Experience matters! (Bitter or Sweeter)

What can I do right now? I tried to write it earlier. But always I thought to make the baggage of my experience heavier then ever and wanted to share it to all of you. Unfortunately, I couldn't make time to write all thess things. However, I believe, this is the best moment to share my feelings and experience in this group. Personally, I see myself as a product of usadmissionhelp which has got a very good price. I dont know am I worth of it or not? Above all, I thank Allah, the most gracious, who made me and makes me able to write this and I rely wholeheartedly upon him so that He would make me able to write more like this.

I got my degree last November 2006 as I am from batch 2000 with a CGPA of 3.63 and then what I did? I went for an IELTS, scored 7.5 with a primary target to study in UK. But somehow it didnt help. I tried at Canada but I failed. I got a job at Bangladesh in a textile machineries selling company as a sales engineer. I had to visit all the way from Gazipur to Narayanganj for my job. After getting the salary of the first month I quit it. Why? I tried to fight for GRE but I understood it would be too difficult for me to get a good score if I would continue the job. So I left it and joined as a teacher of IELTS in a coaching center. It was a part-time responsibility and I started my preparation for GRE.

How I stared it? I went to the american center and got a membership. It didn't help so much though. But they have vast amount of materials, all are original. Besides, when you go to such a distance, using time and money, the tendency to study might grow. (its psychological, varies). I asked them one questions.

1. Do I need to take TOEFL for admission or getting VISA? They replied NO. TOEFL or IELTS is a requirement of your school. If your school accept IELTS you can go for it.

*Even I know a student, who didn't seat for IELTS or TOEFL anything but got admitted, got VISA at SUNY Syracuse. But to get admitted in a good school you must need to get a score, whether IELTS or TOEFL.

Okay. then I started with barron's what most of the students do. But I halted; I could not bear it too far. I had a partner in this run, Rassel (rasselraihan@gmail.com ). He collected some word lists from Internet; we took print, make some self-designed card. We tried to keep in touch with the words always. We got a white board in our room. It worked for me. Because, when you write something on it you see the image of a word which might last longer! Let’s see a list what more I did.

1. Antonyms from Barron's, NOVA and Antonym bible.
2. Analogy from Barron's , Nova, Saifur's Analogy, Analogy Bible.
3. Sentence completion from Barron's and NOVA
4. RC from BIG BOOK. (I didn't see all, its better if u can)

But I was a slow coach all the time. I registered for the GRE almost 2.5 months earlier of the exam date. I have a quite funny idea about this. If you pay once you would get more concentration for your study! So I did. Everything was going fine. I took a total break from the life from 10 days prior to the exam. It was a 10 days PL fight again. In these 10 days I got wordsmart (another vocab book) and almost memorized the whole book. Now I understand if you have a target around 400-450 in verbal you can rely on wordsmart.

Finally, I scored 1320 in my GRE (Q = 800, V = 520). I had shared about math experience previously. What I suggest again, get prepared for more time consuming and complex problem in the exam then before. Available books don't reflect the current difficulty level.

Then, the hardest hurdle! It was collecting recommendation letter. One must have ample time for this. I don't want to comment more on this process!

The next part is the university selection. I set my line of action. I wanted to go for 6 Universities and selected 3 different region according to US news ranking.
ranking 10-30-------2
ranking 31-60-------2
ranking 61-rest-----2

Actually I targeted other two schools from third and fourth tier. I sent this selection to zubaer sir (usadmissionhelp@gmail.com). I got shocked when I got his reply. He sent me a new selection list. 5 schools are within 30! One of them was UIUC! I never thought I could get admission there with my credentials! However, I finalized a list and started applying. In this stage I learned lot of things!

1. The first thing to see in the university website is the deadline of application for international students to be considered for financial aid.

2. Then, look for what documents to be send. Generally, Transcripts, PVC, 5 other certificates and SOP. It is better to add an academic Resume. It wont be an extra weight! Some schools require two sets in two different addresses.


3. Some schools ask for financial documents. Sometimes it is not necessary. If you want to send it, send the bank certificate stating the amount in dollar only. Don't get panicked, because if you go to the embassy with a different one it will not be a problem. You can change it before the issuing of I-120. So, no matter what is written initially. And if you get funds the bank letter is almost worthless!

4. You can send these documents through FedEx. It will cost BDT1883 and 3 days for shipment. If you go for EMS it will be approximately 600 tk at best. I am not confident about their timing and address sense!


