This is not entirely the teacher’s fault according to me. Teachers are overwhelmed with a bunch of requests for recommendation letters. The students typically give minimal or no information about themselves. They simply go to the teacher an year or two after finishing their college and smile at the teacher asking for an excellent letter that praises them. How can the teacher help you if he/she doesn’t recollect any specific things about you? You can’t expect the teachers to keep a note of all the hundreds of students they teach every year.

The point here is NOT to copy paste recommendation letter from the internet and modifying it like most of the indian students tend to do. Those copied letters are useless as they say nothing about YOU as an individual. They speak of somebody but you.  And if you go straight to your teacher and ask for a letter, you may get nothing but an abstract letter that doesn’t pinpoint to the activities that you did.

Don’t give up. Don’t copy paste. There is an awesome solution to this problem. Take a print out of the document below, fill it with necessary details and give it to your teacher. This will help your teacher/professor write an essay that exactly describes the activies that you actually did and gives precise description your character.  Credit goes to Baylor university.

It’s a parents’ choice

In India, the selection of engineering college is parents decision. Students don’t decide which college they want to join. At the age of 18, having just finished their 12^th, they don’t have enough maturity to choose a college to study engineering. Nor do they have sufficient financial authority to take independent decisions. So parents take an active role during this time. It is entirely parents’ responsibility to find the right college for their ward. So this article is dedicated to the Indian parents searching colleges for their children.

Know your child

The first and foremost thing you should do as a parent is to analyze the psyche of your son/daughter. Understand what your child expects from an engineering college. Not just in the academic angle but in a general view. Find out where you ward wishes to study. Does he/she prefer an urban environment or sub-urban or rural environment. Can he/she stay without you? Do they prefer to stay with parents or do they prefer to stay away from parents to learn to be independent? Does he/she have any regional or cultural preferences? Students from South india take time to adjust to cultural differences in North India and vice versa. Find out if your ward is comfortable with the food change and climate change.

Is public opinion useful?

Asking your neighbors or friends for opinion is a good thing. But they can only tell you which college suits them, they can’t tell which one suits your ward well. Their opinion is personal to their situation and not to yours. Their children may be smarter or dumber than yours. Their expectations from a college may be different from yours.

Rely Newspaper advertisements?

Don’t trust newspapers alone. Advertisements are meant to be advertisements. The very purpose of an advertisement is promotion. Don’t believe whatever is written in advertisements. Nothing can be a better check than a personal inquiry.

Get the inside story

I advice the parents to at least go to the college 2-3 times before deciding to join their ward in a college. Visit the college campus and observe. Don’t do anything else. Simply observe. God has given human beings a wonderful skills of deduction from observation. If you observe the college environment for half an hour or so, you will get a little idea about the college, how it works and about the students’ level of thinking.

Asking students for opinion inside college is a bad idea. Because students would not give your their frank opinion inside the college campus for the fear of talking against the college that holds the education and future career. You may ask students outside the college campus for a frank opinion. It is also a good idea to talk to the parents of students studying in a particular college. Again, asking teachers may not be a good idea. Teachers can’t voice a frank opinion against the colleges for which they are working.

Careful while paying admission fees

Do not pay the admission fees to unauthorized agents. Be sure to pay only to authorized agents registered with the college. I have known a case where parents of student from Bihar have lost 1 lakh rupees by paying to an unauthorized agent in Bihar.

College that fits your budget

Carefully plan your budget and decide whether or not to join your ward to a college. Think long term. Be sure whether you will be able to pay fees for all the 8 semesters in span of 4 years. I have known parents who had to sell their lands to pay fees of their students owing to the lack of forethought about the fees.

Placement is not everything

Career placement is not the only criterion for selecting a college. You should carefully examine the teaching standards of teachers in the college, facilities provided by college for education, food and health.

Make the best use of what is available

And after joining a particular college, you can’t compare the facilities of a particular college with other colleges. Once committed it’s done. You can do nothing complaning about the facilities in the colleges. Try to make the best use of the facilities given by that college.

