A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

Society Business and Career
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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

^ I didnt get their reponse on GMAT and TOEFL so far. I sent the query to wrong section it seems, which was corrected later. Kher… i think GMAT cannot be avoided. So ummmmmmm…

Where do I buy Kaplan+Baron’s+Princeton Reviews? Can I buy them online? I have bought the last 10 yrs GMAT tests all compiled in a book shape from Lahore. Would it be enough to solve all those questions in that one book?

Have you done GMAT or GRE? What was ur score? :halo:

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

Yes, GMAT cannot be avoided!

I am sure most good bookstores will have the review books. In the unlikely scenario that they don’t, you can order them online too. Amazon for one delivers to the UAE. Here are some suggestions for the guides. The book you bought should be helpful too but the style of GMAT/GRE regularly changes so it is a good idea to buy the prep guides for the current year or the next. I noticed there is the The Official Guide for GMAT Reviewso definitely buy that too!

Nah, I haven’t taken GMAT or GRE. :@:

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

good name while UT-dallas is a very good school it really is not in the same league as UT-Austin.

I am not a blanket go by rankings person, but if you will say dallas is the same as austin then that is not accurate.

UTA is ranked overall at #45
UT-dallas is at #143

I must say that the bigger factor is how good the business schools or MIS programs are, ranking, placement success, alumni strength etc. That much detail I have not gone in. but FairyTale may want to look into it if it is important to her. I think for vast majority of people coming to US and will go back out, you are indeed right, its a large national university and has a solid curriculum, aacsb accredited, good linkage in local tech industry as a springboard.

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

^ Yes, of course UT Austin is better than UT Dallas. Most people applying from the states would prefer the former to the latter, not least because the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin is especially good. I think FairyTale mentioned that UTA doesn't offer the program she is interested in. UTD is by no means a bad or a lousy choice so there is no harm applying to its MS program along with those of other universities.

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

you are 100% on the mark amigo

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

:)

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

Thank you guys for all the input :hugz: . I am not able to fully concentrate on my Uni search from last few days, as I have a work colleague on leave and I am backing her up as well as doing my own work.

For me the Uni is important, like it should be an accredited, well known, well reputed Uni but I have this money constraint too which is a very very important factor. So I know that I cannot join a very top class Uni, which, to be honest, is really not very much required for me either. I have never topped in any Board exams and/or in any Uni/college. Never been an extra ordinary student, not very studious. I always want to clear and pass my exam with good marks. My average so far has been around 70%-75% which is enough to make me happy. Coz I know they are purely my mehnat ke marks.

kher I got few replies from UTD and they are only forwarding me links to their website. I am going to print few pages from those links, sit at home on weekend and read them through. Then write down the questions I have, and call them up on their number for International Students. I think that would be more fruitful and quick.

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

I had asked UTD to send me cost for their Master Program. The lady sent me the fee for Spring 2012, for 9 credit hours only and the cost is $11,538/- (without accommodation cost). The total MS program requires 36 credit hours to complete, so the full course fee would be around $11,538 x 4 = $46,152/-.

I want to know , what does the credit hour actually mean? Does it mean really an hour (60 mins) ? Are they charging me $11k for only 9 hours???????????

And what does 36 credit hours means? in 24 months, they will teach me for 36hrs only? its not even one hour every day? What am i missing? plz tell me.

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

a class that is 3 credit hours means you have 3 hours of instructions a week for the term.

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

A unit of academic credit; one hour a week for an academic semester.

You get one semester hour of credit for each hour that a class meets per week for a semester. If your class meets only one hour per week for the whole semester, it would be a 1 credit class. Most classes meet for 3 hours per week for the semester and are therefor 3 credits.

Some classes are labs and labs count differently. For every 3 hours in the lab you get 1 semester hour of credit. Part of the reason is that you rarely have any additional out of class study time for a lab class (since you need the resources of the lab).

So, a 36 credit hour semester schedule would mean you are in the classroom 36 hours per week. Don't think "wow! that's easy" though. For every hour of class you have, you should plan 2-3 hours out of class in studying and assignments. Some weeks it will be less, some more. In some classes you won't need any studying - in others you will live-sleep-eat that classwork.

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

Yeah, 9 credit hours means you will have classes for 9 hours per week throughout the semester. Graduate schools usually have rigorous programs so you will need to spend a lot of time outside of the classroom preparing for each credit hour. 12 credit hours/semester are still manageable so I think you should be able to split 36 credit hours into 3 semesters instead of 4 to save time and money.

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

I just took the GMAT a few months ago.

First, forget Kaplan. It's a good intro to how the GMAT works (timings, format etc) but I found that their questions were different from the actual exam.

1) Go to GMATClub or beatthegmat and read the intro guides. A lot of good info there. Free tests, study guides etc.

2) My recommendation is to buy the Official Guides (OG) and the Manhattan guides and do them, do them again, and if you have time, do it one more time. And most importantly, go through and review each mistake you made. This is more painful than actually doing the problems but that's how you actually learn. Again, make sure to review the problems. Even the ones you got right. There may be a more efficient way to solve it and efficiency and time management is everything on the GMAT.

Also, you can download an excel template for the current year's OG questions from beatthegmat.com. This way, you can just enter your answers in the spreadsheet and it will give you a breakdown of how many questions you got wrong, as well as what type you had problems with.

3) You can download software from mba.com (official GMAT website) which gives you two practice tests. My advice would be to do one test before studying or after a few weeks, to see where you are. Do the other test closer to your actual date. You can uninstall the program and retake the two tests but you're likely to see a few repeated questions. If your score increases a lot then you might see entirely different questions!

4) Go to the websites I mentioned above to get some free practice tests. I found the two free official tests to be the most realistic. You can also get a free Manhattan test. The math on the Manhattan test is a bit tougher but their tests show you the breakdown of each question. I would also recommend purchasing practice tests from Manhattan if you have time to do them.

The more practice the better. I underestimated how important this is because my attitude was that given enough time, I can solve any question. While this is true, the problem with the GMAT is that you don't have enough time. You have to move *on every question. I improved my score about 40 points just by finishing each section. If you spend 30-40 seconds and don't know how to even begin, guess and move on. If it's been 1-1.5 minutes and you are having trouble finishing, make an educated guess and move on. Trust me when I say, time management is everything. Whatever you do, **do not spend 4-5 minutes on any question*.

Oh and I got a 700. I was a bit disappointed but like I said, I underestimated the difficulty and had to cram the last two weeks. PM me if you have any questions.

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Re: A degree from US. Is it worth the time & money?

Thank you Sarmad, thank you Goodname and Thank you Ghost14 … :hugz:

You guys have been really helpful. God bless you. I went to beatthegmat site and forums, its a beautiful place to be at for GMAT preparation :smiley: - By the way, meanwhile, i have also fixed an apponitment with a local consultant here, I guess (As per him) i need GRE for my MS and not GMAT. I am not sure, i need to sit with him and know all the details. I will be back in few days :slight_smile: