One of the most daunting tasks in an MS application is writing the Statement of Purpose (SOP). Compiling your entire background, experiences, and overall thought process in a single document that summarizes your persona and yet makes it an interesting read, is a challenge in itself. You will have to introduce yourself, give your profile, brag about yourself but not brag too much that it appears unreal and at the same time, convince the faculty to give an admit. Some students have problems even beginning one. Some get a few samples from various sources and do a blotchy job of copy and paste, while many students use a senior’s SOP and just change his/her name. Very few take the time to actually prepare a good Statement of Purpose.

Whatever is your method of preparing a statement of purpose, you can use the following checklist to make sure your SOP looks good and convincing.

• Is the length of the essay neither too short ( less than 500 words) nor too long (more than 1000 words)
• Is there a logical flow in the essay and divided into paragraphs?
• Is the essay spell proofed and grammar proofed?
• Does the essay use positive language and avoid any possible negativity?
• Is the essay concise? Does it avoid going into some unnecessary details or too deep into some technical explanation?
• Does the essay highlight all the relevant work experience, extra-curricular, co-curricular, projects?
• Does it avoid referencing unrelated work or activities that do not directly connect to your graduate studies (for instance too many details about your childhood days)
• Does it include your future plans and goals
• Does it make it clear how you are a good fit to the university and the university a good fit to you?
• Did you proof read and solicit feedback from people familiar with the process
• Avoid giving excuses for shortcomings in grades, scores etc
  Is it convincing?

Many students base their university selection on the rankings provided by various agencies. While rankings offer a good benchmark to compare universities, they should not be the only parameter to base your university selection on. The rank of a university may be used as an indicator to assess the overall standing of the university but not as an absolute deciding factor. While one can make a general assessment that a university ranked 10 would definitely be better than the one ranked at 40, it need not be better then a university ranked 14; not necessarily better for every applicant. Reason being the inherent problem with all rankings: ‘They do not measure what is important to you - the applicant’

When an agency ranks universities, they use their own set of parameters to determine the rankings. Each parameter is assigned certain importance and based on the overall score of the university, the rankings are determined. Now all factors that the agency considers while assigning the ranks, may not be important to you. Also their order of importance of the parameters may differ from your order of importance. Say for instance, ‘funds available within the department’ and ‘starting salaries of graduate students’ might be the most important factors for you, while they might be of least importance to the ranking agency.

Rankings tend to hide unique strengths and specialties. For instance the computer science department of a particular university might be exceptionally good for its research and courses in computer security, or an MBA program might be well reputed for its courses in Entrepreneurship, but overall program rankings do not convey such specialties.

Finally data collected to compile the rankings may not always be accurate. Schools report data that is available with them and it need not be complete. Some ranking agencies collect information directly from alumni of the programs and from current students. Some also collect data from recruiters at the program. Thus there are chances that the information thus collected may have been reported inaccurately (some times intentionally) or incompletely, thereby causing the rankings to reflect a skewed picture.

Thus as a student applying to a program or finalizing a university to join, it is recommended that you research the program’s strengths and weaknesses, courses offered, opportunities that the program would offer you during and after graduation, review admitted student’s profiles, and then finally look at the rank and reputation of the program.

When it comes to building a career, nothing works like a good network. Whether you plan to take a job after graduation, start your own business, or plan to take on further studies, a good network always comes handy. But unfortunately networks are not built in a day; they take time to develop. Here are some tips for graduate students to build a good network

1. Be in good terms with your professors
There is a high possibility that your professors are well connected with the industry and could be a good source for referrals. So it is always a nice idea to take advice from your professors. Start off by discussing your career plans with them a little early in your semester, and seek advice on ways to accomplish it. It is very likely that they have ideas that you might not have thought about. Keep them updated about your progress (not a daily status update – but maybe once a month), and see if they can refer you to some of their industry contacts or ex-students working in the industry.

