I wish that my rejection letters turn out to be April Fools’ jokes, but that isn’t likely. I didn’t get through in the colleges I wanted, and in some of the lower tier ones where I did have a chance they’re unviable for me because of the amount of financial aid they’re giving. Recession in the US certainly seems to have hit their financial aid funds hard forcing them to choose students who need lesser aid. I don’t see my application per se lacking much with perfect scores in SAT Subject Tests, near perfect in TOEFL, decent marks in Reasoning, and an extensive extra-curricular record.
Applying to universities in UK wasn’t something which I was pursuing actively – until now. That’s next on the cards – dispatching my applications through UCAS (although there’s still a lot of time). I’m optimistic about NTU too since I’ve opted for non-subsidised tuition fee this time.
I’m also giving a few Indian entrance exams, so projects such as Gyaan.in will be on hold for the next few months (or at least until something concrete works out). I remain committed to the Gyaan.in project but I also have to prioritise certain things right now. Expect lesser blog posts and tweets.
9 replies on “Course Correction”
Do you expect me to believe that? :p
I’m sure you’ll get in somewhere. I don’t know why US colleges are rejecting foreign applications this year – probably the economy – but when I took the SAT in 2007, I started recieving emails and letters from several universities I didn’t even apply to. Try a few more places.
NTU, AFAIK, is full of DPS alumni. I have a friend there who recently had to write a paper on “Security in Open Source Software”. It’s a great university.
Dunno about UK. Last I checked, UK univs were really expensive.
That I did too – receiving mails and even postal letters / full brochures – from US universities like Florida Institute of Technology. FIT is good, but they gave 18k-20k aid. Their tuition fees are higher and with living expenses it quickly becomes unviable. I was banking on Ivyies – which have greater funds to pull in from – and other univs which give aid to a larger number of international students but they seem to be cutting back everywhere.
True about NTU. NUS is also there, but the non-subsidized tuition fee at NUS is higher than NTU so it’s not an option for me. I expect that through non-subsidized, I can get NTU since I won’t be ‘fighting’ with many people for aid.
Some UK univs can be very costly, but there are some where I’ll have to pay close to what I’ll paying for NTU tuition fee + Singapore living expenses, so I’m exploring that option right now.
As an aside, did you apply abroad?
I wanted to. I really wanted to. My parents didn’t have any idea about the higher quality of education in the US. All they knew about CompSci education came from stupid Indian news channels and newspapers going on about how the IITs kick ass and about how innovative DCE students are. And thus I was forced to stay here.
An year later, I’m in IPU. Hating. Every. Single. Minute. Of. It.
If you can’t get into any foreign university, it’s better to just get a B.Com from DU or a correspondence degree from IGNOU. The only good universities in India are the IITs, the IIITs and BITS Pilani.
Sad. But then, why didn’t apply this year? I mean, you can still apply to UK universities.
DU is obviously my last option. Is IP Univ really that bad that you’ll place DU above IP? I know what a sorry state NITs and other AIEEE colleges are in (as far as computers is concerned) from what I’ve heard from friends.
It seems you have placed a limit on how deep threads can be nested.
This year my dad is busy with a pretty big project. I don’t think my family can pay that kind of money right now.
Yes. It’s that bad. In terms of course material, IPU is similar to most Indian universities, ie, they teach the same impractical stuff every other college – DCE, NSIT, IIT etc. – teaches. As for why it’s bad, I think I can fill a book with that. You just gave me an idea for a blog post 🙂
Get this: if you’re thinking of landing a nice IT job after college, then the starting salary for freshers from any college is more or less the same, but IPU will not prepare you for a job. DCE and IIT grads will always have an edge over IPU grads. It’s impossible for IPU students to reach that level of maturity college is supposed to help you reach.
If you’re like me and want to start a business, then IPU will make sure you never have enough time to even think about your business ideas. You can forget about doing freelance or part-time work during college unless you can shell out enough cash to bribe your college management.
Hey! Your smileys blink. Cute!
🙂 😀 😉 X(
Go ahead with your blog post on ‘impractical stuff’. I’ll cheer on from the sidelines.
DU does include DCE and NSIT 😐
You know I didn’t mean DCE / NSIT by that. 😛