Understanding student visa takers, who helped the US Embassy break records

Excited to share that almost 200,000 Indian students chose the United States as their higher education destination in the 2021-22 academic year, a 19% increase over the previous year. #StudyInTheUS #OpenDoorsReport #OpenForOpportunity #IEW2022 https://t.co/edELVsrYSH pic.twitter.com/UYlpULoKSI

— U.S. Embassy India (@USAndIndia) November 14, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Study after the times of Covid

OpenDoors Report is probably the only data to fall back on the close enough numbers on the international student enrollment in the USA. This is supposed to be a record breaking year for the US Embassy. Some people also commented on how and why middle class is sending students to the USA, despite the history of visa difficulty for working visa population based on the Great Backlog. Yes, everything in this country is great.

A few Indian challenges

I would defer to what my ex-supervisor said. I was in two minds to go or no go to the USA when it was my turn. I had already spend fair deal of money back in the United States of India on education, burned through some savings and achieved two degrees and a post graduate diploma. And still struggling for a proper foothold in core engineering jobs viz electrical, mechanical, civil engineering. The entry criteria for all the public sector undertaking (PSU) jobs had changed to GATE, now you need to crack GATE to get into PSU, and that graduating from an accredited university does not guarantee getting through the GATE exam. No wonder it is so competitive and exclusive. There are a few who are successful, but if you did not want to incur any gap in employment and then joined workforce, then studying for GATE becomes a bit harder. The flexibility and freedom is on our side, but the time is never, the clock keeps ticking. I have known various yet unknown places in the country of India by attempting different types of examinations for entrance into public sector undertaking jobs, bank jobs, and so on. It is a journey on its own and takes a character far away from actual engineering. It would remind someone of the initial entrance examinations that we go through to get the Bachelors in engineering in the first place. It was interesting and funny to pose one such GATE electronics circuits problem to a senior scientist at the place I was working, he had a Masters in Engineering already and a working professional. But he got to answer it incorrectly. This proves how useful GATE as an examination is. My advisor, said even if he could not make it big in the land of the states of the Americas, he would still encourage me to go and have that experience.

The challenges for students is not in getting a degree from the USA. There are not many Americans who attend colleges. Like many practical minded population they understand that education can do so much but money trumps, and there are paths of lesser resistance available to them, like associates degree, vocational training and so on. The challenge may actually lie elsewhere. The current population estimate of India is very close to being number one in the world. Statistics is a nice way to look at this. An eye opening map for the global India is given by Xavi’s tweet.

The population of India’s states compared with countries.

🇮🇳 India is on track to become the most populous country in the world in 2023! pic.twitter.com/3XId2a1a59

— Xavi Ruiz (@xruiztru) December 31, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

So if India is that big and populous, why is the demography not yielding its benefits, why is Tamil Nadu not Germany, why people want to go to Germany instead of Tamil Nadu? There is enough internal migration within India, the data for which is yet unknown.

How do we try to answer the student visa issued by US embassy in this context? Even with so many opportunities to study and work within India, the drive for the people to get educated, to migrate, to see, experience, learn and work with new and different cultures is only increasing. There is also a serious lack in the number of educational opportunities at par with the western standards. Despite having the most universities per country, beating out USA by a huge margin, India is yet to be known as a global educational hub, or one that gives education at par with the places that students flock to. So we have the quantity, and some quality, but overall still more kilometers to go.

Work Culture is one major understanding that comes through foreign work. Be it in another state or a country. Work is a beast, to be tamed. Work culture in India is different from Spain and is much different from the USA. To understand a different work culture and understand the shortcomings and benefits of being in home country is one benefit of immigration, this kind of economic immigration is facilitated by post study work permits in majority of the western world. This is a sample time period for the beneficiary and the employer, kind of like a date to understand each other and to see if this kind of relationship is sustainable in the long term. With good post study work permits such as that in Canada or in the USA for STEM degrees, a student visa holder is ability to get good Return on Investment in terms of cultural exchange and recover the student loan debt. It is not uncommon to have student debt in some countries like the USA, while may be surprise for yet another countries like Germany. Choosing a place of study, so as to transform into a post study worker to undertake such activities is incorporated into visa and study schemes in western world. At the same time, India does not have a culture of Internship, or a smooth transition from study to work. There is a GATE to be opened for a better future. This experience of endless entrance examinations leads to burn out and focusing on the means than the end. Coaching centers galore.