2. Start networking with peers and seniors
Most of your seniors who graduated, would have managed to find themselves a career in the corporate world. It is also possible that some of your peers from school and college have already made their mark in the industry you desire to venture into. Get in touch with your old schoolmates and collegemates. Get to know the friends of your friends. You don’t have to party with all of them, but do keep in touch, so that you could tap into these networks when the need arises.

3. Explore - avoid the conventional path
You may think you know what you want to do in life, but chances are you don’t. So use your time in grad school to explore various options. Just because most of your classmates desire to pursue a particular career, doesn’t mean that it is the best thing to do in life. Attend career fairs, presentations by industry personnel, talks by corporate speakers and use these opportunities to find out things that happen in various industries and positions. Explore. Do not be afraid to try out new things. If not anything, you will sure get to meet a lot of interesting people this way.

4. Be ready to work for free
It you fail to get a paid internship, it might be a good idea to take up a voluntary project/assignment with a company you are interested to work with. If you build a good connection with them, if you manage to impress them, you just might have an offer from them by graduation. It’s always better to get some experience rather than have no experience at all. You will at least get to meet people and build good relationships.

5. Be Professional
Orkut is fun, and so is Facebook. But besides the fun part, they are extremely powerful networking tools as well. Use these and other networking sites like Linkedin to create your ‘net’ presence. Be active, but be sensible; be yourself, but be appropriate. Avoid putting stuff on your page that would be sensitive or might be considered offensive. Avoid ruining your ‘net’ image because you never know who is watching you.

Finally, you need to understand that networking isn’t distress call. Your contacts aren’t obliged to help you. When you get in touch with someone and ask for a job referral, there is a high chance that the person doesn’t have anything to offer. That’s fine. Don’t pester them. At the same time don’t be annoyed because they couldn’t help you. The idea of tapping into your network is just to make them aware that you are on the lookout for an opportunity and that any assistance in that regards will be most welcome.

PS: Eventually when you get a job and start your career, be sure to help others with their careers as well. Pass on the good work.

Sheetal Doshi, a final-year engineering student from Mumbai, spends her day catching up with term-work and assignments, and her evenings studying for her GRE. She plans to appear for her GRE and TOEFL some time in September. Like many of her classmates, she plans to pursue her MS from the US.

Rajesh Nair graduated with an electronics engineering degree in 2005. During his final year, after appearing for the GRE and TOEFL, he applied to a few of universities in the US. He had an average academic record in his bachelors (aggregate of about 60%) and his GRE score was 1250. He managed to secure admission into an MS program at a university in Chicago, USA. Rajesh finished his MS in May 2007 and currently works at a leading telecommunication company in Chicago earning about $75,000 per year.

Rajesh never applied to any master’s program in India. Like Rajesh, Shetal has no intention of applying for the ME degree offered by Mumbai University or MTech program offered by the IITs or for that matter, any equivalent Master’s program offered by any university in India.

Sheetal and Rajesh are no exceptions. Scores of Indian students prefer pursuing MS programs in the USA, rather than doing equivalent programs from India. But is this really feasible? How much sense does it make to apply abroad, especially considering the heavy costs involved? Is a foreign degree really better? What about the returns on investment and job placements?

Why students opt to pursue an MS from USA
“I considered the option of doing an MTech from the IIT but found the GATE exam difficult to crack. Also, admissions in India are very competitive. The GRE was much simpler and I didn’t need to be an outstanding performer to secure admission to a US university. “With so many options, securing admission abroad was a much more ‘doable’ task,” informs Rajesh. When asked about the money he spent on education abroad, he says, “I spent nearly a lakh rupees only on my applications, visa fees and air tickets; another ten to twelve lakhs on my MS program fees and living. I had to pay my first two semester fees out of my pocket, after which I got funding from the university. But it was worth it. I made the right choice. I actually got to learn a lot during my MS”

Rajesh makes a valid point. You don’t have to an outstanding performer to secure admission in a US university. This is what makes the US degree popular. In addition, the quality of education and the resources available to students are far better than what gets offered at colleges in India. While no doubt there is competition in the US as well, and performance does matter. However even academically average students, manages to seek admission and decent career opportunities – provided they take their MS seriously, study sincere, and are willing to put in hard work.

