So we continue where we left off with me having given my GRE and TOEFL ( there is nothing worth writing about this exam; so I have left it out).
Selecting a college to apply is a tricky process. While your GRE score and acads are the most important parameters which determine which university you should apply to; several other factors come into play
1. The probability of getting financial aid once out there
2. The willingness of the university to accept students from other countries
3. On-campus safety
4. The facilities for research
and blah blah blah; the list is quite long
Anyway by discussing with several seniors and consulting websites and reading through forums me and Rohit finally finalised on 9 Universities ( And no I am not repeating them again!!)
Proud of this significant milestone; we decided to start filling up the forms for these universities.
Problems associated with filling up forms
PROBLEM NO 1
God has been unkind to us South Indians. We dont have a surname and for some wierd reason the world seems better off with one. Now in all the forms the surname field is a compulsory one and the form cannot be submitted without filling in a surname! The problem was eventually solved by submitting our father's names as surnames but this led to inconsistencies between our names on the passport and names on the application form. We are still waiting for the consequence of this action
PROBLEM NO 2
The education terminology in US is very different from India. So basically after completing my graduate course in India I would be applying for a graduate program in the US. So basically I am a graduate hoping to become a graduate after slogging for 2 years in the US. Mind-blasting!! The conversion from Indian courses to US courses in the SOP and LOR's is quite frankly a pain-in-the-ass!!
PROBLEM NO 343o493840
Online recommendations; easy and convenient my left foot. The days I spent on sentry duty outside my professor's cabins waiting for a glimpse, a nod, a kind word or some indication that my work had been done before the due date. Though our professors were kind enough to finally finish the work; we still had to endure 3 weeks of madness before the work was completed
Filling up the forms is no easy business I tell you; the amount of details required is quite mind boggling. Certain universities wanted my complete academic record from L.K.G to engg. I still have not found any correlation between my academic performance in LKG ( alphabets, colours and numbers) to my suitability for a Master's education
So all said and done my advice for all those planning to pursue your Master's (you poor poor fools!!) is to be prepared for more than a month of serious mind-fuck as you go around filling forms and getting recommendations done. Its God's way of punishing us for our sins in previous lives and our only option is to grin and bear it
( Stage 3 involves the procedures after getting an admit and I will be more than happy to enlighten you all as and when I get one! :P)
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Snake Adventure
Now I dont claim to be a paradigm of truthfulness; in fact I advice people to take whatever I say with a pinch of salt. It was easy for the father of our nation to be truthful his entire life but he probably never had his mother asking him what he was doing staying up so late on his computer!
Inspite of this I generally wish for my friends to believe me when I am narrating them an incident; so picture my disappointment at the following turn of events.
It was a bright morning ( or afternoon) and as usual I was seated in the SPCE canteen drinking FLW's. Seated with me were chakku, hesty, boli and chaukya. Sometime during our talks Harshita and Mugdha joined our table.
The conversation took an interesting turn when Heston started talking about snakes in his native place; at which point I pipped in saying that I had jumped on a snake (by accident but hey people do not go around looking for snakes to jump on!!).
Chakku stared at me with his usual sloshed expression which makes people around him want to slap his face incessantly with a dead fish and said "Balls!". Boli smiled and tried to sip chakku's FLW while he was not looking. Chaukya tilted his neck to 63 degrees. ( Now Chaukya has this habit of tilting his neck while making smart-arse comments and the degree of tilt varies from 60 to 63 degrees depending on his level of excitement). It was evident he was quite excited. " Myyyyyyyy Heroooooooooooo! " he said in a condescending drawling voice expressing his thinly-vieled disbelief. Only hesty considered my story however bizzare to be strangely plausible.
Hark! I hear the voices of the thronging multitude asking for a narration of the story. ( Actually considering the number of visits I believe no one reads this crap anyway!).But anyway here goes.
It happened like this: I was around 10 years old and staying at my Grandma's for the summer vacations. There is an empty plot next to our house roughly the size of the workshop. The middle portion of the plot is a clearing where we play cricket and the rest of the plot is covered with thick undergrowth and a couple of small trees. It is separated from my house by a low brick wall. So here I was sitting and watching TV sometime after breakfast when I heard my friends calling me. I was real passionate about cricket at that point in my life though the passion has since died down.
Not wanting to waste time; I decided to jump over the wall instead of walking around to the gate. I heaved myself over the wall and landed on something cylindrical. I looked down and to my horror it was a snake. I leapt back in shock like a person who has just landed on a snake and ran as fast as I could to the clearing. Having had no oppurtunity to indulge in pleasantaries with the snake; I still do not know why it refrained from biting me (or what snake it was for that matter).
I returned with my friends armed with sticks and bats to the spot but the snake was nowhere to be seen. The loss of faith in my story was almost instantaneous and from there on the general trend amongst any group of people has been to brand my story fake which had led me to shelve the story till that moment of weakness in the canteen.
Which leads to the obvious question as to why am I posting it on the world wide web where millions (snigger!) will see it and add to the list of disbelievers??. The right answer is that I am bored and by posting it I have ensured that you have wasted 5 minutes of your life( or more depending on your reading speed) you will never get back! Muahahahaha!!!!!
Inspite of this I generally wish for my friends to believe me when I am narrating them an incident; so picture my disappointment at the following turn of events.
It was a bright morning ( or afternoon) and as usual I was seated in the SPCE canteen drinking FLW's. Seated with me were chakku, hesty, boli and chaukya. Sometime during our talks Harshita and Mugdha joined our table.
The conversation took an interesting turn when Heston started talking about snakes in his native place; at which point I pipped in saying that I had jumped on a snake (by accident but hey people do not go around looking for snakes to jump on!!).
Chakku stared at me with his usual sloshed expression which makes people around him want to slap his face incessantly with a dead fish and said "Balls!". Boli smiled and tried to sip chakku's FLW while he was not looking. Chaukya tilted his neck to 63 degrees. ( Now Chaukya has this habit of tilting his neck while making smart-arse comments and the degree of tilt varies from 60 to 63 degrees depending on his level of excitement). It was evident he was quite excited. " Myyyyyyyy Heroooooooooooo! " he said in a condescending drawling voice expressing his thinly-vieled disbelief. Only hesty considered my story however bizzare to be strangely plausible.
Hark! I hear the voices of the thronging multitude asking for a narration of the story. ( Actually considering the number of visits I believe no one reads this crap anyway!).But anyway here goes.
It happened like this: I was around 10 years old and staying at my Grandma's for the summer vacations. There is an empty plot next to our house roughly the size of the workshop. The middle portion of the plot is a clearing where we play cricket and the rest of the plot is covered with thick undergrowth and a couple of small trees. It is separated from my house by a low brick wall. So here I was sitting and watching TV sometime after breakfast when I heard my friends calling me. I was real passionate about cricket at that point in my life though the passion has since died down.
Not wanting to waste time; I decided to jump over the wall instead of walking around to the gate. I heaved myself over the wall and landed on something cylindrical. I looked down and to my horror it was a snake. I leapt back in shock like a person who has just landed on a snake and ran as fast as I could to the clearing. Having had no oppurtunity to indulge in pleasantaries with the snake; I still do not know why it refrained from biting me (or what snake it was for that matter).
I returned with my friends armed with sticks and bats to the spot but the snake was nowhere to be seen. The loss of faith in my story was almost instantaneous and from there on the general trend amongst any group of people has been to brand my story fake which had led me to shelve the story till that moment of weakness in the canteen.
Which leads to the obvious question as to why am I posting it on the world wide web where millions (snigger!) will see it and add to the list of disbelievers??. The right answer is that I am bored and by posting it I have ensured that you have wasted 5 minutes of your life( or more depending on your reading speed) you will never get back! Muahahahaha!!!!!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Howdy all (Inspired by Texas A&M university)
After years of procrastinating I have finally gathered the initiative to start blogging.
The first few blogs are likely to be long and boring as I try to adapt to this alien (for me) form of literary expression
so kindly bear with me during the learning process
Deepak
After years of procrastinating I have finally gathered the initiative to start blogging.
The first few blogs are likely to be long and boring as I try to adapt to this alien (for me) form of literary expression
so kindly bear with me during the learning process
Deepak
Applying to US universities: Stage 1 :GRE
Disclaimer : This series of blogs is not intended to be a guide on how to apply to US universities. In fact reading the contents may cause you to re-evaluate your decision to do the above. Read ahead if you are strong of heart and know no fear!!
