there and give exams
and waive it. You can give exams slowly in the later semesters also and get them
waived. But from what I see, you are supposed to take at least 2-3 pre requisites at
any cost, especially if you are from engineering background. Normally, architecture
people cover these subject pre requisites in their undergrad, so they are waived these
subjects most of the time. But if we are from engineering background, we can
expect to study at least 2-3 subjects of 3 credits per subject. Now you can clearly
see the distinct comparison between UFL and TAMU, where flexibility of course
structure plays an important role. Seniors at TAMU who have transferred to other
univ explicitly said that this kind of flexibility isnt available at TAMU and we are
supposed to agree to whatever our advisor demands.

Fees Structure: Okay, this is where TAMU may have a bit of advantage over UFL.
Okay, I am downplaying it. Not a bit, significant advantage maybe. First, lets see
TAMU, TAMU CM program has got this scholarship thing which apparently most
of the admitted students received which may even lessen the fees. And as icing to
the cake, TAMU's fees structure is also less. But looking at the course structure and
non-stem clause of the program, I still dont think its worth it. That doesnt mean
UFL has got any huge advantage. UFL costs a bomb, LITERALLY. Firstly, we
have two options of study at UFL, either thesis or coursework. If we opt for thesis,
we are supposed to finish 30 credits and pre requisites, extra. If we go for
coursework (which most of the students do), we are supposed to finish 36 credits
(12 subjects) and pre requisites extra. So even if we assume the number of pre
requisites to be 3 subjects or 4 subjects (9 or 12 credits), we would be completing
45 credits - 48 credits in 4 semesters (which is totally possible, 4 subjects can be
completed in a semester). So the total tuition fees would amount to 43 lakhs
maximum. That's pretty huge even for UFL. But please note that it includes the pre
requisites fees as well, if you get them waived, you wont be charged any. And the
pre requisites needed to be done will be clarified and cleared after meeting our
advisor. So a tuition fees of 43 lakhs plus living expenses of ten lakhs (650$ per
month) would give the total rough estimate of fees to be 55 lakhs. Although the i20
amount is around 35 lakhs, the whole thing from A to Z costs us around 55 lakhs at
most (lavish expense plus consider the VISA as well as flight charges). I know its
a very huge amount to invest in, but from what I have heard from seniors, its
definitely worth it, considering their placement scenario. I know right now, civil
engineering job scenario is not at its best in USA, but remember, its even worse in
India. And even in such average conditions, UFL School has got one of the best
placement scenarios for civil. So if you are going for loan, try getting a loan of 4045 lakhs, so that the rest 10 lakhs can be sponsored by ourselves. Then, it wont be
much of a financial strain. And remember, if you land a good job (which most likely
you will, if you strive hard and work your ass off), you have a very bright chance
of repaying the loan in even 2 - 2.5 years.
Another thing which I would like to mention here is, It seems that the last two
batches of students at UFL had a very high intake number, due to which they faced
a bit difficulty while getting placed for internships or jobs. For example, apparently,
last year, 167 applicants applied to UFL out of which 40 people made the final cut.
That is like an acceptance rate of 25%. Seniors said that as 40 is a huge number for
a graduate batch, they had a bit difficulty getting interns or jobs owing to the
competition. But good for us, UFL admissions department of Rinkers school
realized this and even reduced the intake to a very minimal number of 12%. Like,
if 160 applicants applied, it would mean just 15-20 would be doing their Masters at
UFL. It would mean less competition for the huge career placements fairs. Like,
which do you think is better? 40 students getting placed for 150-200 companies
(Yeah, you read it right. Apparently 150-200 companies come for placements in
civil, but again some of them wont consider international students for placements.)

