This post is intended for the UTA newcomers. So if you are not associated with UTA, you can skip to next post safely.
I had very intense discussion with UTA newcomers on Orkut community (with over 500 replies by now). Here is the link to that post: Orkut Thread Link
I am not that active on Orkut, so you can continue that discussion here in the comments. I will reply as needed.
Many people requested for the famous PDFs that I used to host at my old website. Here is for all you to-be-UTA people. Again the password to access the PDFs is the same “brijesh_chauhan” (without quotes)
Useful information for UTA newcomers:
1. Applying to UTA
2. Before VISA
3. Clothing
4. Personal Stuff
5. Kitchen
6. Money
7. Medicine
8. Insurance
9. Books for EE
10. Books for CS
11. Driving License
12. Pre-departure
13. Port of Entry
14. Arrival at DFW Airport
15. Post Arrival at UTA
16. American terms explained
17. Useful Links
18. I-94 Sample
19. General Guidance
This information is a courtesy of UTAgujjus. They put up a geocities website at http://geocities.com/utagujjus. Fortunately, I backed up all pages before that site went down.
Feel free to ask any questions in comments.
{ 63 comments… read them below or add one }
Doubt – Got Admit from UTA
hi seniors,
I got admit for MS in CS for Fall 2010 but they said following in mail
“Congratulations! It is my honor to inform you that you have been admitted on probation. To fulfill our admission requirements, please satisfactorily complete the conditions listed below to end your probation.
Student must make no grade lower than B in the first 9 hours of graduate work taken as a UTA Graduate Student.
Student must complete the following deficiency courses: CSE 2320 and IE 3301″
now can you plz tell me what is admitted on probation ? n wht is that means ? n also wht is deficiency courses CSE 2320 and IE 3301 ?
@ Sumit,
It just means that your undergrad courses do not meet minimum requirement. So to overcome that you will have to take this two extra subjects. But you can come here and talk to your advisor to get a waiver on this.
@ Brijesh
Thx. I will talk to my advisor becoz I already checked curriculum for that courses and I have done it in my undergraduate studies. Besides there is more doubt. Generally in order to complete MS we need to complete 30 credits but at UTA it seem to be 12*3 = 36 credits + 1 seminar, is it correct or I am having improper information….????
@ Sumit,
There is no rule that says MS should be completed in 30 credits. Each college has their own requirement about the credits and it will very among all universities.
Also, there is no need for 1 seminar. I dont know what you mean by seminar. Never heard of it.
oh… I read it from MS guide for CS. Btw ppl say doing MS in UTA cost so less even if u did nt have any kind of funding. Is it true ?
@ Sumit,
Yes
Hi Brijesh,
I have recieved my visa on the 7th of Jan, I am travelling on the 11th of Jan. My visa was delayed under the section 221G and everything happened in such hurry that I could not my seniors in advance, is there a chance that someone could pick me up.I tried contacting ‘Indian student Association’ thru e-mail but there was no reply. Who should I contact?
Call ISA and verify it. I am not in UTA anymore.
Thanks for replying brijesh and your site is very helpful, specially for newcomers.
I am glad that you found it helpful
@Sumit: If the advisor doesnt waive the courses right away, there is a test you have to pass in to waive the subject off.
I had applied for MS in Mech. Got an admit yest. and later a mail stating tht my advisor has recommended me for BS-Phd Program. Now i dont knw much abt this program except tht it wuld be a direct Phd. What is the aide scenario if i opt for it and how the placements likely to be. I am kind of confused and would like someone to help me wther to opt for MS or Phd. (btw i wuld like to pursue Phd eventually after MS too)
Sorry put the subject instead of name above
@Joseph,
This is unusual scenario, best thing would be to call your advisor and ask him if you can directly get in to PhD. I think if you convince him the right way, he would agree. You can find their phone number from http://www.uta.edu
This was the mail received from UTA:
“You are receiving this email because Dr. Tong, the Graduate Advisor for the Mechanical Engineering Graduate School at UTA, feels you might be interested in changing your application to our BS/BA to PhD program rather than the masters program.
He would like to recommend you for that, but needs to know if you would indeed be interested in it, first.
Please reply as soon as possible, so we can make the necessary changes in your program.”
and this is the brief description of the course:
Applicants who have completed a bachelor’s degree and who wish to pursue a doctoral degree without completing a master’s degree may apply for admission in the B.S. to Ph.D. Track. The admission requirements to this highly competitive track are the same as those for all doctoral applicants.
