Info on CAT,GRE TOEFL,IELTS,GMAT,PTE Academic

Deadlines of many good colleges:

1 Nov - For international applicant for a few top colleges
1 Dec - For most ivy leagues and topmost colleges
15 to 31 Dec - For all remaining good or decent colleges
15 Jan to 15 February - For all remaining average or decent colleges
15 February+ = think of applying next year. Very few options


If you are thinking of admission into a top college or are looking for PhD, you need to communicate with the professors and believe me the entire process takes much time. You need atleast minimum 1 month for selecting the universities, based on your interaction with professors.
For many fields MS is not offered by top universities - only PhD.

PhD Advantages:

1) Opportunity to do wonderful research and get more exposure without other worries
1) All top colleges offer only PhD
2) Increased chances for admission
3) No fees to pay - study without worries
4) Additional stipend - salary for doing research and teaching

MS Disadvantages:

1) Less opportunities to do graduate research
2) No good college offers MS
3) Less chances of funding
4) Little exposure - you will gain nothing except an admit into US

Some suggestions:

If you are giving your GRE after 1 Nov, then you are heading for serious trouble, and ideally you should forget about applying to any top university.

Apply as early as possible. If you start early and finish your communications with professors in the month of October, finish all your applications by 15 November.

Preparing SOP needs atleast 15 days.

Recommendation letters: Professors take time to fill online ones. Don’t waste till last moment.

Transcripts: have many transcripts ready before November

Resume preparation, SOP modification for each individual university is a highly time consuming process. Finish your GRE and get your scores before 1 to 15th October to have time for all these processes if you are applying for a PhD.

Sending your applications:

Ideally 2 safe colleges should be decided by consultant as per his experience, and you should apply to atleast 4-5 other good colleges, acc to interaction with professors and 1-2 dream colleges. Many good colleges have no application fee. Try them out

If you have money apply to 14-15 colleges. 2 safe, 6-7 top, others good

1) Gov registered post - 15 to 30 days - 200 Rs (untraceable)

2) Gov speed post - 10 days - 475 Rs. (can be tracked on internet)

3) Private courier - 4 days - 750 Rs. (can be tracked on internet)