I know Vijay Patil as a Software Engineerfor a year in the Software
Development Team at SUN Software India (Private) Limited, Bangalore. In my
capacity as the Technical Architect for the Network Throughput Management Software
Product he has worked with me for the past year. Vijay is enthusiastic, committed
and very sharp and is one person who can be relied upon to solve difficult problems.
He is ranked among the top 1% employees of the entire network management team.
Vijay has an impeccable record at work. After joining fresh from college, he
rapidly acquired domain knowledge in the networking domain and web
technologies. He has since driven three modules to completion and has shown
excellent application and drive in completing the tasks. The projects included a
complex visualization of the logical and physical view of the Network Load
and this has been appreciated by all customers. During the course of these projects,
Vijay has emerged as very sincere, a good team player and someone who completes
all the tasks on time.
Vijay writes solid and stable code. He learnt to code in AJAX Web Toolkit in
less than a week, which successfully scaled up to the product requirements. Vijay
provides several valid data points for any problems that make decision making easy.
He certainly exceeded the expectations of being a valedictorian at his college.
Apart from work, Vijay goes the extra mile to learn and experiment with new
technologies. He has worked with me on two patents in the Network Reliability space that
deals with tracing and diagnosing faults in the network. Vijay is a
matured individual with lot of self-initiated actions. He came up with quite a few new
product ideas, which added business value. He is highly proficient in English and has
commendable communication skills. He took an active part in giving presentations on
new technologies and played a leading role in organizing the SUN Social Initiative programs.
Overall I have found Vijay to be brilliant, sincere and hard working. He has a
very strong grasp of fundamentals and an astute and discerning approach towards
problem solving. For his intelligence, emotional maturity and perseverance, I would
rate him among the top 1% of all the engineers I have come across during the past 7
years.

It is definitely not surprising that people with the right kind of skill are always in demand. And hence, even in a downturn, they are the ones who still remain in demand based on their knowledge and advanced skills/degrees. Employers requiring specially skilled work force such as technology, health care, accounting, heavy engineering, etc are all feeling the pinch in recruiting the right kind of people. So, employers are forced to raise the salary packages and/or lure people with additional benefits (including the option to work from home a few days in a week to reduce commute time/expenditure) to pick them up from their current positions. The shortage of qualified workers continues to impact employers with 59 percent of hiring managers citing it as their primary recruiting challenge, up from 52 percent in 2007. Six out of 10 employers estimate that at least a quarter of the applicants who contact them are not qualified for the positions. Thirty-one percent consider more than half of applicants unqualified. More details can be found here.

But one thing positive coming out of this scenario is the upper hand the skilled workers have in this market. With the right skills in the right place, people are now in a better position to negotiate a better salary, flexible working schedules, get funding for additional training/certificate programs, etc. Being able to make the most out of such a situation is where the smarts lie. Having a advanced degrees in such environment is more crucial.

“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.” ~ Alfred North Whitehead

Man’s insatiable thirst for knowledge forces him to explain every perceptible phenomenon. Man developed Science because it always begins by assuming that the world is inherently understandable and that we can learn how it works by observing it and by examining the processes that affect it. We are now entering an era in which new ideas and disciplines are helping scientists to try and answer fundamental questions pertaining to various fields of study.

Operations Research is one such discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. It is characterized by its broad applicability and by a wide variety of career opportunities and work styles it embraces. It is also characterized by its interdisciplinary nature. Ford used Operations Research for optimizing prototype vehicle testing which saved the company $250 million. IBM used it for matching Supply chain demand at IBM Microelectronics. Thus it is evident that knowledge of operations analysis can be applied to any industry ranging from automobiles, to manufacturing and to management of logistics. I wish to pursue a Masters’ degree in Operations Research, as I believe it is a program that will build on my skills in Technology, Mathematics and Computer Science.

During my undergraduate studies, I was exposed to topics like Probability, Statistics, Differential Equations and Numerical Methods. I was particularly interested in Statistics because it has deep roots in both mathematics and in substantive scientific fields. Mathematics provides the language by which models and the properties of statistical methods are formulated. I always had a strong aptitude for mathematical concepts which is evident from my undergrad grades and the distinction of securing the highest marks in Mathematics at school for 10 consecutive examinations from the 7th to the 9th grades, which to date is a school record. In topics pertaining to Computer Science I was interested in Microprocessors, C and C++ Programming, Computer Networks, Mobile Computing and Distributed Computing. I was particularly interested in GPS, Wireless LANS, and Bluetooth. I also realized that though the curriculum was exhaustive enough to give anyone an in-depth theoretical background of every subject, but as an Engineer is it enough? I needed to have something extra in my repertoire. In pursuit, I started involving myself in many projects like ‘Time Table Editor’ and ‘Online Adaptive Tests’ and also got myself the tag of Database Associate’, IBM Certified (DB2 Universal Database V8.1 Family). These projects helped me hone my analytical skills and develop a logical approach to problem solving.

