No one spoon feeds you here. You have to fight for what you deserve and ask for it
from Georgia State University Atlanta I am Jane I go to the University of
California Berkeley I'm from India Liv was born in Chennai raised in gen9 lived
Universities you got accepted when you were in your Grade 12?
Don't remember exactly. I had a lot of rejections too. Biggest one was Carnegie Mellon pepper for business (deferred admission) school but you know at the time boosts
me it was the only small business building a very very CS in stem heavy
campus so I didn't think that it was the best place for a business major to go
otherwise the other acceptances were at other UC so like you see you know UC San
Diego things like that a school that I was considering strongly use a small
College in Boston called Babson College it's a it's a school that's known for
entrepreneurship that's the family I come from a family of business people so
I thought that maybe if I go and you know study and start a business in the
u.s. it might be beneficial for me too expensive them so I think in terms of
affordability what is actually cheaper than that and all in all actually are
the options I had were more in the UK so things like you see LLC or Warwick
things like that was considering the UK but I was not entirely sure about what I
wanted to study altogether so I wanted the flexibility so I came why you chose
UC Berkeley over other competitive schools like Georgia Tech or other
affordable schools as well sure so I think that's a two part answer one is to
do with the competitiveness and the other is to do with the tuition fees I
think at the time when I was picking between universities my main prior you
know coming as an international student there's not too much research that I had
information about my parents didn't go to college so I didn't really have
anyone in the family to you know take advice from already know where to go so
in terms of my own personal research what I understood is I wanted to go to a
university that had high research value as well as one that has like a high
quality of academics because you know going all the way to the u.s. you need
that so I think that UC Berkeley ranks very highly in that at the time when I
had to pick between universities most of the schools that I was accepted to were
very stem heavy or very business so they were not really balanced so in terms of
the other schools like Carnegie Mellon like other smaller colleges other UC
Berkeley stood out to be the best balance between studying you know feels
inside stem and outside is terms of social sciences as well and I think your
second answer for affordability I think at first I think for international
students at the time I thought that the range is very similar in general and I
think from the other schools that I was accepted to they were other for a
private school so this was a public school so there was marginally cheaper
but I didn't choose to apply to another school you know that was a little
cheaper really know like what the benefits and differences at the time so
you're a stem major right now and you're doing business along with stem so it is
So you balances as you have to be STEM major to get OPT for 3 years instead of 1
So that you face less problem later. Sure you can say like that. But it is more about interest as well
You didn't get into Harvard. I didn't apply at all. My profile wasn't that good
want me to be completely honest Mira profile in terms of numbers numerically
was not the strongest so I had to really play my cards right in terms of how I
tailor my application accordingly so a lot of schools like Berkeley etc we're
definitely on the higher side or the read side of my statistics at the time
just because I had no preparation or any guidance I'm like what I have to do to
apply to college and things like that so whatever I figured out I did so that's
why at the time my grades and you know just the just the profile that I had all
together as a as an archetype student for our Harvard you know Stanford it
didn't match those criteria I was in the State so I needed I needed more growth
to be able to apply to the school so I did apply so what steps do you take to
manipulate your application to be happening but that score is it me hi any
As you said you scores weren't that high. so you must have manipulated in terms of extracurricular to
Can you share everything you remember before you came for Undergrad?
manipulation man you wouldn't permit application it was more in an
enhancement q ki a Aki Aki Borisovich Yamaguchi kahani what a sector of
A lot of times you can tell a better story which shows what type of person you are
In what ways your academics and other extracurriculars are balanced out
I added things like Research, Extracurriculars and my passion into my College Essays
important aspect I think it really makes or breaks your application geeky grades
Everyone can get a better grade but you can't put a filter on your essay or profile. S
In general my school had strong Extracurriculars probably why my Academics weren't. Cricket to sports stuff like that
student leadership things like that I was more and go out then and yeah I
think that's probably why they notice that you know like that was more on the
all-round student kind of things rather than academically strong and I think I
agree to that even today definitely improved a lot academically but still
would not like to think of myself as an academic sense so before we proceed I
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back off gamle so definitely check it out so now the big question why you
chose a university where you had to pay around $60,000 a year
as compared to like Georgia Tech which is very competitive and where you have
to pay basically $40,000 a year and there are a lot of good universities
where you have to be like even less than that
those cannot get on the mainly difference budget there to corrode
versus like one could or 1.5 corrode for the four-year and the grad degree
basically a lot of reasons why you choose a particular university: Brand value, location, rankings etc.everyone knows this
Biggest reason that I got to know after coming to Berkeley is
yeah okay the size of the university is so big or you have a talent is even bigger
in terms of competitiveness. They don't spoon feed you. You have to ask for you what you deserve otherwise you fail
A lot of opportunities are here but you have to grab them and create more
You have to work hard for it. No one tells you what classes to take etc.