About the author: Kanniga is a Professor in Bharath University, Chennai. She has a teaching experience of over 10 years. She holds Masters degree in Engineering and Business Administration.(M.E, M.B.A). Professor loves her work as worship. You can ask education related questions to professor via email kannigatruth@yahoo.com

Coming back to the topic,  let me give a disclaimer first. This tip is only useful for those aspirants who have written Statement of Purpose on their own and are ready with a basic draft. I am certainly not a proponent of plagiarism and unoriginality.

The biggest difficulty that an average Indian student faces after having written a basic draft for SOP is polishing it. How to add Business English to it? I mean how to add words that make the essay sound professional, polished and sophisticated? What to write when you run short of ideas to write?

Don’t worry at all. Just get a prospectus book of a University that offers the degree that you wish to pursue. Prospectus Book only. Not an ebook or website of the University. Now go to the pages where there is an explanation for why you should study at that University. This page(s) is very important to you.

Let me explain you with an example how to proceed. Here is a quote from Kingston University”s Business Programme Postgraduate prospectus.

We know that undertaking postgraduate study is a major commitment and we want you to succeed, whether you are hoping to use your qualification to stand out from the crowd when applying for jobs, to help you gain that all-important promotion, or simply to expand your knowledge of a subject that interests you. We pride ourselves on offering you top-quality teaching, support and resources, and are keen to provide you with a programme that suits you and takes into account your work and life commitments.

Now edit these lines and write it from your perspective. Here is what I wrote for starters.

I am committed to undertaking postgraduate study as I wish to stand out from the crowd when applying for jobs. I also wish to expand my knowledge in a subject that interests me — XYZ subject. I believe that ABC programme at your University suits me taking into account my work and life commitments.

I hope you got the point. All the Universities in the world market their study programmes with the help of marketing material and prospectuses. They explain in great detail how an educational degree from their University can benefit you in your professional life. A simple trick is to take inspiration from their ideas and make them yours. The more prospectuses you refer, the more ideas you get, the better. But beware, don’t use the prospectus of the University that you are applying for!

Is this not a KEKA idea?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiK5-oAaeUs

I’m running short of words in praise of this video. See it yourself to experience the feeling of watching a genius speak about Indians and Asians in general.

Highlights of this video:

• Hans Rosling praises Indian students for their hard work and intelligence.
• Predicts precisely the date and time of India’s uprising to match the Income per person in the developed countries.

This video can shut the mouth of all those Indians who rant about under-development in India(including me). All in all, a great source of inspiration for Indians.

Happy Schools Blog

I’ve subscribed to their email newsletter, subscribed to their RSS feed, subscribed them on twitter and added their site to my bookmarks. But I just can’t get enough of what the blog offers. It’s a treasure trove of knowledge and advice for Indian students seeking admission in the USA and for Indian professionals seeking work at the USA. Abbreviated as HSB, Happy Schools Blog has over 800+ articles posted in it. I have read testimonials of hundreds of students who have taken value out of this blog since its inception in 2007. In that blog’s comments, there are stories of hundreds of students who made their journey to the US.

Kudos to the authors of Happy Schools Blog(HSB) to have consistently produced quality material that helped aspirants over last two years. I am not looking for admission in US universities. Technically speaking, HSB is a competitor to Interview Mantra — India. But, that fact doesn’t stop me from publicly lauding them for their work.

HappySchoolsBlog specializes at topics:

• GRE, TOEFL, GMAT Test — Tips, News and Stories.
• Statement of Purpose, Letter of Recommendation — Best practices, dos and donts, samples.
• US University Selection and rankings — produces exhaustive list of universities for various specializations. Compares colleges and reviews university rankings.
• Graduate School Application – covers A to Z of University application process.
• MS program in the US –  discusses sub-topics such as scholarships, OPT, PhD, internship
• MBA program in the US — discusses about what US business schools have got to offer.
• Education and Living Expenses –  detailed analysis of student expenses in the US based on city and state.
• H1-B news and updates — gives weekly updates and advice on H1-B status in the US.
• Job Application and Resume — gives valuable tips on sites such as LinkedIn for job search.
• Answers readers questions — asked by readers on comments and via email.
• Polls and surveys — related to graduate school application. Poll and survey results are pretty useful in making decisions.
• Live chat feature — helps aspirants to ask questions related to graduate school application live.

What I love about HappySchoolsBlog:

• The articles are written in a very simple language that is understandable by Indian students. And usually are short enough to be read in 60 seconds.
• HSB gives a real picture of education at the USA. It doesn’t distort any facts or information like the overseas education agents in India. It presents the information in a no nonsense way.
• Busts myths and rumours of students. Doesn’t encourage fake application and other illegal stuff. HSB never advocates shortcuts. It provokes people to challenge themselves to reach new heights.
• Shares plethora of information about education and living in the USA in the perspective of a common Indian Student. For that reason it ‘s very easy for an Indian student  to understand what issues they are talking about in HSB’s articles.
• Not only covers howto information but also speaks of general topics such as email etiquette while addressing a professor, how to plan education and finances in the US.
• Acts like a virtual guide and mentor to young Indian students. I have seen so many readers thanking HSB through blog comments for inspiring them to get a better GRE Score and get admit in better Universities in the US.
• HSB answers email queries of readers as public blog posts. What is astonishing is their attention to detail while answering specific questions related to education in the US.

In one of their posts, one of the authors of HSB explains the reason why HSB was started:

Students want to study in the US and that’s all they care and most of them don’t even know if the information they hear from friends or family members are correct. With so much misguided information, students make incorrect decision and end up at some university, when they could have opted for much better school.

So, HSB aims to help such students make better choices and saves them from getting into a trap of false hopes and misconceptions. I highly recommend HSB and wish their team a great future ahead!

Pranav Mistry’s curriculum vitae

Last bencher dozing off in a class

Hello everyone, I am Shashikanth and am just like the every other guy you find sitting at the back benches of the class idling his time away playing games on mobile phone, praying desperately for the lecture to end. Now, let me introduce you to my not-so-great academic profile. My highest qualification is a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering in a JNTU affiliated college in Hyderabad with an aggregate of 63.5% with 8 backlogs. So what am I doing here in this blog meant for “studious types” aspirants, eager to improve their skills for facing the dreaded interview?

Believe it or not, I have been given this opportunity to share my experience with you as to how I could score a respectable 1440 in the GRE Test(verbal 650, quant 790). Yes my friends, shocking it is, but I managed to crack GRE with the help of a few simple tips. I am now going to reveal few of my secret tips to get a great GRE score.

1. Fix the most auspicious appropriate date for taking the GRE test

   Generally, students enroll for GRE coaching during their semester break and take up the GRE Test immediately following the coaching classes. The myth being that their level of concentration is at the peak during and right after the coaching classes.So what is the perfect time to take GRE test? I suggest you to take your classes during a semester break and take the exam in the following semester break. Take my case, I took my GRE classes in the 3rd year 1st semester break and took the GRE test during the semester break of 3rd year 2nd semester.But, the truth is that your mind will be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of vocabulary and formulas that are needed to be memorized for the GRE. You may still want to take the test right after the classes and be satisfied with a mediocre score; which am sure would not get you an admission in the “coveted” college that you wanted.

2. Time management both for preparation as well as the main exam

   Time management is very important in GRE as it’s a timed test. You can master how to manage time with regular practice. Hence, prepare a schedule and set apart ample hours of preparation time for quantitative and verbal so as to train yourself to efficiently manage your time in the GRE test.Set your working hours depending upon your learning ability. You can take a break at times, but refrain from playing the computer games and watching TV. Recreational activities such as listening to music or physical activities such as an outdoor sport(badminton) or a refreshing walk, will help you prepare to take more load.In my case, I was more confident about the verbal section than the quantitative. So, I scheduled my preparation all through my semester break giving at least two hours for the preparation and revision of my word lists and more time for the quantitative.

