Editor’s note – This is the second installment of the ongoing series on free education abroad. In the first part we saw detailed information on getting great undergraduate education in America. In this part, we reveal the actual experience of the author in America so that you can decide for yourself whether or not it is worth the trouble.
Author’s note – I authored the first article in this series (which was about free undergraduate education in the US). In this piece, I present my personal experience in an unbiased and candid way giving you an unfettered peek into my life when I went to Huntsville, Alabama in 2008 in search of greener pastures.
Sometime in 2006 - Prelude
I had a simple question in mind. We know the universe is expanding right? Well, my question is “If the universe is all there is, what is it expanding into?” Simple question. Really.
Ever since I started watching documentaries on Physics, I’d been hooked to this. I had intense fascination for everything that had something to do with the grandiose nature of the universe or the fundamental questions regarding our existence. I thought I was deep and smart. And I had an unwavering inner smile about how cool I was. Well, that was until I figured out there were other people far cooler than that and that all of them were actively having discourse on some awesome thing or another on the internet. I hunted for them and joined their clans (read Google Groups). I posted my questions and started getting interesting responses. That was fun.
July, 2006 - Drudgery at the coaching center
Class XI is over and the race is on. I mean the race for JEE. Even though I drudged myself out at the coaching center, I knew I won’t make it…but making that public would only induce shame in me. It wasn’t like I really wanted to make it through JEE either. I knew for sure I wouldn’t find what I wanted even at the IITs – an open atmosphere for learning and scientific spirit. I knew only more drudgery awaited there. So I didn’t bother working towards it. But then I didn’t know what else to do. I was just a sitting duck waiting for time to slit my throat.
December, 2006 – Rich bastards
I was sitting in my class thoroughly involved in my favorite hobby of eavesdropping on neighbourly conversations. Chidam excitedly announced that he was departing to the US to do a piloting course. Rich bastard, I thought.
Midway 2007 – My future
The CBSE results were out (80%) and my dad had eagerly applied to nearby colleges for the Physics program. Nice dad I have. He didn’t push me to do Engineering since I’d made it abundantly clear that I won’t do anything save for Physics. I got into one of the top colleges in India for a Science degree and guess what? It was right next to my house! How convenient! So that was what my future was set to be – studying Physics at the top college in India.
July 2007 – The first day
First day at my new college, this guy who calls himself the coordinator of the department walks into the class and gives a quirky laugh and says “Children…don’t worry that you didn’t get into some good engineering college…there are good things about Physics too…you can complete the course in only 3 years and do a MBA or something…there’s still hope. So don’t worry.” He left. Our lead professor came in.
One of the kids sitting in the front – “Ma’am, take us to the campus tour that you’re supposed to give us.”
Ma’am – “Oh that ah…wait…it’s raining outside…we’ll go tomorrow children” (It wasn’t raining outside.)
Kid – “Can you tell us where the student common room is?”
Ma’am – “Oh that ah…it is in the ground floor of the main building. If you want to relax before class you can go there and use it as a restroom…ok ah?”
Top college. My ass. I went looking for Chidam.
August 2007 – USA?
I lightheartedly pursued the idea of going to the US and visited a study abroad agency with my dad, the one that Chidam was using. We talked with them and once again I made it abundantly clear to my parents that I would be brainwashed if I stayed in this shithole for 3 years.
The agency assured that it wasn’t as expensive as one would imagine it. We paid them and they started the application process and asked me to write the SAT and TOEFL and all that jazz. They coached me for it and I wrote the SAT and TOEFL. My scores were moderate. I had applied for nearly 8 universities and one by one, I got into all of them. Great news. And then I chose the one that gave me the most scholarship, which was 70%. It was the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). I did a little research and found out it was in the top 200 universities in the US. Big whoop. It didn’t bother me that I wasn’t going to a top college in the US. I just wanted to quit this hellhole.
Some financial documents readied, I-20 form received from UAH and Visa approved, off I flew!
August 2008 - First day in America
I’d been so excited about this day that I used to go to the kitchen and literally jump up and down in front of my mom saying “I’m going to the US…I’m going to the US…”
I reached the airport in Huntsville, Alabama after stopping at London’s Heathrow airport and then Chicago’s O’Hare. I thought to myself, how cool is this – I had my breakfast over the middle east, lunch at London and dinner in Chicago.
