How to enter the US magistracy?

On this topic, there are quite a few on Habré, and each of them gave me valuable information, so I want to share my personal experience and a brief algorithm based on it (this is a “budgetary” master’s program):

1. Find universities and programs in them for which theoretically an international student can get scholarship (hereinafter referred to as a grant);
2. Translate and reassure your diploma;
3. Pass Toefl and GRE;
4. Write a Statement of Purpose and other essays (if required);
5. Pay the registration fee and send the documents by registered mail.

And that's it!
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Now about each step in more detail.

1. Find universities and programs

Higher education is in demand in the USA, it is very expensive. But in the magistracy the applicants are already much smaller. Here we have chances. There is no free education in the United States, so you need someone to pay for us. Such a sponsor could be: your university, your state, a foreign country, a charitable foundation, a foreign university, a foreign department. Each of these options is realistic and requires more detailed study. I used the last one. For many computer science programs, a university faculty in the United States is willing to pay tuition for promising students, because they help conduct research, improve university and faculty rankings, which means more funding for them. That is, it is not a gift from the faculty, it is their investment.

Your task is to find the maximum number of such programs for which someone is willing to pay for you. Of these, you can continue to select the most steep ones according to your desired criteria. This stage is the most difficult (!). It requires a lot of time, googling, and generally very routine. Since I was in Baylor before, I had a link to this university. There I began to search, I found a program in computer science and did not spend more time, as I was all right.

All other steps are, in fact, purely technical - everything is simple and clear, take it and do it.

2. Translate and reassure your diploma

You need to transfer a diploma in the international department of your university. It was easy here, but options are possible. Usually, a university in the United States does not require any notarization of such documents. I translated the diploma myself, I put down the marks myself and made a template for the Word. In high school without looking set stamp. But deceive, of course, is not worth it, so as not to make problems.

3. Pass Toefl and GRE

Toefl is a test. That is, you need to score more than the minimum ball, otherwise you can not participate in the competition. Toefl itself is elementary. A trained monkey will be able to score at the passing ball, so if you have plans to study in the USA, then you can not sweat about it, only $ 300 is a pity.

GRE is another thing. This is the main selection criterion. It's like the exam, only for graduates. The main thing is that everyone writes it: both Americans and foreigners - in order to enter a university. That is, you will fight in an unequal battle for places with the Americans, who, understandably, have a better language. Yes, in this test not knowledge of the language is checked. It is assumed that you know him well. The ability to quickly analyze complex problems, to find numerical solutions, as well as to think logically, to separate the thesis from assumptions, arguments and proofs is checked.

4. Write a Statement of Purpose

Statement - this is your essay on the topic "why I want to study here and now, and precisely on this program in this university." It should be moderately personal, moderately reveal your talents. There is a lot of material on this topic on the Internet. The main thing is not to copy others, and write correctly. You can always find someone who will help with editing.

5. Pay the registration fee and send the documents by registered mail.

The most money-consuming stage. It is necessary in time, usually before the beginning of January or earlier, to send the entire set of documents to the desired university. Moreover, the diploma must be sent by mail, the essay in electronic form to download, and in the tests you will be given to indicate the code of the univer where the results will go automatically. In this regard, it is useful to learn these codes in advance before the exam.

For each application will need to pay $ 50-100. Thus, if you apply for 10 different programs, you can spend several thousand dollars (sending a diploma by registered mail costs 1,500 rubles on average).

Well, that's it. Next - wait for the results. Usually, by March everyone will answer you, several universities will refuse, some will offer to come. Choose the best and go ahead. Since I filed only in one, I had fewer problems, but the risk was also greater.

I sincerely wish all incoming success. Be honest and believe in yourself. And do not forget about deadlines, it would be better for GRE to pass by November.

UPD: Here we can see a page with all the necessary information on Baylor University, Computer Science. You can take a short test and find out what your chances are. Approximately the same pages should be found in all desired universities.

UPD2: For admission to the master or PhD in the United States must pass GRE. In the case of business schools, they often ask for GMAT, but many accept GRE, that is, in my opinion, it is better to take it.

The exam itself lasts 4-5 hours, there are 2 sections in mathematics and two in speech.

In math you need to quickly solve large problems. They are not so complicated, but you need to do them quickly. Sometimes there are tricky, as in grades 5-8 in puzzles "with an asterisk". I am far from being a genius, and scored 162 points (scale 130-170) and hit the 91st quanitle. That is, with the Russian mate preparation, we have every chance.

In the speech part, you meet a lot of unfamiliar words, even if you have been fluent with American friends for 10 years. On this and calculated. You need to be able to analyze the text, to understand the premises on which it is built, where the conclusion is, where the fact is, and where the hypothesis is.

In general, the site has good examples. Preparing is easy - just need to solve examples. By the way, this is very interesting. Texts sometimes very informative come across. In general, the main thing in GRE is focus and speed of solution.