1. Math - Pretty elementary stuff. Most of you should find this a piece of cake
2. Verbal - This is the section that bites often. I would suggest sharpening ones verbal skills early in the course of preparation
3. Analytical - Tricky section but surely manageable if one keeps a cool mind
   
   Explaining each of these sections would be tedious and I would recommend looking up some books on GRE for this. You might also want to look up the GRE website at http://www.gre.org/

WHY GRE ( Why pursue higher education in US) ?

Personally, I feel that most of what one learns in one's Bachelor's program in India is based on a stringent academic framework. Every semester is planned out forcing students to take courses decided by some committee in the University. It feels more like an extended stay high school except that one learns engineering stuff. Most of the 4 years is spent on doing what one HAS to do and not what one WANTs to do (quoting Steven Covey.) But a valid question which comes to one's mind is whether an average student just out of 12th std knows about his/her interests and can they narrow it down to say signal processing at that age ? ? So, doing those 30-40 courses, may be in different sub fields will let one decide what one likes.

My favorite quip is on how most of one's bachelor's education is lost in the mad race for grades (I have been a part of this craze.) I have nothing against the rat race for marks but unfortunately as many of my fellow engineers would agree, this is often at the cost of healthy technical competition. I strongly believe that grades are not the best indicators of ones creativity which is what makes an engineer (as a matter of fact anyone) special (especially since I am not scoring well of late ;-))

Some respite is provided to the student in the final year of engineering allowing the students the choice of electives (which unfortunately are few in number. At IIT students do have some choices right from 1st semester !) Industrial training programs help the student to get a feel of engineering in industry ( though I tend to complain about the short time allocated for this.)

If you agree with me and feel that most of your undergraduate education could have been better off and you really wish you could do something about it, read on....

PROS OF GRE:
I guess I have complained enough about what I think are negative aspects of a Bachelor's program in India. The Master's/Ph.D. program in the USA provides a fertile ground for those who have withstood the assaults of an undergraduate education and now wish to pursue their quest for technical expertise. While grades do matter to some extent even at this level (in case u wish to proceed towards a job/ Ph.D. in the USA), it is not as severe as it is in India. Grading is on a letter grade basis. A group of people are given the grade A, some B etc. There is no pressure of a first rank, second rank etc. (I understand that many IITs and BITs for example use a grade system so this might not hold for all schools in India.) The rosy side of a graduate education in the US is that there is great opportunity for students to do what they WANT to do. Students have an option right from the first semester to chose their courses and model the Master's/Ph.D. program to suit their interests. If your interest is in signal processing, you can take only those courses that you think will aid you in your area of interest. Also there is a rich offering of courses in other departments like mathematics, physics, psychology for example that you can take towards your program if it helps you strengthen your interests.

For those who would like to see what's hot in the industry, they can go for a summer internship ( a period of 3-4 months) or a co-op (5-6 months) in an industry (and get paid in the process of course.) A student is completely responsible for his/her program and with the correct decisions, one can end their graduate program with a note of professional and academic satisfaction.

CONS OF GRE:
GRE of course comes with a few minors cons attached to it. The main one being the financial burden. Taking the exams and applying to the universities itself can be a very painful process financially. Expect an expenditure close to Rs.35,000 if you plan to apply to about 5-6 schools. A ball park figure of ones expenditure for 5-6 schools might look like this (Thanks to Rohit for this one)
GRE + TOEFL = 10,000 Rs
Avg. App fee (50$ *6)=300$*45= Rs13,500
Additional cost of sending scores $50 = 9000 Rs
Postage = 3000 Rs

Also, some departments require taking AGRE and some universities require the Test for Spoken English (TSE.). This add up to another Rs10000.