Returns on Investment of an MS degree in India
Not all students who go to the US for higher education plan on settling there. Gautam Pandit, after completing his MS in computer science from the US, made a conscious decision to return to India. Today, he works as a software engineer with a leading IT company in Bangalore. Gautam joined at a starting salary of about Rs 35,000 – which was about Rs 5K higher than his colleagues who were recruited around the same time from various engineering (BE/BTech) programs in India. He says “I don’t think the fact that my MS was from a US university helped me in any special way. I would have got an equally good job had I done my MTech in computer engineering from a reputed university in India.” Recruiters and HR managers in India agree. Most hiring managers in India do not give added preference to candidates having a foreign MS as compared to those holding an MTech from India. “We consider the candidate’s overall profile. A Master’s degree is always a plus. We treat a foreign MS on par with the Indian ME/ MTech,” says the HR manager of a leading IT firm in India. “Salaries that we offer fresh MTech/ MS graduates are only slightly higher than what we offer fresh BTech/BE graduates. Experience counts more than mere additional educational qualifications”, he adds.

A continued discussion with many students and industry personnel made one things quite clear:
When looked at it from a pure Return on Investment (ROI) perspective, the ROI of a foreign degree is much higher for students who preferred to pursue a career abroad. However in the long run, having a master’s degree adds boost to one’s career growth.

The Bottomline
It would be unfair to gauge the returns from higher education just by comparing the salaries after graduation. There are many intangible and long terms benefits of education - change in the individual’s outlook being vital. In conclusion, this discussion leads to an interesting debate: Students like Sheetal and Rajesh, after a US education, ended up with great careers aboard. Can they be cited as success stories or as classic examples of the brain drain?!

Many students applying to an MIS (Management of Information Systems) or the Engineering Management program ask us if the programs are equivalent to an MBA. Our answer to that is a point blank ‘NO’. The MIS or EM programs are neither equivalent to, nor are they substitutes to the MBA.

Often the term ‘management’ misleads students to believe that the MIS and EM programs are synonymous to an MBA. Unfortunately that’s not the case. In the US, an MBA is typically designed for a mature audience (students with prior work experience). The objective of a MBA program is to expose students with all areas of management such as accounting, finance, marketing, strategy, operations, technology, and give them a fair understanding of the functioning of various business and industry sectors. Students may then opt to specialize in specific areas of interest. The MIS and EM programs on the other hand, are designed to equip students with skills specific to the IT and the engineering industry respectively. While many MIS and EM programs require students to take up few basic courses in areas of management, they do not offer a wide spectrum of management related courses as an MBA does. Nor are these programs designed to give students a bird’s eye view of various industry domains.

A master’s program in MIS, as well as in EM, is designed in a way to prepare students for careers in the IT and engineering domains respectively. They are not research oriented, but rather techno-functional in nature where the focus is on concepts prevalent in the industry. For instance, in any MIS program, a significant amount of courses would be related to technology which would include a fair amount of programming as well. The remaining courses would cover concepts related to managing of information technology. Same is the case with an EM program, except that courses offered in an EM program are not confined to information technology, but would encompass a wide range of technologies and processes used across the engineering sector.

So in conclusion, do not opt for an MIS or EM program assuming that they are substitutes to an MBA; the MIS or EM programs are not equivalent to an MBA. These programs will not offer you careers equivalent to those of an MBA graduate. In all probability, few years ahead in your career, when you feel the need for career advancement, you will choose to pursue an MBA – even if you hold a master’s degree in MIS or EM.

PS: A degree in Financial Engineering (FE) is also NOT equivalent to an MBA degree with specialization in finance.