• M.E/M.Tech - post-graduate degree (2 years) - India
• M.S - graduate degree (2 years) - USA
• M.A.Sc - graduate degree (2 years) - Canada
• M.E. - post-graduate degree (1 year) - UK

1. Doing research could help you to get some assistantships to help you pay for your tuition fees.
2. You could contribute something to the world of science.
3. You could end up making the world a better place (by indirectly helping someone)- for ex: if you are able to create an artificial eye for the blind there will be so many people benefited (and such things products of research).
4. You could work in the R&D (Research and Development) department of companies (trying to invent or improve upon products).
5. All through your undergraduate degree you would hardly have done anything practical (most students don’t!) and if you are going to do the same theoretical work in your Master’s degree….well….it’s not much fun, is it?

Research is an integral part of a Masters program (of course, ultimately it depends on your interest. If you aren’t interested, you could just do your daily work and earn your degree but rarely will you see students follow this path). Research opportunities mainly exist in Canada and US (if you study in the UK, unless you go for a Ph.D. course you will probably not have any research - though you will have a couple of projects). Will an MS help me get a job? Well, it again depends on you. Just because you’ve earned an MS doesn’t mean that you’ll be offered a job immediately. There would be the advantage of having specialized (sometimes it can be a disadvantage as well. Suppose you are an ECE degree holder and you specialized in VLSI; after specializing in this you cannot expect to get a job in electrical-which you could have if you were just a BE). The advantage is that companies that specialize in your specialization will prefer to take you rather than a generic BE engineer. Any chip manufacturing company would love to have a guy who did his MS in VLSI. The reason is simple: you’ve been in their field and you’ve obviously done a project in that area and so you will be familiar with the technologies. If you can really prove your mettle in MS, then there is a good chance that you could even work and earn in your foreign dream country. To summarize everything: Pursuing a Masters’ degree abroad in a decent college will most likely add quality to your education. In this chapter I’d just like to familiarize you with some basic things that you should know about higher education abroad.

Types of Courses

Most of the Master’s courses offer two options:

• Thesis based
• Non-Thesis based option

The degree you get will be the same but there are very slight differences. Non-thesis means that you will do more of course work (more of classes). You will also have a written examination after the courses are completed. In thesis based, you will be doing more of research and you will need to write thesis as well. In this you will have an oral exam that would cover your thesis and you will also have an exam for your coursework. Sometimes the requirements for pursuing a Thesis based course are higher than the non-thesis option. Again in Canada you will have many colleges offering a MASc and a M.Eng. degree. Both are Masters degree but there is a slight difference. The M.Eng, in Canada is usually meant for people who are working. It will involve less of research and mostly there is no assistantship provided for M.Eng courses because the students are usually working. M.Eng is more of a theoretical course. Sometimes, you even have the option of joining the college and then changing your course from M.Eng to MASc. In UK you do not have such a choice. There is no thesis or research oriented course and the degree itself is completed within a single year. New Term: Terminal MS/ terminal Masters (used in USA). Some institutions will offer admission only to students who are willing to pursue their Ph.D. as well. When you join a college just for doing your Masters degree, it is known as terminal masters (i.e. you are not committing yourself to continuing Ph.D. in the same college). When does college start? In US and Canada we have what are called as ‘terms’. The academic year usually starts in early September and goes for nine months till the end of May. This will be divided into two semesters. Colleges will take students either for September or for January. The September session is known as the ‘fall term’. The January session is known as the ‘spring term’. Some colleges will offer a ‘summer term’ which will start somewhere in March/April. The maximum intake of students will be during the fall term. Lesser number of students will be taken for the spring term. It is always better to start your studies with the start of a new academic year and that means it is better to apply for the fall term (September). Beware: Some colleges might not even offer admission for the spring/summer term. They might only take students for the fall term. Check up the university website for specific details. What’s the difference between a college, institute and a University?? Basically a University is much larger when compared to a college. A college might not offer a large variety of degrees and it may not offer a doctoral degree. Institutes might be more specific towards a particular area. In US you will frequently find that there is a University under which there will be different colleges (like “College of Engineering”, “College of Medicine”, “College of Arts” etc.). Some places they call it as “School of Engineering”, “School of Arts” etc. When deciding where to study, you need not set preferences like “I want to study only in an University”. There are good Institutes as well. In this book I might use the term college or university (I may not use the term ‘institute’ but even they are included when I talk of college/university). Almost everything is similar in colleges, institutes and universities and hence I won’t be differentiating between the three (all terms will be used interchangeably). What are private and public colleges? This is a classification based on how the college is funded. If the government supports a particular college (for funding) then it is a public/state university. State universities charge slightly lower tuition fees. Private colleges are supported by the student tuition fees, private donations and research grants. There are good universities in both the private as well as the public sector. What are embassies, consulates and high commissions? Later on when we deal with visas we would frequently encounter these three terms. An embassy is an office opened by one country in a foreign country. For example: India will have embassies in United Arab Emirates and in Saudi Arabia. Similarly other countries will have an embassy in India. Embassies are usually located in the capital city of the country. All embassies will be located in New Delhi. Sometimes due to the large volume of applications (for visa) or due to enormous work load, the embassy will have to open branches in other parts of the country. These are called as consulates. Thus the United States has it’s embassy in New Delhi while it has a consulate in Chennai. High commissions are the same as embassies but the term is used within the Commonwealth countries (i.e. within countries which were once part of the British empire). For example: India has a high commission in Britain (not an embassy) and similarly Canada has a high commission in India (at New Delhi). When a commonwealth country has an embassy in another commonwealth country they call it as a high commission and not an embassy. The 3 terms are often used interchangeably (since they all function similarly). Currencies? The US uses the dollar and it is denoted as US$. Canada also uses the dollar but it is denoted as CAN$ (which means Canadian dollars). In UK they use the pounds.

• US$ 1 = Rs.40 approximately
• CAN$ 1 = Rs.30 approximately
• 1 pound = Rs.65 approximately