3. Take the verbal very seriously

   Most of my friends prepared only for the quantitative section with the intention of trying out their luck on the verbal. They are of the notion that guessing the answers will get them at least 300 – 350. Fatal Error!! Mark my words; verbal on GRE is not as hard as you think, if you prepare for it the right way. The only way to boost your scores is to prepare equally well for verbal and quantitative as they carry equal marks(800 each). We Indians are inherently good at math, thanks to our high school math syllabus.There is no such thing as syllabus for GRE verbal section. It simply intends to test your reading comprehension and vocabulary. Practice upon the type of questions that you will be tested on. You need to memorize the word lists to get a good score in verbal section. This task can be tedious. Of course, this can be achieved by repetitive learning, but it’s more fruitful if you can find fun ways to stack the words and their meanings in your memory in a different way – such as a small song with rhyming words to remember meanings.You can even convert the sounds of the difficult words into some odd meanings in your mother tongue to make them easier to memorize. Remember, there are no standard mnemonics to learn the word lists, it’s just what suits you the best. I’m a Hyderabadi, so I try to twist the hard words into something funny in my vernacular. For example, I had problems with the words charlatan and mountebank. So I made a mental note of the sound charlatan as something to do with “chalu”, a fraud. Similarly for mountebank I made up a story: one who steals from a bank and hides it in the mountains. Very awkward revealing it, but it surely works.

4. Make your quantitative preparation intensive not extensive

   Firstly, list down the areas where you would be tested upon and then try to do as many problems as possible on those areas. I was extremely poor at math so I made sure it received that extra attention. The Barron’s is the most recommended book for the GRE. It comprises of topics listed under categories where we are likely to be tested on and special notes called “tactics” for explaining the application and the basics to solve any problem quickly. Make sure you complete the Barron’s before attempting the more complicated Kaplan, Cambridge or Princeton.As a final step, make sure you work out the quant database. For those who don’t know, quant database is a regularly updated set of questions from GRE quantitative test that are compiled from the actual takers of the GRE. This means that they are the questions that actually have appeared in the GRE test. In case you are not able to solve these questions, take help from the most responsive community for the GRE on orkut.I took my test on October 19th and I stumbled upon this database only 2 days before the exam and I could work out only the questions posted for the month of October. Believe me folks, I got 3 questions straight out of the database and that saved me an ample amount of time. If you work through the database completely, I’m sure you’d understand the standard of questions in the GRE (the questions are from the actual GRE) and hopefully get some questions out of the database.

5. Promote your preparation to the next level

   The GRE test has now reached a state of saturation. There are innumerable websites and institutes who recommend their own “tested and proven” strategies. A mnemonic that suits a person may not be equally suitable for another. So it is better to try multiple options at hand and choose the best one which is the most suitable to “you”.For example, I have prepared for the GRE wordlists from the GRE KRUPA’s Pictionary’s which served as a visual aid for learning the endless wordlists. You may give this a try.

6. Don’t take your mock test scores to heart

   This is the most important tip that I would like to share with everyone. Don’t feel at ease or be discouraged looking at your scores in the mock test. The legend has it that the mock test scores reflect the actual score that you will get on the GRE. That is baseless; no one knows how the CAT (computer adaptive test) pattern of the GRE evaluates scores.I hadn’t scored anything beyond 1100 in most of the mock tests that I’d attempted. However, mock tests provided me an excellent platform to improve myself in the areas that I was weak. So, take the tests in an optimistic way, learn from your mistakes and try to improve your scores. There are many real life examples of people scoring well on the mock tests and failing on the GRE and vice-versa. Don’t get carried away by those scores.

7. On the day of the exam

   Stop studying on the day before your exam!!! Take a break; you have worked hard enough(hopefully) to earn yourself a well deserved sleep. Go to bed early and wake up early. Don’t try out any last minute reading. Remember to carry your passport and the printout of confirmation letter of your appointment. Avoid driving to the test center as it could be stressful. Ask your friend to drop you at the test center or take an auto. Reach the place at least half an hour early so as to complete all the formalities and take the test without any unnecessary conflicts.

A reminder to all of the GRE takers:

According to the test center rules, you are NOT allowed to carry anything including your hand kerchief or wallet into the test room. You will be provided a safety locker to secure all your valuables. Two sharp pencils and a booklet of 4 pages (8 sides) are provided for your rough work.