That brings in the relevance of Spadikam (1995) movie to this days.

So to answer the first question based on the tweet from US Embassy, who are all these student visa holders?

New students

There are fresh students in student visa in this pool. They fall into the category of people who want more experiences and cultural exchanges that we discussed before.

Change of status visas who needed to travel

There are some who are already in the USA in a different visa status, had to change to student status and then get a visa to re enter USA, the news does not say how many fresh F1 visas were issued vs how many are getting a renewal or a change of status and later a changed visa. This two pronged idea of status and visa may confuse a few people, the status is to be legally in the USA. The visa is only to enter the USA internationally. Several people lost jobs through out Covid times since 2019 onward, many lost jobs, many changed plans, many returned to India, many want to return to study or continue studies that was stopped earlier. This needs a visa if they were stuck in India and had to physically reach USA for continuation, completion and post study work.

Choices that we make, some we are forced to make

There are people who wanted to rejoin family, but do not see any pathways and visa and status that are viable other than a student visa. There are aged out children of H1B or other temporary visas, who reached age of 21 and need to hold their own visa status because they are legally not a dependent anymore. F1 visa is their only choice.

Should you come to the USA?

If you have valid reasons, and see benefits beyond the visa troubles and other limiting factors, do come. If you are on the fence, better to get matters sorted out before heading into the USA. If you have better options, better countries, that align with your interests, and ambitions closely, go with them. If you can’t make your own choices, someone or something else would make choices for you.

In the US, on your toes

Life in H1B brings surprises and because the H1B is sponsored and beneficiary is you. Life is decided on somebody’s else’s mercy. The amount of say you have on the H1B is zero. Hiding it does not help. That makes one vulnerable. To make it normal, selling, and upselling and shameless self promotion is warranted.

Looking back at my notes, analysing the option to head to US also read that I would on my toes when I move to the USA. One of supervisors who referred me to the MS program, advised that I should go to the USA. Although he never got to reap the benefit of post study work, because of inability to land a proper job during the 2008 recession.

Knowing this why would I head to the USA. Because this is a famous country, loan is available and it is possible to repay in post study work. Post study work permit is also possible. That much was planned. H1B and further could not be planned. Because H1B is a lottery. If it is made available take it. Any opportunity is better than no opportunity. And since I had to work outside of my home city, because of the availability of the jobs elsewhere, some overnight trip long. USA may be a little bit farther at 30 hours, but fair deal. USD to INR conversion fills any shortcomings.

My supervisor also advised that I should be looking for job from day one. I was extremely pro active, And this was noticed by one professor. I told him the truth, I am exploring all of what is avaiable. I had read ” What color is your Parachute” during job search. And exactly as mentioned in the book, I landed in a Silicon Valley based startup and as luck may have it next to my university. So I did not have to take all the bad and good of the SF. It was a different small company setup. Like a house almost, with excellent people – except the few I mentioned earlier. And then there were changes with H1B, you need to step up the game to get the green card petition. Why because, H1B is only for 6 years and with an approved green card petition it could be extended. During this period, I had to hold fort and keep quiet, until it is completely approved. I had opportunity to move to SF, infact my manager(s) wanted me to move. I could not, they did not understand, HR did not give how much of salary change would happen, co-workers one by one tried to understand why I am not moving and why I should be moving.

They all had good intentions but had absolutely no clue about the legality implications of moving and H1B, which would bring another LCA, H1B, yet another PWD, PERM filing. That will effectively delay my reach to green card by 1 more year.

And what about my freedom to pursue a part time PhD. I was well on the way completing coursework, publishing papers, getting conference fundings and really having 100% of life filled. I was maximising and firing in all engines.

