Friday, July 17, 2009

Change - III

It's now official(I mean, things are finalized), and I can post it in my blog, the news what so far only my closest circle knows. No, I am not getting married, (Although some my friends and classmates are getting ready :( ) I am moving to New York from Mid August to pursue my Masters in Computer Science at The State University of New York @ Stony Brook aka Stony Brook University :)

The last one and half years, I was preparing for this. Wrote the GRE in last September and TOEFL in October and managed to scalp 1370 and 110 respectively. How I wished for a single window system for the US universities like we have for Engineering/Medicine here in TN for it was the toughest part of the process. Preparing the Statement of Purpose and getting the Recommendation letters was the next stage. Once through with the application part in early January, it was followed by an infinite wait, and in March, I got the first admit from Clemson University followed closely by University of California, Irvine, Arizona State University, University of Maryland - Baltimore County, North Carolina State University , State University of New York- Stony Brook and Ohio State University. The strike rate was much better than what I had thought (0.7)

Selecting SUNY-SB over others wasn't difficult for it is the best in Computer Science, ranks much better than others, fees is comparatively cheaper and more than that, some of my seniors and close friends are already there. what else would one need above all this? Getting the I20 docs took some time and eventually scaled the tension-filled visa interview and got the US visa stamped in the passport.

Whew!! It had been a tight rope walking all these days, managing the job and the aspiration to pursue MS. Now comes the most difficult part, leaving India... Change is always tough, and every change teaches some important lessons in life. What I would miss the most, needs a separate blog post by itself and hence I am leaving it for now.

Now waiting for Change - III to take over after the successful Change - II (Madurai to Bangalore) which happened two years back.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

best wishes and looking forward to seeing u soon:)

Anonymous said...

anna this change is inevitable for all going to pursue MS. all the best for all your future endeavors. stay in touch.

Geethapriya said...

Hello Anna,

All the Best.

LittleWorld said...

Dude, you should add the I20 problems that both of us faced :P

I don't really understand why you have chose stonybrook to calif, irvine. Don't say it's because of money.

Balamurugan,S said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Balamurugan,S said...

All the best da praveen.... Keep rocking the same way you did in your past times... Convey my regards to SAP and Kumaran.

Mano said...

All the best Praveen!

~Manohar