In addition to the requirements for the Ph.D. degree, a B.S.- Ph.D. Track student will be required to enroll in at least three hours of research each semester during the student’s first two years, receiving a pass/fail grade (no R grade) in these hours. A student may be exempted from enrolling in research hours in the student’s initial semester. A B.S.-Ph.D. Track student must have a faculty research (dissertation) advisor prior to the start of the student’s second full semester. A B.S.- Ph.D. student must take the Ph.D. diagnostic examination prior to the start of the student’s fourth full semester.
I guess it seems to be as a direct entry to phd only…
request u to reply asap..thank you
@Joseph,
What is your question?
I received the mail as mentioned above frm UTA and when i chked abt the BS-Phd track program this is wht was given (also mentioned above), by reading it seems to me that its a direct phd program. Culd u tell me how gud is this program in relation to Mech and will thr be any funding associated with. Also i wuld be gratefully if u culd suggest me wht wuld be better doin an MS nd then Phd or direct Phd.
Thanking you in advance
@Joseph,
If I were in your position, I would first find out length of each program. I personally don’t believe that spending those extra years in PhD is worth it. As I said before, talk to your advisor and work on getting into MS degree
I have got admit for fall 2010 msee, they have stated it as non thesis. i had applied for thesis. whats the difference? i also heard they ll change it to thesis once i reach there and request. is that true whats the procedure. thank you
@Trishul,
It doesn’t matter what is written on your documents. You can always select thesis or non-thesis in your course work after coming here, its all up to your choice. You have to select your courses before starting of each semester, choose thesis as subject if you want to do that.
Thank you for the crystal clear answer bro, what is the difference bw thesis and non thesis subjects
Also among U of Tx arlington, U of Nrth texas, U of Houston, Texas tech, U of south florida tampa.
Which should be given top priority to do my MSEE ( communications). i have got unconditional admits from UTA and USF, will get from others soon.
Thank you.
@Trishul,
You’re welcome.
Thesis is like research. You do research on your interested topic instead of studying books.
And I don’t have idea about any other college other than UTA
Thank you bro….
You’re welcome Trishul. I hope this helped you.
Hi Brijesh…
First of all, thanx for this gr8 website.
I got an admit for PHD in CS at UTA.
“Congratulations! It is my honor to inform you that you have been admitted to The University of Texas at Arlington. Please submit the items listed below as soon as possible, and please remember to include your UT Arlington Student ID Number in your communications with us.
Submit Statement of Resources, Sponsor’s Statement, and Bank Affidavit. Go to http://grad.uta.edu/prospective/apply/howto/ to obtain these forms.
Your I-20 form ( if applicable), registration, and orientation information will be issued once the documentation is received.”
Does this mean I did not receive financial aid?
@Yogesh,
You’re welcome. I feel good about sharing what I know.
From what you have wrote, it looks more like an admission letter, which only says that you have secured admission. This does not say anything about financial aid.
If you already received your student “NetID” and password, you can go to http://www.uta.edu and click on the MyMav link. You can see the status of your financial aid after logging in.
If you don’t have NetID yet, you can call your advisor or admission office to confirm about that. You can find their phone number on UTA website.
@Joseph & Brijesh
To compare BS/MS/PhD is meaningless. If the end goal is to make money, spending four years in Engg is also useless. Why add another two to do an MS? The point is what do you want out of these degrees?
Again, if it is money that one wants, a better route would be to get hired in India (since hiring in India is probably better than anywhere else at present) then come to the US on H1, save more money, do an MBA and get rich that way.
On the other hand, you want to enrich yourself in some area of interest and you wish to make a contribution there, by all means go for a PhD.
A BS-PhD is an accelerated program. You will typically get a PhD in 4 years as opposed to the 2 + 3 (or 4) following the conventional route. If you do an MS with thesis, it would typically take you slightly over 2 years to finish. Since the likelihood of your extending your MS work for PhD is always high, you will finish up your PhD quicker. In the conventional route, you might end up working on two different research topics, one for your MS and the other for your PhD.
The graduate advisor has asked you to go for this BS-PhD program since he feels that you have an excellent academic record. Not everybody gets this invitation. The chances of funding in the program are probably good to excellent. Look upon it as an incentive. If you eventually plan to do a PhD, why not now.
One more thing, you dont have to ask people whether or not you should do a PhD. Is the other person better qualified at answering the question? I dont think so. What one will tell you is based on some half-baked conclusions from a limited sample of observations. Yes, it is a commitment of time and if you have the will, you will do great.
Finally, any PhD without publications or stellar academic performance will fall by the way-side. If you take this up, you have to strive to be the best at it. After that, since you are a bit specialized, jobs might not be plenty but they will come. For e.g, any joker who picks up a book on programming can write code. You dont have to be an engineer for that. You are not one of those. Companies, when they hire PhDs invest a lot in intellectual capital and PhDs are looked upon as assets. Just ask how many PhDs there are in the TI research labs and Intel research labs. These jobs are relatively recession proof. Even when GM was downsizing, they did not close down their R & D unit.