I worked on my final year project at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai. At IIT, I and my team were allotted the project titled “A Framework for cascading payments in P2P”. The basic idea of the project was to introduce a cascading payment system in the Gnutella Network wherein the owner gets the royalty for his content and the intermediate peer gets the commission. Various important modules that we implemented were payment distribution, secure routing and content exchange modules. This project gave me the opportunity to work with some of the best analytical minds dedicated to engineering research in India. Further, I and my team were awarded a scholarship of Rs 50,000/- under the ‘Red Hat Scholarships’ program conducted jointly by REDHAT India and Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology (KReSIT) at IIT, Bombay. This project was the highlight of my academic career.

Based on my performance during my undergrad study, I was consistently ranked in the top 10% within the Computer Engineering department at DJ Sanghvi College. I am currently working as an Assistant Systems Engineer – Trainee at Tata Consultancy Services, one of the most reputed organizations in India. I am part of the development team of the Interfaces module for the State Bank of India’s Core Banking Project being handled by TCS. This experience gave me the opportunity to observe the operations strategy of a software giant like TCS. I realized how the company’s in the software industry are facing a new challenge from a new competitor everyday. Success is attributed to the organization, which is agile and quick to respond to change. The opportunities for any organization go hand in hand with the challenges of being prepared for the unknown. Decisions have to be made keeping the global parameters in mind. As my understanding of variables affecting a business increases, my skills to use statistical models to make objective decisions will be in greater and greater demand. A Masters’ degree in Operations Research shall help me achieve my goal to become an Operations Research Analyst and playing a vital role for helping analyze and run a business with maximum efficiency and success. In the long run, I hope to climb to the highest ranks of decision-making and lead a company to the forefront of change.

Having spoken my academic interests, I would now like to talk a bit about myself. I am a highly motivated individual with varied interests. I love reading books on Paranormal Science and also performing magic tricks for my friends and family. My passion in Paranormal Science was aroused when I attended a seminar on ‘Miracle Sciences’ at school. But at that point of time, the topic was conceptually beyond my grasp. The ‘grandfather paradox’ seemed like a fairy tale. But after years of reading, books and articles by prominent scientists like Carl Sagan, Kip Thorne and Ronald Malett I got a grasp of the subject. This prompted me to write a technical paper on the same, which covered the theoretical possibilities, practical limitations, available and proposed technologies to build a Time Machine. I was selected to present this paper at ISAAC’03, PROTOCOL’03 and TECHTRIX’03 which are intercollegiate tech fests organized by the IEEE and Computer Society of India (CSI).

I actively participated in several inter collegiate events like Junkyard Wars, Programming Contests, Software Presentations, Treasure hunts etc where I won several prizes and accolades. As a member of the Computer Society of India (CSI) and IEEE, I volunteered to organize various events and competitions and in the process had a chance to hone my organizational and leadership skills. I was also responsible for organizing and heading “Cric Superselector” which is model based on the Superselector contest of ESPN. I also spent time with the, ‘The National Association for the Blind’, to help them achieve their vision.

In the near future, my aim is to attain an advanced education in Operations Research through a Masters Degree Program. A postgraduate program in Operations Research specializing in Applied OR will help me build on my strong educational background by giving me the required knowledge, expertise and confidence to achieve my goal. In pursuit, I decided to apply for the M. Eng. program at Cornell University. I have consulted with my professors, seniors and colleagues about my choice of university, and have chosen to apply to Cornell University, impressed by its research initiatives in the areas of Data Mining, Financial Engineering, Networks and Infotech Modelling. Studying at Cornell would give me the opportunity to learn first hand from its distinguished faculty like Prof. Eric Friedman, Prof Shane Henderson and Prof. Louis Billera.

