My journey to University of California

Good school, a new environment and it had the major I wanted. I also wanted to choose a school far away from home so I know what it's like to handle independence....Read More

I applied to UC Riverside, University of Texas at Austin and University of North Texas at Dallas in the US. I got confirmed admissions from all 3 universities and did not receive any rejection or shortlist/waitlist. I tailored my SOP's for all the universities I applied to after doing extensive research (i.e., the course, why I would be a good candidate for the program, what I was looking to learn from some of the faculty members) on each and I think that would be why I was admitted to all. In addition to this, I applied to Auckland University of Technology and University of Auckland in New Zealand and received confirmed admissions from both as well. I initially wanted to go to New Zealand but the country was not providing student visas due to the COVID lockdown period. Hence, I had to defer my admissions for 2 semesters before I decided to apply to universities in the USA. The reason I chose UCR is because of its great Masters Programme and the location of the university (who wouldn't want to move to California!) and also because I received a good $20,000 scholarship from the university upon admission. Whereas UTA was providing $5000 scholarship. So in comparison, UCR was better in all aspects. I applied in May 2021 and received acceptance around mid-June 2021; all the documents required for admission were clearly stated and in addition to that, there was a GRE waiver due to COVID as well. I took my TOEFL test before I started applying to any universities and received an 8.0 on the test. The minimum criteria was 7.0. The minimum required GPA was 3.0 out of 4.0 in the bachelor's degree. The challenges faced by me were mainly due to the student loan application process and they had the possibility to hinder my chances of getting a visa. All in all, everything worked out great. I applied for the fall intake because a student must be in the U.S. for at least 9 months before starting a summer internship. Based on my calculations, fall was the best option. The admission process took under two months; I applied in May and received my acceptance letter in June 2021. In addition to that, the visa process took around 1 month with regards to the prep, scheduling the interview, etc...Read More