Working professionals share their back-to-school experiences. We profile a database management analyst, who gave up his job in Mumbai to study abroad. He now earns five times more!
Name: Sameer Gokhale
Age: 27
What I do: I am a database management analyst.
Where I studied: I did a Master's degree at the University of Texas.
Location: Houston in Texas, USA
Why study more?
After completing my Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences degree from University of Mumbai in May 2000, I began working in the pharmaceutical sector. I was fortunate to get a versatile experience in market research from companies like Novartis India, Wockhardt, and Nicholas Piramal India.
As a pharmacy graduate, I was equipped with adequate knowledge of pharmacy, but my statistics skills weren't very polished. I wanted to get into pharmaceutical market research, which needs a blend of pharmaceutical and statistical knowledge. This hindered my growth in the field. In 2003, I decided to pursue a Master’s degree, abroad.
Applying to universities is expensive!
I shortlisted programmes in the USA, based on factors like overall ranking, the cost associated with it, available projects and funding options at the university. After factoring in all this I decided to apply to four different university programmes including the University of Texas School of Public Health (UTSPH).
Initial expenses for preparing and applying to US universities were considerably high and included exam fees, study material fees, application expenses, professional coaching for preparation and consultation charges for short listing universities.
Most students apply for around 10 to 12 programmes. Applying to number of programmes can be expensive. In addition, to the GRE and TOEFL fees (GRE cost me about Rs 6,400 and the TOEFL Rs 6,000), each application costs around Rs 3,000-Rs 3,500.
Each application packet included, the application fee of Rs 1,800-Rs 2,400 approximately, preparation cost for all supporting documents like recommendation letters, attested copies of marksheets/transcripts/bank statements, credential evaluations report etc came to Rs 600, approximately and the courier charges were Rs 500 approximately.
Smart tips:
1. If you shortlist your programmes well, you can apply to say five or six universities and get positive replies for at least two. Applying to a few, focused programmes saved me some money. For evaluating credentials (the universities I applied to, required students to have their credentials evaluated from evaluating agencies in the US) I approached World Education Services.
Basically, each university specifies the type of official records it requires to document past education. In American terms, these are called transcripts or credentials and include a list of courses that students have taken, when they were taken, and grades received for each course.
Usually, the university will require your entire scholastic record from secondary
school and/or university sources in a similar manner.Credentials are an important part of the admission procedure in any university in the US.
2. I did not spend a bomb on professional coaching or consultation, but did my own homework.
3. I applied for loan-based scholarships to different trusts and missionaries in India. Keeping an eye on major newspapers for scholarship opportunities and their deadlines, was a part of my daily schedule all year long.
These trusts can help a prospective student with amounts ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs 1,00,000. I got Rs 30,000 as a travel award from JN Tata trust and Rs 75,000 as a loan scholarship from BD Bangur Trust.
My bank savings also helped me bear a part of the expenses.
Part-time work, pays some bills Teaching superstar!
One advantage of graduate studies in the US is that you can work part-time, while you learn. As soon as I arrived on campus, I began meeting faculty, in the quest of a part-time position. I landed one, in the second month.
At UTSPH, all students working on-campus are eligible for in-state tuition, which is 70 percent less than out-state tuition. I worked as a graduate research assistant for the first year and as a teaching assistant in the second. Apart from the monthly stipend, there were many other benefits of working on-campus like getting health insurance, tuition waiver or considerable reduction in tuition fees etc.
According to the university's policy, although classified as non-residents, all international students employed as teaching or graduate research assistants in state institutions of higher education throughout the semester, get the privilege of paying resident tuition for that particular semester, commonly called as in-state tuition. All other non-residents of Texas pay out-state tuition fees.
Tuition expenditure for me was around $1,200-1,400 (about Rs 55,212) per semester. I was getting $1,400 as a monthly stipend. Housing and other living expenses came to around $300-$350 (about Rs 13,802) per month. Another $100-$150(about Rs 5913) went towards groceries, commuting and miscellaneous expenses.
During the summer semester, international students were allowed to work full-time during those three months. So, there's money to be made now!
Being a teaching assistant was quite challenging and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was actively involved in teaching two to three graduate level courses. My hard work paid off when I received the ‘2007 James Emerson’s Award for the Outstanding Teaching Assistant’. I had the opportunity to meet and network with some of the world-class researchers at Texas Medical Center. I even presented my research at a student dissemination conference on public health conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Apart from academics, I was actively involved as a student leader at Office of Student Affairs. In addition, I also chaired the University of Texas Indian Student Association from 2004 to 2006. All these experiences have helped me sharpen my managerial and leadership skills.
The final frontier
After receiving my Master's degree from The University of Texas Health Science Center, I started working at the University of Texas Medical School as a database management analyst. My responsibility over here is to manage and analyse genetic data for the division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunogenetics, a part of Internal Medicine at UT Medical School. I am currently earning five times more than what I was earning back in India.
Going back to school after working for some time can be helpful because you have a better perspective about what you want to study. Just planning your expenses is crucial before you consider further education!
1 comment:
Pretty Interesting Profile!
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