October 31, 2011

USA Port of Entry Process (POE)

Please find the USA port of entry procedures in this video. I recommend you to look at the following video and keep these instructions in mind so that you can avoid the nerve while you land at the airport.

The following video mainly tells you to do 7 things:
1. Fill the Port of entry form of Non-US citizens
2. Queue up yourself in the Non-US citizens line
3. When your turn comes, hand over the port of entry form to the officer on duty
4. Follow the instructions of the port of entry officer while giving the finger prints and photo capture
5. Answer the general questions asked by the port of entry officer
6. Make sure you receive your passport stapled with a port of entry slip and your i-20 stamped
7. Collect the baggage

For further instructions follow the video:

  • Port of entry procedure video


You may like to read:  
  • F-1 visa interview experiences

October 30, 2011

New GRE Score Reporting Deadlines

If you take the computer-based GRE® revised General Test between August and November, score reports will be issued according to the schedule below.
Computer-based revised General Test Dates Approximate Score Report Mailing Dates and View Scores Online Dates
August 1, 2011 – September 8, 2011 November 8, 2011
September 9, 2011 – October 2, 2011 November 10, 2011
October 3, 2011 – October 15, 2011 November 17, 2011
October 16, 2011 – November 18, 2011 December 1, 2011
November 19, 2011 – November 28, 2011 December 8, 2011
November 29, 2011 or later 10 – 15 days after the test date


Students who are applying for Spring 2012 needs to be aware of this. Because the earliest score reporting would be by 8th Nov,2011. Most of the schools will be done with their Spring 2012 admission deadlines. That means, the candidates who are taking New GRE test will be eligible only for the Fall 2012 semester and there after.


You may like to read:

  • New GRE Revised test in detail: Get in to know more...
  • Old GRE to New GRE: Quantative score conversion chart
  • Old GRE to NEW GRE: Verbal score converstion chart
  • Free GRE and TOEFL score reporting
  • New GRE Revised test survery and Analysis by KAPLAN
  • New GRE Books Review

Old to New GRE: Verbal Score conversion chart

Here is the old to New GRE Verbal score conversion chart. Candidates who took the New GRE and want to know the schools which suits their scores can make use of this chart.

Old GRE New GRE
230 133
280 135
290 137
320 140
340 140
340 142
350 143
360 140
370 144
380 145
380 146
400 147
410 147
420 148
420 149
500 153
510 153
510 154
520 155
530 155
530 155
540 156
550 156
560 157
600 160
610 160
620 161
630 162
640 162
650 163
670 164
700 166
720 168

You may like to read:
  • Old to New GRE: Quantitative Conversion Chart
  • Free GRE and TOEFL score reporting 
  • New GRE Revised test survery and Analysis by KAPLAN 
  • Documents required to apply for USA Universities
  • I am a BSc degree holder, still I got US visa

Old to New GRE: Quantitative conversion chart

The following is the Old to New GRE quantitative conversion chart. Who gave the New GRE and want to check the universities with the old scores can use this conversion chart. Please note, there will be no full mark ie 800 even if you get maximum in new GRE.


Old New
New GRE
390 140
450 152
520 158
640 151
650 151
660 152
700 155
710 155
720 156
720 156
750 155
750 155
750 160
760 160
760 160
760 160
790 164
790 164
800 166
800 166
800 166
800 166
800 166
800 166

You may like to read:
  • Old to New GRE: Verbal Conversion Chart
  • Top 151 US University Rankings for Engineering, 2012
  • American Student Life: Fantasy Vs Reality

Free GRE and TOEFL Score reporting.

Started your preparation for the New GRE General test? Planning to Schedule your test date? Then this is an important post for you!
Do you know that you can report your GRE and TOEFL score to 4 schools at FREE of cost? This is of a great benefit. Why to lose it.
Do you know how most of the students report their scores to the Universities after completing the test? If I say it, thats of great humor. What ever university name looks hi-fi and  beautiful at that time, they will click on it and report. This is because of utter ignorance.
I thought a little education on Selecting the Universities can save huge bucks of prospective students to US.


How to select Universities?
When you reached a weeks time to your GRE and TOEFL test schedules, you might be in a position to predict your approximate scores. By solving many model tests you can do that.
Now sit down before the internet to work on the universities for your expected scores.

Parameters to consider:

1. Courses offered by school.
2. Tution fee of the school.
3. Federal and State reserve fund to school and Research grants.
4. Location, as it highly influences your cost of living and the climatic conditions.

Related posts:

  • Looking to know about the New GRE Revised test in detail? 
  • New GRE score reporting schedule
  • Documents required to apply for USA Universities
  • New GRE Books Review
  • New GRE Revised test survery and Analysis by KAPLAN
  • F-1 student visa interview procedure
  • Documents to be carried to the F-1 visa interview: Mandatory and Supporting documents



Three important visa questions to answer confidently

If you are getting near to your visa interview date, you need to be more confident of answering the questions and handle the stress. One of the prospective students asked me to post, how one should answer the following questions:


1. What are your plans after graduation? How can you demonstrate strong ties with your home country ?
First of all, try to understand the logic behind the question. Why the VO needs to ask this question? Here the reason is to know the truth, whether you willing to come to your home country after Education in USA or not. The visa officers were trained to reject a visa if your answer to this question projects towards a prospective immigrant casev or who want to work and settle in USA.


Irrespective of your wish whether you want to settle in USA or not, if you want to get the visa, you need to convince the VO that you are not a prospective immigrant. You need to convince the VO that you will return to your home country after the completion of your studies in USA.


For example you can say like this:  All my family members were settled in India and my financial properties situated in India. The only reason for going to USA is to fullfill my dream of attaining a good educational qualification from a reputed university.


The very next question following this would be like this :


2. Why did you prefer USA not India or any other country ?
Here to this question the wise answer would be like this:


"I applied to the best schools around the world which suits my profile. I got admit from school A which is in Australia and school B in UK. But after receiving all my admits, I made a comparison among all the schools. Finally I was inclined to a US school because of its reputation and research interests."


By this time you should be ready to talk about the unique advantages of your university interms of faculty , reputation, research interests and sometimes it could even interms of weather.


3. What if you are offered a job in USA with decent pay? Will you work ?
One more trick that would be played by visa officers. Most of the students wish to accept job offers after the course completion in USA. But if you come out with that truth, make your mind to attend the visa interview for one more time.


To avoid this, never take even a minute chance of showing you as a prospective migrant to USA.
Always blindly say "I will not accept the job offer in USA. As I want to live with my family after my studies in USA, I will not accept.  Instead I will enquire the employer whether the same job can be offered in India if they have a branch in India. "  You can use the answer of the 1st question to justify your answer,  why you will not accept the job offer.


Finally, one point I would suggest you is to get prepared with your answers and get the feedback from your seniors who already went to USA or Post your answers for feedback in various forums.

You may like to read:
  • Frequently asked visa interview questions
  • F-1 student visa interview procedure
  • Documents to be carried to the F-1 visa interview: Mandatory and Supporting documents
  • F-1 visa interview experience
  • 221g F-1 Administrative pending case

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