1. What is the GRE ? What are the important things that I need to know
about GRE ?
The GRE or Graduate Record Examination is a standardized aptitude
test offered by a private educational testing and measurement organization
known as ETS (Educational Testing Services). This examination
is designed to measure the candidate’s aptitude for graduate
study. It is the most widely used test in theUnited States2. There are two
forms of the GRE:
• GRE General Test : The general test specifically measures the
candidate’s verbal, quantitative and analytical writing aptitude. The
test is now most commonly offered in a computer-based format
instead of the older paper-based format. (See next question for a
more detailed description)
• GRE Subject Test : The subject tests are designed to test a candidate’s
knowledge of the subject matter in a particular discipline
extensively. Subject tests are offered in the following 8 disciplines:
Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, English Literature,
Mathematics, Physics and Psychology. Some universities
require these subject test scores in addition to the general test
when applying to the Ph.D. program. Even if the test is not required,
getting a good score in this test will definitely strengthen
your application.
2. What kind of questions do the different sections of the GRE general
test carry ?
All questions in the general test are multiple-choice questions. The detailed
descriptions are available at the GRE official site as referenced in
the last question, but for the sake of completeness, I reproduce them
here with little modification:
(a) Verbal: The verbal section measures your ability to analyze and
evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from
it, to analyze relationships among component parts of sentences,
to recognize relationships between words and concepts, and to reason
with words in solving problems. There is a balance of passages
across different subject matter areas: humanities, social sciences,
and natural sciences.
(b) Quantitative: The quantitative section measures your basic mathematical
skills, your understanding of elementary mathematical
concepts, and your ability to reason quantitatively and solve problems
in a quantitative setting. There is a balance of questions requiring
arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis. These are
content areas usually encountered in the 9th-12th standard curricula.
(c) Analytical Writing: The analytical writing section tests your critical
thinking and analytical writing skills. It assesses your ability to
articulate and support complex ideas, analyze an argument, and
sustain a focused and coherent discussion. It does not assess specific
content knowledge.
3. When should I take the GRE ?
The answer to this question, as you would expect, depends on what
semester you want to apply for. Going by estimated deadlines, if you
are applying for the Fall, I would recommend that you write GRE at the
latest by October. I say this because this gives you enough time to concentrate
on the other parts of the application which are almost equally,
if not more, important than GRE scores. If you are applying for Spring,
you should have finished with the GRE by June at the latest. Make sure
that you are aware of the available test dates at the center where you
plan to take the test and schedule the test well in advance.
4. How do I register for the GRE ?
If you have a credit card that you can use for paying the GRE test fee,
the easiest way to register for the GRE is online - either at the official
GRE website or at the Thomson Prometric website , or even by
calling the test center where you want to register. However, if you do
not have a credit card, you can use a certified check or money order to
pay but you then have to mail that to the Regional Registration Center
where you plan to take the test
5. How long does it take for ETS to report to the GRE scores to the first 4
universities ? What about after that ?
According to ETS’s official policy, score reports are mailed to you and
the 4 institutions, if you designate them on the day of the test, approximately
10-15 days after you take the test. I think we can safely assume
the same duration for reporting the scores to new institutions as well,
since it is completely electronic now. However, the scorecard is sent out
to you personally via regular mail and, as such, you may not receive it
until 3-4 weeks after your test. In order to report additional scores, use
the Additional Score Reporting form which is available - with detailed
instructions - at the GRE official website.
6. Can I apply for admission anytime during the year ?
No. Most universities in the U.S. accept applications only two times in
a calendar year. Before we discuss that, let me give you a brief breakdown
of the academic year as. The academic year is usually divided
into 4 semesters - Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. The semesters are
usually 13 weeks long but this is not a hard and fast constraint. The Fall
semester starts somewhere between August and September and ends in
late December or early January. The Spring semester starts in January
and ends inMay. The Summer semester starts in lateMay or early June
and ends just before the Fall semester begins. Not all universities have
a Winter semester but if they do, it is a very short semester squeezed
between the Fall and the Spring semesters. The semesters correspond
very roughly with the eponymous seasons.
Now on to the actual answer of this question. Most universities will accept
admission applications for the Fall and the Spring semesters of the
academic year. Please beware, the some universities only entertain applications
for the Fall semester.