Stage 1: Stage 1 of the whole process turned out to be the easiest in retrospect. After months of slogging and freaking out imagining all possible consequences the day of GRE arrived. Now GRE is a funny exam. You never seem to take it seriously till its almost too late. I even had the temerity to go on a trip abroad two weeks before the exam. Four days before the exam I found myself with 8 word lists to complete and a sizeable portion of maths left. The beauty of engineering is that I was well prepared for such an event and managed to complete the lists 8 hours before my exam. Finishing Quant seemed like an impossible task at that moment but like a shower refreshing a parched land; Dr Raju entered my life bringing hope at that darkest of times. Dr Raju's Quant Database on Orkut saved the day as will be evident later.
The day of the exam :
The level of security at the testing centre is equivalent to that of a mid-size US prison and is enough to unnerve you before the exam. I walked into the booth and sat down at my seat. I felt slightly nauseous and my eyes were swimming. Cold sweat formed on my brow. I looked up at the cieling and worded a noiseless prayer. After days of expectation the moment of reckoning was finally here.
The essay and argument sections were completed without much bother. It seemed luck was finally shining in my favour. I then started with the verbal section of the test. It seemed all my confidence had drained away. Every question seemed to hide intricacies, a certain reluctance to confirm the answer seemed to have gripped my system. Proceeding in this manner I found myself with 10 questions to finish in the last five minutes. " Please God!! no more passages!" was the thought in my head as I clicked on the 26th question and et voila a 30 lines passage greeted my disbelieving eyes. Sometimes I wonder why I pray!!
Fortunately I was able to complete the verbal section in time and proceed to the quant section. The second question I got was of a level which I had never seen in the practise tests I had given. Scratching my head; I strained my intellect to its very limit hoping to find a solution to this unforeseen problem. Getting an answer wrong this early would be akin to suicide. Five minutes passed with no break-through and the test seemed to be slipping through my fingers. Left with no option I clicked on option c and went to the next question. As expected I was left with hardly any time to complete the last few questions. But Dr Raju came to my rescue as the last 4-5 questions were directly from the database and I knew the answers to these questions.
How 3 hours passed by; I will never know but staring at me was a screen asking me to choose between reporting my scores or deleting them to avoid public humiliation. My mind went into over-drive as I threshed out the course of action. I was sure that I had messed up and cancelling the test courses would be the wisest decision. However a small voice in my head argued that I had paid 150 dollars for the test and cancelling it would be foolish. Finally gathering up the courage I pressed the report score button. The computer was not so easily convinced; again the same question appeared. Again the process repeated. I pressed the report score button again.
The screen went blank and my mind resorted to the same recourse. I stared dumbly at the figures on the screen. It took me a minute to register that I had scored a 1510 in GRE. A stupid grin spread on my face as relief flowed through my body. I had gone through a gruelling test and come out unscathed and I believed the biggest hurdle in the way of my dream of doing an M.S had been crossed. (If Only I knew!!)
( Stage 2 consists of selecting universities and filling out the forms : the horror stories associated with the process will be updated in the next few days; keep watching this space [ or rather the one below this!] for updates)
Stage 1: Stage 1 of the whole process turned out to be the easiest in retrospect. After months of slogging and freaking out imagining all possible consequences the day of GRE arrived. Now GRE is a funny exam. You never seem to take it seriously till its almost too late. I even had the temerity to go on a trip abroad two weeks before the exam. Four days before the exam I found myself with 8 word lists to complete and a sizeable portion of maths left. The beauty of engineering is that I was well prepared for such an event and managed to complete the lists 8 hours before my exam. Finishing Quant seemed like an impossible task at that moment but like a shower refreshing a parched land; Dr Raju entered my life bringing hope at that darkest of times. Dr Raju's Quant Database on Orkut saved the day as will be evident later.
The day of the exam :
The level of security at the testing centre is equivalent to that of a mid-size US prison and is enough to unnerve you before the exam. I walked into the booth and sat down at my seat. I felt slightly nauseous and my eyes were swimming. Cold sweat formed on my brow. I looked up at the cieling and worded a noiseless prayer. After days of expectation the moment of reckoning was finally here.
