On Campus Jobs  

Question:. What is the salary for on-campus jobs and how much will be our monthly expenditure?How much does a fresher get paid for an hr at the most? (Hourly pay)

To get on campus job, I would recommend you to come early, first or second week of August should be fine. It depends on the type of job u r doing... if u r working in a cafe u will be paid California min wage ie. $6.75.. if u r working as a gardener in physical plant u will get $8 .. if u r working as a lab asst .. may be $8.5 to 10 .. Computer consultant.. Again 8.5 to 10 .. Working as RA/TA/GA... Depends on the professor but min for them is $12

Question:Would it be extremely difficult to suffice daily needs without one in hand ??
            Currently the job situation is bad…..As they have cut their budgets massively for the spring semester... i hope the situation improves  .. The second reason is California State as a whole is going through a major financial crisis ... they have cut down  the educational funds tremendously and it has certainly affected all the cal states... But i think u should be able to find a decent job in FALL...Minimum is $6.75 per hour...

Contact Information + University Website + Links

Questions: I have my cousin there, he is very close enough to me, so should i stay with him or with my fellow mates ? which is better?

 Answer:   Good Question. Please find out the distance from university to his house. Get his address, go to http://www.mapquest.com/ for driving directions and maps, or to http://www.sdcommute.com/ for commuting by bus or trolley, now put your cousin's address there as starting address, put San Diego State University 5500 Campanile Drive San Diego, CA 92182 as destination address and you will have an idea how much you will need to travel to get to the university. Once you have this information you can take the decision on your own.

And this is where I loose my patience. And then I end up answering in my original nasty style. Guys, please do some research before you ask questions. I am doing this to help you out but you need to understand that you need to put in some effort on your part as well. this gives me an impression that you are "Ameya" category ..people who know about the existence of Google but still would end up asking questions to nurture their laziness ... I can be nasty as hell on such occasions... these day i try to be very decent but the old habits bounce back at such times...

Questions: kindly give me the univ. link/mail address so tht i can mail them? plz give me the exact location of sdsu.

 Answer:  For contact address, again its a lame question and if you are coming for MS I believe you shouldn't be asking such questions. This just makes me loose the respect for you because it means you haven't invested your quality time in researching about the place you want to go for your MS and you expect me to answer everything for you. The situation is unacceptable. I will always be around to help but you have to be a little more smart before asking these types of questions. Anyways, for this time...I am not going to be witty as usual. Now, enough of bashing, let me educate you, there are a couple of ways to find this information.

1) University website link is http://www.sdsu.edu/ , in the left panel you should see Contact Us.

2)Or simply www.google.com  >> " San Diego State University contact information"   it should give you a link something like http://www.californiacolleges.edu/Contact/screen1.asp?institution_id=21&letter=S

And this is what you were looking for......takes one min. to find this information. Please improve the quality of questions you are asking.

Questions: can u give me dept web address for cs dept?
sandeep: please use Google ... (as always I was sarcastic and witty) ... anyways .. i helped the poor chap just because I was in good mood .. but you better be careful if you are asking something like this.

sandeep:or logically thinking CS department at SDSU...... shouldn't it be http://cs.sdsu.edu/
 

Visa (Again???????)

Question:.Can u suggest some tips for Visa and recomended time of arrival so
tht we can get good on-campus jobs?

Whatever I had to say about Visa has already been up there, please help yourself and read this page. http://rohan.sdsu.edu/~kolte/sdsu/Visa.htm

Question: Why do we need the correspondence mails from the University professors while going for a Visa interview?
 Answer:. Again, to show the seriousness of intent. They are more interested in knowing how serious you are about taking up your MS program than living in USA. If you have correspondence mails with your professors that shows that you have been doing a lot of research before actually joining the university and you are really interested in the school rather than becoming
another immigrant. This is optional stuff but just shows that you are eager to take up the MS program because of the quality of education here.

Question: Why do we need to carry our reject letters?
 Answer:. To show that  there have been some school who have rejected you. The visa officer is always interested in knowing the seriousness of your intention to go  for your MS. If you show them just the acceptance letter from let's say 5 mediocre universities and try to tell them that you just applied to those, he is never going to believe you. They usually themselves ask for the reject letters to see to which schools did you apply to. So when they ask that questions you don't want to say that you were never rejected by anyone unless and until that's the truth.

RA/TA/Assistantship

Question:  Is there any assistantship provided for CS students? If any what is it? (From Old FAQ ..answer has been edited)
 Answer: NO!! I have seen just three or four people in last two years getting assistantship in CS dept. If you don't get assistantship with your admit then u will probably never get it... There very limited research in BioTech and GIS, so not much of the funding... Campus jobs will help you to pay your bills.