The more important thing is whether you are will qualify for an assistantship in the school in which you get admission. The assistantships normally awarded by the schools fall under these categories
1. Teaching assistantships - You will be expected to interact with undergraduate students via teaching
2. Research assistantships - You will work under a professor assisting them with their research
3. Grader positions - In this case you will not have student interaction and will be responsible only for grading home works etc
4. Fellowships - Needs no work from your side. Awarded to exceptional candidates and of course difficult to get

Assistantships are difficult to get since there are many qualified candidates (all over the world) fighting for the same position. However I have seen many Indian students coming to UT-Austin without assistantship but they arrive well in advance and meet with professors and get assistantships. Also some of them manage with their personal funds for a semester or two and end up with an assistantship from the next semester. The CONS of GRE are not as bad as they sound. The risk is worth it.

HOW GRE? WHEN GRE?
( PREPARATIONS FOR THE GRE )

Schedule for the GRE: 

Preparations for the GRE:

1. Books for GRE - A collection of books to work on for your GRE

2. Stuff to do while at engineering school - 

• Whether one likes it or not, scores play a very important role in admissions. It is important (though not a necessity) that one is in the upper end of one's class as far as academic ranking goes
• In the first few semesters, I suggest working on various projects and sample various  hot areas in your branch in engineering so that by the time you are in the 3rd year or so, you can plan well for your project. This of course can be achieved by digging your college library journals and meeting often with your professors for advice on hot areas.
• Try to publish your technical work in various local conferences. For this, it is important for you to pick a faculty as your advisor and work with the faculty to produce impressive technical work in the course of your engineering. For this, it might be good to meet with professors from other schools like IIT, BITS-Pilani, RECs and IISc to collaborate with them. Many of them can give impressive recommendations when you need it for your GRE. Having publications and visiting conferences reflects positively on your ability to pursue higher education.
• Its also pays to be well versed with some software packages like - MATLAB and Mathematica. I would also suggest familiarizing with C++/Java. Apart from the knowledge aspect, software skills might help you get an assistantship too.
• Try to take up the GATE exam too. If the scores are released early, you can add it to boost your resume with the all India ranks. One may also want to consider joining IISc for a wonderful Master's/Ph.D. program.

WHAT AFTER MS ?

One can an MS of 3 varieties (in most universities in the USA)
a) Courses only - u take only courses towards your MS program
b) Report - One writes up a small report something like what u did in your internship
c) Thesis - One does research under some professor and write up a thesis

    Most people select either options a) or b). c) is of course more challenging... Personally I prefer option a). I think the MS is a testing ground for you to sample various subjects. Its more of a BREADTH program if you like. And once you have sighted you darling subject, go in for DEPTH (PhD) program.. Option c) is good if you have REALLLLLLY decided some area that you want to work on.

    Most people proceed to a full time job in the USA after they finish their MS program. Many students are pretty clear about what kind of a job they like (or at least dislike) since they have had chances to work in industry during their summer internships and co-op programs. People who proceed to a job sometimes return to school to work on their Ph.D.s in some area that interests them at work. Some MS graduates prefer to sharpen their academic acumen and continue on to a Ph.D. program in the same or a better university. Ph.D. candidates normally use their MS program to sample various fields in engineering (a breadth approach) and having decided on an area, do research on that area in their Ph.D. program (a depth approach.) One could then proceed to teach and research by taking an academic position in a university. Of course, you could also be like me and return to India to motivate other students to take your path and do things that you have not been able to do :-).

GRE BOOKS

I found these books to be invaluable during my GRE preparation. I will try to update them when ever time permits

1. All About Words : An Adult Approach to Vocabulary Building by Maxwell Nurnberg, Morris Rosenblum
2. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis
3. Read up the word list from Reader's digest. Its pretty impressive
4. I (& Rohit) would also emphasize trying to read some books to get a better hang of verbal than mugging those vocabulary building books, which certainly are of help but in general reading gives more knowledge. say Time for example)
5. Reading material for GRE/TOEFL from American Education Aids (American Education Aids, Mount Road, Chennai-600 006. Tel: 825 7196.  Fax: 825 0240) - strongly recommended since they give many original GRE papers. These were for the paper based GRE. They should still be useful for the computer based GRE at least in spirit.
6. Barron's preparation guide for GRE 

SCHOLARSHIP TIPS

1. http://www.scholarshiphelp.org - Recommended as a good source of scholarship info. by a visitor to my website

Page last updated: Saturday, February 12, 2005