Jun 8, 2012

Must Read:Higher Ed Roadmap!


So, the grand finale of your B.Tech life is getting closer every day, and everybody is busy saying goodbyes and trying to have one last shot of college life before it all turns into sweet memories of some of the best days of our life...

Here are some ten-things you can squeeze in-between while the apocalypse nears... if you plan to do Masters or some other higher education. Even if you don't just do these 'coz you never know when these will come in handy!




Get all your papers and their certificates.

Because in the end, certificates are all that matters boss, clear as much of "supplys" you can, correct all those mark-sheets if the university somehow messed up any figures, don't wait for college to get over, do it now and get ready for that final piece of paper that turns you into..... just another engineer among the millions in India :P



Get as many Letter of Recommendations as you can.

Get as many as you can... In all forms and shapes and sizes. Because you never know what fits whom. I'm sure not many of your professors are gonna sign off whatever acts of academic bravado you have put in your LOR as authentic... Hell I don't think all of them are gonna give you an LOR in the first place even :D So, get those LORs, the good ones, and get the contact numbers and mail ids of those benevolent professors who agreed to vouch for you despite.... you know! Also prepare a 'general' LOR so that you can produce it for more than one course.



Get all the official documents from your college.

By this I mean conduct certificate, migration etc. Also don't forget to get back your tenth and Plus two certificates if you were forced to give them at the time of joining.



Get the most important document after your degree certificate: the transcript.

Most foreign universities don't accept the mark sheets for individual semesters from your university. Instead they ask for the transcript of marks. The transcript is a consolidated mark-sheet that tells us what all subjects you took and how did you score through the whole eight semesters at one look. Transcripts are usually single page documents on a university letterhead.
As far as I know, M.G university and most other Indian universities requires you to prepare the transcript on your own in the prescribed format, put it on a C.D and produce it with all the supporting mark list copies after applying for transcript at the university office.

Don't get scared at the sound of this, it is most probable that the DTP centre in front of your university will do this for you for a small fee. Apply for this along with your application to issue degree certificate.


By this time, you will be at home.... either wondering what to do now without the faintest of clues, or rabidly facebooking away alll your time. Any way there is gonna be one day when you finally get borred with both and decide to do something about it. :)


And that is the day we start part two....

Get yourself a passport, PAN Card and all those umpteen cards.
And be careful not to mess up the procedures of any of these, like the passport especially. Applying for passport and then 'accidentally' missing the police verification or anything are the last thing you want to do.



Get all the government documentations ready.
Cross check all your old but still important documents like birth certificate, etc and see your name spells the same everywhere. If possible get documents from your village office proving residency etc. Never know these will come in handy.

Prepare yourself for GRE/TOEFEL/IELTS or whatever.
First decide which of these is necessary for you depending on which part of the globe you are targeting. Keep in mind that for applying for the above exams, you need to produce a copy of your passport.

Open a new e-mail account and dedicate it for course hunting.

Use this inbox for official communications with universities only; which means no stupid ids also. It should preferably be your name with normal characters and preferably on gmail . And for gods sake avoid cluttering the inbox with all sorts of spam by registering for all sorts of free Facebook t-shirts and other sites... you know :D



Upload all scanned copies of these certificates and documents to the Google docs account associated with your new id so that these are always accessible from anywhere.

Prepare the killer Statement Of Purpose and C.V.

You get lots of templates on-line but its best you write one for your own, and try to be as convincing as possible about the fact that 'the sole intention of you joining the course is your un-quenchable thirst for knowledge, and that you have no plans to stay back in that country for job since you will be very busy contributing to and serving mother India after the course'!!.......... :D 
This depends, since some countries may actually want you to stay sometime after you complete the course. So just get a good SOP. Keep in mind that big time lying will screw you up big time in the future so keep it real.
Prepare a small general purpose resume' and C.V that is quite detailed and that which can be modified for specific courses. Keep these also in your Google docs account.



Now you are almost ready. Get out there, and start firing your applications far and wide.


Oh, and by the way don't 'acccidentally' mix up applications and screw yourself..... Believe me, Shit Happens :D



ALL THE BEST FOLKS!

By Sharath with 1 comment

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