Department of Mining Engineering, IT BHU

• Which subject to take up?
• Why to go for it?
• How to get in?
• Options after grad study?
  
 
• Which subject to take up?
  Being in Mining causes a certain amount of confusion while applying because there aren’t many schools in the US which offer grad study in Mining and even after that I am not certain as to whether the options are many. In my batch we decided to apply for Geology and Geophysics for the following reasons:

1. There is a higher chance of getting admission with scholarship in a good University with these subjects, as compared to Engineering, as the competition is relatively less!
2. We found that the job scene in the oil industry is very good after completing the course (by that I mean that you have an opportunity of a very high salary!)

• Why to go to the US at all?
  For the following reasons:

1. If you are planning for grad study in Earth Science (Geology and Geophysics), better be sure that you are going to settle abroad for there aren’t many jobs back home in this field!
2. An incentive of coming here is the high standard of life and the money you get paid (even while studying!)

• How to get in?
  The biggest question, of course, is how to get in? To start with, you'll be faced with following problems:

1. You have no idea about the subject! You cant differentiate between Siesmology and Geodynamics or Plate Tectonics and Petroleum Geology (at least I couldn't!). So how do you convince an American University to accept you based on your technical skills when you don’t have any?
2. You may have a low grade point !
3. You may not have any projects in this field.
4. You may have screwed up your GRE.
5. You have no idea as to what to write in your statement of purpose!

Well this is what I would advise you to do:

Take the GRE before the start of the 6th semester!
I cannot tell you much about the GRE because the pattern keeps changing with time. A preparation period of 3 months is usually good. Advise: You may need to concentrate hard on your wordlists!
TOEFL kabhi bhi le lo yaar! That’s a big bonus exam.

Now we come to the important part :
Sucking
"Sucking" is the term for the the process in which you contact various professors by email and let them know of your research interests, your background, your projects and stuff like that! This is the most important part because in US Universities, a Professor has almost complete freedom in choosing students! For example, if you apply to a University with your statement of purpose indicating interest in Structural Geology, then it is very likely that your application would be decided upon by the professors in Structural Geology. 

How do you suck?
(Because, after all you don’t know anything of this subject or, for that matter, most of the other subjects! You may not even have a project in this subject!) A batch-mate of mine came up with the solution! I don’t think that I should post the solution on the web, so if you want to know more about it you can contact him! I am sure that he would be willing to help.

When should you start sucking?
The earlier the better! You can start corresponding with a Professor in your 2nd or 3rd year itself. You can never be early but you can be late!

Recommendations:
How important are recommendations?
I personally think that unless the person from whom you take the recommendation knows the person who is going to review your application, recommendations are not very useful. So unless you satisfy the previous case, you need not worry too much about whom you are getting your recommendations from. Do make sure that the recommendations are good i.e. the recommender should definitely recommend you very highly. How to do this is something you have to figure out yourself.

Grades
Grades are important. There is no shortcut to overcome this. However, if a Professor wants you in his team, I believe grades may not be that very important. But, to repeat myself, "Grades are important".

GRE
To tell you the truth, I have no idea as to how important GRE scores are, because I believe that the importance given to them depends on the Professor!

• Options after grad study?
  Many of you might be interested in job directly after your Masters. The most lucrative jobs are in the Oil sector. Many of the oil companies are based in Houston and other parts of Texas. So it might be a good idea to come to a good school in Texas. However, many schools in other parts of the country have excellent Campus Placement opportunities. Go to websites of the oil companies and find out as to what colleges they go to for recruitment.

Research may not sound like a good option to you guys right now. Trust me when I say that after coming here, your perspective will undergo big changes.
During my time, MBA in a US university was the thing to do! Well, you may have a chance of doing it after working for an oil company for a few years (sometimes the company sponsors it!).