So 40 students getting placed for 150-200 companies is easy or 15-20 students

getting placed for the same number of companies? You have your answer.
So considering from all points of view, I would rate UFL Construction Management
program to be better TAMU's Construction Management program any day. But if
you are certain that you cannot afford to invest such a huge amount or if you are not
considering loan option, then UFL is at a disadvantage. But again, if you see, even
if you get placed at TAMU, you dont have decent chances of H1B visa conversion.
So you can literally ask yourself to choose one situation among two. First situation
being, invest or take loan of a big amount, get placed (totally depends on your
potential) and clear out the loan and clear the lottery in probably 6 attempts easily.
Second situation is, you can study for dead cheap fees, get placed, and take your
chances in the lottery process for just 2 times. So it all comes down to one simple
statement. If you go for UFL, you have a chance of directing how to play the game
at least and the odds are in your favour. If you go for TAMU, you give the dice to
some stranger to play for you and no offense meant, but the chances are dead slim
sometimes.
The CM program referred to above in the whole shit is the Construction
Management program being offered by Architecture Department at TAMU. It is
not the same one as Construction Engineering and Management program (one of
the concentrations of MS in Civil Engineering) being offered by Civil Engineering
Department at TAMU. The latter is a stem course and the former is a non-stem.

This is how you analyse and compare two schools. Whenever I mentioned aspects, I
meant all the above points used in comparison of UFL and TAMU. So now that you
have the syntax for comparison, use these same aspects for comparison between any
two universities.
While applying to ASU, make sure you are applying to the Construction Engineering
program under the SSEBE and not Construction Management since the CM program is
non stem at ASU and the CE program is stem at ASU.
Even Clemson has the same problem. There are two degrees being offered at Clemson.
One is Construction Engineering and Management and the other degree is Construction
Science and Management. The CEM degree is a stem degree and the one which you
need to apply to whereas the CSM degree is a non-stem and isnt preferable for Civil
Engineering graduates. Clemson is one of the most underrated graduate university. It
has got excellent opportunities for Civil and Mechanical streams. Dont miss out on
applying to this university. It costs cheap and good chances of funding and RA/TA.

For students looking out for scholarships and funding, look out for Colorado State
University, Fort Collins. For all admitted students of this university for fall 16, they
have been offered a full fee waiver and even a stipend of 1600$ per month. So make
sure you apply to this university if you are looking for funding chances. And dont
misinterpret that the university is a low grade one which is why they are offering such
funding. The university also stands among one of decent universities for Construction
Eng. and Management in Colorado. Although their dept. website doesnt mention MS
in CEM program, they do offer it.
UMCP offers Masters in Program Management. Unlike other universities, it doesnt
offer any specialization in Construction Engineering. So look at their course
curriculum. It reflects general management subjects required in projects. So apply to it
if only the course structure appeals to you. But if you are bent on moving towards
Construction Management and not general project management, don't apply to UMCP.
North Eastern University is known for its co-op program which ensures you a job at the
end of your Masters. However it isnt any guaranteed thing that you will be placed at
the end. For more details on the co-op program, google regarding this. NEU even costs
a little more than other universities. And careful regarding the Boston weather.
For MTU, once talk to the graduate dept. of the university and make sure they are
offering the degree for this Fall 17. Many of my friends received rejects for CEM stream
stating that there arent any professors in the stream and transferred their applications
to other streams like Geotechnical or Structural. So careful regarding this.
IIT Chicago and UT Arlington are universities which dont care about your GRE scores
as long as they are above 300. They give more importance to GPA than any part of your
profile. But that doesnt mean they only consider 9 pointers. Even a 7 pointer with 300
GRE and 9 pointer with 300 GRE will get admits in such universities. As long as your
GPA crosses their cut-off, they are okay for giving you an admit. Anyways, these two
universities don't also do holistic over all profile evaluation. You can consider these
two universities as safe for almost all average profiles. UNCC offers Masters in
Construction Facilities and Management. The program is a STEM one and has decent
course curriculum too. This can also be considered a safe one for average profiles.
Apply to this as a last resort mostly.
Vanderbilt University is one of the under rated institutions for Construction
Management. The degree offered is MS in Construction Management and is a STEM
accredited degree. It has got good chances of funding and huge reputation in Tennessee
State. University of Houston Main Campus offers online degree in Construction
Management. So apply only if you are interested and if you know anyone who has
studied the same degree. California State Universities are safe for almost all profiles.

