TAMUCC - Sivva Sai Dheeraj

University of North Texas

7.1(7 Reviews)

Cleveland State University

6.9(7 Reviews)

Reason for choosing my college

• Couple of things: I have considered while selecting the colleges I was accepted. First is opportunities and the number of students intake every semester. It really matters if you wanna secure any Assistantship or TA or RA's under professors. You can easily research going into the website and if they have any funding for their research and LinkedIn helps a lot too. There are some personal reasons or choices everyone has like location, weather and Money.
• I chose TAMUCC because of all three reasons. Even though it has 36 credits compared to other universities which has only 30, but when I contacted Alumni I came to conclusion that there are plenty of opportunities in TAMUCC as the student intake is very less.

University of Texas

7.3(14 Reviews)

University of Texas

8.1(15 Reviews)

Reason for Rejection

Again, couple of reasons: Deadlines - I had little time to figure out which universities I want to apply. Most of the Universities take applications as FCFS. This was one of the reason and the reason was my Undergraduate GPA was nearly 3.0, so this one also made huge difference. People who has the same GPA got accepted for these Uni's but the timing comes into consideration. 

Good SOP's really matter and Try taking both GRE and IELTS, If you have only one it is tough to get an admission. Try to get good LOR's from your professors.

USA is the go to country for abroad for me since my bachelors. This college had good reputation because they only accept nearly 70 people for an intake and rankings were good too. Location is one more thing to consider, it is really peaceful and beautiful city which is small but lot of beaches and scenic natures close to Mexico. I got my GA in my third semester and also scholarship along with that so it really helped my finances. The campus housing is really good in reasonable price.

• If you take 3 courses in a semester, you would generally have 6 classes or 7 classes a week. It also depends on what courses you take, professors take classes on tues and thurs, some take on mon and wed.
• The average class strength would be 40 and 80% of them are Indians. You will be having lot of assignments but that too depends on the professor. Every week you may need to allocate at least 8-10 hours for assignments.

• Faculty to Student ratio is 1:18 and you can approach them very easily by mail, you can schedule a call online or you can walk into their cabins during their office Hours.
• The faculty gives you opportunities and they try to be liberal but you need to make it up to their expectations. I got a C in my mid term in my first semester. I reached out to professor explaining my concerns that it was too complex for me to understand. It was Advanced Computer Architecture. He gave the entire class a make up exam and for everyone's surprise I got the highest score. Later he was impressed by my improvement and in the next semester I got 4 out of 4. He called me for an interview and gave me an Assistantship. So my only thing is talk to professors, ask them questions and be interested, they'll help you a lot.

• I think of breakers room whenever I want to spend my leisure time.
• We also have intramural competitions every year in volleyball, badminton and basketball. 
• The health department is so big in our University, I often do check ups for free.
• The library archives is one of the things to look out for.
• We also have Indian Student Association and International Student Association where they take care of fellow students and organize events so frequently. The university plans trip to NASA for students every year.

• Per hour average is 9.5 $. It will take time like a month but everyone will eventually get a part time job on campus.
• There are couple of mediums to apply. Handshake is the first got o job site and you have other sites for respective departments.

• 30-40% of the students get TA/RA/GA/DA and you get paid 1200$ monthly plus 50% fee Waive off.
• Other on campus jobs generally pay 9-10$ an hour. You are allowed to work 20 hours a week and in summer 40 hours a week.

50% of the batch secure a job within 6 months and the average salary would be around 70k to 80k annually. Some students secure summer internships and that helps them to secure full time also. The highest salary is around 130k and the lowest would be 55k.

Indian Student Association Group and International Office would give couple of options for both on campus and off campus. It was not that hard for any of us to find accommodation but you need to let them know at least 15 days before.