All The Best for exam!! Do let me know through comments if these tips helped you.

So how about the rest of the 35%? How do they fund their education?

By doing part-time jobs. Part-time jobs in the US pay on an hourly basis. International students try to fund their living expenses by working in part-time jobs.

Are the international graduate students legally allowed to work part-time jobs?
The international students who hold F-1 visa can’t accept any off-campus employment at anytime during the study. Period. Before discussing about illegal off-campus jobs, let’s review the difference between “illegal and Legal jobs”, the difference is “Legal means paying taxes to the government and following the rules as an F-1 student” where as “Illegal means receiving a pay without paying taxes to the government and breaking rules as an F-1 student”.  If you pay the taxes, the government is aware of what you are doing and if you don’t, yes, you are in a risk. (F-1 is the visa status given to the international students who come to the USA to pursue academic courses).

On-campus jobs
Almost every college and university in the US have part-time jobs for students. To name a few on-campus jobs, Research Assistantship, Teaching Assistantship, college website maintenance, desktop maintenance, campus security personnel, jobs at the university’s international office, university library and college cafeteria. These jobs also called as on-campus jobs and are absolutely legal and safe to work. There is no problem with these jobs as long as the duration of work is 20 hours a week or less while school is in session. Students may be employed full-time during vacations and recess periods as long as they intend to register for the next term. Other legal  jobs include internships, Curricular Program Training(CPT), Optional Practical Training (OPT).

Curricular Practical Training is an opportunity for international students in F-1 status to participate in professional, temporary employment such as an internship or similar situation, prior to the completion of studies.^[6] Optional Practical Training is an opportunity to get professional work experience which will enhance their overall educational experience in the US.  OPT can be obtained for off-campus employment and/or practical training completed prior to (pre-completion) or beginning after (post-completion) the completion of studies.^[6] CPT is compulsory part of curriculum whereas OPT is optional.

OPT, CPT programs grant legal authorization to work in professional off-campus jobs.  After the graduation, one can work full time or part-time with F-1 student status on OPT (Optional Program Training). OPT starts 2 months after the completion of graduation.

Off-campus jobs
There are also a lot of part-time jobs available outside college/university at external agencies. Such as jobs at malls, restaurants, gas stations, etc., These jobs are also called as off-campus jobs. It is illegal for international students(holding F-1 visa) to work in these jobs. Since most of the students come to the US with the desire to earn money and supplement family support or enjoy with that money by leading a luxurious life in the USA until the end of the graduation, Indian students tend to look for off-campus part-time jobs which are relatively easier to manage.

How much money do on-campus vs off-campus jobs fetch students
If its TA/RA they get about $12-15/hr with a waiver for 3 course credits. It will be for a semester or for an year(mostly for PhD but not always). This is because some courses are taken by only few students and if you are the first person in the ranking of class then you can get a TA. On-campus minimum wage is $8/hr and will be till $15.

Off-campus jobs pay just about the minimum wage as per the Fair Labor Standard act. It depends upon the state where you reside, approximately around 7$/hr.

Ease of finding an off-campus job vs on-campus job
The most common complaint against on-campus jobs by the students is that, they are hard to find and that they don’t allow students to work for enough time to be able to pay their bills.

Whereas off-campus jobs are ubiquitous. The US being an international hub for businesses attracts a lot of businessmen from Asia. They own motels, restaurants, fast food centers, sub-ways, pizza huts, conventional stores, gas stations etc. These owners are in constant need for some young people who are ready to manage their stores at minimum wages. They don’t prefer to employ natives because of the fear of being dominated by the natives. And another reasons for favoring Asians over natives, is because of the image of Asians for being more hardworking and less complaining.

Indian students tend to choose to work for Indian owners to keep themselves safe from the being caught. Indians students have a confidence for that their owner would support them in case something wrong happens.

Chances and consequences of getting caught
There is only one type of security in the USA who handle the illegal duties done by F-1 students. They are the “Home Land Security”.  The US department of Police doesn’t involve in the issues of F-1 visa holders. Even if cops come to know about illegal activities by F-1 students they delegate the issue to the Home Land Security.