7. What are the deadlines for applying in Spring ? In Fall ?
This is one of the silliest questions that I see asked around. Let me answer
this one final time: Each university has its own deadlines for applications
for the two semesters. There is no one deadline. If you want
to find deadlines for specific universities, please consider using a very
well known invention called Google. Find the website of the university,
go to the section for prospective students and you will find all the deadlines
listed there, along with almost all information that you could ever
require. In general, please consider doing a little bit of research yourself
before asking others.
If you still need a very general idea of the deadlines, Fall semesters usually
have an application deadline of mid December or early January,
whereas Spring deadlines are usually in August or September.
8. Is there any difference between applying for the Fall semester and the
Spring semester ?
Yes, there is absolutely a difference between those two semesters. The
academic year in allUnited States universities begins with the Fall semester.
Therefore, most assistantship and fellowship positions also begin at around
the same time. In fact, some universities (line mine, for example) do not
even entertain Spring applications unless you can demonstrate mitigating
circumstances or you are an existing student. In short, if you are
applying for the Spring semester you have the following disadvantages:
• You are applying in the middle of the academic year when the number
of admits granted is definitely lower than in the Fall.
• Financial aid for the Spring semester is very rare.
• This is relatively unimportant but since the academic year starts in
the Fall, all the core courses are offered mostly in the Fall. This may
cause a little problem with planning your coursework.
Therefore, my advice is to apply in the Fall unless there are some exceptional
circumstances and you cannot help it.
9. What will I need for my application, besides standardized test scores ?
Every university has detailed and specific guidelines in their application
brochure about the documents that they will need you to submit with
the application. However, it is good to have a general idea of the sort
of documents that are usually needed for an application to be deemed
complete. Here is a list:
• College Transcripts: A transcript is another name for a marksheet
provided by your college or university at the end of each semester,
that lists in detail the courses taken and the grades obtained in
these courses. You are allowed to send notarized copies of your
transcripts with the application. The admission will then be contingent
upon your providing the original transcripts when you join.
Another point is that since you will usually send out your applications
before you have graduated from your college, it is okay to
provide the marksheets only up to that semester. However, you will
need to provide the rest when you join.
• Letters of Recommendation: Most universities require you to provide
three letters of recommentation. The faculty members in your
department are the best people to ask for these letters. However, if
you did an internship at another institution or corporation, getting
a letter from your mentor or supervisor would be a big plus. Some
universities will provide actual recommendation forms that you
may get filled out by your references, in lieu of letters. In general,
a good letter of recommendation would touch upon not only your
academic achievements but also your analytical and problem-solving
skills and preferable provide some anecdotal examples.
• Statement of Purpose: This will possibly turn out to be the most
important document in your application. A statement of purpose
can best be described as a document for your academic past and
the future. It should clearly describe why you chose your particular
acadmic discipline, why you are interested in pursuing graduate
study in that discipline ir why you are interested in a different
discipline than the one you did your bachelor’s degree in. It should
also clearly outline the ideas you have about what you would like to
do and what you are interested in researching. It is very important
that these ideas and interests mesh with the interests of a group of
a faculty member at that university, which you should find out and
mention in the statement. You should also read some of the research
that the group or the faculty member has published in conferences
and journals to find out more about the kind of research
that they do and the direction that it is headed in. This will help
you immensely.
• Financial Support Statement: Another important document is the
financial support statement. This is usually in the shape of a form
provided with the application. In this document, you will usually
provide declare your financial assets to show that you will be able
to support the first year of your graduate education at the university.
You will probably need to provide notarized bank statements
along with this statement. However, it is entirely possible that you
may not need to submit this until you have been granted an admission
to the university. It usually depends upon the university
admission policy.
10. How do I prepare the financial support statement ? Why is it important ?
The financial support statement is a declaration of your financial assets
to prove to the admissions committee of a university that you will be
able to support yourself during your graduate study program. However,
it is not the case that you will necessarily have to declare enough assets
to cover the entire cost of the first year. It is actually up to you what you
want to do here. There is usually a question on the application asking
something along the lines of “Will you be able to attend this university
if you are not provided any financial aid ?” If you answer that question
in the affirmative, you should show as many assets as possible in the
financial statement so that they will see that you can support yourself
during your stay there. However, if you say “no” to that question, then
they know that your acceptance of the admission offer is contingent on
provision of financial aid and they will not put as much emphasis on the
financial statement.
The reason the financial statement is so important is because it is essential
to procure what is commonly known as the I-20 form. The Certificate
of Visa Eligibility for Nonimmigrant F-1 Student Status is commonly
known as the I-20. This is the document issued by a university
through the internet-based Student and Exchange Visitor Information
System (SEVIS) for presentation at the U.S. embassy to apply for an F-1
Student visa; it must also be presented to an immigration official upon
entry into the U.S. In short, you will not get a visa without an I-20 and
you will only get an I-20 if you satisfy the financial constraints. Therefore,
the financial statement is critical to the application process.
11. How do I decide which universities to apply to ?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions and the answer is
not as straightforward as you would like it to be. This is one of the
highly subjective questions that you will be encountering as your proceed
through the application process. Before we talk about the factors
that should influence your decision, let me provide a few useful sources
of information about Graduate Schools in the US:
• US News Rankings: Every year, the periodical US News & World
Report comes out with their rankings of US Graduate Schools categorized
by the various disciplines. These rankings are based on
factors such as the number of graduating PhD students, the number
of permanent faculty members, and the amount obtained by
the faculty in research grants etc. It is important to note that these
rankings are not the only rankings out there. These are just relatively
more comprehensive and more trusted rankings than the
other ones. Only the general rankings are usually available for free.
If you want detailed rankings in your own discipline, they are usually
just a google-search away. If you cannot find them, email me
and I will try and get them for you.
• PhDs.org: This is a very useful website based on the graduate
school statistics provided by the National Research Council.
The one really good thing about this website is that you can actually
use the interactive rankings formto generate rankings according
to your own criteria. This comes in handy when you want to
weight things like financial aid much higher than other factors.
• USEFI Centers: USEFI(United States Education Foundation in India)
[12], also known as the Fulbright Commission, is an organization
that was started in 1950 for the purpose of promoting academic
exchanges between India and the United States. They are
headquartered in Connaught Place in New Delhi and have offices
in the other 3 metropolitan cities aswell. They have detailed guides
about all USUniversities and also hold various seminars about finding
fellowships and scholarships for your graduate study in the US.
I would definitely recommend doing some serious research in their
offices for coming up with a preliminary list of the universities.
OK, nowthatwe have resources for you to find out information about all
the universities, let’s talk about what all should factor in your thinking:
• Research interests: It is important to understand that the programs
of graduate study in the US thatwe are talking about here - M.S and
Ph.D. - entail research. You should have a clear idea of the areas in
your discipline that intrigue you and that you are interested in exploring
further. If the only reason you want to do an M.S. is to get
a more lucrative software engineering or programming, this might
not turn out to be important for you during your M.S but you will
certainly need it to get admitted. Your statement of research (also
known as the statement of purpose) should be very well focused
and plainly describe your reasons for pursuing graduate study. You
might be able to secure an admission with aweak SOP, but certainly
not financial aid.
Once you have your research interests decided, find the universities
that do good research in these areas, get lots of grants for the
same and also hire a lot of students in these labs. Use the above resources
and also try and contact other students from your college
that have gone to the US, since they may have a better idea about
these things.
• Test Scores: Test scores are not the sole deciding factor in your admission,
as most people think. They are certainly important as
they indicate your aptitude for graduate study, but that’s all they
are - an indication. If you get too low of a score, you will certainly
have problems getting into the relatively higher-ranked universities.
Getting an extremely good score will help. However, If you
are in the relatively upper percentile range of, say 1400-1500, your
exact score does not matter. Yes, that’s right. Once you are in that
range, it is all the same.
The only part TOEFL scores play is to determine your English speaking
and comprehension skills. If you test in the right range, their
work is over. If you test too low, however, universities may admit
you only on the condition that youwill attend some English classes
once you get to the U.S.
• Alumni: I would suggest that you strongly consider universities
where students fromprevious batches of your college have secured
admission and financial aid. Chances are that if they have admitted
students from the past and have been generally satisfied with
their quality, they will almost certainly admit you as well.
• Geographic factors: Sometimes it is also important to consider the
location of the university that you are considering applying to. Industries
concentrated in particular states tend to hire heavily from
the universities around them. For example, Dell - which is based in
Austin, Texas, hires a lot of engineers from Texas A&M University,
University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas at Arlington.
If you are interested in automotive engineering, consider applying
close to Detroit, where the Big Three (Ford, General Motors and
Chrysler) are based. Similarly, Maxtor - a hard-drive and storage
appliance corporation based in Denver - hires engineers from University
of Colorado at Boulder.
