Ready for Liftoff — Part 3 — Choosing the Universities

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Although it seems logical to choose universities after you are done with the exams, it is strongly recommended that you have at least a preliminary idea in mind. When signing up for both the GRE and TOEFL, you get to choose 4 universities to send your scores for free. If you research beforehand and choose them wisely, you will end up saving a lot of money.

So what exactly should you look for when you are researching schools where you can apply? Let’s have a look.

1. Country: The first decision to take before you apply is to decide on which country or countries you want to apply to. USA, Canada, Germany, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Australia etc. all provide quite a number of advantages as well as disadvantages. You should look into each of them and decide which ones are more aligned to your goals and aspirations.
2. Overall Ranking: Although not the most important factor, you will definitely have better alumni connections, better professors and overall better quality of education if you go for ranked colleges than unranked ones. But ranking only gives an extremely basic overview of comparison between colleges and there are a lot of other factors you should look at before deciding on one. Go to https://www.timeshighereducation.com/ and https://www.topuniversities.com/ to check out rankings.
3. Program Ranking: This is where ranking comes into play more prominently. While the overall ranking of a university will take into account all the departments, the program ranking will be a finer approach towards ranking the colleges. This is the ranking you should pay more attention to. If the university is highly ranked but your department is not one of the revered programs, it won’t do you much good even with better alumni connection and greater university reputation. To check these rankings refer to https://www.timeshighereducation.com/, https://www.topuniversities.com/, https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/best-colleges and others.
4. Location: Location of the college will be pivotal in deciding what kind of opportunities you get during and after your education. Also, some locations are quite costly compared to others which sometimes becomes a hindrance due to financial constraints. For example, although Silicon Valley is rich in opportunities, living there is one of the costliest endeavors you can take on.
5. Program structure and course offerings: You do not want to get stuck with an abundance of system-oriented courses when you are more interested in learning about Machine Learning. Only Looking at the rankings or locations and choosing the school will be a fatal mistake. Before deciding on a school, go through their course structure and course offerings thoroughly, getting an idea about what kind of courses they are offering. Get answers to questions like how many core courses you have to take, how many electives can you take, which areas the electives can be chosen from and anything and everything related to your area of interest. This is the most important part when choosing a university to apply.
6. Financials: While checking schools, please do take a look at their tuition fees and other associated costs. That being said, I definitely recommend applying to good schools even if you feel their cost is something that you cannot afford (for example, Ivy League). This is because at a later date you might end up with an assistantship or a scholarship to bring that cost down. But then again, this is completely on you whether you want to take that chance or not.
7. Scores and profile: Let’s be honest. There is no point in applying to the school of computing of MIT if you’re not an amazing student/genius. Be ambitious but realistic.
8. Distribution: Do not only choose schools that are high up the ladder. In the off-chance that you do not get into the top schools in your target list, you should have a plan B. So distribute the schools you are applying to in ambitious, moderate and safe.
9. Network: Talk to people over LinkedIn, Facebook groups, Yocket and other networking sites. These people can be alumni or current students. Compare your profile to theirs and ask them if you are unsure whether your profile will cut it for the school you are targeting. When posting your profile for people to recommend schools, try to research a bit first and give them a list to recommend from instead of asking the name of schools. This not only helps the seniors but also expedites the research process for you.
10. Take help from consultancies: This is not something I will recommend. But if you’re feeling absolutely stuck and none of the networking is helping you, go for it. Be aware that every possibility is there that the consultancy will recommend you some surefire schools whereas you could’ve gotten into much better universities if you researched yourself. Also, they will charge you quite a lot. So be prepared to spend a lump sum amount of money with not so great return for it.

So there you go! If you want to connect over something, please do so on: www.linkedin.com/in/deeprashminath