Nikita Jaiswal
Reviewed on Oct 28, 2025(Enrolled 2024)What Students Say
Likes
- Course curriculum
- World class faculty, education from USA gives you immense opportunity to learn from the top notch professors (some of them are even the ones we read books of)
- If you are interested in research, the lab and university infrastructure provides you all.
Dislikes
- Some of the on campus housing at stony brook is not exactly near the campus it almost 15 mins drive.
- Cant get on campus jobs easily
- Most of the TA/RA positions are unpaid
Course Curriculum
10
- Mix of both theory and practical; the difficulty level is high, as it's a masters course but you can make it.
- Classes are not too hectic, as we used to have back in india, so I took 3 courses in my first semester and they were scheduled for 3 days a week.
- 50 to 60; the computer engineering batch at my university is less.
- Don't know the exact number but 30-40% of the students are Indian.
Admission Experience
-
I applied to the following universities:
- Texas A&M - rejected
- Stony Brook University - admitted
- University of Colorado Boulder - admitted
- University of California, Irvine - admitted
- Texas A&M is very competitive when it comes to its STEM courses. I applied for a computer science course but I didn't have any relevant work experience or research in it.
- UC, Irvine was better than others which i got admit but it was too expensive
- I choose stony brook university because it was affordable as compared to other universities, and the courses I wanted to study were offered at this university by great professors. And also when i connected to people on LinkedIn from SBU they somehow managed to secure good jobs after graduating. But again, the market is not the same as before so choose wisely.
- Apply on its website with LOR, SOP. Pretty much the same for all the universities.
- I only gave TOEFL as GRE was waived off for my course.
- No challenges, very smooth but follow the process that others do, and you can easily make it.
- I came in fall 2024. i started applying to universities from Oct 2023 because it is better to apply early; most of the universities shortlist on a first-come, first-served basis.
- So talking about SBU, I applied in oct end 2023, got acceptance in the first week of Feb. April first week i started with my visa application. In May 2024 i had my visa interview thats it.
- Any intake you are thinking of coming to, please start planning and applying a year before, this is said when you have already given the exams like toefl and gre. If you need to clear the exams as well, you need to start preparing way earlier.
Faculty
10
- Faculty-to-student ratio: i dont have the exact number but I can assure you that whenever you need a professor to acknowledge your doubts, they will be standing and explaining everything in detail again and again. I remember once a professor explained the whole topic again even though he had some other work.
- So faculty doesn't help you with full-time or part-time roles; you will have to network with people or find a way to get a job. University or faculty won't do much here.
Campus Life
10
- Different events will keep happening around the campus; you will have different apps by which you can track those events and go and enjoy them.
- Indian events like diwali, garba will also happen so get some indian outfits as well.
- Every facility, like the world-class library and sports medical services, you would get everything on campus and some other person is there to help you out all the time.
Part Time Jobs
- Very little, $24/hr.
- Student assistant, office assistant, dining, residential safety program.
- 20 hr/week for international students.
- It's not easy to get an on-campus job at SBU; you need to fight a bit to get one, like mailing people from different departments.
- Or you can ask your friends or seniors to refer you for an on-campus job that becomes easy.
- The teaching assistant position has a wage of $23-24/hr. minimum wage is $16.5/hr. It's not easy to secure a part-time job at stony brook university that goes along with your studies, as the jobs are really demanding and your studies would be hampered, but i am not sure about other universities. Connect with people before coming from the same university to know about it more.
Placement
10
- Given the current job market, people are not getting a job after graduating; it's really difficult but still, what i heard 30-40% of people are securing a job after graduating.
- $100-150k is the average salary of the people; it can be lower given the situation or even higher if you target FAANGs.
- Getting an internship after your first year is the best way possible, but if you can't make it, apply on job portals like LinkedIn, jobright, indeed and network with people. cold email recruiters and keep doing it on a daily basis; keep applying and keep networking. It's a numbers game. People are not even getting interview calls right now; the market is too bad i am suggesting not to come right now. Job market is bad and visa restrictions are making it worse.
Accommodation
Off Campus
10
- I networked with people from stony brook and got to know that on-campus housing is the best because of its own perks, but they vary from university to university. So talk to people who are already staying there.
- On-campus housing is difficult to get, as many people are in line to get it; it's on first come first serve basis so you need to be quick in decision-making.
Exams
- For my course only TOEFL or IELTS was the mandatory exam. GRE was waived off but you need to go on the universities' websites which you are targeting and search for that particular course and the eligibility criteria.
- SOP and LOR, but again go to the website and check once.
- No interview for my course.
- Try to make the statement of purpose more personalised but reflect your personality and give nuances of your own personal experiences. This really helped me overall – just a suggestion.
Fees
- Fees are charged per semester but it is based on how many credits you take, so at SBU per credit, it costs around $1k, and for a master's in computer engineering, you need to complete at least 30 credits so straight total fees would cost around $30k. But keep $4k-$5k for extra charges that universities take per semester, also for the student health insurance.
- I live on campus so it costs me $900 per month, but if you choose to live off campus it would cost less but the commute is not good so it is highly recommended to live on campus at SBU. So $900 rent + 100-150$ basic grocery expenses (being said that you dont live in luxury, you will have to cook urself and be in a budget; otherwise, this could increase easily)
- SBU buses are free so not much cost in commuting if you live on campus.
Scholarship
- So I received a scholarship in the first 2 semesters of my master's; when I came here, I got a paid TA where 50% of my fees were waived off and I used to get a stipend of $1200 per month.
- It is highly unlikely that you would get such a scholarship at SBU, because very few people from my batch got this opportunity; I would say just 2 or 3. I was in constant touch with the professors before coming here so I was able to make it but it's rare, to be honest.
