Yes, there might be 40% asians but they're still residents of California. It'll typically occur in every californian school because the state has a 50:50 asian:white population if im nt mistaken.

lol, stanford is renowned for engineering, but not as good as the other two unis, UCB and MIT. lol

planning on going to the states in 2 years time (transfering after 70 credits or so)..

but i might change to Canada if its too expensive because i'll be aiming to study in California (cost of living + studying is expensive).. San Diego looks tough to enter.. and California state university

im doing Computer Science atm.. but might consider changing to Engineering or Business..

try San Jose State U if you wanna pursue computer science engineering in cal, affordable fees and decent for computer science major

Um hello everyone,

I'm new here but I would like to ask if anybody here has secured jobs/internships yet during their studies?I'm having a tough time deciding if I should stay or leave. I'm graduating soon and I am not very optimistic about my job prospects(Even though I'm an Electrical Engineer).Sadly,most of the internships offered to undergraduates are basically coding,programming and database management, which has nothing to do with my interests, which is in hardware and electronics.And coding+ programming here is more towards the types you would do in computer science, not so much in electrical engineering. It's the same story with research positions.I did manage to secure some research work in a different branch of engineering but it doesn't seem to be useful in the career I want to pursue.Most of the entry level jobs in hardware and electronics engineering have been outsourced to China (And other countries),and the remaining jobs are for Masters and PhD holders(for the large companies at least).I don't know if smaller companies would want to hire a foreigner?The companies that do hire lots of degree holders are defense companies that can't outsource their low level workers.

So,I am torn between leaving the US to get a masters or trying finding a job here first before going back to graduate school.I still have summer to prepare my resume etc for the job fairs I guess.

internships are hard to get because they mean that the company trains you with no guarantee that you will work for them in the future, so they don't like to invest that sort of time, unfortunately. Full-time is more likely, and actually .. I recently accepted a full-time job offer

The trade-off is this:
Large companies can afford to pay for the H1B for you, but they're more difficult to get a job offer from.
Small companies are more likely to offer you a job, but more likely don't have enough clout to pay for the H1B.

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Added on April 21, 2011, 10:23 amthat's reasonable then, I thought you were just another one of those "I'm gonna apply to all these impressive universities and act like I'm gonna get in for sure!"
Chemical Engineering was my second choice, but I was obviously more interested in my first.

This post has been edited by spunkberry: Apr 21 2011, 10:23 AM

Did you aim for smaller companies then or was it through connections or internships?I'm worried that small companies won't even consider me once they see that I'm a foreigner...

it's a large company and it was done completely on my own
I think you shouldn't worry about whether they would consider you or not and just go for it.

It's actually not very hard to enter the schools in the CSU system. You should create a CSUMentor account and just apply to all the CSU schools that you're interested in - CSU East Bay, CSU Fullerton, San Jose State, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the likes. San Diego State is a good school, in fact I applied there too - my application is being handled on a case-by-case basis because I had to send in my high school transcripts late as SPM results were released on 23rd March while the deadline was 2nd March. I've also applied to California State University, Monterey Bay. I was accepted into their B.A. Teledramatic Arts program. I've also been accepted into Academy of Art University in their B.F.A. Game Design program. You can say that both of these are my 'safety net' schools, in case I didn't get into San Diego State.

It costs roughly RM100,000 per year in California (Studying + housing + living expenses).

Civil Engineering. What do you guys recommend? Budget can adjust la, but probably a mid-range type?

If you're not aiming for ivy leagues but just a decent U.

Michigan State, U Minnesota, Purdue, U Wisconsin madison, Iowa state U.
Thats what i can think of for now.

don't forget Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Guys,I have something to ask. Can the F-1 Student Visa be used to enter multiple schools? I'm rather confused about it. I'm about to receive my I-20 form from Academy of Art University (AAU). What I want to know is, when I get interviewed at the US Embassy to apply for the Student Visa, will the Student Visa be valid only for AAU?