Question: My first concern is tuition waiver. Is it possible to get aid after a student comes there?? (From Old FAQ ..answer has been edited)
 Answer:   The chances are not that great, either u get the aid before you come here or u never get it 'because that's the law here in cal state, but it's very cheap as compared to other univs ... so if u r getting aid from somewhere else do consider those options. I would also like to mention that the job chances after graduation  are sound these days (It is May 2004 while I am writing this).

Question: What is the amount of expenses in the first yr? (From Old FAQ ..answer has been edited)
 Answer: The figures below are old. The CalState fees have increased by 40% (Thanks to Arnold) since Fall 2004. Please contact the graduate office or Cashier's office for more details. The contact information can be found on SDSU's website. I am still keeping these figures because they will give you an idea as to how much you need for your education here. Registration fees has also increased to $1300 when I paid for Spring 2004. It might as well go up by 40%, not too sure though.

For grad student for the whole year, the fees is around $7000 (2*2538 (tuition) + 2*1088 (reg) + 675 (insurance)).. plus the living expenses of 350 per month ... but if u get campus job u end up earning 500 to 600 a month so the only concern should be to manage the fees plus may be extra 1500 to 2000 dollars ..Also u don't have to pay the whole fees at once. u pay it semester by semester ..so for first sem u will pay somewhere around 2538+1088+ 675 (that's for whole year)..

Question: Is there any possibility for TA or RA.

or

Question: PLEASE TELL ME AS TO HOW DO I ESTABLISH MY CONTACT WITH THE PROFESSORS ..... ie AS TO WHAT DO I WRITE TO THEM SO AS TO GIVE ME A TA/RA ie SHOULD I DIRECTLY ASK THEM FOR THE SAME OR SHOULD JUST KEEP WRITING TO THEM ABT THE CURRENT RESEARCH THEY ARE CARRYING OUT......

 Answer: Very rare. This question has been asked so many times and I really don't have all that great answer for you. What you should be writing them totally depends upon the individual you are writing to. Most of them won't be reading your emails or will simply delete them without replying. You should not give up at any cost. Keep writing them, get information about their labs, their current students (from web or from Sanskriti or current students) and then write them about what you can do to become a part of their research. Also let them know what you have done in the past, tell them what your goals are in life (truth or imagination ..whatever). You never know what might click them and they will get back to you. There is not really great funding opportunities here in SDSU but I have seen students getting RA/TA if they are in constant touch with the professor. Some people will say something like "prof ko bahut maska lagana padta hai" ...if that is the way, let it be, if you want to get something you need to do this. It's not always the case that they will be giving away RA/TA positions based on talent and intelligence. Anyways, it all depends upon your smartness, presence of mind and luck. If you are on the right spot at right time you will get it, I have seen that happening all along in last two years so believe me on this, just keep trying and you will definitely get something.

Internship

Question:About the campus recruitment scene?? Tell me is there like a major discrimination between UCSD and SDSU.
 Answer: Well campus recruitment ...it depends upon how seriously u take it...

Question: what is the placement like in the electrical engg dept?
 Answer:..- it's going pretty good these days ... Google search Qualcomm ... we have got 30+ students selected and working in Qualcomm ...

Question: what are the internship opportunities?
 Answer:... just talked about it ..Google search.....Qualcomm... ..San Diego has best industrial belt .. i guess you ar asking the questions i had answered two years back .. i guess the link used to be http://rohan.sdsu.edu/~kolte/sdsu/info.htm ..please go through these pages... you will find them somewhat useful ....and i am always here to help ..so shoot as many questions as you want ...but do some research first, there's a more probability that I will answer your questions if I haven't answered it already and it's not there in my WebPages...

Temporary Accommodation

Question:Would u help me in staying off-campus if i come there.

 Answer: Let me tell you what you need to do, at least one month in advance you need to send an email to sanskriti and Juan in ISC informing about your arrival plans. If you know someone in San Diego or LA ask them as well. As the number of students coming in has increased tremendously, it is becoming really difficult to give accomodation to everyone. Usually what we seniors do is accomodate some people temporarily but again that is very limited so you need to know more people on Sanskriti group and start sharing emails. Also you should be looking out for room partners, for this you need to share emails with new students coming in. I will have a list of new students joining this fall and you might want to add your name to the list.  If you are asking Sanskritians to help you, I would advise you to become a member as soon as you are here in SDSU. Lastly, drop in mail to sdsusanskriti@yahoogroups.com before leaving for San Diego and inform about your plans and whether someone has showed interest in giving you temporary accomodation. This information will be helpful in case you haven't got anything back from anyone. But please do try to reach people on Sanskriti before you throw up your hands in air.