The essay and argument sections were completed without much bother. It seemed luck was finally shining in my favour. I then started with the verbal section of the test. It seemed all my confidence had drained away. Every question seemed to hide intricacies, a certain reluctance to confirm the answer seemed to have gripped my system. Proceeding in this manner I found myself with 10 questions to finish in the last five minutes. " Please God!! no more passages!" was the thought in my head as I clicked on the 26th question and et voila a 30 lines passage greeted my disbelieving eyes. Sometimes I wonder why I pray!!
Fortunately I was able to complete the verbal section in time and proceed to the quant section. The second question I got was of a level which I had never seen in the practise tests I had given. Scratching my head; I strained my intellect to its very limit hoping to find a solution to this unforeseen problem. Getting an answer wrong this early would be akin to suicide. Five minutes passed with no break-through and the test seemed to be slipping through my fingers. Left with no option I clicked on option c and went to the next question. As expected I was left with hardly any time to complete the last few questions. But Dr Raju came to my rescue as the last 4-5 questions were directly from the database and I knew the answers to these questions.
How 3 hours passed by; I will never know but staring at me was a screen asking me to choose between reporting my scores or deleting them to avoid public humiliation. My mind went into over-drive as I threshed out the course of action. I was sure that I had messed up and cancelling the test courses would be the wisest decision. However a small voice in my head argued that I had paid 150 dollars for the test and cancelling it would be foolish. Finally gathering up the courage I pressed the report score button. The computer was not so easily convinced; again the same question appeared. Again the process repeated. I pressed the report score button again.
The screen went blank and my mind resorted to the same recourse. I stared dumbly at the figures on the screen. It took me a minute to register that I had scored a 1510 in GRE. A stupid grin spread on my face as relief flowed through my body. I had gone through a gruelling test and come out unscathed and I believed the biggest hurdle in the way of my dream of doing an M.S had been crossed. (If Only I knew!!)
( Stage 2 consists of selecting universities and filling out the forms : the horror stories associated with the process will be updated in the next few days; keep watching this space [ or rather the one below this!] for updates)
journeys : part 1 canada sep 2008
Canada
The world's second largest country but with a population which would fit comfortably into any Indian state. But have no fear; Indian immigration to Canada has increased in the last few years and given our proven track record in fertility,Canada should be causing a few rumbles in the population charts in the coming years.But I regress from the topic which is an eye-witness account of my travels with my parents in the country or rather in and around its most important city Toronto.
We landed in Toronto's Pearson International Airport on a Friday evening thoroughly exhausted after our 27 hour journey from Mumbai. My cousin's house was a good one hour drive from the airport.After an early dinner with my family I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Jet-lag what??
The next day we headed out towards the Niagra falls. Brushing and bathing were done in no time: a formality rather than intended to convey a favourable impression of my personal hygiene. I was so excited that I virtually ran into the car and fastened my seatbelt like a toddler who has been promised a outing to an ice-cream joint. We passed through Ontario's wine belt on the way; vineyards stretching miles on either side of the road; a clear sky and the sun shining brightly overhead. Perfect weather for a trip to the Niagra Falls. 2 hours later we were at the little town of Niagra-on-the-lake; a picturesque little village left untouched since the turn of the last century.
As we drove up to the falls; I caught my first glimpse of them as we rouned a bend: the gentle mist rising from the foot of the falls; the water shimmering in the sun light and a rainbow which stretched across the length of the falls presented a mental image I am unlikely to ever forget. The roar of the falls was loud enough to drown any conversation but none of us were talking as we drank in the awe-inspiring beauty of one of nature's spectacles.
The journey to the foot of the falls in the Maid of the Mist was one of the highlights of my short but eventful life. Wearing specially designed rain coats we stood on the deck of the boat as she inched closer to the falls. Spray buffeted us wetting our faces; the sheer force of the falls making our footing perilous on the slippery deck; the noise pounding our eardrums. Our heats beat faster adrenaline pumping through our veins. It was a sense of exhiliration; the joy of being alive and able to experience this natural wonder. We felt it was a just world and life was beautiful once again; shadows passed and we felt closer to the creator than we had ever before.