There is a general notion among students that “Home Land Security is not strict. And tries not to involve much in these matters until an F-1 student is caught red-handed.” Chaitanya, a grad student from California supports this notion, says, “The chances of getting caught may increase only when a mishap occurs at the place you work.”

The chances of being caught are low. But the consequences of getting caught are extremely severe. There are no further steps to proceed with except that the student’s visa gets canceled and gets deported to their country of origin.

Incident of getting caught
I have known an Indian student who got caught red handed working in an off-campus job at a gas station. He was immediately deported to Canada and was asked to undergo a visa interview for entry to the US.

He had admitted his breaking of the rules and had promised that he would not repeat such violations. He pleaded guilty telling the visa officer that he had to take up off campus job to be able to repay his loan.

The visa officer had warned him that they would put a red stamp on the student’s visa and deport him to India. The visa officer was kind enough to let that student resume his study at the USA. But this is just a case where the boy was lucky. There is no guarantee that you would be acquitted if you were caught working in an illegal part-time job.

Fred, a top contributor at Yahoo Answers on the topic Immigration reacts:
“You need to quit your off-campus employment before you get caught, arrested and deported. Don’t you believe that it is foolish to jeopardize your education by making your self deportable?

In addition to being foolish, you are very unethical. You have knowingly violated the terms of your admission. When you applied for your F-1 visa, you submitted documentation attesting to the fact that you had sufficient funds to support yourself while in school without needing to accept employment. Did you deceive the visa officer?”^[2]

Off-campus jobs and academics:
In the US, grad school are geek schools and any one who attends them are considered as a scholar. Grad students are looked at as matured and independent individuals. So they are easily considered for off-campus jobs. But on the flip side, grad students are loaded so much with courses that they wouldn’t be able to spare even 10 hours a week for a part-time job. So off-campus jobs undoubtedly affect students’ academics.

Conclusion:
Graduate student life is precious, instead of studying for your masters degree, doing an illegal part-time job is certainly a bad choice. In master’s you learn a lot of things. Doing illegal part-times could ruin your learning and hamper your career opportunities.

If you came all the way from India to the US to really study, then you better focus on learning. It’s not in your best interests to find ways to earn quick buck. If you are poor, then try for getting Good score in G.R.E and try to get admission in a good university with some funding. If you think that you cannot pay your tuition fee, then try to get some internship and work for projects through which you can earn practical experience and also money. And remember that there is a special provision for students to apply for permission for working off campus jobs in case of unforeseen financial hardship.^[3]

Don’t ever misuse your F-1 status.

References:

1. International Students in the USA
2. Yahoo Answers – F1 student work off-campus
3. F-1 Student economic hardship employment
4. USCIS – Students and Employment
5. Core77.com – Can I work part time while study at US
6. Gannon University – Employment Benefits for International Students in F-1 status

We have taken a lot of efforts to furnish accurate information. In case errors have crept in, or wrong facts have been presented, feel free to point the mistake by writing it in the comments.

This image is attributed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

This university that I am writing about is claimed to be the oldest International University in the world. Constructed in 427 AD in an Indian city that has got religious importance of Buddhism. A city which has got very ancient history and goes back to the days of Mahavira and Buddha in sixth and fifth centuries BC.

Can you guess the name of this university? Didn’t get it yet, read on for more clues.

This university boasts to be the largest residential university in the world accommodating 10,000 students in an academic year, taught by 2,000 learned professors.

Has a sprawling campus of this university,  spread across 16 square kilometers. It also has a community kitchen with meticulously planned infrastructure. It had 8 monastic building with 300 apartments.  The apartments contained single and double bedroom cells for students. The university is considered as an architectural master piece. It had eight separate compounds and ten temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms.

The library building at this university had nine storeys with hundreds of thousands of volumes related to science and religion.

This university was the greatest monastic-cum-educational institution for oriental art and learning in the whole Buddhist world, attracting students from like Hiuen Tsang and I-Tsing from China and other distant countries such as Japan, Singapore, Greece.