I had to scientifically present to them why I will not be moving, they accepted, held on to me and let me go.

It was pure shock. Layoff newbie. First time layoff. I had all the office hardware equipments at home ready for work from home due to Covid-19. I had the house table setup like an office, with experiment running and then through some random meeting that showed up on the calendar. I was told in a video that I was affected and am part of the lay off.

I had my 60 days clock start to find another job, or exit the country. Such is the H1B life.

All the progress in PERM filing was lost because it was not approved yet.

Everyone is disposable, my first full time american work boss had said. I remembered that. I could not say bye to anyone officially.

I had 4.5 years more of H1B. All that is useful with only an employer sponsorship. I had to find an employer. Meanwhile, getting ready to move. Selling all the stuff, because in my location that was the only job I could get as an international. I knew all my classmates had moved to other cities.

I could move to PhD. But change of status from H1B to F1 was atleast delayed by 1.5 years. If status is pending I could stay. But where is the money. So back to the first step. I had to make money. If I have a chance I should attempt for work rather than studentship. So priority was set. I was on the toes again.

I learned from all my campus dining jobs, that to get SSN I needed to get work in a non-veg serving area. Which is faster than getting it later using OPT. I could not get internship so I worked in Athletics, I could not get research assistantship so I worked as graduate assistant. I could not get a senior engineer role with my 4 years’ Indian experience, I could get electrical engineer job. I could not get research role, I could get a job, that will sponsor visa and take me as an international with work authorization. So I was mentally ready to take any job. When keeping the visa alive took precedence, any job would work. I could be on my toes.

Hence, I am very grateful to my universities for teaching life lessons. University of Calicut taught me how to survival in adversity, and uncertainty. IGNOU gave me confidence to achieve what I wanted. SUNY at Buffalo gave me perspective on how to work and survive.

Specialty Occupation Lottery (H1B) : The SOL of American Work Life for Indian

H1B Lottery is a work authorization lottery deployed by USCIS for the employers seeking to take in employees who are skilled in specialty occupation. Why would you want H1B? Isn’t it enough that you experienced the F1 student visa life and whatever optional post study work life it offered. If you are that attached to your home country and the USA sucks big time, why waste any moment?

I had batchmates who did volunteering in OPT, people who waited for the appropriate opportunity be it volunteer research to build profile for suitable research positions/ PhD. People who wanted to start company, people who wanted to work, people who never applied to OPT, because they had hereditary business waiting for their newly acquired skills to be used. Everyone has a choice. You have a choice if you have everything. If you are normal then you have not much. This is much true for the US Citizen students as well. One lab mate said he had a loan for $19000 while he had full time PhD Scholarship and tuition paid for. I had only Master’s in the verge of completion with double the amount in debt. Who is better off? Only the options and choices available or made available will tell.

What if I wanted to go to another employer down the line, I need H1B. What if my needs changed and I am married and need to progress in the USA for furthering my career. Go back to home country, why stay here. Not my choice. Because OPT is optional, but it is really not optional for people coming with loan. H1B is lottery, it is not something that is earned. However brilliant you are, H1B is lottery based. If you are brilliant prove it by getting extraordinary ability O1 Visa. But if you are brilliant, you didn’t have to go through the F1-H1B route to get work authorization in the USA. Didn’t I start with the premise for the normal?

I should not avoid saying that not so normal per India. Like a student forced to work to meet expenses, is a big abnormality compared with Indian student’s in degree programs. So I worked in many small jobs in the university all within the specified student visa limitations, because no violation will see the OPT-STEM OPT go through. And by luck/lottery H1B in the near wishlist.

Seeing the H1B picked up for all three of us in the company in the same year 2018 was great. Some of us had previously lost chances, and in that I was lucky to have my 1st H1B lottery get picked. Not my talent, so can’t take the credit. I could say the employer was equally lucky. And in general we were lucky to have each other, until some worms got out the cans slowly.