How to compare two or more universities? + Where should I go? + I am worried about SDSU's University Ranking?

Questions:(9:29:29 PM): About SDSU, the only things that bother me is that it is unranked...does it really matter? My profile is good so I am not feeling that I could have gone to a better university.
 Answer: (9:29:55 PM): I also had a very good profile ..and I was a little disappointed with the thought that i am bowing down to join SDSU ..but then I started liking programming which I hated  back in India ..and now i even got a job as a programmer ..which I had never dreamt about ...It doesn't matter if it's unranked. I have a friend from Georgia TECH who is looking for job since 2 years ..and I know 32 guys from sdsu who have been hired as interns somewhere ...from biggies like S.D.S.C. , Qualcomm, Nokia, Kyocera so it's matter of luck and the place where you are than the rank of the university.

Here is one masterpiece question, asked frequently and I hate to answer with out having been given proper information. I would ask you guys to have the following information ready before you ask me this question. Just look at the format, I had three people asking almost same question without having been provided the following information ... I don't want you to be the next one to ask this...

Questions: (9:03:07 PM):

Person A : shall i opt SDSU or WMU? I got i-20 from SDSU and WMU to do M.S in C.S. so I'm in a dilemma. so what's your opinion?

Person B: i've secured admssion frm 4 universities, 2 pending. but the final choice is going to be between clemson & san diego state university.
can u help me there?

Person C: tell me the current status of SDSU MSCS course..I have got admission from IIT chicago, SDSU,SUNYIT, GWU Washington DC, Kent state univ. ohio..wht will u suggest???

 Answer: (9:03:43 PM): One more time this question........ok !! tell me the scene there?? Can u PLEASE be more elaborative? Please find out answers for the following questions and then come back to me.   

•  how much is the tuition?
• what courses are offered in XYZ university?
•  what's the job scene?
•  how are the seniors placed?
•  what's the living cost there?
•  what kind of research do they have?
•  how many Chinese and desi profs they have in the faculty?
   with answers to these questions I might be able to give u my opinion.

Also I replied this to someone: talk to people in clemson ..see what r the funding / on campus jobs scene there ... i am pretty sure it's not going to be better than us ... but still ...ask them if they are getting jobs after graduation ....if you have anyone who is as enthu as me responding emails....send me his/her contact details ..if I am not too busy i can call them up and ask relevant info for you ... but please ask them if they are ready to answer these questions for you before I call them up ... i don't want to get nasty answers .. I have already done this ....and some girl started yelling at me and told me that she doesn't work for "University information center"..  :-)  .. or you can just call me up from India ....as some of you have already done....001-619-341-0836 ...

Professors + Course structure + Research + Departments (CS and EE)

Question: how r the profs? 
 Answer:..- well some of them are cool... some of them really pathetic ...it depends which classes you take ...usually Indian profs are really pathetic ..

Questions: What should i mention about prof Harris & that he is known as God of DSP among students
 Answer:  u are missing the point
 what do u mean by "god of dsp among students" ..isn't this very vague statement...how are u going to prove this ... remember what i had said on my page ...
 Always be precise ...whatever u say and whenever u say ...u should be able to justify it ...if you are not ....they think u haven't done any research and you are just shooting at the stars ..which is not good it leaves a very bad impression ..u have to able to justify every single word that u say during the interview...remember they have hot lines connected to all the VIPs in the world ..they can find the truth in mins with a few phone calls 

Questions: But all the seniors I've contacted have used the exact sentence to describe him.
 Answer:  is this what your justification is?? ...think about it again ...be smart ....
 

Questions:   I'll support it with his work & consultancy work he does 4 various cos. & organizations
 Answer: that's where u should be going ...now u are acting like a smart girl that's what u should say and not that he is a GOD or this is what my seniors told me.... got the point?????

Questions: Is there any course that is required to be taken?
 Answer:  If there is any prerequisite for you it must have been mentioned in your admission/welcome packet. Look for a pink colored sheet ..it should be on there . If u have a classified standing then you should be ok!

Questions: How is SDSU in CS? (From Old FAQ)
 Answer:   It depends on your area of interests ... there is very limited research .. u can check the department site for the course structure ..be sure to check that! u never want to pay for something u have already learnt ..