Various subjects such as theology, grammar, logic, astronomy, medicine, meta physics and philosophy were taught there. This university was the cradle of Buddhist civilization during that times.

To gain admission to the university, the entrants will have to answer difficult questions posed by the erudite guards of the university. On an average only 2-3 among 10 would be admitted into this university.

The alumnus of this university gain a celebrity status for all their life along with the education imparted by scholars. The students of this university lead a very disciplined and regarded as  ideal to be followed by Buddhists all over the world.

Here goes the final clue – this university is located in a city near Patna in Bihar, India. I am pretty sure you might have got it by now.

See this youtube video below describing more about the university.

Nalanda (Hindi:नालंदा) means “insatiable in giving”. An inscribed seal was found in the excavations at the site which read Sri-Nalandamahavihari-Arya-Bhikshu-Sanghasya (Hindi:श्री नालंदा महाविहार आर्य भिक्षु संघस्य).

This university is believed to be sacked and burnt by troupes sent by then military general, Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193 AD. So extensive was the library that the burning of books in the library continued for several months. That was a tragic end for such a great university. So, our generation doesn’t have the fortune of  studying in this university, but…

There are plans to build a modern university with the name Nalanda University near that site. In 2006, it was reported that China, India, Japan and other nations had come forward to raise funds of $500 to build a new post-graduate research university.

It would be such a pride to study in a university revived at that site. What do you think about it? Comment below whether or not you would like to study in a university in future, if it gets built.

References:

1. Wikipedia article on Nalanda
2. Excavated remains of Nalanda – UNESCO World Heritage Center

Below, I have listed five of the common but weird reasons for which people come to study in the UK .

1. Dowry

   Many Indian families wish to give their daughters to a person who has studied overseas or holds a good job overseas. Overseas tag when attached to a bachelor’s profile increases his “market-value” in the marriage circles and fetch him a lot of money as dowry. Take the case of my roommate who thinks it’s absolutely worthless studying here in the UK. He enjoys his life most of the time than study. One day, I got a chance to speak to his father. I told him about my concern about his son’s future. His response was a bit unexpected. He coolly said, “Don’t worry beta, let him enjoy his life. I have everything planned for him when he gets back to India. I’ve arranged a girl for him in my community. Her father is going to pay 30 million rupees as dowry as he studied in the UK.” I was like whoa man I should have a dad like that.

2. Sham Marriage

   This is one of the desperate reason for which people come to study in the UK. Acquiring permanent citizenship in the UK takes a long time. For an outsider, it takes at least 10 years, that too after satisfying the complex point system to qualify as a citizen. But there are some loop holes by which immigrants can get a permanent citizenship in less than 5 years. The most prominent loop hole is a sham marriage. This is an agreement of marriage between a British or an European Union citizen and an non European immigrant. Few students come to the UK with the sole reason of settling in this country quickly to enjoy the benefits of being a British passport holder.

3. Dependent Visa

   Work permit in the UK is not so easy to get when you apply it from India. But, there are ways by which people can legally work full time in the UK. One such prominent way for married couples is the dependent visa scheme. One of the person from the couple especially the girl comes to the UK as a student and applies for dependent visa of her fiance. Once he gets into the country, it will be comparatively easy for him to get a job and settle here. The husband of the girl about whom I had mentioned above, is now doing a full time job as a sales assistant in a retail clothing outlet earning around 2000 pounds a month.

4. Part time work

   Minimum wage level in the UK is 5.73£ p/hr which is equivalent to around 400 Indian rupees. For people who are keen in earning money and have an average academic scores tend to come to the UK on a student visa. With part time jobs being not too hard to find, people tend to look out for earning more working odd jobs rather than studying.

5. To be one of them

   This might seem a little out of context, but is definitely true. With a lot of western culture already imbibed, a modern Indian always fancies being one of the westerners. This might not be the sole reason of coming to the UK, but it is definitely one of the subconscious reasons. This inner desire becomes profound after landing in the UK. People tend to change their way of speaking, dressing sense, eating habits and also some of the cultural habits like clubbing, one night stands, binge drinking and drugs to mingle with Westerners and eventually adopt to be one of them.