We had fun trips, free food and what not during my time in my first American FTE engineering job. This was a Silicon Valley based startup. The best dream come true for any US student to workforce transition. Everything was great. Getting to know new industry, mind you the job started with my OPT, and then converted to H1B.

Meanwhile in one of the trips near somewhere in California, I was traveling with my coworkers and I see the trees were empty of monkeys. I expressed this out loud and then one of them in the 4 seater car said ” Because we are a civilized country”. Strike 1. Was that stereotypical?

When there is beautiful forest, in my place atleast there would be wildlife. I come Kerala, which also hosts the biggest land animal “Elephant”, monkeys are more common.

And further down the memorylane. A few months later I remember the same guy say to me, the first electrical engineer of the company and my coworker who joined only a few months before me, that we were very desperate at that time to get a job at the time of interviewing. Strike 2. True. I was desperate, because in OPT you cannot have more than 90 days of unemployment. I was. I did not like saying it loud, though. And still dislike that statement to this date. But I asked root, for some kind of consolation. And he said, yes you were desperate but so where they. Who would join that company when there were so many well established names in the industry. So both were equally desperate. In other words you could say that it was a mutual match.

And so to move to yet another company and to further career you need the luck of the lottery and later understand that there is huge amount of information on H1B rules, lottery, quota, H1B for profit and not for profit rules, wage rules and so on. But one thing stood out. You should ask the company to file for green card. Regardless of the minor incursions of demotivating collegial experience, it was time to look at the next big thing. You get the green card approved and then you are free to move your location, job, be eligible for many more jobs and have much more choice than that H1B would give. So started the journey of the PERM. Permanent Labor Certification, is not that permanent. And temporary foreign worker (H1B) however much think wishfully end up being permanently temporary due to country of birth. Even then, the quantum of solace is in the deeply seated notion that life beyond in this visa is based upon that lottery that the company won for me. The company owns the work visa, I just happen to be name on it. Some luck by chance.

Why H1B is important for the USA?

Watch this video from Forbes

Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, joins “Forbes Talks” to discuss the changes coming for international workers, H-1B visas, and employment due to Congressional actions.

KGF1 (Known Good F1) Visa

The known good F1 visa as I knew it was issued to any good student (read average or normal) with good university admit with everything good (normal). The good is normal. And probably why USA has people ask “How are you?” and get the answer normally as “good”. Good is normal. Good is good. How good is good? It is as good as it is known. So it is a known good. The unknown good, well is unknown. (Ref: Kakkakuiyil comedy ഒളിച്ചു വെച്ചാ പിന്നെ… https://youtu.be/VFPBZIh4vic)

So a student comes to the USA and gets F1 and studies Masters, in engineering, of course, others – are they normal? There could be other normals like the STEM based courses, anything non STEM is abnormal. For example: Dentistry DDS/DMD course in the USA is not a STEM Degree. So it is not Science, Technology, Engineering or Management. (Ref: Special 26 https://www.reddit.com/r/DesiMemeTemplates/comments/fhj3o4/asli_kaam_toh_yeh_kar_rahe_hain_special_26/)

So yeah!, Well back to the story. Studies are completed and then, no you cannot complete F1 based education just like that?! Why? We need to plan the timing to get the Optional Practical Training (OPT). Why is this optional, because some of the courses may not have practical component? Or you did not enrol in the lab component of a course? It is optional because you have the freedom?

None of the above. It is optional, if you want you apply for it. It is optional for the USCIS /DHS as well. If they feel like they can approve it. If not they can keep asking more questions or outright deny it.

OPT can be applied +/- so many days from graduation. Only if you graduate OPT is valid, if you fail then meh! So wait until graduation and then apply for OPT, but without OPT you cannot start job. But on an average OPT is awarded if school is good, DSO is well learned and you time it right then OPT will come, you will have a job based on OPT.

Where is the average data? There is no data. It is blind faith. Have faith, and you will be alright. So I attend all the available information sessions from university and elsewhere for OPT, OPT application, then realise that there is a CIP code, which will be printed on I-20, which was issued so that visa eligibility is proven, and then realise that the STEM OPT depends on the STEM Degree List published somewhere in the internet. Wait! No one said this in the beginning, well you never asked.