There is no generic thing that Construction Management is good to apply or not

advisable to apply and there is nothing generic about Construction Eng. And
Management as well. In some universities which offer either of CM or CEM or both
degrees, CM is good in some universities over CEM or CEM is also good in some other
universities. You cant generalize anything regarding these both streams. You need to
contact seniors studying in both stream and inquire about the STEM quotient and only
after you review every aspect of both degrees, only then you can make a decision that
one of the degree is preferable over the other.
All fall 2016 admitted students have collaborated to create a form in which you can find
details about the universities they have applied to and the admits they have received
and the rejects they have received and their profile details and all other relevant details.
You can find the responses over here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O4yRSICWyT9_v2i8bnMScfHUAAG50vYWFCjUmcbnWI/edit?usp=sharing
10. Application Process
10. a. GRE Score Reporting
->You will be having an option of sending your GRE scores for free to 4
universities immediately after your GRE exam in the exam centre itself.
->First, Go to your ETS GRE Account
-> Under the Scores heading, click on Send my Scores
-> Your details must have been pre-filled already. If not, fill them and click on
Submit
-> Select the Country as United States of America
-> Select the State in which the University is located. For example, Texas for
TAMU or Indiana for Purdue
-> You will be looking at many universities in the state as a list. This is where you
have to be careful. Try to search the University Code for sending GRE scores on
the university website. The website will give the detailed info about GRE and
TOEFL codes. So in the list of universities in the state, try searching your university
and check if the code against your university matches to the one they gave on their
website. Now click on the Select option beside the Code.
-> Now it may ask you to enter your department Code. From what I know,
department code isnt necessary. But it doesnt hurt to enter. Once I entered a wrong
department code, and when I mailed the universitys graduate office, they replied
that department code wont be much of an issue since the GRE scores sent by ETC
directly go to the graduate office database. And when during your application, when
you fill your name and details, the department graduate office will search your name
in the universitys graduate office database and they match your name against your
score. You can even skip the Dept. Code page. But just for safe side, make sure you
check the department code on the dept. website and enter it.

-> Now, it will ask you to select the score which you want to send and asks you to
confirm it. You will be charged 27$ for sending your GRE score to one university.
-> Click on Proceed to Checkout after clicking the terms and conditions thing.
Now you will be re-directed to the payment page where you need to pay the 27$.
10. b. TOEFL Score Reporting
-> Log in to your TOEFL ETS account.
-> Click on the Order Score Reports under My Tests
-> Click on the Toefl Services if you want to send TOEFL scores to a university.
-> Click on the Send Additional Score Report(s) to Institutions
-> Click on the test date you have taken your TOEFL and which you want to send.
-> Now enter your details and follow the same process followed like in GRE Scores
sending by entering the Country name, State name and College code.
See how easy the whole process is and see how the consultancies rob you of
thousands even for such easy processes.
10. c. Transcripts
Some universities may ask you to upload your transcripts or semester grade sheets.
Some universities may ask you to send them by postal courier. You need to be
cautious as to what the university is asking, whether it is semester grade sheets they
are asking or if it is transcripts. Both are completely different. For example, IIT
Chicago asks for semester grade sheets and doesnt accept transcripts. And
universities like UFL or UT Arlington or Arizona State University ask you to send
transcripts by postal courier rather than uploading. For sending transcripts by
courier, the cheapest and best method is Edulix DHL. Open an account in Edulix
website and use their facility of DHL service in their website to send your
transcripts with minimal charge. Google Edulix DHL to know more about this or
contact any senior who has done this. They charge about 865/- per transcript packet.
10. d. Letters of Recommendation
Letters of Recommendation are another crucial factor in your whole MS
application. Let me tell you in what way a LOR can impact your application. Unless
until a LOR is either the best you have ever seen or the worst you have ever seen,
its not going to have much of an impact on your application. What I mean to say
is if your LOR is one of the stellar and best recommendations you have ever seen,
it will be considered a huge advantage. In the same way, if your recommender is
going to downplay you or is going to write your letter in a negative way, its going
to be a huge disadvantage. Except in these cases, all recommendations are
considered roughly the same. US admission committees mostly know that
recommendations written by Indian Professors generally are rip-offs from the net
and even worse, some admission committees know that recommendations are also
written by students. If your resume is genuine and if its reflected in your
recommendation by your professor, then the admission committee knows that such