Competitive factor can make you stressful but it motivated me to work even harder and make a stronger person
you in the deep end with college life scenario really prepares you for the
real world and I think that Berkeley is doing exactly that for me and I'm sure
that you know other cheaper universities can do that as well
at the time I had imperfect information about all of this so you know coming
back in terms of recommendations Berkeley's been the greatest experience
for me but you know provided a student wants to decide on whether they want to
pick the university that they have to pay more for but also
really hard to get whatever they want even after they go there and see that
in-state students pay barely anything and they have to feel you know fight the
same fight I think that's a fair argument as to not typically as you know
that's that's hard and I think that's fair enough but I think that if you have
more information on like other schools I guess tier two schools where you can you
know make your mark I think that's fine but I think that there is a big
trade-off there because sure you have to fight really hard from Berkeley but I
think as students we don't realize the value just yet because you know things
like the job market are so hard and things like that you know just get
getting opportunities in ins in general hard but I think that in the long run
the value that were clearance in a Berkeley education brings is really
really like it's it's unparalleled and there is definitely something there and
When you go back to India you see that your degree is super duper valuable
is about or education Malea be behind gotta I think for someone who is a
little more minded about just the cost behind an education from a very
financial sense then it makes sense for them to probably start off somewhere
else and then do a master's program or something like that if that's what their
objectives are if someone who wants to work in the u.s. or something like that
you know that people can have different objectives so I think cost is only one
of the factors that play into it and I don't think that that should be a
deciding factor when it comes to like taking an experience for yourself and I
think Berkeley is unparalleled on that it's it's an amazing experience and now
what about the career opportunities of complicity so my advantage of the as you are closer to Silicon valley. Is it easy to find jobs or equally difficult
much kalo in terms of say anyway exit right easily I think in general a bus
You have much more awareness about the companies here. Supply and the pool is much better and bigger
just the pool and the supply that you can see is a lot more in general and
apart from that Berkeley is a target school for recruiting for most companies
if not all of them so in terms of struggles for even like trying to be a
student coming out of a different University trying to get a job at a
company that they don't typically hire from we don't face that problem I think
we every that company hires in Berkeley and maybe
there's a high concentration of working people there in chambers
so our reputation is very well established in most of these companies
altogether in the valley I think other industries that are more heavy on the
East Coast maybe in the finance industry and things like that it can be little
harder for Berkeley students so I know that as a business student that finance
jobs are a little harder to come by they don't hire in packs and facts like they
do from East Coast universities but in terms of stem it's the place to be
really any job you want wherever you want you will probably have guaranteed
get that interview so you just have to make sure that you're above average in
Berkeley and you make sure that you get whatever you want
you know I got a chance to work in from top tech companies and you know
consulting phones things like that so I think it's definitely it definitely is a
big advantage to be mobile some people even it's like Oh Berkeley education
mind blowing. My final question
Lets say a student is choosing between spending $40k at Gatech vs $60k at UC berkeley. how should he decide. Both are equally competitive so super hard to compare
when you're considering 40,000 versus a 60,000 price point you have to know how much hard work you have to put in to reach your goals
going there and making sure that you get the you achieve the goals that you want
from that University so be it a career option be at research be it you know
just learning things like that or up. Also considering any sports you are planning to play
think there's different objectives people come into college you're so aware
If you are aware of those things then you can easily decide
it there so for example career opportunities is your main thing you
have to see whether that incremental $20,000 a year
will make any difference or not
If you think spending $20k less today will lead to much better pay back then in the end
better you know like payoff in the end if you think yes then great but that's
great but still contingent on the amount of hard work you put in
Ultimately you can go to any university. You know that after coming to US a level of opportunity increases anyway. Still you are on the plain field in terms of hard work
so I think in terms of really deciding applique objectives how you can really
optimize for whatever factors you like so for example of learning kill erm so I
think both universities are perfectly fine and if you think that a cheaper
price price tag is better for you then go for it
if you're able to score a scholarship wherever you can then try to go to the
better school the more expensive school so that you can you know get that get
that level of experience if you want global value low you know like people
don't say it enough and you know maybe they don't admit it as much as their
life but brand value is important or RPG you know other university ranking a
reputation it does matter I think it matters a lot more later on
in your life and it does now maybe for now you know you're in school and
everyone's the same so it doesn't seem like you know it's a great things like
30,000 go what we hang out it's like no big deal but you're only thirty thousand
of like the 7 billion people in the world so you know it's just it's just a
different thing so if that's something that's important to you then paying at
higher price tag is fine and you know if by God's grace if you are you know if
you can afford that education then you feel free to use it you know and I think
it's a conversation you have with your parents as to what are those trade you
know those trade offs the Union some people have family in other states
that is closer for them so let's say that you know you have an uncle or
something in your in Atlanta versus you have someone in the valley um you're
gonna choose them you're gonna make those choices really really looking at
it from a pricetag perspective is a very like close-minded I guess conversation
and I think it makes it very difficult for you to take a goal there correct
so in short conclusion if you are going to a better school with $60k fees then you have to do the hardwork at that level as well. No one is going to spoon feed you
If you go to a school like Georgia State University where you spend $20k and reach Google then comparison overs at that point
this is the case for public schools moving up the public schools including UCB, Gatech, GSU. Volume of students is higher so we have to work harder
But for private schools all are paying the same. e.g. if you go to Stanford you know that you will definitely get opportunities there
getting those opportunities larger school high price tag lower probability
so now it's up to you okay thank you so much first for your
valuable information