What Students Say
Likes
- The college campus is very beautiful. And it gets even better during the winters.
- The college hosts a variety of events including fun and cultural events. They also celebrate Indian festivals so we can experience our traditional festivals away from home.
- They provide us with career guidance where they go through our resumes and help us improve those for us to get a better chance in our job search.
Dislikes
- The curriculum is not that vast. There are very limited courses to select from. I had decided to enroll in some courses back in India but during the time of enrollment, those course were not available.
- The process for applying for a CPT is very bad. Like there is a deadline after which even if you get any internship offer from any company, the college will not be filing your CPT.
- As this is not a state university, the tuition cost is very high as compared to the other universities.
Course Curriculum
8
- The courses are well structured and the difficulty is moderate. Some courses are completely theoretical, but many courses have a tonne of assignments that help us develop those practical skills.
- A positive aspect is the structure of each course to cover all the necessary topics and the negative one is the shortage of variety in course selection.
- Usually classes are scheduled for 2 days, either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. There are some classes that are only scheduled on Fridays and they run for 3 hours, whereas the others run for 1.5 hours each.
- Faculty members usually don't help in finding any part-time or full-time jobs but if they have good connections, they can get you in touch with some business officials.
- I admire Prof. Garret Katz the most. He taught me Intro to Artificial Intelligence and that was the best course from my curriculum. The knowledge he has regarding AI is immense and hence, he was able to cover all the topics properly.
Admission Experience
-
I applied to the following universities:
- Syracuse University
- University of California, Riverside
- New York University
- Arizona State University
- University of Florida
- I received admits from the following universities:
- Syracuse University
- Arizona State University
- I was rejected from the following universities:
- University of California, Riverside
- New York University
- University of Florida
- I think the structure of my SOP was not solid, which could have been the reason for the rejections. Also, all the universities from whom I got a rejection were ambitious.
- I got accepted by Syracuse University and Arizona State University, but the admit from ASU was for a master's in software engineering, and for SU it was a master's in computer science. As I was interested in the Computer Science course over Software Engineering, I chose SU.
- I applied to all these universities in October and I got the acceptance letter in February. After that, they asked me to confirm my acceptance and asked to validate various documents such as undergrad transcripts, income proof, education loan proof, etc. After validating all these documents, I received my I-20, after which I started my visa application process.
- For SU, GRE was waived off and the minimum score requirement for IELTS was 7 and for TOEFL, it was 80.
- While researching the universities, I faced some difficulties in finding the exact information required, as there were multiple pages for some universities that had different information for applying for the same course. Apart from this, the application process was smooth. All the application forms were self-explanatory.
- I applied for Fall 2023. I chose Fall because after graduation, Fall students have more job opportunities. I thought this would give me a better opportunity to secure a job after my graduation.
- I got the acceptance letter in February and after that, they asked me to confirm my acceptance and asked to validate various documents such as undergrad transcripts, income proof, education loan proof, etc. After validating all these documents, I received my I-20, after which I started my visa application process.
Faculty
10
- Each class has a different capacity of students. Sometimes it is 60 or sometimes it can get as high as 120.
- There are many Indian students at Syracuse University and hence, usually about 70% of the class is filled with Indian students.
- For computer science, there is only 1 faculty member assigned to each course.
- The course curriculum is well-structured and covers all the important aspects of that particular course, which will help us attain proficiency in that field.
Campus Life
10
- Syracuse University has a total of 2 campuses, Main Campus and South Campus. Main Campus is the one where most of the lectures are held and the South Campus is mostly for accommodations and sports.
- All the necessary facilities are available on campus, such as a sports centre, gym, library, medical facilities, and many more.
- All the festivals are celebrated here, including international festivals such as Diwali and Eid.
- Syracuse University has a football stadium called JMA Dome, which hosts many football games that are popular among the local people here.
Part Time Jobs
- Usually the PhD students are hired as teaching assistants, but if you have a good connection with the faculty, you can work under them as a research assistant as well.
- TAs usually earn around $35 per hour and the pay range of the RAs depends on the facility.
- There are many on-campus jobs available, such as dining halls, receptionists, jobs in events, etc.
- We are allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours per week as full-time students.
- Securing an on-campus job is very competitive. Students are hired on a first-come, first-served basis.
- The pay rate is $15 per hour for the on-campus jobs. As I said, students are hired on a first-come, first-served basis, and hence, it is very competitive. There is a portal called Handshake where all the on-campus job openings are posted and students need to use that itself to secure an on-campus job. We need to keep a resume ready along with our course schedule so that the on-campus job timings do not clash with our courses.
Placement
10
- Around 75% of students secure a full-time job after graduation.
- The average salary range of the jobs is around $120,000-$200,000. Some students also secure a job of $300,000+.
- The university conducts career fairs each semester, which can help the students to connect with the business officials and get to know about the application process for various companies.
- Many students have secured a job at Amazon, Apple, Tesla, and many other top-level companies.
- Major FAANG companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google hire students from Syracuse University.
Accommodation
Off Campus
10
- I surfed the internet to find accommodations in the vicinity of the college. There are plenty of websites that give you information about houses in Syracuse.
- The monthly rent is $600, excluding utilities. The utilities cost around $100 per month.
- I started looking for houses in June, due to which there were not many options left, as many students had booked the better houses and I had to settle for a house far away from the college.
- I would say find a house that is closer to the university, as if you miss a bus, you can also walk to the college.
- For the first year my house was 30 minutes away from the college, but now I have moved much closer and it is about 10 minutes away.
Exams
- For Syracuse University, GRE was waived off when I was applying. For the English proficiency test, they accept either IELTS or TOEFL.
- The necessary documents for the application are as follows:
- Statement of Purpose
- Resume
- Transcripts
- Statement of Marks
- Passport
- IELTS/TOEFL Marksheet
- GRE Marksheet (if required)
- Letter of Recommendations
- Syracuse University doesn't conduct any interviews as part of their application process.
Fees
-
The fees breakdown was as follows:
- Tuition: $56000
- Living—$20000
- The fees are charged each semester and based on the credits for each semester. We have to complete a total of 30 credits within 2 years. Each semester we can complete 9 credits and in the last semester we will have 3 credits left.
- Monthly expenses are around $800, which include the monthly rent, groceries, etc.
Scholarship
- Syracuse University does provide scholarships to selected students, but I wasn't fortunate enough to receive one.
- Some of my batchmates did receive the scholarship, which was around $20000.
- Every year approx 50% of students receive a scholarship. The amount varies for each student depending on their profile. Also, the scholarship depends on the course that you are accepted into. Usually 50% of computer science students receive scholarships.