students are genuine. Coming to LORs, approach your professors first if they are
okay with filling your Letter of Recommendation. If they agree, fill their details in
the application form and then a mail will be directed to their mail id. This mail will
consist of a link where the professors will either be asked to paste their
recommendation in Text box or upload the LOR. Normally you will have to give
their official college email ID of the professor in the email id. Universities are not
exactly okay with providing Gmail id unless until its mentioned. So try giving
college official email id. If there is no such email id for your professor, at least try
getting the recommendation written on a letter head and make your professor upload
the recommendation along with the college letter head. Remember, universities
need some kind of authorization to make sure that the recommender is actually your
lecturer. So they either need a college email id or college letter head. If both of these
dont work out, mail the graduate department of your university asking if its okay
to use Gmail id of your professor and upload without letter head. Some Indian
professors are so lazy that they even forward the mails sent by the universities to
you so that you can fill your own LOR. Yeah, if your professor is so lenient, you
can chill and do your own LOR. Btw, I heard a rumour that IP address of the LOR
filler will be tracked. And if it matches the same IP address which uses the
application filling process, it would mean that you filled your own LOR.
BULLSHIT. BULL-SHIT. I know tens of friends of mine who did this thing and
are right now chilling with admits from top 20 universities. Anyways, I would not
personally recommend this. Let your own professor fill it unless until he has no time
in his schedule for you and if he insists you till fill it. But as said, LORs wont
matter a lot unless until they are too positive or too negative. Even if its better than
mediocre, universities count it as mediocre level only. Another thing, do try to let
your professors write about the projects you have done under them in your LOR. If
possible, let them explain about your achievements or extracurricular activities. As
I had a lot of projects in my profile, I made my professors write about my project
and made them explain how I published my research papers. And dont worry if
your professor messes up your LOR and uploads the wrong one or deletes the mail.
You will have an option to re-send LOR request to your professor in your
application or you can request the graduate department to reset the link.
10. e. Application formal process
Application formal process may look tough in the starting one or two applications.
You will be confused as to what to answer to every question even though you are
ticking the right answer. So for the first one or two applications, I would recommend
you to take help from your friends who have been through the application process
personally or take help from your seniors, us who have been through the whole
process. We will confirm all your doubts and make you apply with confidence
rather than applying and worrying if you ticked the right one or wrong one.
Application formal process consists of mostly filling your personal details and
agreeing to some safety questions pertaining to USA and uploading your SOP and
filling in your recommender details. You will be asked to enter your address details

and GRE, TOEFL Scores and your acads. Be honest. Never get tempted to massage
your results to make them look a little better. As already said previously in this
guide, application filling is a very easy thing once you get familiar with it. So for
the first one or two applications, feel free to contact your seniors or me anytime for
any doubts. We would be glad to be help in any way to our juniors. Make sure you
create a excel sheet which includes deadlines of all universities you are applying to
and even save the username and passwords in a secure location. And dont apply
for all the universities in one go. Take time to analyse the specific requisites of each
university and apply accordingly. Double check every time you upload transcripts
or SOP. Many of my friends uploaded wrong SOPs which were actually meant for
other universities. Dont make it awkward for the university reading a SOP which
was actually meant for another university.
10. f. CV or Resume
Many students have doubts as to whether upload a detailed CV or brief resume. I
would suggest you to simply include relevant details irrespective of a CV or resume.
What I mean to say is, it doesnt matter if its a CV or Resume as long as it contains
relevant information to your profile. Having a 5 page resume with all irrelevant
information wont stand a fight before a 2 page resume with relevant information.
My resume was 4 pages, but it included only essential matter pertaining to my
academic and research profile. You need to mention them briefly. Let me tell you
how to frame a brief CV if you arent familiar with one. In the first page, mention
your personal information in the first one third of your first page. It should contain
Name, Nationality, Languages known, DOB, Address, email id. The second 1/3rd
should contain educational qualifications in a table. Just mention 10th, 12th, and
undergrad with the degrees earned and academic percentage accordingly and
mention the college names. In the third 1/3rd, mention your software skills if any
and also mention your internships in a table format with the period of internship
and name of organization and type of internship. In the second page, mention your
GRE and TOEFL scores and academic projects. Academic projects should contain
the title name and the name of professor you collaborated for working on this
project. And if present, mention the conferences you have attended and journals you
have published. In the third page, mention your achievements and extracurricular
briefly with the title you have worked and what work you have done in a line. Your
CV ideally must be around 2-3 pages. That doesnt mean you have to restrict it to 2
pages or you have to extend it to 3 pages. Just include relevant matter in your profile
and I am sure it would be around 2-3 pages.
10. g. Financial Documents required?
As I have already mentioned, financial documents are not at all needed for
application processes. They are needed only after you get an admit. Until then, you
need not provide universities any financial documents. Consultancies tend to force
you by saying you need to show financial documents for application processes so
that you will pay the consultancies to show the finances. Dont get surrendered to

such demands. As far as I know, only one or two universities ask for financials
during application processes. If you are confused, ask your seniors who applied to
same universities or mail the university graduate dept. asking if finances are
necessary during application processes.