Questions: How many courses should a student normally take?(From Old FAQ)
 Answer:  For CS ...3 courses are enough to keep u busy all day throughout the semester.

Questions: How many units that a student should take/sem? (From Old FAQ)
 Answer: Graduate Students have to take 9 units in first semester

Questions: Should I start from the 600 level courses?(From Old FAQ)
 Answer:You can start directly from 600 level courses but I would suggest that you attend a few classes before you make up ur mind to attend 600 courses. Sometimes students find them a bit tougher

Questions: What are popular courses in CS?(From Old FAQ)
 Answer:  I really don't know how to answer this question, see it totally depends upon one's own choice. Usually people take some programming classes like OOPs or Database MGMT or NETWORKS, Advanced Operating Systems, Algorithms (combinatorial + Parallel ) etc.

Questions: (9:03:16 PM) You had mentioned in the FAQ that students should take care so that don't pay for learning the same thing...what does it mean? Is it that the masters level courses...are repetition of the BE courses from India? I am interested in databases and networks.
 Answer: (9:03:28 PM): are u CS or EE student?  For CS, usually some courses are repeated and students tend to take those again ...that's why I said you should be taking care that you are not repeating the same thing for much more cost. Just because they have done these courses in undergrad  they tend to take the same courses to get better grades e.g. we all take database management (DBMS) in our undergrad ..but still people take it here ..which is kind of weird. I also took it ...for the grades but in the end I felt what am I going to do with the grade which costs $1000.
 

Questions:Could you please let me know (provide me with the link) as how to know the contents of each of the credits offered by the Electrical engineering dept. The credits are mentioned on the link: http://www2.sdsu.edu/cgi-bin/schedule/browse=dept/command=search/dept=E%20E/semester=fall03
 Answer:  There is no way to know what are the contents of the course unless and until you talk to the professor taking that course. He is the only one who can give you an idea as to what exactly would be covered in that particular course.

Question:  Please also let me know what LEVEL credits am I eligible for during my MSEE program.
 Answer:  Now the credits / courses required for MS are usually 500 level and above. For every department it is different. You should be reading the graduate bulletin to get this information. You will receive the graduate bulletin on your first day at school when you will be visiting ISC to inform them that you are here. This is the time when you will be getting all the information regarding what courses you need to take. As far as registration is concerned, the last day to register for courses must have been mentioned in the welcome packet and also it should carry the instructions of the process of registration. If you are confused please shoot an email to ISC and they will answer your questions. You will find contact info and email address on their website.

Question: Can you provide me information about Mechanical Engineering?
 Answer: You can go ahead and join mechatsdsu@yahoogroups.com .  Please direct your questions there.

Question:. how is SDSU regarding C.S. faculty, research, placements, on-campus jobs
and lastly social life there and what would be best specialization for me which can fetch me a good job?
 Answer: The answer to first part of your questions is there  somewhere on this page and I am not repeating myself.
What exactly do you mean to say when you are saying social life?? It is very much different from what you see in India. Let me tell you something about our life as a student here, most of the time during the week, in the daytime either you will be working somewhere to pay off your bills or you will be completing your homework, assignments or taking a nap if you are lucky, your evenings will be mostly taken up by classes ...and weekends you will be either washing clothes, cleaning house, shopping grocery, preparing for a midterm in next week / a presentation may be ... and if you do get time out of all this .. you might end up going to the beach  to enjoy life ..this is usual schedule for first 6 months of your stay ..you will be learning to manage your time effectively to keep up to the speed... in second semester and there onwards you will be accustomed to the life here and will know better ways to live ..and will start enjoying weekends once you become seasoned... i hope this gives you an idea of life ahead before you actually start it ... be prepared mentally !! good luck...

Questions: (9:07:06 PM): If I want to specialize in databases or networks, are there advance courses available?? when I saw the catalog there's not much in networks. I guess only queuing theory??
 Answer: (9:07:16 PM): Databases...there are a couple ...like GIS databases ....biotech databases ...etc ...and then in networks ..again there are a few ...

Questions:(9:07:46 PM): So u can directly take those courses?
 Answer: (9:10:03 PM): Not really, the courses keep on changing, what you see in catalog is much different from what I had seen when I was in India ...they keep adding new courses or repeat some if those seem to be popular like Advanced operating system ..

Questions:(9:11:37 PM): I am really worried about the courses at SDSU.....will I learn something new and specialize in databases and networks...I mean are there enough courses to specialize??
 Answer: (9:12:08 PM): you won't specialize in db and n/w here ...it's not meant for that ....this university is mostly for those who want to get a job after MS ...and not for those who wish to do a lot of research.