Hope you have enough to think about now.
Good luck
Randhir Mitra
@Randhir
Thanks a lot for your views and sharing your knowledge with us. Hope this will help a lot to UTA newcomers.
Hii Mr.Brijesh …u r doin great job on UTA forum….i know u have passed out of UTA but still i want to know about Faculty n teaching quality@ UTA.
I have got admit for Aerospace BS for Fall 2010 with scholarship .I have to pay 2200$ per year.Kindly guide me with oncampus living and jobs if possible.
take care
@Pranav,
I would say go for UTA if you have already got scholarship. $2200/year sounds really good. You will get on-campus jobs easily. Even if you don’t get it, it will compensate in your fees as it is already this low.
I would say go for it.
Hi Brijesh,
I got admit for MS in EE(control systems). I want to know how are the on campus job opportunities in UTA.
Also hows EE department in UTA??
@randhir & brijesh….
is thr any way i can get the contact of someone doin phd/ms in mech. dept. i wuld really like to knw more abt the dept. nd the profs. than whts in the site…..
wuld highly appreciate ur help.
@ Brahadeesh,
You can easily get on campus jobs at UTA. But I don’t know how to answer your question “Hows EE department at UTA”. Its very generalize question and there is no definitive answer. If you are asking overall, its good place to be. If you have any specific question, let me know.
@Joseph
If you have any contact in UTA, you can ask them to redirect you to Phd students in Mech Department. Or you can ask the international office to introduce you to the faculty to know more about Mech at UTA.
Hi Sir,
Can you please throw some light on which companies are hiring C.S graduates for Internships as well Jobs after MS.
In UTA Website, I cant find any link to career centre.
And I got admit from CS department with 4 Pre-requisites (Conditional Admit).
1. Can I do On campus job with this admit.
2. Will I eligible for RA/TA and Internships position.
Waiting 4 ur reply sir..
@Anurag
There are 1000s of companies who hire CS Graduate. So don’t worry about that.
Regarding your question,
1) If your admission letter doesn’t say anything explicitly about this, you can do on campus job
2) Above answer applies to this as well.
Anurag and all others, if you like the posts here, please become fan of Brijux.com by clicking this button below.
Sir,
I have received the I-20 for MS in mechanical engg at UTA. I just wanted to know is there any need for acknowledgement letter of receiving the I-20 from me? I have been granted probationary admission to the university. Will I be able to work in the university during the probationary period?
Waiting for your reply sir….
@Nikhil
Sorry for the late reply. You don’t need to acknowledge the receipt of I-20. And if your admission letter doesn’t say anything about your work eligibility then you should be fine.
Hello Brijesh sir,
I have got admits into UTA and New Jersey Institute of Technology for M.S in BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING. How is the course in UTA? What are the job opportunities post MS in this field?Are there many companies which hire graduates from this stream?Is living on campus better or living off campus?
@Rahul,
I would recommend UTA compared to NJIT. From my opinion, job does not depend on your school unless you are in top 20 schools. And for UTA, living on campus is way better than off campus.
Hope this helps. Please click like button and become fan on facebook page if you found this useful.
Hi Brijesh,
I have got admit for fall 2010 msee but it is provisional. ne idea what are conditions or criteria i need to complete prior to the comencement of the semester. at the same time i m confused bcoz i have got regular admit at northeastern for TSM(communication &networking). according to u, which one should i go with??
@Amee
Provisional means you will have to maintain minimum of 3.0 GPA in your first semester. That is the only thing unless they have mentioned anything else on your admission letter. Regarding choice of college, I would suggest to go with UTA. \
Hope this helps.
@brijesh
Thanks a lot
Hi,
Thanks a lot for this info. Could you please elaborate on the vaccinations to be taken? It is causing a bit of confusion. Is it TB or/ and meningitis? Is there anything more on this list?
Thank you
and also where it has to be taken, whether in India or in the university?
@Sush,
There is no requirement to take vaccinations for UTA. You will be given vaccination in UTA regardless of whether you took it in India or not.
Thank you
I have got admits into UTA for Computer Engineering. Planning to take Networking. In the admission letter they mentioned we write 3 papers. I am a ECE student. Shall i get waiver of those papers. What is the reason behind. Shall i get part time jobs. How do i contact newcomers.. in your website.. if i try to open some files it is asking for some password.. your site is very good.
@ Arun,
I didn’t get your question about writing papers. Elaborate more. You will get job if you want. The password is given in the post itself and also the link to orkut where you can find other new comers.