I’d contacted the Indian Students Organization on campus at UAH about my arrival and one of them had come to the airport to pick me up. That was cool, I thought. I’d also registered for the housing at the Residence halls on campus (apparently they hate to call it “dorm”). I first stepped foot into my abode for the next year to come. It was such a comfy place! The first thing I noticed about the Americans was that they were so hospitable and friendly. Everyone genuinely welcomed me and the rest of the students who were going to stay in the freshman building.
The jet lag had me so dizzy that I didn’t know black people from white people. Time to rest.
September 2008 – The first semester
The semester had begun and went along smoothly. I made a lot of international friends from countries I hadn’t even heard of before and also spent quite some time partying at the frat houses. As for the academics, I had registered for all my classes on the internet after referring to the “Rate my professor” website. One of my most favourite courses that semester was the one titled “Frontiers in Science”. The main idea behind this course was to invite people from different disciplines and different parts of the industry and allow them to inspire the students to take up their area of study. Remember that it isn’t really mandatory to declare your major in the freshman year. You can do that later.
Oh and on the first day of classes, Dr. Miller, a rather young Physicist gave us an orientation session advising us and sharing stories about how he’d managed to whiz through his college life with a combination of obsession for fast cars and beer and ladies. Quite entertaining.
One of the first visiting lecturers for the Frontiers in Science course was Mr. McCormick. He was a young grad student working on research focusing around Gamma Ray bursts. He talked about how fascinating they were and talked about the universe. Then came the time for questions. Couple of students in the class raised their hands. I was one of them. I was sitting at one of the last seats, near the entrance of the lecture hall. He gave me a go ahead. I asked “If the universe is everything there is…*dramatic pause*…then what is it expanding into?” Heads turned. Smiles appeared. Mr. McCormick cleared his throat and began his answer with – “That’s a good question but I’m afraid it’s not a question that I can answer satisfactorily since we don’t really know what lies at the boundaries of the Universe or if it’s even finite or infinite…” A smile appeared as he continued answering the question. A smile that reinforced that I was in the right place.
October 2008 – The Job
One of the Frontiers in Science classes was given by Dr. Newchurch, a researcher working in the National Space Science and Technology Center, which is right across the corner from the freshman residence hall. His lecture wasn’t the most interesting I have to confess, but he well compensated for it by saying what he said at the end of the lecture. He said he had a job opening in his research team and that interested students could apply. I was the first to meet him right after the class. There was a fat guy behind me. Anyway I got the info from him, visited the office for career advancement on campus, applied for the opening and immediately got an email the next day! There was no interview, no test, no nothing. The first thing I had to do there was fill the forms and apply for a social security number and discuss my pay, which I didn’t expect to be $8 per hour. But it was. And being a freshman I was making twice the amount a starting Assistant professor at IIT would make per month! And I was getting that for doing stuff that was so awesome that I would have done it for free! My job was to send observatory balloons equipped with O3 measuring apparatus and data transmitters to the troposphere and process that data. I had an office, a laptop, an email ID and a telephone number, I had to meet my boss every Thursday morning to report and get new assignments and I could work from home if I so chose! Seriously, who wouldn’t love this?
March 2008 – Email from NASA
By this time I had acquired quite some contacts in the research world both through my work and through volunteering at conferences held in the area. One day I got an email from someone named Ed West who works for the Marshal Space Flight Center (NASA). He had an offer for me to work on a RTSM (Real Time Solar Magnetograph). Once again, I was jumping up and down. But sadly, the project lost funding and I couldn’t officially work on a NASA funded project. But my point is that this place truly is the land of opportunities…opportunities for those who deserve it.
And that’s how my first year at UAH ended. Overall I was a happy kid who, after experiencing and sharing life with international folks with different cultures and backgrounds, became open-minded, tolerant and changed as a person for the better. Now that’s what I call an educational experience.
On the whole, I couldn’t be more satisfied about choosing to study in the US even though it wasn’t at a top university and even though we did have to take up an educational loan to be able to afford it. But don’t worry, if you’re thinking of what I think you should be thinking about, you could get very affordable education at an even better place if you follow my guide here.
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