Hello everyone,
I am an under graduate student in electrical and electronics engineering in Birla Institute of Technology, India and I am expected to pass out in 2012 july. After that I want to go abroad for graduate studies. I am precisely looking for any american or british university. I still have not taken the tests like GRE or TOEFL but planning to do so this year.

With my due respect I request for some advice about where should I apply and how should I approach about this and obviously how to prepare for the tests and also what are the tests I should take to have enough back up to apply for an excellent university.

 

I'd have a look here. Phone or email them if you are not sure on anything. Most UK universities will have similar requirements.
http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/international/students/index.aspx

 

do I require GRE score for uk universities?

how important is the letter of reference from the professors?

 

I'd recommend you a US university for EE Engineering. Much of the manufacturing industry has enormously gone down in the UK. And you'll also have better opportunities there as an EE student.

 

I'd recommend you a US university for EE Engineering. Much of the manufacturing industry has enormously gone down in the UK. And you'll also have better opportunities there as an EE student.

I am not actually sure about, what grade of university do I deserve?

I am a student of BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. I am presently in 5th semester and the GPA achieved in previous semesters are 7.47,7.35,7.53 and 6.76 out of 10. So if you please tell me what are the universities I should expect to accept me.

And please tell me about what is considered to be a good GRE score, for applying to the top universities.

 

I think you would have to contact a few universities. In India you will do different exams to the ones we do in school and I don't know how to convert the results. I imagine (just a guess) that if you have high enough grades to go to an Indian university then you would probably be accepted at English ones.

 

If you need further information about studying in the US or UK, please contact the respective academic services, they will provide you with all the information you need, including which examinations you will have to take or whether they can accept your present qualifications. For marketing reasons, these information services will be provided free of charge.

 

I am presently in 5th semester and the GPA achieved in previous semesters are 7.47,7.35,7.53 and 6.76 out of 10.

Those numbers are almost meaningless in other educational systems. That's one reason for the GRE and other standardized tests. You will also be evaluated on your class rank, as there is good evidence that those who do very well (i.e., rank very high) regardless of the perceived difficulty of the curriculum in which they are enrolled will continue do do well at other institutions. Obviously, that can't be taken to the extreme, but it does help , for example, when comparing candidates from prestigious private schools to similar candidates from state universities.

So, what is your class rank? American universities will often provide data as to the percentage of their students who ranked in the top 5%, 10%, 25%, etc. of the schools from which they came.

John

 

Sir,
I am in top 35% of my class. But sir, with due respect I would like to say something.
The university, in which I am pursuing my graduation takes students through an all over India level entrance examination called AIEEE. Many other very prestigious universities take students through this and around 850000(0.85 million) candidates from all over India appear in this very competitive examination. My rank in that examination was in top 1.5% so I got a chance to study in this university. So I consider this is quite an achievement. Does it help anyway?

By the way all my classmates have also come thruogh the same exam. with similar kinds of results. So the average merit of my class is quite high.

 

When I reviewed candidates for graduate positions, I never once saw or wanted to see their qualification examinations for undergraduate school. Graduate school is not a completely new life, but I suspect you will be judged mostly on what you have done at the university you currently attend. There are some small exceptions, such as specific honors received before undergraduate school, but in the final analysis, they count very little.

India is a populous country and there are a lot of universities there. That makes it quite difficult for someone in the USA to be able to evaluate or have any knowledge about the quality of most of them. Thus, direct contact between a professor in your university with one in an American university can be important. Another thing to consider is where other students from your university have gone. They can serve as rough benchmarks of how a certain grade point average at your university predicts performance at the American university. Written recommendations from foreign sources are almost meaningless, unless one knows the writer.

John