Say you have a 4.0 GPA in your undergraduate Computer Engineering degree in from Kathmandu University, 85.5% PCM score from St Xavier’s College, near perfect score in GRE and TOEFL and outstanding recommendation letters. You would like to pursue your MS degree at a renowned US university that offers full tuition assistantship/fellowship/scholarship with a stipend (you deserve it after all). But you have no idea how to start the search for these ‘right’ colleges in US.

To those who have been successful in receiving such financial aid for graduate studies, how did you go about identifying your current university? Can you share your experiences?

Thanks for the all your suggestions. Please keep them coming.

You have a good qualification. You will easily get admission is a good school but getting GA/RA is another story. Since your major is computer science you have a very intense competition from Indian and Chinese students. If you are aiming top computer science school then, you should think about taking Computer Science Subject GRE.

You said you have perfect or near perfect GRE and TOEFL scores.

You also said that your grades are excellent.

Now,

If you get equally excellent score in subject GRE(s)

and

If you can get 3 or more solid recommendations from appropriate people

and

If you write a stupendous essay(s) for your application

You have a complete package that will get you into any school, yes, with full financial benefits, i.e. scholarship + stipend.

Chances are, you will courted by the grad schools to come attend their's. They will make their bids - much like with pro atheletes but at much much much diminutive level - (scholarship/stipend/research opportunities, what have you),put you in nice hotel and take you out to nice restaurants, etc.

Only one caveat...

What is your field? If it is... say... Leisure Studies or Sociology or psychology... there ain't no money there. Heck, you won't make much money once you graduate with PhD on those fields anyways. One Nepali guy I know goes around all smug calling himself Dr. so and so and Professor so and so. But when asked his field, it was Leisure Studies. That pretty much ended the conversation right there, everybody knows you don't need Leisure Studies to enjoy leisure.

But, if your field is one of the hard sciences, like Physics, Chemistry, Biology... yeah, you stand a better than decent chance of getting into a top program with the whole shebang.

Thanks guys. As I've mentioned, my major is NOT computer science (thank god!)

Has anyone here taken the GRE subject test? If so, can you share your experiences in terms of what depth of review I should expect to do?

4.0 GPA from KU in computer engineering, 85.5% in PCM from St Xavier’s College, near perfect score in GRE and TOEFL and to top it all outstanding recommendation letters, wow, now, that’s perfect ingredients for admission in top ten universities in the US, sorry but not always the case. So, it is about time you make-up your mind as to how many colleges you would want to apply to. Assuming that all your credentials are true, you might not want to apply to universities ranked below 50. With those awesome credentials of yours and only 50 universities to choose from, half the battle is already won. Now you would want to go into details of each university and identify with the kind of research that each does and for this you might want to be a member of usnews.com. Just so you know that most of the top schools wouldn’t admit student for master’s degree alone, but you never know, with your credentials and bit of luck anything is possible. Last but not the least, make sure that your SOP matches up with your credentials. GOOD LUCK!

sqy, don't tell me you won't land a good job with a PhD or even a Masters in Psychology or Sociology. As far as making money goes, it all depends from person to person, I for one, would like to take up a profession of my interest and be happy with whatever money I can make and not end up in a "supposedly high paying job" which I might not be able to do it passionately. However, I do agree that pure science does have a lot of funds for RAs and TAs.

Good Luck Kirsten !

Thanks again guys.

I'm still curious in learning more about the GRE subject test. Has anyone here taken it to support their application?