OK So How about I went though all the career fair, career services sessions, linkedin, networking, beefed up my already exceptional resume and crack application, jump ATS, at this time your resume NEO is in the ATS matrix, and then into oblivion. What happened to all the 1000s of resumes I submitted?! No time to waste, keep applying, pulling contacts, building networks and requesting referrals, and add to it the special charisma borrowed from Telugu and Tamil Mass Masala movies to attract hiring managers to get a foot in the door and interview and then present technical and soft skills and then wait for the results and gently nudge them, while applying for still many more jobs and then finally getting the OPT Employment Authorization Document (EAD) without the USPS missing it, without any correction to the EAD card and then if you already have SSN through some campus jobs all set to take on the challenge of Corporate America. For 12 months you are in the “Optional” Training. This is not optional for you, the loans are waiting repayment and then the mental promise is that it be repaid in time maximum withing the 3 years of OPT+STEM OPT Extension.

Oh! see that shiny PhD research position, wait the loan needs to be repaid. How about buying some apples, they are costly, lets stick with the student life and shared accommodation until loan is repaid and then you could have a lavish serving of $5 bag of apples. So it is that time of the life to toil to earn to repay the debts. In this pursuit KGF1 visa will work for 1 year. Be volunteer or employed. I have to be employed. Landed in a job. Worked well. Make a name so that there are atleast 3 good references from the job, and make them vouch the profile to be put in the lottery for the work visa (H1B). There are H1B lottery happening every year once with OPT and STEM OPT a total of 3 years will give atleast 2 chances for the lottery. If you joined in Fall and graduate and get to for profit employer job before Fall then you could potentially be eligible for that year + next 2 years for the lottery. However, life does not work like that. Employer would evaluate the work and then start the talk of sponsoring only if employee initiates the conversation and then somehow make them enter the profile into the lottery by March end of the year where the lottery happens in October of the same year. About 85000 H1B lottery visas are available. And there is a sub division for Master’s and Bachelor’s degree holders. Rules do change, so this data is from 2017-2018.

After impressing the employer and getting the lottery of H1B by chance you get maximum 6 years of work period and after which either an immigration petition has to be filed or you have to leave the country, wait for 1 year and then re-enter the lottery pool.

Hold On! This is going too fast. You said you wanted to study and repay loan and then what? Well the future beyond was /is unchartered. Only a 3 year post study stay is semi-guaranteed.

Life moves on with filing the ‘training report’ for OPT. The job that I got was based on my 2nd job in India, not due to the Master’s degree. Master’s degree gave the work authorization through OPT that I applied. Remember it was optional. Is life optional? What if this option had a lottery component?

F1 Visa, to the USA and further studentship

I am starting this series on visa in the usa. Most of it is personal experience and a review of life in the ages of various visa. I begin with student (F-1) visa in the usa. For official information click here. For my non-sense continue below.

My work experience in India has been exciting and self driven. Why? because my marks were not great in not the best engineering college in India. I knew life is different already being on the engineering path, a job may be possible, compared to a BA in politics. Or was I wrong. What does Indian media help a student focus on as possible career options. Popular news revolves around Cricket, Cinema and Politics. If you do not fit the popularity mode, then it is the middle class mentality. This for one is the most practical mode of action for anyone in the higher secondary to follow. Follow the herd and make yourself heard. If you were extraordinary you would not be reading this. So let’s assume in good faith that we are all the middle class looking for average success and measured by Indian standards. Trouble! There is no Indian standard. The culture and opportunity changes every 500km in India, add to the changes – languages, slangs, music, traditions and food. To the confusion we have our own ill conceived idealogies in that age where we are not really sure of what we want to do. If that is you, then an easy formula is to follow the money. To follow money, follow job. To follow job, follow studies. This is a simple formula. And many end up being more or less tending towards average. And hence the largest democracy of the world is still India. And there is no country half close to it.