I am particularly interested in the research areas such as modeling and analysis of resource allocation problems in complex system and stochastic modeling. The flexibility of course choices, creative learning methods and the multicultural environment would be the perfect learning ground for me. I hope to take up courses, which include applied optimization, parallel-computing methods for computational analysis, and decision making using sophisticated numerical techniques. I have examined the extensive courses offered, the type of projects and research implemented at Cornell University, and therefore I am confident that this program will give me the competence to provide practical operation management solutions based on the latest developments.

A career in operations research will empower me to play a vital and necessary function for helping analyze and run a competitive business. Operations research methods and technologies will enable me to work in business areas such as supply-chain management; logistics network design and computational analysis and interpretation for any organization. I will be competent to deal with a broad range of new business challenges that require a balancing of numerous variables to make wise decisions and effective action plans.

“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.” ~ Alfred North Whitehead

Man’s insatiable thirst for knowledge forces him to explain every perceptible phenomenon. Man developed Science because it always begins by assuming that the world is inherently understandable and that we can learn how it works by observing it and by examining the processes that affect it. We are now entering an era in which new ideas and disciplines are helping scientists to try and answer fundamental questions pertaining to various fields of study.

Engineering is one such discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. It is characterized by its broad applicability and by a wide variety of career opportunities and work styles it embraces. It is also characterized by its interdisciplinary nature. Knowledge of Engineering can be applied to any industry ranging from automobiles, to manufacturing, to Information Technology and Finance. I wish to pursue a Masters’ degree in Science and Engineering, as I believe it is a program that will build on my skills in Technology, Mathematics and Computer Science.

During my undergraduate studies, I was exposed to topics like Probability, Statistics, Differential Equations and Numerical Methods. I was particularly interested in Statistics because it has deep roots in both mathematics and in substantive scientific fields. Mathematics provides the language by which models and the properties of statistical methods are formulated. I always had a strong aptitude for mathematical concepts which is evident from my undergrad grades and the distinction of securing the highest marks in Mathematics at school for 10 consecutive examinations from the 7th to the 9th grades, which to date is a school record. In topics pertaining to Computer Science I was interested in Microprocessors, C and C++ Programming, Computer Networks, Mobile Computing and Distributed Computing. I was particularly interested in GPS, Wireless LANS, and Bluetooth. I also realized that though the curriculum was exhaustive enough to give anyone an in-depth theoretical background of every subject, but as an Engineer is it enough? I needed to have something extra in my repertoire. In pursuit, I started involving myself in many projects like ‘Time Table Editor’ and ‘Online Adaptive Tests’ and also got myself the tag of Database Associate’, IBM Certified (DB2 Universal Database V8.1 Family). These projects helped me hone my analytical skills and develop a logical approach to problem solving.

I worked on my final year project at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai. At IIT, I and my team were allotted the project titled “A Framework for cascading payments in P2P”. The basic idea of the project was to introduce a cascading payment system in the Gnutella Network wherein the owner gets the royalty for his content and the intermediate peer gets the commission. Various important modules that we implemented were payment distribution, secure routing and content exchange modules. This project gave me the opportunity to work with some of the best analytical minds dedicated to engineering research in India. Further, I and my team were awarded a scholarship of Rs 50,000/- under the ‘Red Hat Scholarships’ program conducted jointly by REDHAT India and Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology (KReSIT) at IIT, Bombay. This project was the highlight of my academic career.

Based on my performance during my undergrad study, I was consistently ranked in the top 10% within the Computer Engineering department at DJ Sanghvi College. I am currently working as an Assistant Systems Engineer – Trainee at Tata Consultancy Services, one of the most reputed organizations in India. I am part of the development team of the Interfaces module for the State Bank of India’s Core Banking Project being handled by TCS. This experience gave me the opportunity to observe the Management strategy of a software giant like TCS. I realized how the company’s in the software industry are facing a new challenge from a new competitor everyday. Success is attributed to the organization, which is agile and quick to respond to change. The opportunities for any organization go hand in hand with the challenges of being prepared for the unknown. Also having worked as a Financial Equity Analyst Intern helped me to understand that, business decisions have to be made keeping the global parameters in mind. The internship experience increased my understanding of variables affecting a business and helped me develop skills in objective decision making. Hence I feel a Masters’ degree with a Management background shall help me achieve my goal to become an Operations Manager and play a vital role for helping analyze and run a business with maximum efficiency and success. In the long run, I hope to climb to the highest ranks of decision-making and lead a company to the forefront of change.

