For Those who want to PAYBACK to NED

[Syed Qasim Bukhari]

Assalam-o-Alaikum all my respected seniors !
Well b4 I start lemme introduce myself.I'm Qasim doing my BE in Electrical Engineering from NED Universoty, currently a student of TE Electrical.Nowadays busy in my TE exams infact yesterday it was our 1st paper.
I m very keen to do MS from abroad & what difficulties em facing would like to share with you so that you may get some suggestions how you people can help us

Admission tips:

1.When we apply to top universities, we are suggested to contact some teacher of that area n then if they like your ideas they can give help in getting your admission(Talking about TOP Universities) , so I expect the ex-NEDians to be in connection with top class universities they can post from which university they are related or they have some connection with the teachers.Even if they are able to get some intro with the teachers of our desired university for MS that would be a gr8888 gr8888888 help

2.You people can post suggestions how can we increase our chances to get admission in top universities where there is too much competition.What are the other main criterias apart from %age on which they select their students etc



Financial Problems:

1.When I'll be going for MS inshALLAH I would be in need of some odd jobs or some part time jobs.Surely everyone going for MS would be looking for it so those NEDians who are settled in that country can help by using their contacts.

2.Well during our MS ofcourse we are gonna face financial problems because of the high fees of international universities so you can collect some funds & give LOANS to those NEDians for 1 or 2 years.Even a load of 2 or 3,000 $ can be so much valuable at that time that you cannot imagine.All the legal formalities can be done to avoid any kind of fraud


GRE & IELTS Help:

1.Any kind of tips to get good scores in GRE n IELTS would be appreciated.How to preppare... prepare by ourself or from some recommended institute etc

2.Financial Help... these 170$ are too much during a student life,infact is 1.5 times our annual fees in NED :) This financial help can be based on MERIT & NEED cum MERIT basis



well these were my suggestions.Thnx for using your valuable time for reading.Now I need your comments & your PRACTICAL ACTIONS on these suggestions.I ve underlined the points which were most important for me.
Thnx once again

[Sohail Sarwar Tahir]

Qasim,

a-> Why do you wanna contact Professors? [You can get admission by simply applying to that uni]
b-> Why do you care so much about x-NEDians in uni ur interested in? [get good grades from NED, prepare GRE, IELTS/TOEFL , meet uni requirements, do some research papers.....daz it I guess]
c-> I did my MS in IS from NYU [ranked number 1 in world for Research, ranked 1 for applied maths in the US , ranked 3 for MBA in the US, in top 30s for CS ]

d-> I got admissions from Virginia Tech, NYU, NJIT, Syracuse, GMU, WSU.....[didnt contact any professors and NEDians]

------------------
some good private unis like columbia and NYU are expensive and if you can afford them, do apply there.....u have more chances in getting in such unis.....WHY? coz they are expensive, everyone cant afford them....and yeah its worthit coz of their career services

all de best

[Sohail Sarwar Tahir]

do check following groups

Applying to US Universities [Visa Questions, Satement of Purpose, Other imp docs you would need while applying to US unis, Overall process, ranking of unis]

GRE Preparation [some cool resources for GRE]

[Syed Qasim Bukhari]

Yh it takes too long in the Visa process for US thats one of the reason em too much interested in ETH.
Well I havent yet researched about job chances in ma field coz em prepared to do teaching as well... well em interested in the image processing field.... thats what relates to my final year project as well which an stereo vision based real time 3D video creation.
Now the answers of Mr. Sohail
a>It had been advised to me by lots of students there at ETH... they said you CANNOT get admission without contacting a professor until n unless ur previous degree is from a high ranked university n u had topped in ur field
b>I believe X-NEDians are helpful , thats ma experience.Nedians always help other nedians,just thats y searching for someone like that so that i can clear all my questions... coz I ve also lots of questions regarding my final year project.So if I can find some ex nedians from the university em interested in then he can surely guide me to trasform my project into something that can surely earn admission
c>Your case might be exceptional but to confirm my seat in such ranked university I must do what I can.....