Once we have established that in India we tend to be average and try to follow the herd, so that we are accepted socially and emotionally, we pursue this as the newfound passion. So what happened to the innovations and curiosity, well that is for activities outside of the scope of ‘job’. That we will do, with out without money. That is not accounted for. And that is best left unaccounted.

When I was studying violin at Kalabhavan, there was a KSRTC driver who was my classmate, he was sitting for the 5th grade of ABRSM just like me, he passed while I failed! That is the best example of follow passion outside of work. And if you are not from Kerala, be assured that KSRTC employees are some of the best educated people in the planet, somoe of them may have MA, MPhil or higher.

Coming back to the job search followed by Indian graduation, I had excellent job opportunities, but they were all temporary. If you have a permanent job in PSU or Government then you are Royalty. For others, we have to find our local maxima. My entry with off campus recruitement into IT company was short lived because of my finding of better opportunity. I remember filling out very many applications for PSU entry level jobs, where I listed every job due to “better opportunities”. Having satisfied my freedom and power to resign and move freely in my own country, did it own me first or did I own it, or did we adopt and grow with each other?! I could even quit to pursue higher studies in India. Now all that is thanks to the freedom and opportunities available in the India.

After all this came a wave a education fairs in various cities to study abroad in known and unknown countries big and small UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Estonia, USA . How do you choose a country. Let’s get free stuff first. Germany wanted atleast 70% for Bachelors, which I did not, I cannot go back to university after 2 years of experience to improve Bachelor’s score. So let that be. Then came a chance to go to Sweden, and that chance went away at the same pace with which I got admit, because no one was willing to give a 28 Lakhs loan for studying in the Sweden. Ok. So what next? Everyone talked about the USA.

Is it good?

It may be depending on the university and courses that you take

Is it bad?

It is expensive and far and cold and there is crime and different culture or lack thereof. It is monotonous and for rich people. Not for average people who will take loan.

Is it expensive?

It is as expensive as Sweden.

Is it recognized good quality education?

At that time UGC would recognize a 2 year Masters from abroad, while 1 year is not recognized. So I could do 2 year Masters and if I am unsuccessful then I could come back to India and become a teacher in the university, if I did not find any other job. A Master’s was only requirement in many colleges at that time, PhD was not required or unheard of.

Will I get loan?

Yes, I can get loan.

Will I be able to repay it?

Yes, people repay in 1.5 – 2 years according to the loan officer. And there is no collateral and there is no red tape and there is help in every step of loan process and there is post study work permit. If I submit all paperwork correctly after triple checking I could get 12 months + 24 months = 3 years of total post study work permit. This was a far cry from what my classmates who went to UK faced, and what Sweden was offering as 6 months post study work permit. If there is absolutely no scholarship and I get baseline pay, even then repayment is possible.

So started preparing and applying for university admission, spending lot of hard earned savings, taking a big dip in savings and finally got an admit. And voila! It was in a university where director of IIT hyderabad, whom I met in a company organized conference went for Master’s in Electrical Engineering. Excellent.

So I accepted the challenge. Gather more info on how to find job. My recommender suggested start job search from day 1. Get Visa appointment, get visa stamped. And that becomes my first ever visa on my first passport. A passport that was created when I was previously jobless after graduating from Bachelor of Technology. How useful was that jobless time period? Only time will prove. For now it saved all the time of the world. And with the newly stamped F-1 Visa, I embarked on a different journey to try my luck, fate, on higher studies, in pursuit of happiness.

Little did I know about H1B

Notes for MS by Thesis student in the USA

As a student who embarked on the MS by Thesis route in University at Buffalo, I was confused how thesis track worked. How to locate a professor ?How to approach them? What to ask? And when to ask them the questions I had ?

MS education in USA is full of opportunities. Here, students are not tied to the professor or project, which is a common approach elsewhere including many European universities. In the USA, the student is given complete freedom to choose and therefore it is advantageous. Also, it gives an opportunity to speak with multiple professors and get to know their research more, before starting on a rather long, sometimes more than a semester long work with the professor’s research group. Some professors are great in getting together an amazing team of students who work together as a team, just like some startups do. If you are like me, who entered MS in any engineering stream, then it is justified that you get a chance to meet and talk with research team members. Engineering in industry is a group activity. Team work is also a transferable industry skill that can be directly translated into any industry job.

