Just to introduce this piece of text, I’d call this as just the right pill you’d want to take after all the yipees and woohoos because now you have an admit from the Northern Illinois University. I’ve had many people asking the same questions over and over and so I thought it would be a more sensible act if I answer all of them on a page like this for everyone of you to go through ,over and over-‘If, you like it’.
Firstly, Congratulations to everyone who has received an admit from NIU and now has the VISA as well. And then, All the very best to people who have their appointment lined up ahead. Primarily, the objective is to answer the FAQs from an Indian student who will be here for his/her masters’ degree. But before getting into questions and more questions , Its quite essential to have a clear understanding about the basic rules of the game.
Everyone who’ll be here to pursue his/her masters of science after their bachelors in engineering back in India in any major will be a part of
- College of Liberal arts and Sciences: Computer science major
- College of Engineering & Engineering Technology : Electrical , Mechanical and Industrial Engineering major
And students who will be here to pursue Masters in Information Systems(MIS) will be a part of Barsema School Of Business.
Masters of Science in Computer Science students will have to finish 30 credit hours and have to take their Comprehensive examination to qualify as a Graduate student. Each graduate level course will carry 3 C-hrs. All in all, a student needs to complete 10 graduate level courses before he/she attends his Grad-walk day. However, a student from a different major in his under-graduation might have to attend a few pre-requisite courses. A student who comes with a corporate experience in the field of computer science might be lucky enough to get into the program without any prerequisites.
Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering students will have to complete 30 credit hours . The only difference in this department is that students have to do a thesis under the guidance of some professor within the department which will carry 6-C-hrs. All in all, 8 Graduate level courses and a thesis.
Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Masters of Science in Industrial Engineering and Masters of Science in Industrial Management students will have to complete 30 C-hrs.They could either graduate with a thesis or with just a project. If you are a Mechanical student funded within the Mechanical dept., you'll have to do a thesis under the professor who has funded you.If you are a Industrial Engineering student, the compulsion is a masters project and paper on it.
Masters of Information Systems students will have to complete 30 C-hrs to graduate.
The very next question any one would ask is ,
What are my chances of getting an assistantship?
If its assistantships, One could be :
- Graduate Assistant
- Research Assistant
- Teaching Assistant
Usually, Most departments within the university need people to maintain their databases, websites, etc. So for this purpose they’d have to hire a graduate assistant instead of hiring someone on a full-time basis and waste a lot of money. This is where Graduate Assistants come into picture.
So Graduate assistants in most cases would be people with good knowledge over SQL, PHP, HTML, .NET etc. Anyone with good computing skills could try for a Graduate assistant(GA) position.
Departments like Electrical, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering have a lot of research going in their department. But since the professor alone cannot work entirely over a research project, he’ll have to hire people depending on his requirement. This creates opportunities for students in the form of Research Assistantship(RA) position. The computer science department has very little research going within it, so the chances of finding a research assistantship position are very bleak.Although I know a couple of people who are RA's in the computer science department.
What is common in all these departments is every professor will need a student worker who could grade the assignments and examinations in each semester and so, they hire Teaching Assistants(TA).
However, there has been a lot of speculation on the effect of U.S economic recession over opportunities on campus. Primarily, all the assistantships would be available with vacancy. More or less, it depends on graduating students. The number of positions available is directly proportional to the number of graduating students who hold an assistantship. The scenario day by day seems to be getting difficult because students holding a particular position don’t want to graduate because he/she is afraid of remaining unemployed and might have to get back to India. If someone would ask me if I’d graduate, I’d say a big NO. Not just me, any one under the sun would only graduate after he/she finds a job.
However, anyone could extend his graduation only for a semester at the maximum. So it is just a matter of time, You just have to be a little patient while you keep working hard for that position. If a student previously could get an assistantship in the first semester itself, the situation now turned into the student finding a position mostly in the second semester. So there is always hope.
Since the graduate assistant positions are funded by the State of Illinois, only the graduate assistant positions have been affected by the recession. The Research and Teaching assistant 'position' will be available because the professors have a need for assistants. A professor wouldn’t waste his time over evaluating assignments and simple experiments.
What are my chances of getting an on-campus job if not an assistantship?
You might have a tough time getting one in the first semester because you’ll have people who already applied and been trying for a particular job before you. But you should be fine from the second semester because people who just hold an on-campus job wouldn’t try to hold their graduation for an on campus job (they’ll have to pay $5800 for one more semester, which no one would like to do for a pay of about 3000$).
There are four university student dormitories , and each of them have a dining for which they would need student workers.
Each computer lab in the university will have a lab attendant and these lab attendants are hired by the Information Technology services(ITS) , you got to apply online and you’ll be called for an interview. You can find the online application here.
http://www.its.niu.edu/its/labs/application.shtml
For the rest of the jobs, I’d suggest you to go on to
You'd have to create an account with all your information , this is just an online portal for student employment and international students only qualify to work for REGULAR positions .
What is the cost of living in DeKalb?
If someone chooses to stay in the university dorms. I’d say ‘Expensive’.
If you choose to share an apartment.The rent,electricity and internet expenses in most cases is around $160-$200 (4 people sharing a double bed room and 6 people sharing a 3 bedroom apartment( a lot cheaper deal)).
Grocery expenses technically depend on consumption levels :P ( $ 70 - $ 120)
The usual mobile phone expense is around $40-$50.You’d have to use an international calling card for calling someone back in India (the cheapest one is 0.01 cent/min). Unless If you‘re missing someone too much and he/she is out of USA, you phone bill wouldn’t fly high.
How should we be paying the fee?
The I20 says the tuition fee is $11500. But you’d have to pay for the course you register in a semester. A total due amount pops up on the https://myniu.niu.edu/ website. If you have problems logging in you could call 815-753-8100 and reset your account.
Typically, you’d have to pay $11500/2=5750$ + Insurance (around $340) + a onetime non immigrant fee ($125)). So you’ll need a USDD of around $6250 for your first semester and around $6100 for the second semester onwards.This applies unless any further changes in the fee. The insurance amount usually varies because the university keeps switching between insurance partners.
The university will retain any extra amount you pay through the USDD to your personal campus student account directly. The USDD should be in favour of ‘NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY’.
Important Check-list:
Once you have decided its NIU , there are a few important things that you should be doing before you take your flight.
1) Immunization:
You would have to take two shots of MMR and you’ll have to take a TB(tuberculin) test once you are here.
Even if you have not taken the MMR-I and II shots. Please ensure you fill in the below form and get in attested by a doctor
http://www.uhs.niu.edu/uhs/pdfs/imzform.pdf
2) A complete health check-up is usually recommended, esp. a dental check-up and an eye check up. Medical services in US are way too expensive, you wouldn’t want to spend 100$ for an appointment with a dentist.
3) The most important of all is to register yourself for a pick-up and temporary accommodation in case you need one because many gentlemen here work behind your pick-ups and accommodation. You’ll sure receive help but all we ask from you is a simple enrollment into the database on the ISA-NIU yahoo group
Please see that you register for a pick up atleast a week before your flight.
Simply join the isaniu@yahoogroups.com and receive all the help .
I hope this blog has some useful content .Please leave any feedback on the blog or any other questions on bharanironanki@gmail.com.
Take Care
Bharani Ronanki