After an all too short (as we felt though it was a good 20 minutes long!!) ride we returned back to the dock. We spent the rest of the afternoon going through the other attractions like "Journey to the falls" which was a series of interconnecting tunnels built directly behind the falls. We had lunch as the Edge Water Grill which has one the best views of the falls from the deck. After feasting on Spicy Cajun Chicken and drinking blush wine we went to Marine Land where I got to see killer whales for the first time in my life. (Awesome!!).
The day well spent; we returned home to rest and reflect on the day's events. That evening we had a barbeque in my cousin's yard. I spent hours sitting on a deck chair eating steak and watching the stars listening to the murmur of a stream flowing just behind the house. ( At peace with the world!!).
We spent the next few days exploring downtown Toronto. The CN tower ( once the world's tallest building) is a must visit for all tourists. The observation deck at the top of the tower provides a breathtaking view of the entire city. We also spent some time gawking outside the venue of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) hoping to get a glimpse of a few stars. (Alas of no avail). The last day was spent shopping in a massive Wal-Mart approximately the size of an Indian town.
8 days after I started my journey I found myself back in Mumbai and with just two weeks left for my GRE.Needless to say my transition from vacation mode to study mode was almost instantaneous!!
The world's second largest country but with a population which would fit comfortably into any Indian state. But have no fear; Indian immigration to Canada has increased in the last few years and given our proven track record in fertility,Canada should be causing a few rumbles in the population charts in the coming years.But I regress from the topic which is an eye-witness account of my travels with my parents in the country or rather in and around its most important city Toronto.
We landed in Toronto's Pearson International Airport on a Friday evening thoroughly exhausted after our 27 hour journey from Mumbai. My cousin's house was a good one hour drive from the airport.After an early dinner with my family I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Jet-lag what??
The next day we headed out towards the Niagra falls. Brushing and bathing were done in no time: a formality rather than intended to convey a favourable impression of my personal hygiene. I was so excited that I virtually ran into the car and fastened my seatbelt like a toddler who has been promised a outing to an ice-cream joint. We passed through Ontario's wine belt on the way; vineyards stretching miles on either side of the road; a clear sky and the sun shining brightly overhead. Perfect weather for a trip to the Niagra Falls. 2 hours later we were at the little town of Niagra-on-the-lake; a picturesque little village left untouched since the turn of the last century.
As we drove up to the falls; I caught my first glimpse of them as we rouned a bend: the gentle mist rising from the foot of the falls; the water shimmering in the sun light and a rainbow which stretched across the length of the falls presented a mental image I am unlikely to ever forget. The roar of the falls was loud enough to drown any conversation but none of us were talking as we drank in the awe-inspiring beauty of one of nature's spectacles.
The journey to the foot of the falls in the Maid of the Mist was one of the highlights of my short but eventful life. Wearing specially designed rain coats we stood on the deck of the boat as she inched closer to the falls. Spray buffeted us wetting our faces; the sheer force of the falls making our footing perilous on the slippery deck; the noise pounding our eardrums. Our heats beat faster adrenaline pumping through our veins. It was a sense of exhiliration; the joy of being alive and able to experience this natural wonder. We felt it was a just world and life was beautiful once again; shadows passed and we felt closer to the creator than we had ever before.
After an all too short (as we felt though it was a good 20 minutes long!!) ride we returned back to the dock. We spent the rest of the afternoon going through the other attractions like "Journey to the falls" which was a series of interconnecting tunnels built directly behind the falls. We had lunch as the Edge Water Grill which has one the best views of the falls from the deck. After feasting on Spicy Cajun Chicken and drinking blush wine we went to Marine Land where I got to see killer whales for the first time in my life. (Awesome!!).
The day well spent; we returned home to rest and reflect on the day's events. That evening we had a barbeque in my cousin's yard. I spent hours sitting on a deck chair eating steak and watching the stars listening to the murmur of a stream flowing just behind the house. ( At peace with the world!!).
We spent the next few days exploring downtown Toronto. The CN tower ( once the world's tallest building) is a must visit for all tourists. The observation deck at the top of the tower provides a breathtaking view of the entire city. We also spent some time gawking outside the venue of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) hoping to get a glimpse of a few stars. (Alas of no avail). The last day was spent shopping in a massive Wal-Mart approximately the size of an Indian town.
8 days after I started my journey I found myself back in Mumbai and with just two weeks left for my GRE.Needless to say my transition from vacation mode to study mode was almost instantaneous!!
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