I think that about sums up the not-so-short answer to this oft asked
question.
12. How do I prepare for that infernal Verbal section of the GRE ?
Another very common question for Indian students and also another
very subjective question. Each and every one of us has a different way
of learning new things and so there can’t be any one way for all of us to
prepare. I think the best thing I can do here is to outline the way that I
prepared for this section and hopefully a lot of you will get some good
pointers and direction.
(a) It’s all about the roots: Blindly stuffing the meaning of words into
your brain by going through some list is the worst way to prepare
for this section. You will have to remember an unmanageably large
chunks of information. As engineers, you should realize that if you
can remember words together as groups, the storage efficiency will
be much higher. The easiest way to remember groups of words is
to via their etymology, or the way that the word originated. If you
remember the roots, you will be able to infer the meaning of even
a completely new word that you encounter for the first time. Let’s
look at an example. Consider the word euthanasia. If you learn
the roots of this word, you will learn that:
• eu- is a Greek root, meaning “good”
• -thanasia is derived from the Greek “Thanatos” who was the
god of death.
Therefore, the complete word means “good death”, which is what
we know. Now, say you come across the word thanatophobic. Chances
are that you have not seen this word before. No need to panic !
Roots will always help you out:
• We know that thanato- refers to “death”.
• Everyone knows (or should know) that -phobic means “someone
afraid of something”.
Therefore, this adjective refers to someone afraid of dying. Voila !
A very good book which emphasizes learning the roots of words is
Word PowerMade Easy by Norman Lewis .
(b) Flash Cards: Another very popular and effective method is using
flash cards for writing down words and their meanings. I used flash
cards to write down not only the different meanings but also examples
of usage for particularly difficult words. I went through them
every night and everymorning.
(c) Read, Read and Read: I know that most people begin GRE preparations
with a short window of time but if you are smart enough to
be starting a year or 2 years early, the one thing that I cannot stress
enough is the importance of reading. It may be newspapers or periodicals,
sports or automotive magazines, fiction novels. classic
literature or anything else with a relatively richer vocabulary that
you enjoy reading. Just reading will not help you prepare, however.
The point is that anytime you come across a word that you have not
seen before or do not remember, look it up right there and then in
the dictionary and enter it on a flash card along with the usage. At
the end of the day, force yourself to write a paragraph in which you
use every new word that you came across today. This turned out to
be very useful for me.
(d) Practice Makes Perfect: For certain questions like Reading Comprehension
exercises, all of the above will certainly help you but
you must keep practicing. You know what else helps with RCs?
General Reading !! If you are able to read, say, today’s editorial and
understand the premise behind and also the arguments the author
makes to support or disprove that premise, you will have no problems
with these kind of questions.
13. How do I decide on the list of universities to which I have to send the
GRE scores at the end of the test ?
Do not, by any means, consider this as a casual exercise. Ideally, you
should have already decided on your list of universities before you take
the GRE and so you can choose 4 from that list. However, we know that
since GRE scores are a big factor in selecting the universities, most people
do not have such a list. The straightforward solution is to have multiple
lists. Make 3 lists of universities - one that you really want to apply
to provided you get a great GRE score, one that you will apply to if
you get average scores and the last fall back list which you use only if
you screw up the test very badly. The US News and PhDs.org rankings
explained above should be instrumental in helping you create these 3
lists. Doing it this way means extra work but it also means that you use
test fees more efficiently by applying to the right universities.
14. I did not do aswell on the GRE I had expected. Should I retake the test
or apply with my current scores ?
This is a tricky question. Assuming you can afford to retake the test
and the dates are available, there are a couple of other criteria that you
should keep in mind when making this decision:
(a) Do you have enough time ?
If the first time you took your GRE was already kind of cutting it
close (late October or so), you will have little time to do any more
substantial preparation.
(b) Will it help ?
If the reason your first test did not go so well was because of poor
time management or factors other than lack of preparation, retaking
the test might make more sense. However, you should take
steps to ensure that the same factors do not appear the second time
you take the test. So, if the cause was, say, lack of time management
then you should do more practice with actual timed tests to
make sure that you figure out how to best manage those precious
minutes. If it was silly mathematical mistakes, practicing will help
there as well.
15. If I decide to take the test again, which scores will be reported ?
The official ETS policy [15] is to report all the scores that you have obtained
in the past 5 years. Not the best of the bunch and certainly not
the average. Of course, the university you are applying to might have its
own policy on how to normalize scores for students who have taken the
test more than once and these policies are not known. If I had to guess, I
would say that they would consider the latest scores as the official ones.
16. What is the difference between applying for an MS and applying for a
PhD? The eligibility criteria for both the degrees seem to be the same ?
I have been getting this question a lot in the past few weeks. A PhD
and and an MS are two very different things. Even though the eligibility
criteria (usually specified in terms of minimum GRE & TOEFL scores
and minimum GPA) are the same for the both, that’s where almost all
the similarity ends. Let me break down the differences that I think are
important:
• Research: The biggest difference is what you are actually expected
to contribute in terms of research.
A PhDor aDoctor of Philosophy was originally awarded to a learned
individualwho had achieved the approval of his peers and who had
demonstrated a long and productive career in the field of his/her
choice. It indicated that this individual had dedicated his life to
learning and to the acquisition and spread of knowledge. I can
safely argue that the expectations of a PhD aspirant are not very
different in today’s world. You are expected, as a PhD candidate, to
come up with an original idea in your field and carry out novel research
based on that idea. To this end, you are required to produce
and defend a thesis or a dissertation, that documents your idea,
all your experiments towards the exploration of that idea and the
conclusions that you reached. Remember that the keyword here is
original.
For an MS, the research contribution is usually substantially lower.
As an MS student, you might also be required to write an MS thesis
but that does not necessarily need to be inspired by original research.
You are allowed to, for example, take an already existing
idea and propose somemodifications or revisions to it.
• Qualifying examination: Another important difference, partially
related to the point I made above, is in the official requirements of
the degree. The coursework for an MS and a PhD is usually comparable,
but for a PhD, you need to pass a qualifying examination
that usually test your knowledge of your research area. Qualifiying
examinations or quals may be written or oral. The written examinations
are quite comprehensive and thorough. You are usually
given 2 chances to pass these examinations. Oral examinations
usually take the form of Q&A session where you answer the questions
put to you by a committee.
On the other hand, for an MS, all you usually need to do is take the
prescribed amount of coursework and write a thesis. As I said, the
amount of coursework involved in an MS might be comparable to
that for a PhD, depending on the program requirements.
• Admission Criteria: The eligibility criteria may be the same for
both the applications but an admissions committee will consider
different factors when choosing PhD students, as opposed to MS
students. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to say what these
factors may be in either case. All I can tell you is that when you are
applying for a PhD, your aptitude for research is the primary factor.
Indicators for this aptitude may include prior research experience,
technical publications and letters of recommendation from
faculty members at your undergraduate institution. Of course, the
same aptitude will be a factor when you apply for an MS but I believe
that it might not be the primary one. Other things such as
academic credentials, work experience and GRE scores might be
weighted higher in that case.
• Employment: I was once told my by advisor that the PhD degreeholders
are the ones that actually solve a problem and MS degreeholders
are the ones that implement that solution. I don’t quite
agree with such a black-and-white demarcation of responsibilities,
but I think it a decent approximation to the real world. If you graduate
with an MS, your primary responsibilities will include implementation
and development as opposed to solving problems or
coming up with new ideas. I think an example always illustrates
this distinction better. My former roommate graduated with an MS
in Computer Engineering and his research was in Computer Architecture.
He has now been at the AMD Design Validation & Verification
team for 2.5 years and works on verification of processor designs.
It does not entail a lot of original research but it is certainly
not just programming, either. He has to use concepts from VLSI
design, data structures and computer architecture and apply them
to his work. The actual processor design, however, was conceived
by a team of scientists whose members, most probably, hold PhDs
in their respective fields.
17. Since PhD applicants have a higher chance of getting financial aid
compared to MS students, can I apply for a PhD and then just leave
with an MS ?
This is another common question. The answer is an unequivocal and
emphatic NO. The primary reason is that this would be completely unethical.
You are defrauding the professor who will most probably fund
your graduate studies out of his grant money while under the impression
that you will be contributing to original research and publications
with him. Another thing to think about would be that most universities
do NOT provide the option to get a terminalMasters’ degree if you drop
out of the PhD program, so if you do leave it would be with nothing.
However, if you do want to do a PhD in the future but you are not sure
whether you want to do it from the same university where you are applying
for an MS, feel free to mention this in your SOP.
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