Questions:(9:14:09 PM): I want to work after MS...but i really do want to learn more....new and advanced??
 Answer: (9:15:41 PM): see there's a lot of work here with the professors ..but most of them don't have money ..so if you want to learn they will ask you to work for free...if you r ready for that u will get to learn a lot of stuff...there are so many who did this ...

Questions:(9:18:26 PM): so i will be taking varied courses not focusing on any one particular subject like networks or databases as such????what exactly will i be learning?
 Answer: (9:19:26 PM): i don't think so ..there won't be so many courses ..and you can't keep waiting for the courses to be offered ..so you will have to take courses firstly to maintain your status as a full time student and secondly to work towards your degree. About learning things, some students will take some three courses in networks ..two in DB ...one in the area of comp architecture / software engineering / graphics / multimedia ...it can be combination of anything. i m just giving u example
There are so many different courses ..so u do get to learn a lot. But at the same time ...if you really want to get in deep you need to talk respective professor

Question: Research in dsp??
 Answer:.. almost null .. come to SDSU if you are interested in doing a job after graduation ..don't come here for research ..there's no research here..ask EE seniors about this...as they must be more knowledgeable than me

Question:. what are the researches going in c.s. field.
Very limited. Biotech, GIS, and may be a little bit of networks. Contact the professors, spam them with one email a day and you will hopefully get some answers.

Airport Pickup

Registration

Questions:(9:14:28 PM): one more thing i got my Visa scheduled on July but came to know that I've to register for my classes by July 1.Moreover they said that i need to be there by July 16 for selecting the course. So kindly help me out
 Answer:(9:15:08 PM): what's the date in the welcome packet?? You have to read the welcome packet carefully.
 its a risk .... either you have to wait ...till u get the visa and crash the courses after coming here

Question:. My visa is on July 6 but it was given in SDSU welcome packet that we
should register by July 1 and should join on July16 even though the actual
orientation is on Aug-23.So what should I do now?
 Answer: I am not sure if this information is true. Are you sure that it says that you have to join on July 16th?? I doubt that. I have talked to a lot many students who will be joining in Fall 2004 and no one has mentioned this so I believe you misinterpreting it. The school will start sometime in first week of September and they must have mentioned International students orientation date, this is the date when you need to be on the campus which I guess, as you have mentioned above, is Aug 23. So you should be here before or on Aug 23. I believe best time to come over is first or second week of August as it gives you some time to get used to the atmosphere here.

Questions: Would u tell me whether its compulsory to be there by July 16?
 Answer:  The date must have been mentioned on your I-20. Please read all the documents you have received.

Questions:I am not able to register and get a pin from the e-service portal. How do I get the pin??
 Answer: Your pin is generally your birth date. Also I think this information must have been given in Welcome Packet. You need to register for the courses on the first day of registration just because for CS students, the courses will run out in short period of time and you won't be left with anything. I guess you need send in some forms and then you can register for the courses without paying up to certain period.

Financial Documents and related Questions

Questions: (9:02:46 PM) Do I need to show first year fees 22400$ in savings account or liquid assets as a whole i.e. savings + FD + NSC +Bonds shares etc?  I read a mail today which said that first year fees should be in savings account?

 Answer: (9:03:00 PM):   It should be liquid. You can immediately convert all these to liquid cash if needed. This should be ok
And u don't need that whole $22400 cash in your account, you need to show first year fees in cash and 2nd year fees will usually be indirectly shown by your Income Tax documents and other property papers. In case the the rules have changed in last two years you might want to ask the US consulate, call them up in working hours, they usually are very helpful.

Question:What is this affidavit of support??

 Answer: It is a document to officially announce that your sponsor (parents/guardian/relatives) is willing to pay your expenses for the stated duration.

Question:. Is it necessary to get the bank statement from nationalized bank?? or local bank is valid??
 Answer: Absolutely, nationalized bank always. Local banks can give out a false statement with a little bit of influence and everyone knows that.. not necessarily this means that you don't really have money in the account but it just doesn't give as much credibility as it would give when you have the same amount in a nationalized bank as they are not so easy to "manage". Visa officer will be happy to see one from Nationalized bank rather than local.

All answers above are my own opinions and have nothing to do with SDSU or Indian Student Association at SDSU.

Please send your comments or questions to sdsusanskriti@yahoogroups.com or sdsusanskriti@yahoo.com.