Having spoken my academic interests, I would now like to talk a bit about myself. I am a highly motivated individual with varied interests. I love reading books on Paranormal Science and also performing magic tricks for my friends and family. My passion in Paranormal Science was aroused when I attended a seminar on ‘Miracle Sciences’ at school. But at that point of time, the topic was conceptually beyond my grasp. The ‘grandfather paradox’ seemed like a fairy tale. But after years of reading, books and articles by prominent scientists like Carl Sagan, Kip Thorne and Ronald Malett I got a grasp of the subject. This prompted me to write a technical paper on the same, which covered the theoretical possibilities, practical limitations, available and proposed technologies to build a Time Machine. I was selected to present this paper at ISAAC’03, PROTOCOL’03 and TECHTRIX’03 which are intercollegiate tech fests organized by the IEEE and Computer Society of India (CSI).

I actively participated in several inter collegiate events like Junkyard Wars, Programming Contests, Software Presentations, Treasure hunts etc where I won several prizes and accolades. As a member of the Computer Society of India (CSI) and IEEE, I volunteered to organize various events and competitions and in the process had a chance to hone my organizational and leadership skills. I was also responsible for organizing and heading “Cric Superselector” which is model based on the Superselector contest of ESPN. I also spent time with the, ‘The National Association for the Blind’, to help them achieve their vision.

In the near future, my aim is to attain an advanced education in Management Science and Engineering (MS and E) through a Masters Degree Program. A postgraduate program in MS and E will help me build on my strong educational background by giving me the required knowledge, expertise and confidence to achieve my goal. In pursuit, I decided to apply for the Masters program in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. I have consulted with my professors, seniors and colleagues about my choice of university, and have chosen to apply to Stanford University, impressed by its research initiatives in the areas of Economics and Finance, Systems Modeling and Optimization, Decision Analysis and Risk Analysis and Information Science and Technology. Studying at Stanford would give me the opportunity to learn first hand from its distinguished faculty like Prof. Kathleen Eisenhardt, Prof. Arthur Veinott and Prof. David Luenbeger.

I am particularly interested in the research areas such as Systems Modeling and Optimization, Decision Analysis and Risk Analysis. The flexibility of course choices, creative learning methods and the multicultural environment would be the perfect learning ground for me. I hope to take up courses, which include applied optimization, stochastic modeling, economic analysis and decision making using sophisticated numerical techniques. I have examined the extensive courses offered, the type of projects and research implemented at Stanford University, and therefore I am confident that this program will give me the competence to provide practical solutions based on the latest developments.

A career in Engineering and Management will empower me to play a vital and necessary function for helping analyze and run a competitive business. It will enable me to work in business areas such as supply-chain management; logistics network design and computational analysis and interpretation for any organization. I will be competent to deal with a broad range of new business challenges that require a balancing of numerous variables to make wise decisions and effective action plans.

But not all is bad at the school level. With the state government tightening up budgets for state schools, many schools are raising money from outside. Recently, Virginia voters chose in November to authorize an $846 million general obligation bond issuance for higher education. More than $68 million of that will come to U.Va., with $14.3 million slated for the South Lawn Project, $5.7 million for renovations of the Gilmer Hall teaching laboratories used by biology and psychology and $4.6 million to renovate Fayerweather Hall for art history.

Says Margaret Wood, assistant to the dean at Wichita State University’s graduate school - “The economy has been a catalyst for people to consider whether their careers are headed in the right direction. A lot of the students who are continuing with school realize that a bachelor’s may not be enough anymore to ensure a quality job”, she says. “Bachelors’ are entry-level in many areas now,” Wood says.

“Every person is born with an innate flair, the moment your realize it you become a great person”. It was at high school, that my fascination for electronic gadgets coupled with a desire to be a skilled programmer, prompted me to choose Computer Engineering as the major for my Bachelor’s Degree.

During my undergraduate studies, I realized that the curriculum was exhaustive enough to give anyone an in-depth theoretical background of every subject, but as an Engineer is it enough? I needed to have something extra in my repertoire. In pursuit, I started involving myself in many projects like ‘Time Table Editor’ and ‘Online Adaptive Tests’ and also got myself the tag of Database Associate’, IBM Certified (DB2 Universal Database V8.1 Family) but my crowning achievement was to be my final year project at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, the institute for the academic elite of the country. I started my preparation for the entrance exam by studying JAVA and updating myself with the latest in Network Security as this was to be the theme of my project. After passing this first hurdle and another two rounds of rigorous interviewing my dream was realized.