[Sohail Sarwar Tahir]

Qasim,

"you CANNOT get admission without contacting a professor until n unless ur previous degree is from a high ranked university n u had topped in ur field".......my reply to that: thats bs

"final year project transformed to admission?"....doesn't make much sense to me

-> get good grades in NED
-> find unis [based on your params, tuition, location, gre, toefl, courses offered, career services, state/etc]
->take gre/toefl/ielts
->meet other requirements
-> get strong recommendations from professors/employer
-> write perfect SOP
-> a nice resume
-> apply to more than one unis [i applied for 7]

you dont need nedians in unis ur interested in
you dont need to contact profs for MS.....for phd thats a good idea

regards

[Riaz Haq]

Qasim,
I absolutelely agree with everything Sohail said, based on my own experience and the experience of many successful NEDians with advanced degrees I see around me.
Riaz

[Sohail Sarwar Tahir]

Amir / Qasim,

What was ma approach?
-> Rock solid documents for admission [NED scores(avg.), 800/800 in GRE maths, best Software Engineer certs, Teaching experience, rock solid recommendation letters [3 from NED and 3 from my employers], a nice SOP and resume (I have uploaded my SOP), technology certs like MCSD, MCAD, SCJP

-> Now, if you have to decide my case, would you care if I contacted you before? NO, it depends on your profile and whats on your resume [work on that]

and yeah you can contact Professor but am not sure if they have time to entertain you [you aint a student]....If thats a good school, profs are generally busy [college stuff, research etc.].......You think prof would recommend you, just after couple of emails....i seriously doubt dat

so ma advice based on my experience [remember got 6 admits from some of the best schools in de US].....work on your documentation, scores [GRE, recommendations, resume, SOP]

regards

[Riaz Haq]

Many US universities do ask for recommendations but these recommendations are usually from the professors you have been a student of or worked with. It's highly unusual for professors you haven't worked with to write recommendations for you.

[Syed Qasim Bukhari]

Assalam-o-Alaikum all you respected people !!!
Well I ve understood some basic things from this discussion..... that while applying to US n UK universities you dont need to contact professors,you dont necessarily need any research papers.All you need is a solid academic back ground as told my mr.sohail n a good GRE score
But other than UK n US they have some different criteria.what mr.Amir said is exactly what I had been told about ETH Zurich.All these things like contacting prof apply to ETH.I dont know y there are different criterias but there really is......... thats what I ve found out after contacting many ETH students n concluding from this discussion

[Syed Qasim Bukhari]

another point is the work experience... after thoroughly reading mr.Sohail's SOP I extratcted that he has superb work experience that had surely helped him.... so is the work experience necessary... ??? do I need to start some part time work ?? coz i really need to continue my studies without any gap... does the part time work exprience is also valuable ??? If someone doesnt have any work experience does this matter ???
One more thing.. what do u mean by good grades from NED.... ? what are good grades... 60% 70% 75% or topper of the class ??? ofcourse being a position holder is too much task to do.....
Secondly Mr.Sohail had some valuable certifications from microsoft that he had mentioned in his SOP... but 4 electrical engineers there are not such certification ...or are there any ? what kinda certifications might help us ???

[Sohail Sarwar Tahir]

well de general rule is:: if you have done anything in life :) thats relavent to your MS degree, that would help you with your admission process [certs, jobs, grades, expressing same stuff in SOP, research papers, publications, whateva, teaching experience, good grades, recommendations].......

so there is no formula.......remember you will provide documents/records [grades, recommendation letters, sop, certs, job experience, gre] to your uni, and based on that unis gonna decide your admission......if you have done anything relavent to your MS course work, juz make dat available to your uni.....

what are good grades? dont know.....i wasn't in top ten students...coz i never wanted to be.....dont believe in good grades......position holders = jerks :)

dont know about certs for elec engineers

br

[Syed Qasim Bukhari]

Well can anyone else suggest some certifications for electrical engineers ??
You Didnt answer the question if I start a part time job is it gonna add my SOP or CV ?? experience before graduation would be counted a plus point or not ???

[Sohail Sarwar Tahir]

Definitely experience [in your domain] would be a plus......if you can manage that with your studies, go for it