5. There are some other services also. One is OCS at Maghbajar. they take 1100 tk and 4 days to ship the package.

6. It is better to write name, ID, term of application, dept. etc on the envelop so that the admission office can match the documents easily.



7. You need not to get worried about sending GRE and TOEFL score. You need to send it on line. Be careful about the school code and dept. code. Some schools may mishandle these, you have to allow them some time and you need to keep mailing. They will find it! In case of bad luck you need to resend and they will allow you extra time.

8. IELTS scores are sent from the exam center. You need to go their, fill up an application and pay the courier bill. They will send the package. You can send your other documents within this package if the address is same. This will save your money.


9. Better to carry a glue, pencil, stapler, some envelops all the time of the application and recommendation collecting process.

10. Keep some note so that you don't forget



So, now the next part is getting admission. I got rejected from UFL first. I asked them the reason and they said recommendation letter and average grades!

At February 18, I got admission at UIUC but no funds. I immediately contacted with zubaer sir and asked what to do. He said to shoot emails to almost all the professor of the dept. There is another option, applying for grader position. I did so but I was not having any luck. I sent email to almost 24 professors. Nobody was replying! In the mean time, I got admission at ASU but again no funds! I was getting almost frustrated. Suddenly I got admission from TAMU with a minimal fund. So, I opted for that and was getting prepared for TAMU. But zubaer sir asked me one thing. “Keep punching”. So, I did.

Once one professor set a phone interview with me. I read 2 of his papers and took some preparation. It was a 25 minutes interview and he asked almost nothing. He just explained his research nature, asked me some of my previous experience at BUET. So, its easy to go for an phone interview! He told me that he would reply me within 2 days! As I didn't get any reply and at the fourth day I sent him an email. He said me 'no' but in a very generous way. I thought it was a 'yes'. This is a nice thing about the professors. When they say 'no', the language they generally use is almost like a 'yes'! of course, I got a different reply from a professor from TAMU. He said, “I don't work with the new students, I don't take courses of the new students....bla..bla.. ” . Later, I got some other replies (positive and negative) from some more professors. One of them sent me a list of questions. I discussed with zubaer sir and after 4/5 days I sent him the reply. But, no luck afterwards! So, the time was running and I was getting more and more frustrated. It was 28 of May I was able to fix another phone interview with a professor. But, luck didn't favor me this time again. He didn't get the phone line and my weeklong preparation for this interview was in vain! I was so frustrated and talked to zubaer sir and he told me to keep punching the others. As per his suggestions I shoot email to the all 24 professors for the 2nd time. Somebody said 'no' later. But I got two quick replies at the same night. one of these two asked for a PhD student said sorry that he could not reply my email before (which I sent to him almost 3 months back!). Other one just replied my previous mail (almost 3 months older!) said that he was not sure but he asked some time. After 1 week I had fixed another phone interview with the prior one and it was a 20 minutes interview. Again, no questions from the text books. But he some how memorized my transcripts and asked me about my grades fluctuation. I had to show some logics as well! I was committed to pursue PhD. However, this time, I got the RA (Alhamdulillah). This was the 90th day after my first email to this professor.

So, if you write to any professor show him your interest for PhD.

And now, I am here! Safe and sound at UIUC! But, I lost one of my luggages at Los Angeles. Again some tips!

1. I strongly recommend not selecting Cathay Pacific as your carrier. They have got the worst services I could ever imagine.

2. When you will be coming here, try to have some quarter so that you can make phone call to the US number from the pay phones.


3. There are some yellow phones and some black phones. If you want to call to any free number you have to use the black one.

4. You need not buy a lot more thing from the country.


5. Don't worry about the money endorsing. As long as you have a US VISA you can carry sufficient dollars. (Not more than 5000). Still, it is better to endorse as much as you can.

6. If your I-20 indicates family funds you can take permission from Bangladesh Bank. Or you can go for opening student file

Last thing to say,

"Never be hopeless from the blessings of Allah"

I am probably missing a lot more points. If you think to contact me you can send me an email at hasib01@gmail.com.

** About Credit card there was Manju. He is going to Germany this fall. If any body needs anything regarding credit card payment he can contact TUSAR at 01911501201. He is congenial nice guy!

আমি বাংলায় লিখতে চাই

আমি বাংলায় লিখতে চাই
জানিনা সবাই ঠিক মত পড়তে পারবে কিনা।
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