At IIT, as a part of a four-member team we were allotted a project titled “A Framework for cascading payments in P2P”. The idea was to build a prototype framework for online payment in P2P systems using Gnutella. Our project proposal was also accepted by the Red Hat Scholarships program, which is the first ever open source program of its kind.

While working on my final year project at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai , the feed back from my project guide instilled me with confidence with respect to my programming skills and Computer Science fundamentals. This realization backed up with an excellent organizational talent acquired through active participation in extra-curricular activities like, organizing the “Cric Superselector” event (model based on the Superselector of ESPN), my winnings in intercollegiate events like ‘Junkyard Wars’ and ‘Kwiz Arena’(Technical Quiz), and also my voluntary services for ‘The National Asssociation for the Blind’ followed by many more, all these brought me to the conclusion that I wanted pursue something that had a blend of both disciplines, Computer Science and Management.

The answer to it was a Graduate Program in Information Systems. An information system is defined as “A structured, interacting, complex of persons, machines, and procedures designed to produce information which is collected from both internal and external sources for use as a basis for decision-making in specific contract/procurement activities”. The advent of applications like high-speed transfer of images, video telephony and teleconferencing, coupled with the availability of extremely fast processing elements, has virtually led to an information explosion. Hence development of such highly efficient computer systems to manage large volumes of data is extremely crucial for intelligent decision-making.

Hence now on the threshold of completing my Bachelor’s degree, I thirst for such a program that would help me to acquire a higher level of knowledge, leadership skills and problem solving ability to tackle the most diverse and intricate problems. I realize that a Masters degree in Information Systems Management will enrich me by transforming me into a complete professional and providing me with the raw materials necessary to get a winning edge over others.

Having spoken my academic interests and other abilities, I would now like to talk a bit about myself. I come from a family that gives a lot of emphasis to education. My father and grand father both being engineers, have provided me with the best of the guidance to help me grow as an individual. My hobbies too are as varied as my interests. I love reading books on Paranormal Science and also performing magic tricks for my friends and family.

My passion in Paranormal Science was aroused when I attended a seminar on ‘Miracle Sciences’ at school. But at that point of time, the topic was conceptually beyond my grasp. The ‘grandfather paradox’ seemed like a fairy tale. But after years of reading, books and articles by prominent scientists like Carl Sagan, Kip Thorne and Ronald Malett I got a grasp of the subject. This prompted to write a technical paper on the same, which covered the theoretical possibilities, practical limitations, available and proposed technologies to build a Time Machine. I was selected to present this paper at ISAAC’03, PROTOCOL’03 and TECHTRIX’03 which are intercollegiate tech fests organized by the IEEE and Computer Society of India (CSI).

In the near future, my aim is to attain an advanced education in Information Systems through a Masters Degree Program. It will provide me the intellectual stimulation, guidance and creative energy to work on the cutting edge of technology in today’s computing field. In pursuit of these goals, I decided to apply to the MISM program at Carnegie Mellon University and hence turned down an offer, received through campus recruitment from Tata Consultancy Services, one of the biggest and most prestigious companies in India. I learned from the University website that the MISM department is noted for its “hands-on” approach to graduate education, complemented with a strong theoretical program. I look forward to working with your distinguished faculty and interacting with students from diverse cultures for a global outlook.

My long-term goal is to put my footprints in the field of System Designing through contribution of original ideas and translating those ideas to develop high end applications and products. In this endeavor, I hope to contribute significantly to the human society by improving the quality of life and standard of living.

“It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.” Isaac Disraeli

The tradition of excellence has always been part of my family. My grandfather pursued his Bachelors in Civil Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. My father, following in his footsteps, did his Masters in Chemical Engineering from the University of Mumbai. Both of them being the thing educated professionals have strongly emphasized the importance of education. Surrounded by such examples of academic brilliance, I too have been motivated to make my mark and carve out my own niche of excellence.

It was during the junior year of my undergraduate course in Computer Engineering at D J Sanghvi College of Engineering that I was introduced to a subject that impacted the course of my academic career. Socket programming for the transmission of data between computers on a LAN formed part of the curriculum. Inspired by what I had learned in class, I started writing small programs that used sockets and was amazed at the ability of the network protocol stack to pass data packets in the required format between terminals. While I realized intuitively that a complex version of this elementary network could achieve much, at that time I had no idea just how far these achievements would go in changing the world. Now, I know that Networking makes possible a plethora of applications from video conferencing over the Internet to linking banks through private networks. To me however, it still seems like magic, or rather a grand adventure - one that I most certainly want to be a part of.