11. Pointers Regarding MS

Okay, by now, you must have understood the whole process and journey of Masters
Applications in USA. Let me tell you some general pointers and let me bust some
myths. First, there is no early bird advantage in Masters. I believed this rumour and
applied for all my universities by October and made sure my professors completed the
Letters of Recommendations by November. But my friends who applied later in
February got their decisions by April but the same universities sent me decisions till
May. So trust me, the saying The early bird catches the worm doesnt amount to shit
here. I have seen many students blaming the admission committees that they reject good
applications randomly and giving admits to mediocre profiles randomly. These same
students are the ones who say that all those who get admits are just lucky. Let me tell
you something, there is nothing such as Luck. All the luck we talk about now is
Karma coming back to us. Careful friends, Karma is not a bad thing. Karma is just
our deeds coming back to us. Karma is good coming back to you as well as bad coming
back to you. If you got something as a surprise gift out of nowhere, dont think that it
is mere luck, it is the fruit of your hard work coming back to you, just late. What I mean
to say is, even if you suddenly pass an exam with flying colours although you didnt
study anything about it, dont think of it as luck. Its just the result of hard work you
did a year back for something which you didnt get anything back then. Remember,
work hard always. If not today, you will be rewarded for your hard work tomorrow. Or
day after tomorrow. Its never going to go anywhere, but it will come back to you.
Likewise, do good things always and you never know how they will be rewarded back
to you. So the next time, if things work out suddenly for you, dont think of it as luck,
its just your good deeds coming back to you or your hard work in the past is being
rewarded now. In the same way, if things are not working out for you right now, just
be patient, your hard work will always be rewarded back to you. Trust me, this coming
year is going to be very crucial for you. Patience is one of the most needed things in
this upcoming year. It may turn out any way. So be prepared for the worst. ALWAYS,
BE PREPARED FOR THE WORST. Never underestimate anyone. I know many
friends who mocked others profiles and now I see them going to worse universities I
have never heard of. All I am saying is, this year is one of the most important in your
lives and will be deciding your next two years at least. Dont waste this time judging
other people and their profiles. Remember, never get even the thought of ill-treating
anyone. You dont want Karma getting back to you especially at such a desperate phase
of your life. I know I am slightly deviating from the MS topic, but you dont want sitting
after your MS regretting the decisions you made.

More importantly, dont get disappointed by any decision. I first received 5 rejects. I
did not lose any hope. Because I prepared myself for the worst. I admit it, I was slightly
disappointed. But I knew one thing. Hard work never goes in vain. I always knew I will
be rewarded with something. If not now, later. But I know that my uphill battle will be
recognized. After the 5 rejects, I received back to back admits and then finally I got into
Purdue. Remember, even if you get all rejects, this will be one hard learnt lesson for
you. You will exactly know where things went wrong. I know a friend who received 9
rejects out of 10 for Fall 2015 and he applied to Fall 2016 again for even better
universities and received 7 admits out of 9 and is currently heading to an ivy league
university. Remember, one year isnt going to matter a lot if you learn your mistakes
and build your profile in this one year. It is only when you have lost everything that you
are free to do anything. You will fall down, you will certainly fall down. But what
matters is not how you have fallen, but how you will bounce back. Never ever measure
a mans success by how high he climbs, but measure his success by how high he
bounces when he hits rock-bottom.
Coming back to our MS discussion, I understand many of you may be having doubts
about VISA conversions from F1 (Student VISA) to H1B VISA and all. But right now,
you need not worry about anything. All you need to take care is that your degree must
be a STEM accredited degree. Coming to location of university, dont choose
universities in very remote locations. You dont want to stay in a village which is
isolated from everything. That doesnt mean location is the only criteria. Just make sure
you are in good proximity to a prominent city. And regarding jobs in USA, unless until
you are graduating from top 25-40 universities in USA, you will most probably be
applying to companies through off campus processes. You need a good network. So
start making contacts. Update your LinkedIn profile as much as possible. Even this will
be helpful for internships. I have seen that while my application was being evaluated
by the university admission committees, I have observed my LinkedIn profile views
have increased and even a professor from UFL has viewed my profile. I understood that
they even check the LinkedIn profiles too see how updated they are and how authentic
their profile is. One of the most common perceptions of students is regarding the
financial situation needed for MS. All of us come from various income levels; some
have a lot of money to spend on education and some do not have anything to spend on
education. For most of the middle class and lower financial range families, financial
capacity is a very big thing for studying abroad in USA. Some parents just say, it is out
of our reach, just forget it. Some parents say, I will take loan on behalf of you and will
send you to US. The answer completely depends on your parents perception of
education and their trust in you. You have to realistic about your financial situation if
you can afford or not. If not, do you have the capacity to raise money through friends
and family or apply for an education loan using some collateral? The key thing to keep
in mind is, you need to have all the tuition fee sources sorted out for the whole course
available. It can range anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 or even more based on the
school you are applying. You may argue, if I get scholarship, then I do not need that
much. You are assuming and taking a chance here. It is a risk. Every one of us wish for

