A webinar session for the Brac University student was organized by the Brac University IEEE student branch in collaboration with the IEEE Computer Society Brac University Student Branch Chapter titled ‘Studying Post Graduation Abroad: Experience from USA’ scheduled on 19 June 2022 at 8:00pm  in its endeavor to educate the student regarding the post graduation process. The speaker of the show was Tanvir Rahman, former lecturer of the BRAC university. This webinar focused on answering the queries related to post graduation in the USA, scholarship and different tests for going through these processes.

Most of the engineering students in our country are going to the USA for post graduation nowadays. Post Graduate degrees from the USA are recognised everywhere and in every country. Moreover, American universities are renowned for excellent qualities of education and research. Most of the top notch universities of the world are situated in the USA. Therefore, most of the students are inclined toward doing post graduation in the USA. Besides, American Universities give enriched campuses and emphasize in employability which provide different skills. Also, they provide the chances to conduct different research work. These universities conduct different workshops, sessions, and tutorials for their students which give them industrial experience. Students from all over the world come to American universities. Therefore, doing post graduation in the USA gives a chance to come in contact with people from different cultures. But to get into one of these universities, one has to go through a lot of process. The requirements in different universities are different. But language test, GRE tests are more or less, the requirement of most universities. Besides, there are some other requirements such as statement of purpose, graduation from a renowned university, letter of recommendation etc. Along with that, research or internship projects, any published research paper or any kinds of social or leadership add weights to the application process. However, most of the high ranked universities cost a lot and the tuition fees are quite high in these American Universities. In addition to that, one has the cost of living, accommodation cost outside these tuition fees. To solve these financial problems, most of these universities provide different kinds of partial or full funding to their students in exchange for their work. These international students have the scope to work as teaching assistants or research assistants. Besides, they have the chance to do other jobs on campus. That’s why the first choice of most students while going abroad for post graduation is the USA.

The speaker of the webinar was Tanvir Rahman who was a former lecturer of the BRAC university. He is a graduate research assistant in University of Delaware. He has completed his BSC in computer science and engineering from Brac University. Also, he worked as a student tutor during his undergraduate period. Before joining BRAC university as lecturer, he also served as IFIC Bank Limited as their IT consultant.

The speaker addressed the participants about the whole post graduation process. He went on saying that one needs to do great in speaking and writing tests while taking a language test. Reading and listening tests help to get scores, But speaking and listening is going to help him get a job as an instructor or teaching assistant to get funds. While stating about the reasons of writing skill the speaker, in his words,” Because they will want to know if you will be able to publish a paper” He added that, one with more language score is going to get preferred by those foreign universities. Then, he talked about the GRE test which helps these universities to  judge whether a student can work under pressure. He briefly talked about the course based and the research based Masters degrees. Furthermore,He explained the differences in doing Masters and Phd degrees in these universities. He added that when a student gives up doing Ph.d research they are given a Master degree but in that case they have to pass the preliminary exam. He explained how research work and publishing papers help one landing a teaching assistant job. While taking a letter of recommendation, one should take the recommendation from someone who has seen a person’s skills and dedication or someone with whom one has worked closely according to the speaker. Finally, he advised the final year and thesis students to keep a decent CGPA, to have some  research work or papers, to keep their statement of purpose ready and to prepare well for the GRE test.

The webinar took place on facebook platform and the presenter was Azwaad Labiba Mohiuddin, chair of BracU IEEE CS chapter. All the students of BRAC University were eligible to attend this webinar.. The seminar started around 8:00 pm and continued for 1 hour. Throughout the webinar  the speaker answered different queries. Finally, pleasantries were exchanged and the lively session came to an end.