My application for San Diego State University (SDSU) will take a long time to process and I intend to go there and ditch AAU should I get accepted into that school. If I already have a F-1 Student Visa through an I-20 which states my course in AAU, do I have to apply for another F-1 Student Visa?

I'm unclear about this, so I would appreciate it if anyone could clarify this matter for me. I'd rather apply for an F-1 Visa for AAU first so as to not waste time. I don't intend to wait so long for SDSU to reply me (they're holding my application at the moment as my transcripts arrived late) and I don't even know for sure where I'll be accepted in or not.

The VISA is given to you because your sponsored (I don't mean financially) by the school to stay in the US to study. In some sense, the school assumes some responsibility in letting the government know whether or not you're a person suited to be allowed to stay in the US for a long period of time.

Hence, when you apply for your VISA using an I-20 issued by AAU, it means you're applying for the US government to let you stay in US to study at AAU and you're backing up your application with the I-20 from AAU.

If you get into SDSU, then you will need an I-20 issued by SDSU. I believe you do not need to reapply for a VISA but there is some paperwork you will need to do. I also think there is some rules concerning studying in a another college(usually a community college) over summer for credits to transfer over to your 'main' school.

The VISA and Immigration page has info on this for SURE because I was thinking about a similar thing about half a year ago but I just don't know the details. And if there is anything left unclear, email/phone them. Immigration law is very important to be adhered to. Not understanding it isn't an excuse!

The F-1 has the name of your school printed on it.You cannot change it unless you drop out of school,lose the visa and apply for another one at the embassy again.


I waited for all my offers to come before I applied for a visa.Once they print you a visa for AAU, you are probably going to cause a lot of headaches for yourself and the embassy people of you suddenly tell them you want an F-1 for another place.From what I remember,the visa processing was fast(1 week?) so there is no need to rush.You have until August/September for this.


There is a very high chance you will get into California state schools now(unless you told them you failed high school or something really bad),with the budget crisis for the state,they are taking in any international students they can get to cover for their loss of funding.

I recommend you wait for all your offers to come in before you start applying for visas. Like mentioned, the F-1 has the name of your university on it and your I-20 is issued by the university that is sponsoring your stay in the USA. Accepting an offer because you were impatient about other offers is just giving yourself a massive headache, and I see that coming now since you're already getting an I-20 from AAU.

You'll be creating a big mess for yourself if you wish to switch schools after applying for visa. BIG mess. Worst come to worst, defer a semester to see if you got accepted to SDSU or not. Then decide from there.

US Immigration is NOT fun

Alright, thanks to everyone for your elaborate and insightful responses! I really appreciate that. I guess I'll just wait for a little while longer until SDSU finally got around to replying me (and accepting me into their school, for that matter). Also, are you guys sure that the visa processing takes only 1 week? I've always thought it took about.. more than a month? Care to share a little more detail, please?

Ha.. that'll be the last resort. But thanks anyway!

I would suppose so. :/

no it doesn't take that long. I remember I was running through the train stations from Yokohama to Tokyo to make the visa application interview and I know about a week or so later, they had the visa to me. As long as you're not a criminal or anything, just bank on them getting it to you in two weeks

as for my comment about US immigration not being fun, trust me it isn't. I'm dealing with work status issues now and the paperwork is *facepalm*

This post has been edited by spunkberry: Apr 26 2011, 01:02 AM

Actually it can take less than a week. Once you've completed all the paperwork and paid the fees in advance, you just need to schedule an appointment for the interview. Scheduling is as simple as clicking on a day that isn't full in your web browser. You'll have your interview early in the morning and you'll know the result on the spot. Your VISA will be ready the next business day and can be collected at WISMA MCA. However, what can happen is that you forget to do something and your information isn't complete and you are asked to come back again. Another that can happen is you're a male and you get chosen by random for the 1 month extended screening where they will research your background first and only issue you the VISA after 1 month even though you've already been approved. Hence, applying for VISA last minute is a big no-no.