For many of the international students who came to the US for higher education, this is the time when they are probably nose deep in studies, with the final exams just round the corner, or already underway. Finals in most US universities for the Fall Semester (or quarter as the system goes in most Californian universities) take place around the second week of December. And winter vacations start from the middle of December usually upto the middle of January. We asked a few first year graduate students and a few second year graduate students as to how they felt at the end of the Fall Semester.

Awantika Manohar, a first year graduate student of Law at Cornell University said - “The last few months have been a real steep learning curve for me - I have had to unlearn some methods of studying that I had used with success back in India. But here (in US), that approach to studying just breaks down and actually hampers ones efforts to get good grades.” This is not the first time we have heard about people having to completely change their way to studying after coming to the US. The US school system has a totally methodology to classroom teaching in colleges and hence international students must adapt to it. And since most students get their first tryst with this methodology in the Fall semester, it becomes all the more crucial that they ramp up very fast.

It is often said in many Ivy League and other elite US schools - that - ‘Your best just isn’t good enough at Ivy League schools’ (jokingly of course). But in general, students from India who arrive at US universities, will find that students here are much more systematic with their studies and can pack in a lot of work in short durations of time. Their American counterparts are also very hard work and so are students from other nationalities. Competition at the graduate level is tough. That coupled with the learning curve of getting used to the new education system, along with external issues such as different living conditions and winter, etc - Fall semesters often end up being some of the most challenging times for international graduate students.

But all of this goes without the mention of the excitement of being able to study at a brand new university and with new campus, new co-students, new scenery. It is the time to make new friends, meet people from different countries and have loads of fun solving challenging problems. Rakshit, a second year graduate student in Computer Science at Stanford says - “I am just waiting to get over with this quarter and visit my family back home!”. For second year grad students, things are usually more relaxed than first year grad students. By the time students get to the second year of graduate education, they are more used to the curriculum and more used to the pedagogical experience. Hence, the more relaxed mood!