During my undergraduate studies, I was exposed to subjects like Microprocessors, C and C++ Programming, Computer Networks, Mobile Computing and Distributed Computing. I was particularly interested in topics such as GPS, Wireless LANS, Bluetooth, the protocols like TCP/IP that make the concept of the Internet possible, and the security issues accompanying them. But I also realized that though the curriculum was exhaustive enough to give anyone an in-depth theoretical background of every subject, as an Engineer is it enough? I needed to have something extra in my repertoire. In pursuit, I started involving myself in many projects like ‘Time Table Editor’ and ‘Online Adaptive Tests’ and also got myself the tag of Database Associate’, IBM Certified (DB2 Universal Database V8.1 Family) .

My interest in computers went further than merely wanting to acquire the latest gizmo. My curiosity about the functioning of machines even prompted me to dismantle and reassemble the CPU of a computer to learn about its components. The Internet fascinated me and I started surfing the Net as a hobby, but over the years I was curious to understand how two terminals miles apart could interact to the extent of creating such wonders like real time video communication. Such an interest had always helped me keep abreast with the latest issues in Networking like Hacking, Intrusion Detection in Ad-hoc Networks, and monetary transactions over the Internet. I was now determined to focus on Networking for my final year project.

I worked on my final year project at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. At IIT, me and my team were allotted the project titled “A Framework for cascading payments in P2P”. The basic idea of the project was to introduce a cascading payment system in Gnutella Network wherein the owner gets the royalty for his content and the intermediate peer gets the commission. Various important modules that we implemented were payment distribution, secure routing and content exchange modules. This project gave me the opportunity to work with some of the best minds dedicated to engineering research in India. I gained a lot from this association, in particular, an idea of how rewarding and meaningful a career in networking could be. Further, me and my team were awarded a scholarship of Rs 50,000/- under the ‘Red Hat Scholarships’ program conducted jointly by REDHAT India and Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology at IIT, Bombay . This project was the highlight of my academic career. Most importantly, it gave me a focus and strongly motivated me to study the advancements in Networking Technologies.

Based on my performance during my undergrad study, I was consistently ranked in the top 10 out of 32 students within the Computer Engineering department. I am currently working as Associate Systems Engineer – Trainee at Tata Consultancy Service, one of the most reputed organizations in India. Having just finished my training, I now am looking to forward working here for coming months and I believe this experience will help me to acquire a higher level of knowledge, leadership skills and problem solving ability to tackle the most diverse and intricate problems. It will also enrich me by transforming me into a complete professional and providing me with the raw materials necessary to get a winning edge over others.

Having spoken my academic interests, I would now like to talk a bit about myself. I am a highly motivated individual with varied interests. I love reading books on Paranormal Science and also performing magic tricks for my friends and family. My passion in Paranormal Science was aroused when I attended a seminar on ‘Miracle Sciences’ at school. But at that point of time, the topic was conceptually beyond my grasp. The ‘grandfather paradox’ seemed like a fairy tale. But after years of reading, books and articles by prominent scientists like Carl Sagan, Kip Thorne and Ronald Malett I got a grasp of the subject. This prompted to write a technical paper on the same, which covered the theoretical possibilities, practical limitations, available and proposed technologies to build a Time Machine. I was selected to present this paper at ISAAC’03, PROTOCOL’03 and TECHTRIX’03 which are intercollegiate tech fests organized by the IEEE and Computer Society of India (CSI).

I actively participated in several inter collegiate events like Junkyard Wars, Programming Contests, Software Presentations, Treasure hunts etc where I won several prizes and accolades. As a member of the Computer Society of India (CSI) and IEEE, I volunteered to organize various events and competitions and in the process had a chance to hone my organizational and leadership skills. I was also responsible for organizing and heading “Cric Superselector” which is model based on the Superselector contest of ESPN. I also spent time with the, ‘The National Association for the Blind’, to help them achieve their vision.

In the near future, my aim is to attain an advanced education in Computer Networking through a Masters Degree Program. It will provide me the intellectual stimulation, guidance and creative energy to work on the cutting edge of technology in today’s computing field. In pursuit of these goals, I decided to apply for the MSIN program at Carnegie Mellon University. I intend to follow this up with a Ph.D., and later a career in research. I have consulted with my professors, seniors and colleagues about my choice of university, and have chosen to apply to Carnegie Mellon University, impressed by its research facilities like Cylab, CERT and CWBN. The department web site too revealed an expert faculty involved in extensive research in the area of Information Networking, under whom I would consider it a privilege to learn and which has served to strengthen my resolve to study at Carnegie Mellon.

