Continuing from our last post on how to write good Masters’ thesis’, here is part 2 in the series. This part talks largely about how to present you work, how to conclude your thesis and how to utilize the reference section of the thesis.
5. Presentation of Your Thesis Work
If a Master’s thesis had a climax, this would be it. The structure is highly flexible, and will depend much on the nature of your work. Whatever the thesis format, the objective is the one and the same: persuade your reader that you have done what you set out to do in writing a Master level thesis. Show all relevant evidence to support your position, and don’t weaken it with the …

Many of the Masters level courses in the US have writing a thesis as s compulsory requirement for finishing up grad school. It is a way of putting your learnings and contribution in black and white and securing it as a future reference for latter students. Here are some tips to give you basic instructions and tips on how to write a good Master’s thesis paper. This is part 1 of a 2 part series describing in detail the essential aspects of how to writing a Masters Thesis.
A good thesis paper has 2 essential qualities: first, it identifies a good question; and second, it provides a satisfactory reply to that question.
Thesis question has to be unanswered. Its reply must serve …

A lot has been happening in the field of graduate education abroad. This post is about specifically presenting concise pieces of information about what is happening. Lets start with news on scholarships. NVIDIA Corp of USA has a fellowship program for graduate students called NVIDIA Fellowship Program 2009. Quoting from their site, “The NVIDIA Fellowship Program provides funding to Ph.D. students who are researching topics that will lead to major advances in the graphics and digital media industry, and are investigating innovative ways of leveraging the power of the GPU. We select students each year who have the talent, aptitude and initiative to work closely with us early in their careers. Recipients not only receive crucial funding for their research, …

Indians the world over are making us (Indians) proud. They are now solving issues that concern the world at large, and not just trying to solve small issues restricted in their relevance to local realms. And this time, its students of engineering and management at Stanford who have shone. Rahul Alex Panicker and Naganand Murty are part of a 4 -member team at Stanford which formed a non-profit called Embrace. Embrace came out of a project based course at Stanford - Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability. The problem this team was thinking about was that in the developing world, where at least 20 million low-birth-weight babies are born every year, incubators are so expensive - they are totally out of …

There has been a lot of interest in knowing what composes a good SOP. A lot has been said about that in our previous posts here and here. But if you are someone short of time, and needs a crash course in writing a good SOP - here are some quick notes. (credits to Prof. Vince Gotera | University of Northern Iowa)

A “hook” that demonstrates your passion for the field
Segué to your background in the field
Description of your academic background in the field
Specific classes you have taken, given by name
Specific professors you have had, especially if well-known in that field
Extracurricular activities in the field
Publications or other professional accomplishments in the field (perhaps conference presentations or public readings)
Explanations about problems in …

Continuing from where we left in our last post on writing great statements of purpose. Try to make your paper-and-ink self come alive. Don’t just say, “I used to work on an assembly line in a television factory, and one day I decided that I had to get out of there, so I went to college to save my own life.” How about this: “One Thursday, I had soldered the 112th green wire on the same place on the 112th TV remote, and I realized the solder fumes were rotting my brain. I decided college would be my salvation.” Both 35 words. Which narrative do you think will keep the admissions committee reading?
Tell stories (briefly). Use vivid language. Be specific. …

This is part 1 of a 2 part series of advise on writing a great statement of purpose. It has been wrriten by Prof. Vince Gotera of University of Northern Iowa, and we got access to it from this blog. The Statement of Purpose required by grad schools is probably the hardest thing you will ever write. (Incidentally, the statement of purpose may also be called an Application Essay, Objectives for Graduate Study, Personal Background, Cover Letter, or some comparable title.)
I would guess virtually all grad-school applicants, when they write their first draft of the statement of purpose, will get it wrong. Much of what you have learned about writing and also about how to present yourself will lead you …

In our last post, we covered a lot on the scholarships available for students wishing to pursue education abroad. But that route is not always open to all. In fact, scholarships for students who wish to study abroad are often hard to come by, and competition is stiff for the few scholarships that are out there. Sometimes, even after the announcements of scholarships, the decision on who would actually get the scholarship is not taken till very late. In those cases, students are often left in the lurch. And hence, the idea of taking student education loans is also in vogue. A lot of students from India take up loans from various banks. These loans are then paid off within …

Higher education has become very expensive. Added to that, the cost of study abroad means a big hole in your pocket. More than 80% of the students studying abroad have to club personal savings along with some sort of aid/loan etc. in order to meet the expenses of education in foreign land. Therefore, one needs to plan carefully.
Scholarships are one of the more popular options for funding their education. But they are highly competitive and most universities/colleges do not have large budgets. Hence universities offer scholarships to a very small percentage of successful applicants upfront. However after reaching campus and by the end of the first semester students are able to obtain aid in the form of teaching/research/graduate assistantships. The …

There is some bad news for Indian students aspiring to study in Australia. As per the news piece in the Times of India, The Australia Visa department has put Indian students in the “high-risk” category for Visa, starting September 2008. They have downgraded Indian students from Visa Assessment Level 3 to Visa Assessment Level 4 for higher education.
India would occupy the “high-risk” slot with other high-risk countries like Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Zimbabwe. So, the Indian students applying to Australia are advised to be extra-careful with their documentation for the Visa process, especially the financial documents.
Australia forms the second-most popular destination after US for Indian students. The change in the status of Indians has been criticized …