The "Easy" Journey to F-1

     “Why are you studying for CAT and trying for MBA and why not GRE and do MS?”, asked my uncle, “In India, MBA from anything other than IIM-K, A, B, XLRI, JBIMS is like for no use; same old boring courses and similarly less pay scale after graduation. And, even after getting a 99.99 percentile in CAT there is no guarantee that you'll get a call for the GD-PI for IIM-A” he added.

     After a series of switching between MBA to MS every day, I settled for MS. Once I had decided what I wanted to do, I started preparing for the standardized test required for admission: GRE and TOEFL.

                             

I paid for my GRE and TOEFL appointments using my uncle’s credit card (Remember, GRE and TOEFL don’t accept payment via normal debit cards) and, as soon as the payment was done, I went to my bank and got the checklist for the education loan. In order to gauge where I stood without any preparation, I gave ETS’ PowerPrep-I and scored a miserable 288.

     I knew had to pick up the pace and score at least 310+ in the practice tests. Kaplan, Manhattan, and Princeton were my only friends for 18 days and I had not seen the sunlight in those 18 days. On the first day of Navratri was my best friend’s GRE; and I got a call from him saying that the GRE has raised its standards and the sums were very tough and lengthy. I panicked, I needed to ooze the built up tension but as I had my fasts going on I could not overcome my anxiety. The day came 1^st October 2014 where my 18 days of training was going to be tested. As I stepped out of my wing I felt like Captain America who had been frozen for 80 years (rather 18 days). I gathered courage, it was the last day of my fasts; exams, hunger, anxiety; well it was a very bad mixture of feelings.

     I entered the exam center well before 30-40 minutes of my appointment and luckily I was taken in early. After a long security check, permission to enter the exam hall was granted. It began with AWA which was of an hour followed by a minute’s break. After that was Quant (Math) which I used to finish with time to spare during practice tests. But on D-Day, I ended up guessing five odd questions due to lack of time. During the break, I was immensely tensed thinking about the marks I had lost and how much can I score and what not, which made me more nervous. Now it was my second quant section, I was solving an easy but lengthy sum, wasted around a minute on it already, and was about to get an answer, but somebody coughed and I forgot the figure I was supposed to add. “Chill Manan, once more!”, I said to myself and recalculated the figure and blessed heavens that guys coughed again, and repeated it at least thrice, thanks to him I had lost 10 minutes after one problem. In the end, I was so frustrated I did not even re-check the marked answers and click on Submit. While the computer was calculating the marks my heart was racing like I had being running for the past three hours, then the screen read “Verbal 149 and Quant 157”, my heart skipped a beat, and I couldn't believe what my eyes were looking at. I absorbed the sadness, bought a smile and walked out of the centre with the 306/340.

     The other vital test required for applying for Masters is TOEFL-Test of English as a Foreign Language. For my TOEFL, I couldn’t get a date of my choice in Mumbai so I booked it in Ahmadabad. I reached a day before the exam and stayed at my uncle’s place for one night, the next day the exam was at 10:00. We left home around 08:45 but to our delight we lost our way, after roaming around hundreds of small lanes we finally found our destination at 09:55. My photo was clicked and I was allotted a PC. The TOEFL started, reading was the first section, a boring passage appeared on my screen related pollination and in couple of minutes my screen went black. I tried to find the problem but it some fault in the monitor, as CPU was still on. “This is what I needed now, a blacked out monitor”, I said to the coordinator who was very pretty though. After the “Technician” had a long fight with the PC my test resumed and I had lost a total of 12 minutes, which are at least 6 marks on the exam. I braced myself and completed the reading and listening section, which was followed by the speaking nightmare section. Before one can start with the segment there’s an audio test to check if the microphone is working. The question for the check was “Describe the city you live in”; I give a long check answer thrice and the fourth time I said, “This microphone is not working” and ping, the audio test is completed. I finished the TOEFL, and came back to Mumbai. In about 10 days the scores were out, I had scored 103/120, thanks to the blackout monitor.

     Done with the GRE and TOEFL, I moved on from the test preparation phase to the application phase; this phase was much more irritating and time-consuming that the test preparation phase. One has to shortlist universities, draft the statements of purpose (SOPs), and run behind professors for getting good recommendation letters (LORs) and fill long forms of the colleges one is applying to. Added to the above mundane tasks to be done, students have to get the university mark-sheets and their college transcripts attested from Mumbai University which required me to wake up a 06:30, leave home by 07:00 and reach Churchgate by 08:00 so that I could get free by 13:00, this process takes 25 working days or so they say. Moreover, with the amount of luck I had then I found out my father’s name had been printed wrong in my semester VII and VIII mark-sheets. I had to visit the university at least 6-7 times before December and once I had my degree certificate get it corrected too, which required 2-3 visits more. Oh, yeah I forgot the special certificate which is required by colleges like UIC, UTD, UTA require during the application.

