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Dear Mentor:
| How do I get admitted? How do I get financial aid? |
I am a third year Electrical Engineering student in Madhya Pradesh, India. I am very interested in pursuing a Master's degree in the USA. However, it would be financially impossible for me to do so on my own. Can you please give me some guidance on how to go about not only getting admission but also financial aid?
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Dear Admission Aid:
Let us first address the issue of admission into a US university for a Masters in Electrical Engineering. The degree is commonly referred to as MS (Master of Science) in EE (Electrical Engineering), or simply MSEE. The basic requirements for admission vary considerably across universities, but they typically constitute your grades (marks), GRE score, letters of recommendation, and the perceived caliber of your current academic institution. You should carefully review the requirements for various schools. Although it is not terribly difficult to get into an MSEE program, it is fiercely competitive to get into a top-tier university. Accordingly, superior scores at school and on the GRE are imperative. An application for admission accompanies a fee of $50 to $100 for each university, so you have to be selective in targeting your schools of choice, balancing your personal performance with your ambitions. You can review the rankings of universities in the US for making decisions. You should start the admissions process about one year before your graduation from your current school.
Financial aid in the US comes in various forms-scholarships, assistantships, loans, tuition fee waiver or relief, etc. International students, like you, are not eligible for financial aid of any form from government agencies. You are not eligible for any type of loans either. Effectively, you are left with securing scholarship, assistantship, and/or tuition relief from your university. This is where getting admitted into a top-tier university ties to the financial aid. Top-tier universities tend to have substantially larger resources for supporting their students. Professors at these schools have larger research grants to support research assistantships, while universities themselves can support more teaching assistants. Note that scholarships and assistantships in the US often carry tuition fee relief as well.
Cost of education is extremely high in the US. Secure all the necessary financial resources prior to leaving for the US.
We wish you every success.
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