Here are some points I gathered from previous student who did MS by thesis, on their approach. The idea is to find professors and research facilities of interest. There is always an option to do Individual study or project with professors, which can eventually lead to Thesis.

1. Decide 3 profs who will give you recommendation for future jobs or academic applications
2. Check their profiles in google scholar – see for citations, h index
3. Prof could be out of department
4. Keep in touch with prof, make them remember your face, ask Questions in class, sit in front bench, do good work in class, read their research , tell them that u want to do thesis, ask them how to go about it
5. Before meeting a prof get an appointment, read about their latest work, ask questions regarding that
6. Decide if you want PhD
7. If you decide fast , tell prof, they will give longer projects that have funds, that will make PhD an extension of thesis
8. Even if you have not taken a course by prof , keep in mind what the prof is teaching in next semester, see if it is interesting. in other departments too. keep interacting
9. Also, you can ask prof if there is any work that u can do in their lab even without funding this will help in mutual evaluation for the research-professor relation and pave way for further works, networks and research collaborations

One Year in USA and studies

Today marks my one year in USA. A different country, but not too different now. Thanks to the summer extension. It is not too different.

This one year and its realization has strengthened the motivation to come here, to learn and to experience, the most sought after environment of the world. The melting pot may still be hot but what kept the momentum going is the abundance of natives, Indian Indians here. So, there is this common connect, stories of the past, glorified for the present, at occasions not so welcoming for a story but passes without a pause to occupy the same. This is wonderful where we discover the art of telling stories. Pieces of life bottled and well rounded to present to native speakers in native tongue. This is cool. Besides, there is this awe-some stories of the other land presented to the native native, US Americans and other internationals who came here to Buffalo, to study and to achieve their goals. This is fun.

Let me now focus on Buffalo for the time. I joined University at Buffalo one year back for Masters in electrical engineering. And there were too many things to think about in the first few weeks.

Regarding courses, I did not know much on how to choose. I had a very broad general idea, whereas in the offering there were so many special courses available. So, I had to attend all the interesting classes, schedule myself in Google Calendar and try and attend atleast  one of the possible two classes for sampling it and talking to professors. Some professors were crude, some odd, some smart, some great, some eloquent, some very helpful.  I had no clue about the scheme of Individual Problem/Study/Project. This is a 3 credit alternative to a course. This helps to work in the lab of the professor on some topic and get closer to the subject and possible reference and thesis option from professor.

It was tough to keep up with the events in the campus. There were so many that I had to put that up in calendar and choose wisely to get the most out of each. There were lot of free food especially pizza, which back home is considered to be kinda food for rich. but essentially junk. For a vegetarian you always get Cheese Pizza if your stars are not in great position. Week-ful of pizza and events makes one tired, the focus may even shift away from the job at hand , which is course selection and professor interaction , than free stuff and part time on campus employment.

The primary aim of part time on campus employment is to get some money in exchange of time, this is not going to give any thing great other than first hand experience in customer service, food preparation and a bunch of good friends to work with and talk with that alleviates the work load in the form of friendly conversations. There is this chicken an egg problem to be solved. To get a job, you need SSN , some jobs ask for NY state license. But to get SSN you need job. So it is natural to go to the easiest method to get SSN , job and money. That was Campus Dining job at the time of my orientation. There were more than 100 people waiting to get a job. The managers here are great in satisfying the crowd who came seeking job. They are very helpful and understanding. This helps in getting along with unfamiliar environment. In fact, in UB Campus dining there is a referral program that existing employees can refer new employees to get referral bonus. My friend had declined for he did not want that that bonus. I do not know why. Then there is this option of UB bullseye career services which posts many campus jobs. Also, talking to people in different offices helps to start useful conversations.