success and we think optimistic, hopefully our thoughts always are correct. But, lets
say for instance, if things do not work out, will you be able to find sources to finance
your education? Do you have banks, friends, and family to help you in this aspect?
All in all, what I am trying to say is, You have to be prepared with your finances, think
in all reality about worst case scenarios like if there was no funding for you in US,
will you be able to get money for paying tuition for the whole course ?. Not trying to
discourage anyone, but just a key thing to consider and be prepared for the finances
because you need financial support right from the beginning of application process.
Make sure you have your passport name issues sorted out. Dont under estimate the
issues of mistakes of names in Passport. Though it seems minor, it is important to apply
ahead of time. There are many other unforeseen issues. All of us hope to get everything
done without any issues, but in the real world, it doesnt work that way. Your
application will be impacted by many personal things. If you feel anything such as
these, take some buffer time or back up time to deal with these. Decide first what
direction you want to go in your life. Put everything on a piece of paper, your goals,
vision, your ambition, your aim. Seek a mentor, ask people who believe in you. Talking
to someone who believes in your thoughts is the best idea. Formulate a rough plan and
think through and share it with your family and seek their advice.
There are many other myths regarding Masters in US. One is Is it worth going unless
I get into a top university? From what I have seen, choosing a program primarily and
just because its ranking is good, is one of the biggest mistakes grad school students
make. There are plenty of students who went to top schools yet have failed. Employers
know about this. So when it comes right down to it, they value who you are and what
you bring to their organization. Getting a degree from a top notch institution just
demonstrates to employers that you have what it takes to succeed, persist in a difficult
place. But that isnt the only requirement. Another myth is It is too expensive and I
cannot afford it. Lets face it. MS is expensive. It always has been. Fortunately, there
are banks to provide loans for graduate studies so that we can earn our degree with
minimal expenses. You also have on campus part time jobs and scholarship chances
and fellowship funding. As tuition costs rise, so usually does funding for scholarships
and far more financial help is available than you may think. Another myth is if you are
too old to go back to studying. Statistics show that, in many institutions, the average
graduate student is in his or her mid to late 30s. So, there is no disadvantage or stigma
in going back as an older student. Another myth that undergrad academic record is the
only thing which admission committees look into. Admissions committees don't just
look at grades. They look at everything in your application including letters of
recommendation, essays, the courses you took, internships, and work and life
experience. Admission directors are looking for reasons to get you in, not reasons to
keep you out. The older and further away you are from your undergraduate degree, the
less important your previous grades will be.

I think I have covered pretty much everything about Applications for Masters in US.
If any of you feel stuck anywhere in this process, feel free to contact me anytime. I
may be a bit busy right now owing to the VISA process and heading to USA. But rest
assured, give me a day or two. I will get back to your message and will solve all your
queries in detail. You can either contact me on WhatsApp or Facebook. My contact
number is 09848324070 till August 1st week. Or you can contact me on Facebook, my
Facebook profile link is https://www.facebook.com/manjeeth.kolli. All the best people
for your journey. May the force be with you.