University: University of Texas at Dallas, MS CS
Date: May 21, 2019
Consulate: Hyderabad
Status: Approved
This is going to be a long post, but contains every essential small detail. //10 minute readI Reached the consulate at 8:45 a.m. I had a 9:30 a.m. slot.
However, they were letting in people from any time slot. Initially, our passport was checked two times at the gate. Later on, there was a strict checking before the entrance where we had to put every item, which we were carrying (including handkerchiefs, belts, keys etc.), in a tray. This tray was passed through a scanner and later the folder containing our documents was checked thoroughly. They told us to remove seals of sealed envelopes, if any.Later on, we assembled in the waiting area. After waiting for 5 minutes, they called us in to Counter 7 to get our fingerprint scans verified. When my turn came, the American lady sitting on the counter told that the data linked to my profile was blank. They sent me to Counter 6, which was located in a closed room. After waiting for some 5 minutes there, my turn came. The lady sitting on the counter informed me that since I had a different location on my DS 160 (Mumbai), the Hyderabad consulate didn’t have my DS 160 data, and it will take some time (that some time eventually was 60 minutes) and I have to wait in the waiting area. I had initially selected Mumbai as all my documents are based off Mumbai, but the visa date was 18 July. Later on, on finding an earlier date in the place where I work (Hyderabad), I rescheduled my interview to Hyderabad.Point to be noted: If the location on your DS 160 and the location of your visa interview doesn’t match, you will have to wait for an hour idle, so either be mentally prepared to wait or plan accordingly in the first place.After an hour, they called my name and I stood in the line for Counter 7 where our fingerprints were being verified. After that, we again sat in the waiting area for about 10 minutes. They then called us in a waiting line. As soon as a person was done with his/her interview, that particular counter number was assigned to the first person in the waiting line. The Visa Officers were taking the interviews on Counters 10 to 16. After waiting in the line for about 15 minutes, my turn came. My interview was scheduled to take place on Counter 16.When I went to Counter 16, the VO was taking interview of a person for F1 visa. There were already 2 more people in front of me in the waiting line. She rejected the F1 visa. She further rejected the visas of the two persons in front of me, which were B1 and F1 respectively. Their interviews lasted about 3-5 minutes each. I was mentally prepared for a rejection but maintained a constant smile throughout.A person had already submitted my passport and i20 to the VO even before my turn. The VO was a young lady
VO: So, UTD………
Me: Yeah, I chose UTD because of its diverse curriculum, suited to my interests. Unlike other universities where you have to take a mandatory subject each from Computer Theory, Systems and Applications, here, at UTD, there are different streams. I will choose the Data Science stream, as I am more focused on Data Science and Machine Learning, particularly, NLP.
VO: How many universities did you apply to?
Me: 4. //I had actually applied to 9 universities
VO: Can you name them?
Me: Named UTD along with my other safest options where I unfortunately had a reject (NEU, Stony Brook, NCSU). //She luckily did not ask if I had got an admit or a reject there.
VO: UTD is costly. Are you willing to spend such enormous amount of 49K (the amount mentioned on the i20) for yours Masters at UTD?
Me: UTD is ranked 8 in the US in the field of Natural Language Processing, as per the csrankings. The professors here are highly talented and the university is equipped with the excellent research facilities; I will get the best exposure at UTD. My interests lie in Natural Language Processing and Data Science. //It’s true indeed, UTD is one of the best universities for research in NLP.
VO: What do you mean by Natural Language Processing? Can you explain Me?
Me: Natural Language Processing is a part of Machine Learning where you use the computer to generate human language responses. Its applications include virtual assistants and chatbots. //I don’t exactly remember what I had said there, I had fumbled a bit, but I believed she understood what I was trying to convey
VO: You mean something like Siri?
Me: Exactly! Like Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa etc.
VO: What do you intend to do after completing your masters?
Me: After completing my masters, I will return to India and plan to start my own company. I want to build kind of like a virtual assistant or chatbot for India. You know, all these Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant are all American products and there is no such famous Indian product currently available. I plan to build India’s first virtual assistant.
VO: So you will be building the Indian version of Alexa? //She seemed quite curious
Me: Yes. //I honestly have no idea if I would actually be doing that but I had to say something to show my intentions of returning back to India, something different, something unique, something an average person might not have said before and I believe, this could have been the turning point for my visa acceptance.
VO: How will you be funding yourself?
Me: My dad has savings worth XX lakhs and I have personal savings worth X lakhs. I also have a sanctioned loan of XX lakhs from HDFC Credila. If you add all these, it sums up to 70 lakhs, which is about 98K USD, twice the i20 amount.
VO: What does your father do?
Me: He is the General Manager at Tata Projects, Mumbai.
VO: What is his salary?
Me: XX lakhs.
VO: I am approving your visa; you will get your passport back in 3-4 days. //She kept my passport in a tray.
Me: Thank you so much.The VO didn’t ask for a single document other than the passport and the i20. I had more than 100 papers in my folder.I came outside the consulate at around 11 a.m.
My profile.Undergrad:
NIT Nagpur CSE 2017 CGPA: 7.65
//Even though it was better than the average and median of 7.5 for the CS department of VNIT, I guess this was the major reason for my rejections
Work Experience: 2 years, as an Applications Developer at Oracle, Hyderabad GRE: 322 //166+156+4.0 TOEFL: 100 Research Papers: 0
//This could be another reason for rejection at ambitious universitiesLORs: 3 from professors, including my undergrad thesis guide as well as ex-HOD; 2 from Oracle, including an American Senior Manager and a Chinese-American Director. //This could also be the reason as unlike a lot of students, I didn’t write any LOR, my profs and senior colleagues wrote the LORs themselves and I had waived the right to see them.SOP: //Had mentioned most of ML, DS stuff. More demand, increased competition; now I believe I should have mentioned CS subjects which are not that much in demand instead and after getting an admit, should have chosen the ML/DS courses at the university
Admit: 1 //UTD Rejects: 8 //Columbia DS, UCSD, UWiscMad, TAMU, VirgTech, NCSU, Stony Brook, NEU DS