     Once I had all the documents I applied to Arizona State University (ASU) quite in the nick of time, followed by University of Southern California (USC) and then Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (IIT-C), Syracuse, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC).

This was actually the condition of students

     Somewhere around mid-January, I got my first decision which was a reject from IIT-C which I considered safe, followed by a reject from Syracuse. The same day Syracuse rejected me, a friend with almost the same profile as mine was rejected from RIT for MSCS. I had given up hopes, I was shattered, started having anxiety attacks and once I literally woke up screaming. There was nothing that could pacify the anxiety other than an admit and then on 13^th March 2015, I had lunch and came back to my seat at work, opened Gmail and saw no new mails but then I clicked on “spam” and saw RIT. I told myself it’s okay if it’s a reject and clicked on the mail; the first line read “Congratulations!” my heart beats increased, I continued reading further and read “You have been granted admission to RIT MSCS for Fall 2015” and my heart skipped a beat.

The ADMIT! 

 I ran to my mom told her I got admitted into RIT and ran back to my seat to read the entire mail; to my delight, I read ‘you have been awarded a scholarship of $7738”.

     Now was the time to run after the documents, the damned paperwork was to be done now. Bank trips, the paperwork, the checking of the originals, letters from work, letters from the society, letter from different banks and mark-sheets and every other paper one can think of was required. After around a month’s turmoil I had submitted my application for the loan. The officer told me it would take around 15 days for the sanction of the loan. Once the loan was under processing, I started with the visa process. I filled the DS-160 and submitted it, followed by booking a visa slot on 28^th May 2015- Student Visa Day. Later on, I paid the SEVIS fees of 200$ too. As said in a movie “Kismat badi kutti cheez hai, kabhi bhi badal sakti hai”, I got my loan sanctioned in two weeks. I readied all the papers for the Visa Interview and geared up for the final stage.

     D-Day, Judgment Day, Qayamat ka Din: - 28^th May 2015, I reached an hour earlier to my appointment and thus had to wait for the entire in the scorching sun. Once the time was due, a line was formed, it being the student visa day almost 1000-1500 students were there. We got our passports scanned and entered the embassy and what do we see, one more line like playing ‘Snakes’ in Nokia 3310, moving pretty fast, though. Entering the main building we were told to remove our SEVIS receipt and I-20 form out from our folders. The interviews were a matter of public display with people speaking bad English or unclear ideas of why MS were being rejected. I moved ahead to the first person in the line and was allotted counter 30. As was walking towards the counter I saw a guy being rejected walking away with his passport and as soon as I reached, the guy in front me was rejected. I exhaled and moved towards the counter. “Pass me your I-20 and passport”, said a manly voice from the other side of the bulletproof glass. I passed him the I-20 and passport as asked for; he took a brief look and shoved my I-20 back through the duct below the window. The interview started with the officer asking me “Which College?” to which I replied, “Rochester Institute of Technology”.

“Why RIT?” he asked.

“RIT has research in the fields which are perfectly aligned with my interests. And I have received a 20% scholarship too”, I answered

He typed for a bit and asked, “Since how long have you been working with your company?” to which I replied, “A year, sir. I’ll complete a year on 16^th June”. He typed for a long while this time and asked me, “What are you plans after graduation?” and like a rapid fire round answer I spontaneously responded, “Come back to India and find a job; and with the highly repu..” he interrupted and told me, “I am approving your visa, you can collect it in three working days”. The interview did not last for like 40 seconds. I could not believe the Visa Interview was so smooth; I waited for a couple of seconds to see if the officer returns my passport but to my delight he did not. I walked away from the counter like a boss and gave my friend an assurance smile and a nod on my way out. After a minute he joined me at the celebration organized by the US Embassy for Student Visa Day. We got Lays, Maaza, and a piece Chocolate Chips cake too.

     Yesterday, I collected my passport with the Visa stamp on the passport and it feels orgasmic. After the things a student goes through for MS, getting the F-1 is the final nail in the coffin. The GRE and TOEFL preparations, the university trips, the running behind professors for LORs, the drafting of SOP, the forms for application, the paper work, the rejects we faced, joy of an admit, the visa process, the anxiety and nervousness before the VI, the moment the you hear the words, “Your visa has been approved” you know you are preparing for a whole new life now, the last chance where you can prove yourself, do something substantial, leave a mark on people’s lives. To all the applicants for Fall 2016 – ALL THE BEST, for the Fall 2015 students, Respect! Congratulations! We've been through a lot, like A LOT; hope you have a good time in the US.

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KANPAI!

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