I hope to bring with me a strong grasp of fundamentals in computers, an aptitude for learning and teamwork and a zest for challenges. At the end of the course, I would like to take with me, in addition to knowledge of Computer Networks, a network of strong and lasting relationships with my teachers and fellow students. I am confident that I will live-up to the high standards set by Carnegie Mellon University and hope to be a part of the class of 2008.

Total foreign student numbers up 7%; New enrollments up 10%

Top three sending countries post double-digit increases

India up 13%, China up 20%, South Korea up 11%

USC is top host university; California is top host state; NYC is top host city;

Business and Management (20%) is top field of study followed closely by engineering (17%)

Here are some more graphs for you to be able to see where India students stand in the larger context of international students in the US.

Basically, among other things, what this graph shows is that larger and larger number of Indians are now able to afford higher priced education. And are in fact willing to take loans to meet expenses of studying abroad. Of course, this comes with the confidence of being able to repay that loan over time based on employment, etc. With the impending economic crisis, people might be more skeptical on those issues, but in my view - the good people are still being hired, that is, more people are being hired than fired. And the ones to get fired first are the ones who are at non-engineering/non-graduate level positions. So, i would say, the higher end of the market, which forms most of the 94,563 students coming to the US from India, are still at a much better level to pay back loans and in fact save and excel in such tumultuous conditions.

Here is another graph:

China and South Korea form an important community of international students at US universities. However, Indian students have been flying over the Atlantic and over the Pacific in search for higher education and skill improvement, in larger numbers than ever. This speaks for the growing pool of raw talent coming out from the country, raring to have a go at the best in the world. Many of these students come back and work in India at much inflated pay packets. The learning gathered at US institutes add a dimension to your profile/resume/experience like none other can. I have graduated from a top 10 engineering college in India, and have friends from IITs, but even they agree that even a top 40 school in the US takes learning/education/professionalism to another plane. We at kaaledge.com hope that you would be inspired to embark on a challenging and in many ways life changing experience of gaining more knowledge and contributing to the “flat-world”! In case you cant get enough of data - here is more at Nanopolitan.

During my undergraduate education, I have had the benefit of taking a variety of courses
in the computer science curriculum. Though these courses have given me a solid foundation in
several advanced topics of computer science, I often wished there was more time during the
semester to go into more depth within a subject. What drew me to the graduate program at
was the balance between breadth and depth. Students have the opportunity to have a
degree of expertise within their specialization while also remaining versatile in other areas of
computer science. The course requirements for the systems specialization mirror the approach I
have taken in my undergraduate coursework, taking classes in many different areas to become as
well-rounded as possible.

I have had extensive experience in the field of systems in my compilers, operating
systems, digital systems, security, and networking classes. One constant throughout most of
these courses was the importance of higher-level thinking. For each course,my project group had
to submit a design document that outlined our approach. This forced us to think beyond trivial
implementation details and focus more on the big picture. We had to abstract the core problem,
debate alternative solutions, consider the trade offs and limitations of our design, and defend our
decisions to the course staff before we could start implementation. These designs became very
important later on since we had to build systems that relied on our past checkpoints. The
projects I have done have varied from implementing a variation of TCP, designing and
implementing a secure messaging protocol on top of TCP, working with networking at the
hardware level using a wireless chip, and creating a parser for the entire JavaScript language.

Beyond my coursework, this semester I have been doing research with Professor . My project revolves around an online community for the Pattern-Annotated Teaching
Tool(PATT), a curriculum editor application targeted for professors. Our team is responsible
for the annotation/threaded commenting system for PATT files. At a high level, the program
allows professors to structure and design courses with certain pedagogical patterns in mind. The
PATT community will allow novice instructors to upload their course plans and receive
interactive feedback and tips from more seasoned professors in the same field.
Many of my undergraduate projects were designed to work on a limited scale, due to
limited resources and time. In my graduate work, I would like to explore the scalability,
reliability, and security issues involved with creating large distributed systems. Reliability and
performance are often taken for granted in undergraduate projects, but become crucial in real-
world applications. I would like to learn in more depth the most recent advances in the
technologies and techniques that play a crucial rolein the design of large real-world systems.
Also, I would like the opportunity to explore how to apply my broad knowledge in computer and
system designs to solve challenging system problems.

After I receive my Masters degree, I plan to pursue a career as a system architect in the
software industry, working in the design and development of web-based applications and
technologies. My work in research and in the Ruby on Rails course I am taking has shown me
the impact and broad range of possibilities for online collaborative applications. Additionally,
various summer internships have taught me the importance of thinking abstractly and evaluating
alternatives when tackling a new problem. Unlike undergraduate work, projects in industry and
graduate work often do not have clearly defined or concrete requirements. There are no right or
wrong answers, but there are good or bad answers. I worked as a software engineer at XYZ Corp and as part of my stint there, I came up with a prototype of how tagging could be used to improve search results within system constraints. This prototype was a hit with the product’s customers and is pitched in demos to prospective customers. I believe that graduate school will give me
the opportunity to integrate my insights from various fields into a unified approach that will
make me a better computer scientist.

I have graduated from IIIT Allahabad in Information Technology. Before that, I did my schooling from my home town and secured a rank in IIT JEE in 2002. But that is an old story and I don’t think anybody is interested in those details.

After graduation I took a job in CSC India as a Windows System Administrator. Since 26 June 2006, I am bruising my ankles in CSC only.

Why did you think of applying to US universities?

I never thought of doing MS in my college. In fact I was surrounded by many talented technical geeks (whose life style scared me) and I used to think that research and all higher studies are for these type of people only who would squeeze every second of their life to write some more line of codes J. I had just decent CGPI in my college didn’t plan anything seriously for future. I got a job in CSC and started my professional life. Like everybody, I started preparing for CAT without thinking whether I have genuine interest in MBA or not.

However I am a voracious reader and used to read a lot of novels in my college. I am a regular reader of Scientific American and few articles really triggered my interest in research. I have deep interest in Physics. I read one article on Quantum computing and wondered about technology and started to explore the option of research. I did some Googling and read about quantum physics, quantum computing. I also read about distributed/parallel computing and other interesting articles. I kept reading Scientific American, novels, articles and other relevant non relevant material. I then wrote to one of my batch mate about my job, my dissatisfaction with my current profile and things which really interests me. He encouraged me to build a career in research and development. MS/PhD always seem to be too big for me J. Then probably first time in my life I decided on my own (without parents, peer pressure) to chose my career and started to search about available programs and enrolment process. I didn’t choose MS for a dream job or because of any influence. I chose because I want to build a career in research and it is too difficult to get admission directly in PhD J.

What program are you applying for?

I am applying in MS in Computer Science. I am looking for quantum computing but that is available at few places. I have put distributed, parallel computing and system architecture as my research interest (in SOP and application).

When did you start preparing for this?

I started to prepare in April/May 2008 and took GRE on 28 August. It is very difficult to prepare when you are in a job. I used to study 2 – 3 hours in week days and 4-5 hours in weekends. Those months were really hard on me J. However I managed to get a good score in GRE. I didn’t do any preparation for TOEFL. I guess 3-5 months are sufficient for GRE depending on how much time you give for preparation.

What are your apprehensions as you start sending out your applications?

Cost of course is really a deciding factor for choosing a university. I apply to only those universities which are cheap and provide assisstantship to most of the students.

My apprehensions are as follows (in order)

How much I would have to spend from my pocket?

How difficult is it to get a TA/RA?

Will TA/RA be enough to take care of my tuition and living expense?

How much I would have to show in financial document?

Would I be able to get admission in PhD program of my choice after completion of MS?

Will I get a R&D oriented job of my interest?

Will my girl friend’s parents wait for completion of my degree (I am not able to do anything to suppress this anxiety J )?

How are you dividing time on the various aspects of an app - like SOP, Recos, score reporting, etc.?

I started the process quite early so I got sufficient for everything. I went step by step. I took only one step at time. 4-5 months for GRE preparation (April to August) 1 month for university search (September) , 1 month for SOP and Recos (October). 2 weeks for application (November). I am still waiting for my TOEFL score and as soon as I get it, I will start reporting. I still have enough time in hand.

Any advice for your peers who are applying this year?

Since I am on same boat, I think I am not eligible to make any suggestive comments to my peers. However I would suggest to not compare your profile with anybody else. Some sites have profile record of candidates who were selected/rejected from particular university. That data can really baffle any serious candidate. I would recommend to not to be over conscious about your profile and keep applying.

At last I would sincerely thanks my batch mates and friends who always encouraged me and kept reminding me that they also went through all these processes and apprehensions at their time.