As an average Indian, I went for the budget options of Lycamobile $29 for mobile. Had the handset from home. Went to the local credit union for banking. Relied on the roommates for wholesaling shopping prices and stuck with cooking to reduce the cost of living. On top of this I needed a laptop. I would suggest bringing the laptop , whatever condition it is in, to be used for atleast the bare necessities of checking the  courses and email-ing the professors, because the library facilities would be crowded. The mobile has a small screen to accommodate such comforts.

Before long, I was grinding for the assignments and part time jobs and the household work. This in the beginning was the usual student stuff , that resembled that of a typical Indian student in India. But, here the addition is part time job, the compromise of which can be calculated in dollars. Even if you are not used to quick arithmetic of USD to INR conversion, money is money. It can push you, pull you and break you, if you are not careful. The focus on studies was built by studying with friends and maintaining a calendar. This gives some kind of focus which is incrementally refined till all the exams appear to collapse it. This happens just after the week-long break that can break you for another two weeks if the break is not properly utilized.

Slowly, it dawned upon me that people do not meaning anything more than “Hi” when they say “Hi”, ” How is it going?”, “What’s Up?”, ” How are you doing today?”, “How are you?”. The person who starts this esp US Americans, will be gone a mile as you try to answer/ reply. That was strange. Outright crazy. But in time I came to terms with it.

Regarding Electrical Engineering. We were given option to take two courses outside the department. Tempting courses are available all across the departments, ranging from Introduction to VLSI , Robotic Algorithms, Computer Architecture – CS department; High Performance Computing – Physics Dept.,  BioMEMS fabrication lab – BME dept., Six Sigma – IE dept. this will enable you to apply for UB TCIE internship in summer.

VLSI guys that I know went for:

Analog electronics,Introduction to VLSI, Analog IC Layout – 3 subject to learn Cadence Virtuoso; Embedded systems – experience ARM Cortex M3, VHDL,  Computer Architecture – Basys 2 and Verilog; Digital Communication System design – gives Mentor Graphics tools and teaches Verilog . Dr. Albert Titus has Analog and VLSI lab in BME dept.

DSP specialists get to learn 3 courses from the great Dr. Adly Fam, with many options to take Individual study with him. There is application of DSP in Power electronics courses too.

This fall 2016 there is Quantum mechanics for engineers which seems to be a great course.

last fall there was this awesome course on fundamentals of solid state devices a prerequisite for magnetic materials for this fall. This is not for the light-hearted in math.

MEMS lovers go for – MEMS, BioMEMS and lab on a chip, Wearable and implantable systems, RF1 and RF2 – not for the light – hearted. Optofluidics – which has a project. Microfabrication lab – an awesome lab facility you can see from outside in Davis hall and from inside if you taken the course.

Photonic and Optics group is very strong in UB. With many nice professors and courses of variety. There is plenty to discuss among Non- linear optics, Optofluidics, Photonic devices, nanophotonics, photonics lab, consumer optoelectronics and lasers.

With all these great courses, it is common for students to audit some courses to learn the stuff but not to earn credit. That said, any course you take more than 4 courses (12 credits) is free. you do not have to pay. I personally know a person who took 6 courses in final semester. This is a good strategy. Like Football formation you have to split the 10 courses (30 credits required for MS) into some format. 4-4-2 is a no-brainer; 5-4-1 and 4-5-1 is to save money from a course. Applying for reduced course load is permitted, but only once in the complete program, where international student can take minimum of 3 courses in a semester. People use it in different ways :- 4-3-3 , 3-4-3. People who want to finish fast take 5-5, bang for bucks and save almost 6k$. Another option is to get a Co-Op in third semester. This depends on your job application. And then the lesser pursued path is 4-3+thesis-thesis . A thesis credit could range from 1-6 , people use it wisely.

Ideally by end of Fall you have good projects and some GPA in hand which enable one to apply for summer internship. Application of which starts from fall. This may be seemingly too long , but no. And people who did not get internship here went to India and did Internship. People went home just to be home. Also, people achieved fall internship in the second fall, but you need to manage your courses accordingly.

 

(May be continued)