Chances of applying for fall 2012

[Niju Alex]

hi everybody...i am new to this forum and hence i would start off with an explanation of my background.

i did my B.Tech in Electronics and Communications in NIT (National Institute of Technology) Warangal, India.it is one of the top twenty colleges for btech in India.i recieved a cgpa of 7.64/10 by the end of my btech.I would like to join for MS in Embedded Systems by the fall of 2012...but the sad part is that i havent done any projects or research activities so far....i got placed in a company that is focussed in telecommunication and am supposed to join it on monday (4th of july) ,next week...but one of my friends (who also has applied for ms in a different field) has told me that working in a field that is different to the field i am trying for ms in wont help in improving the chances of my admission to any good universities...i thought of doing a course in embedded systems from some private insitituion,but i am told nw that even that wont help in my ms application as they dont have any renowned people in such institutes.

Also,i havent got any Lor's so far and would like to knw if a proffesor workin in a different field such as communication would help me to get an ms in Embedded Systems...frankly, i havent been one of the brightest students in my class but i do have a great interest in learning more about wat i like...

i did my gre test and got a score of 790Q and 610V but unfortunately, 3.0 for my AWA test....is the AWA score going to affect my application?

can anyone tell me which are the top twenty universities that offer MS in Embedded Systems and if i have any chance of getting into one of them?moreover, i'd like to know if the degree provided by a college, which is not among the top twenty colleges would help me to get a good job in USA or back in India, if i performed well during the ms? i.e. if the degree provided by the top colleges and low ranking universities are same or not?

[Niju Alex]

i havent done my toefl test so far...

[frenzydude]

It will be difficult for you to get a funded MS at any top 20 institution. However you can easily get non-funded MS admits from some of them. Would that be acceptable to you ?Do you want to do a research-based masters or a professional masters ? in other words, do you intend to do phd later ? or do you just want to do MS so that you can get a highly paid job ? or do you want to work in a research lab after MS ? these are the questions you will have to think over and answer.

Edited July 1, 2011 by frenzydude

[Niju Alex]

It will be difficult for you to get a funded MS at any top 20 institution. However you can easily get non-funded MS admits from some of them. Would that be acceptable to you ?Do you want to do a research-based masters or a professional masters ? in other words, do you intend to do phd later ? or do you just want to do MS so that you can get a highly paid job ? or do you want to work in a research lab after MS ? these are the questions you will have to think over and answer.

i am intending to take ms in embedded as an assurance for a good job and also as a base level to do an ms in robotics.later i am planning to do research in the field of robotics....so i think i should take proffessional ms for embedde systems and later research based ms in robotics,right?

can anyone help me by estimating the average total fee required for a non funded ms?if the cost is too much (exceeding 25 lakhs) then i dont think i would be able to take an ms in robotics...in that case what should i do to get a funded ms?

[OH YEAH]

Embedded systems seems like more of an EE research area than CS...

[Amogh]

i am intending to take ms in embedded as an assurance for a good job and also as a base level to do an ms in robotics.later i am planning to do research in the field of robotics....so i think i should take proffessional ms for embedde systems and later research based ms in robotics,right?

can anyone help me by estimating the average total fee required for a non funded ms?if the cost is too much (exceeding 25 lakhs) then i dont think i would be able to take an ms in robotics...in that case what should i do to get a funded ms?

Hey,

erm dont mix currencies man. and dont use lakh, crore outside of an indian context. They aren't standard monetary units and no1 else would understand them. Also always use $ when posting.

Now back to the topic, i think you are really confused. Why do you want to do 2 different Masters programs? Unfunded, a masters program could cost you anywhere from 30k to 60k a year. So, you really should chose a field and stick to it. If you intend to work in the field of robotics, apply to robotics programs. You can also take your fill of embedded systems while you are in a robotics concentration.

And Embedded systems is Computer Engineering. Not Computer Science per se. Some places will classify it under EE so do look there as well.

[PyRO]

Amogh's right... It is completely stupid to do 2 different Masters programs ?? What do u want to achieve anyway ?? If ur interested in Robotics, which is a really competitive field, think about trying to do a couple of individual projects. And as far as funding goes, only the top varsities tend to offer them.. so u need a lot of extra cirriculars as well.

U can major in Robotics and take up Embedded systems as one of ur minors i guess... Depending on the university

[Niju Alex]

Amogh's right... It is completely stupid to do 2 different Masters programs ?? What do u want to achieve anyway ?? If ur interested in Robotics, which is a really competitive field, think about trying to do a couple of individual projects. And as far as funding goes, only the top varsities tend to offer them.. so u need a lot of extra cirriculars as well.

U can major in Robotics and take up Embedded systems as one of ur minors i guess... Depending on the university

I am interested in creating robots and other electronic systems.but i wasnt sure about the scope for robotics in india.thats the reason i thought of doing an ms in embedded systems,which provides me with a lot of job opportunities in india, and then do robotics for following my desire to build robots while i am settled securely in india with a good job...but i realized now that there is not much of opportunities for robotics in india and it would be expensive to do two ms in US.so i have decided to learn embedded systems and then try to make robots on my own.

also i would like to go for a research based job after the ms...but wasnt planning to do phd immediately...so i think i should take a research based ms right?...but i havent seen ms being classified as research based or proffesional in the universities that i have searched like the university of berkley.how can i be sure that i am selecting a research based ms for a particular university?

[Niju Alex]

i tried posting in the EE section...but havent got any reply till now