It's about time I published my blog—it's January 2020 and the last blog I wrote was one year ago. Life has changed so much since then. I'm currently in the United States doing my master's in computer science from The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), which is in Richardson, TX. I came to the USA in August 2019 and started my graduate studies in Fall 2019. Although my major is computer science, the track in which I'm specializing is data science. This is my second semester of the four semesters that I have to complete to get the degree. Also, this is my second time in the U.S. The first time I came here was in Fall 2015, when I was here for one academic semester, placed at Murray State University, KY. Sometimes, I think if I hadn't come to the USA before, I might not have come here for my master's. I think the exchange semester at Murray State was one of the main reasons why I decided to come back to the USA to pursue graduate studies, because I liked the education system here.
Coming back to the USA to study was no less than a dream come true for me. I always dreamed of studying abroad, and the USA was at the top of my list. The opportunities this country provides are enormous, and people from all over the world come here to live the American Dream. No doubt, if you work hard here, you will get the best possible results.
Texas is one of the largest states in the U.S., and you will find lots of internationals studying, working, and living here. This makes Texas diverse. At UTD, there are so many Indians that one would think they are studying at an Indian university campus. Sometimes, I feel like there are more Indians at UTD than Americans. After Indians come the Chinese, who are also great in numbers but not close to Indians. I also find people from other Asian countries too. Long story short, UTD is all about international students, which is why it's on the top list of campuses with the highest population of international students. Moreover, one reason why international students come to UTD is that they offer scholarships and fellowships to lots of candidates. For example, if you have a good profile and scores, it's very likely you'll get an in-state scholarship that allows you to pay in-state tuition that a local Texan would pay (which is almost 50% less than the out-of-state tuition). UTD also has on-campus jobs, but they are hard to find because of the many people applying for those positions, and only a few are able to get them. But overall, UTD is a good school for studying CS. I study at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS), which is the main department at UTD. UTD currently ranks 50th in CS in the USA according to csrankings.org.
Graduate life is different from undergrad life because in graduate life, you have to take 9 credit hours (generally), which is equivalent to 3 courses a semester, and those courses are rigorous, difficult, and time-consuming—unlike undergrad courses. And while studying during the semester, there comes a point when you become exhausted and lack motivation, especially if you're an international student because you're away from home. Moreover, you also have to do all chores by yourself (which includes laundry, cooking, dusting, cleaning, grocery shopping, and we could add more to the list). Cooking is important and necessary because eating outside is expensive, and international students are already short on budget and have less money to spend. Sometimes, international students also feel homesick, depressed, and overwhelmed because there is so much going on in their lives, and they think that it would be tough to handle it all alone. But the good part is that they go through the difficult phase and achieve something bigger (after their hard work) that relieves their stress (like internships, practical experience, or amazing jobs). As I said earlier, hard work pays off, and if you have grit, you'll reach there.
Graduate students are only allowed to work 20 hours a week on-campus because they are on an F-1 visa, which doesn't allow them to work off-campus or more than 20 hours a week. Hence, you can work as an hourly worker with a professor or work as a grader or TA for some course if you get the job. Besides that, you can also work in the dining hall, student union, career center, bursar's office, and in fact all the departments inside the university if they hire you. The average hourly wage at UTD is $10, which is not bad if you're working for 20 hours a week. You can pay for your living and meals with this money.
Since it's hard to find a 100% scholarship at UTD, most international students take a loan from Prodigy Finance, which is a loan provider organization that gives loans to students who get admission to top 100 universities in the U.S. They check your credit history, review your profile and all the documents, and then make a decision on whether you can be given a loan or not. The loan amount ranges from $15,000 to $100,000 for the whole graduate degree. For repayment, you have to start paying monthly six months after your graduation. For more information, you can go to Prodigy's website: https://prodigyfinance.com.
To graduate, 33 credit hours (11 courses) are required to be completed at UTD, and if you're coming from a non-CS background, you would also be assigned some additional prerequisite courses that you'd have to complete before you can enroll in core courses related to your track. In my case, I came from an electrical engineering background, so I had to complete three prerequisite courses; hence, I will graduate after completing 39 credit hours (13 courses).
So far, it's going well at UTD, and each day is a learning step when you're living abroad and studying as an international student. In my future blogs, I'll elaborate more about my life in Texas and particularly at UTD. Thank you for reading. ✌️
P.S. If you're interested in studying CS at UTD, here is the website link: https://cs.utdallas.edu. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns in the comment section below.
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