Reviewed on Feb 7, 2025(Enrolled 2023)
What Students Say
Likes
- The university offers a wide variety of academic programs and courses in different fields, which lets me explore and choose my area of interest
- I love how there are many on-campus job opportunities that help me earn while studying, making it easier to manage my expenses
- The strong research culture here is amazing - faculty members are always open to involving students in research projects through assistantships
Dislikes
- The University is very big making it very difficult to commute from one building to another, the tram facility helps but sometimes the wait time is too long.
- Since the University is located in Tucson, which is a desert, Summars can get very hot.
- Even though there are a lot of Part-time/ student worker opportunities, it can get very difficult to get a on campus job.
Course Curriculum
10
- It wasn't very difficult, as it was almost the same/continuation of what i had learnt during my bachelors. But, it was challenging to adjust to a different system initially. Almost all the classes are both theoretical and practical. most of the assignments are practical and hands on and are evaluated very strictly and are even checked for plagiarism or use of AI tools. I like how most of the courses are not entirely theoretical and we will have a lot of classroom activities like discussions, quizzes, and labs that contribute to our grades and also help share and communicate information.
- I believe the major drawback would be how big the assignments can be and how hectic and overwhelming they can get. For grad students, the classes can be at any time between 8:30 a.m. and 7pm. But, in a day we will have at most 3 classes.
- The average number of students in a class can range from just 15 students to almost 35 students based on the popularity of a specific class or is it is a mandatory course for a specific program. When I got into UofA there very few students on MS in data science program as the program was just introduced in the university but now there are almost 50-80 Indian Students on this course.
Admission Experience
- University of California, Irvine—Rejected
- University of Maryland, College Park-Waitlisted
- Yeshiva University New York City, confirmed admission
- University of Colorado Boulder Boulder - Waitlisted
- University of Florida, Gainesville, confirmed admission
- I got rejected from UCI because I did not meet all the requirements necessary for a Masters in data science at UCI. Even though work experience was not mandatory, I believe I got rejected because I just finished my bachelors and only had 6-months experience from an internship by then.
- University of Arizona is amongst top 300 QS world Ranking universities. My only priority while shortlisting the universities was to get into a university that is at least among the top 300 QS-ranked universities. My only reason to choose this university amongst the rest of them I got accepted was that it was closer to my sister's place, it was comparatively easier to get on-campus jobs/student workers, and it was the 1st university I got acceptance from. But, I realised later on that UofA has advanced technology, which can be a whole different experience and definitely helps enhance your skills. It has a lot of research opportunities and the career development counsellors are a great help when it comes to resume development, career advice, etc. The University also has a lot of GA opportunities that not only help you with your tuition fee but can also be an added experience to your resume as you get to learn a lot while working with a lot of professors and intellectual PhD students and/or grad students. Currently, my GA position is helping me understand and learn lot about AR/VR world. The admission process was simplified; it can be a lot to figure it out all by yourself but once I got accepted and got to create a university account and email, received a complete guide with steps to feed in my information in the universities's website and complete my initial steps, I had to pay my tuition and fee for the 1st semester after choosing the courses for the 1st semester. The process felt very simple, as the advisor stays in touch with you and helps you through every step and the guide/grad steps are pretty simple and easy to understand. The generalized eligibility criteria to get into UofA is to have a good SOP, 3 LORs, IELTS score of 7.5 minimum and GRE/GMAT/SAT are optional for grad courses.
- I applied for the Fall 2023 intake as I wanted to pursue masters more than getting a job after my bachelors. For me, the admission process was quick; once I accepted the admission offer, I created my accounts on different portals related to the university based on the detailed instructions given, paid my tuition fee and completed my admission process online in just a week. After i came to tucson, i submitted my original documents at the university and completed some steps related to when I entered USA
Faculty
8
- The faculty-to-student ratio in the college of Information Science, University of Arizona is considerably fair and No, it doesn't really affect the quality of education as every course will have atleast two instructors assigned and it might vary based on the number of students enrolled as well. The teaching methodology and the syllabus is dependent of the instructor/ professor assigned for a specific course so it can either be to easy and simple or it might as well be very complicated to understand and very hard.
- Yes, If I are a good student obviously professors do not hesitate to recommend you to their colleagues for a student worker, research assistant or Graduate assistant position. I really admire professor yan han who was my data mining professor, he was very encouraging and didn't hesitate to be my referral when I was looking for better positions on-campus. He was very helpful and knew how to break down complicated topics into simple ones.
Campus Life
10
- There is only one University of Arizona campus in Tucson. UofA has the best and most promising facilities; it has huge 3 libraries within the campus and one of them is open 24/7. The main library has a lot of advanced and updated tech like laptops, extension monitors, cameras, etc. that we can borrow and renew every month.
- The libraries have private study rooms, labs, group study rooms, conference rooms, and quiet zones.
- UofA is also popular for it's football team and the football games. It also has an on-campus hospital and also free basic medications available at campus health.
Part Time Jobs
- There are a lot of TA/RA/GA opportunities but it’s very hard to secure one. So, very few students succeed in securing TA/RA/GA positions. Typically an RA/GA/TA pays around $20 - $25 / hour and any GAs/RAs/TAs are allowed to work only for 10 hours / week. Along with this, their tuition fee will be remitted by 50% or 100%. But, as a student worker working in catering services, on campus restaurants, library or any other student worker position, it pays $14.5-$18.5/hour based on the position, and as an international student worker, we’ll be allowed to work 20 hours per week.
- Almost all the students working as student workers earn $14.5-$18 / hour based on their position. If the university has enough funds, students can simply walk-in and land a part time job at any on campus restaurant but if there are a lot of students looking for a part time job, it might get very difficult to get a part time job. And as an international student, we’ll be allowed to work part time only on campus. Usually when it’s very easy to get a job, students will have a very simple interview and they’ll be allowed to start working after submitting some documents which include: resume, I20, passport, SSN and I94.
Placement
6
- As far as I know almost 50% of students who have graduated still struggle to land a full time, visa sponsoring job. But, most of the students consider PhD as they’ll be funded by the university to finish their PhD with stipend for their research work.
- There’s nothing like on campus placements but the university has career advisors who help students with their career development and while applying for jobs as well. Apart from that the university organizes and hosts a lot of career fairs that can be helpful as well. But the students definitely will have to make a lot of efforts from their end specifically for STEM students.
Accommodation
Off Campus
8
- I Live in a off-campus apartment called which is just 15 minutes away from the university. I found this accommodation after reaching out to previous students on LinkedIn. I live in a unfurnished 4 bedroom apartment and I share it with 3 other grad students and my share of rent + utilities will be almost $500 - $550 / month. It was challenging to find accommodation staying in India and without actually looking at the place in-person and just trusting someone, once we got here we actually felt scammed as we where shown a different unit and the one we actually paid for looked very old and was falling apart. We failed to understand the management was not really good but now we moved into a better unit.
Exams
- GMAT, GRE, PTE, and SAT are optional for graduate studies but IELTS and TOEFL are mandatory. necessary documents: marks sheets, sealed copy of transcripts, graduation certificate(in my case BE)/ degree certificate, passport, IELTS/TOEFL score sheet, other GMAT/GRE/PTE/SAT score sheets, resume, SOP, and 3 LORs.
- There was no interview as a part of my application process.After you receive an acceptance, you only have to submit a copy of transcripts if you did not submit them before and a copy of your degeree certificate to the university.
Fees
- So as a full-time international graduate student, we are supposed to take 3 or more credits each semester and the tuition and fee are based on the credits taken. For my previous semester, the total tuition and fee was $18,300, out of which $59.00 is the Arizona Financial Aid Trust Fee, the International Student Fee is $200, tuition for 3 credits is $13,311, and the miscellaneous fee (library & tech) is almost $5000. Monthly expenses: rent: $500-$550/month (varies based on utilities), and other expenses will be around $70-$100/month based on personal expenses.
Scholarship
- There are a few scholarships and financial aid available from the university and also from other organizations. All these Scholarships that a specific student is eligible for will be visible on their account. Other than the scholarships, the university offers RA/GAs which pays in hourly basis(mostly $20/hour and you get to work only for 10 hours as a GA) along with complete or 50% of tuition and fee remission.