Hi Brijesh,
I got admit for MS in CS and I’m from Electronics background hence I was given Probationary status with 6 subjects to complete.Hence I want to change my branch to CE is it possible.
@Balaji,
Yes, you can easily change your branch. Please talk to your adviser for instructions.
Thank you very much..for ur advice.
Hi Brijesh,
awesome website and kudos for that…
i got admit in EE dept and am a 2010 Electronics and communication passout from chennai,India with a distinction
right now i havent decided my specialization… i wanna take a deeper look and consult lot of successful seniors like u before jumping in
can u kindly suggest which is the very good in UTA (in EE ) and has good prospects when we look in
a) on campus jobs
b) jobs in the field after graduation
c) possiblity to get funding
i chose UTA over other colleges(SUNY,UIC ,UH etc) because of low fees and cost of living and many said UTA is good in EE … as many indians depend more on funding… what are the DOs and DONTs to get a good chance of scholarships ..
is it better to contact grad advisor prior going there or its better to meet him in person and talk about registering in courses….
is there any chance to convert my MS (non thesis in i20) to a pHD based Study which has prospects of scholarships and stipends every month after coming to arlington??
@ Sai Srinivasan,
Thanks for your compliments. I am glad that you liked my website and my work. I will appreciate if you can pass it to other aspiring UTA students and if you can be a facebook fan of this website.
Now your answers,
- On campus job, most likely you will get it;
- jobs after graduation, it depends on you, there is no campus-interview system here, it depends on your abilities
- funding, again it depends on your field and the requirement of the department in that field, I would suggest better contact your professor and check with him
- you can contact adviser now, and check with him about your path, email would be the best way, and be prepared to wait for few days before they answer
- if you are interested in PhD, MS+PhD is the best way, it will reduce the number of years for your education, i will highly recommend it.
Hope this helps.
THANK U 1st for a very elaborated reply…and ll surely pass on to uta aspirants
can u kindly explain about MS+phD course in EE …like duration and funding chances
should i contact now itself regarding this change or after going there only i can change eh?
its a general doubt so am asking on behalf of every newcomer here…
how should we start our 1st mail to a professor/grad advisor???
many say ts premature to mail them before entering uta .. some say they expect us to mail properly and they have a view that indians mail to ask scholarship stuffs only…
can you kindly give tips on these and throw light on us so that we could survive and shine better ??
tank u once again
@Sai Srinivasan,
You can start your MS now and you can decide about MS+PhD after coming here.
For contacting professors, do as your instinct says, there are no rules.
I am goin to attend the visa interview on the 14th of this month.. So can you kindly tell me a few of the first year courses that I would have to study. And can you please tell me the areas of specialization available in electrical engineering for graduate study in uta. And is the course renewable energy considered as a specialization in EE??
@ Dilip,
I would suggest you to check the website directly. Go to http://www.uta.edu and go to the EE section, you can find all the course information there.
hi brijesh ,
You r doing an amazing work n hats off for that .
Coming to the point I got admit for MS in CS for Fall 2010 and also my VISA got approved but they said following in mail.
Congratulations! It is my honor to inform you that you have been granted probationary and provisional admission. The provisional conditions listed below will need to be satisfactorily completed by the end of your first semester of enrollment in order to continue your studies. The probationary conditions listed below will need to be satisfactorily completed to end your probation.
Prob: Student must take or test out of GESP.
Prov: Submit 7th and 8th semester mark sheets and diploma or provisional degree certificate.
can you plz tell me what is admitted on probation ? And any info reg GESP ?
And also what is provisional admission ?
And are there any chances of getting scholarships and stipends every month after coming to arlington ?
hello
first of all lemme tell u , u r doing a great job.. I wanted to knw about masters in INFORMATION SYSTEMS..is it equivalent to MBA(IS) and what are the job opportunities after that.. So, to sum up..whether its worth doing masters in info. sys. from UTA..
please reply asap..It wud be a gr8 help.
Thanx a ton!!!
@Sriram LNS
Probation means you will need to take GESP exam. It stands for Graduate English Skills Program meant to test your english. If you are good in english, you dont need to worry about it. Otherwise you may need to take 1 or 2 extra classes.
Provision to my understanding means you have not submitted your final marksheets yet. So it will be removed after you submit it.
@Rajat,
Sorry dude but I have no idea about that course.
@brijesh
I got probationary admission in UTA for 3 different subject. But i approached my dean they didn’t provide waiver even though i showed my syllabus. What is the procedure to admit in MS. Other than 3 deficiency courses shall i possible to take 1 credit during my first sem other than seminar paper. What is the rule. Can you please provide the suggestion or where can i find the details.