This is my first blog and I like to talk about my experiences with the life in the U.S. it is applicable to students of any university in general, I hail from hyderabad and have had a great time till December 2007, while I was in India, I had just completed my undergraduation in May and started working with Google which was a great thing for a starter.
The Moment came in January 2008 when I left for Miami Florida when I came here for a Masters in Computer Sciences, all the information I had gathered before coming here was that, people here tell you that this isnt a good university, you do not get on campus jobs, there are no chances of getting funding, you will get screwed up, why u wanna leave google and come here. I also had admits from a better university in George Mason and a less expensive university in California State University Northridge, I was also told that the Electrical Department does not have any funds at all.
I landed here a week after my classes started, It was definitely tough to get around with things when u never know of any one here not just in F.I.U. but in whole of U.S., u have no ideas about this country at all, especially being a practising muslim when u dont have an idea about a mosque, about the halaal food and when u dont even know of any other muslim in the vicinity, but lemme tell u it all makes things better for u it tests u and gives u a great idea to see how much can u follow urself and principles u set, people were like getting off campus jobs is impossible, thanks to almighty I and my 2 frnds got em in a week after coming here, On campus was on in 3 weeks, people told Computer Sciences was the most difficult to pursue here especially when u are from an electrical background, Alhamdulillah I have a GPA which would prove that wrong, I was told by some people I knew that the university was a wrong selection by me, I figured by now that by gods grace it was the best, coz its not just ranking and rating but many other dimensions which decide it, I had one of my close freinds coming here in the same semester and that has been a great help more than I can tell here, coz here u are alone and dont know whom to trust when u find new ppl, and most of the people are really mean, not that they want to be but they are left with no other option. Ironical of them all would be that I got a Research Assistantship in Electrical Department from my second semester.
The summary of the whole blog would be most of the times the people portray wrong information, I know of many who tell the situation is bad just because they dont want to have competition and feel insecure of their position, So try to now people before u really take their advice and always take it as a suggestion and better not as an advice, If u can really put in the effort you will be able to achive things along with gods grace, after all I have said let me stress that every thing what people say is exactly right if you are one among those people, as they havent been able to find things because of the flaws they possess if you feel u are on the same boat then you cant succeed.
