New Mexico State University, Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering
Reviewed on Jan 23, 2025(Enrolled 2015)What Students Say
Likes
- I really like the faculties and interaction between teacher and student, the Coursework, Schedule of Classes, Grading system
- Also liked the practical approach that makes the learning more interactive than anything else.
Dislikes
- I really did not like the difficulty of some courses
- The difficulty to find an on-campus job both assistantship or hourly jobs because of the funding issues in all the department
- They used to prefer US citizens over international students because of visa rules and regulations.
Course Curriculum
10
- The course curriculum was quite different and difficult from the India as it focuses more on mix of both, theoretical and practical rather than focusing only on 1 part.
- The positive aspects are that the processor mostly prepares their lecture notes and exams paper by themselves and all the class test individual contributes towards the final grade of the course.
- The negative aspects that as an international students, the students can't score below certain grade else their admission will be questioned.
Admission Experience
- I have applied to only two universities in USA as my TOFEL score was not good, I gave it twice but it did not improve that well and I got approval from both the universities. I got confirmed admission from New Mexico State University in New Mexico state, and Cleveland State University in Ohio state. I have not got rejected from any university that I applied.
- I was equally interested in both the universities that I applied to, however I chose this university because the International Students and Scholar Services(ISSS) were very quick to respond and sent the I-20 documents from USA which are required to schedule the visa interview from the embassy.
- The admission process is to fill the admission form from the university website, send the GRE and TOFEL/ILETS score along with statement of purpose(SOP) and letter of recommendation(LOR) from the professor of previous university/college/school, send financial letters to showcase that the student will be able to support the whole duration of coursework.
- The eligibility criteria is basically dependent on the processor, SOP and LOR letters and GRE and TOFEL/ILETS results. The minimum scores requirements for GRE is 300, TOEFL is 80 and ILETS is 6.5. The overall admission experience is quite overwhelming with the preparation of all the documents.
- I have applied for the fall semester as I started the preparation after the Bachelor of Engineering got completed. I started the course after one year of finishing the bachelor and it mostly take sometime to understand the overall process and work on it.
- The admission process mostly take 3-5 months depending on preparation of all the documents, sending the scores of GRE and TOFEL online, sending the documents through post if needed and getting the response from the university.
Class Schedule
10
- The typical timing for all the classes is 2.5 hours every week, it can be either 50 minutes three times a week or 75 minutes two times a week.
- The average number of students were around 15-20 students in my classes and around 7-8 students were Indian.
Faculty
10
- The faculty-to-student ratio was mostly 15:1, if there are more students then the graduate assistants used to be there in class to support the faculty and engage with the university.
- The teaching methodology were different for all the processor, it was good to prepare for interviews and get in the industry. The faculty members used to guide and help the students to get the jobs.
- My advisor was my most favorite faculty as he helped me during the thesis, research, always treated me like a daughter and also always guided me regarding the interview process and the specific questions that can be asked during the interview.
Campus Life
8
- My college had five campuses in total: Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Grants, Dona Ana County and Las Cruces.
- All the campuses have libraries, medical services like health care center provides the basic facilities to take care of the students especially International students as their health insurance is directly connected with the university, international students office, sports facilities includes gym, football court, basketball court, badminton court.
- The university used to organize "Keep State Great" initiative to beautify the campus with projects such as cleaning and painting and used to help in organizing, coordinating, and scheduling all cultural events such as Diwali, Holi, Independence Day, Republic Day as extracurricular activities
Part Time Jobs
- The ratio of students securing the assistantship is totally dependent on the funding that the department has got for the semester, some semesters are really good and lot of students get the assistantship but some are not.
- The pay range was around $8400 for 20 hours and $4200 for 10 hours assistantship. There are couple of places like for tutoring, cafeteria to secure an on-campus job for students and the usual hourly wage is around $10.
- The international students are allowed to work only 20 hours and on-campus jobs only. It is also dependent on the funding for the semester and the number of students got admitted.
- Mostly earn around $200 in a week if they work for 20 hours every week. It is actually bit difficult to get the part-time jobs because of certain rules and regulations especially for International students.
- The students have to go to the places where the jobs get offered, give resumes, go again and again to discuss with the receptionist, select for interview, give interviews and get the job.
Placement
8
- Almost everyone from the university got the job, the timeline was different for all the students depending on the course and time for graduation.
- The average salary range is between $60000-$100000 depending on the location and position.
- Mostly students use online job portals, networking through LinkedIn and also get the job through the on-campus career fairs.
- My batchmates mostly got jobs in Dialog semiconductor, Google, Apple, Nvidia and Analog Devices for Design Engineer, Test Engineer, Software Engineer and the major companies are Apple, Intel, Google, NXP etc.
Accommodation
Off Campus
10
- I found the accommodation through a Facebook group as I got connected with the students who were already there. They helped me to arrange everything from picking up from the airport, providing a temporary accommodation until I found permanent accommodation, connecting me with the students who were also looking for accommodation to getting settled to the apartment.
- The monthly rent was around $1000 and it does not include and other facilities.
- I did not struggle much as the seniors were really good and helpful towards new students.
- The recommendations is to connect with Facebook or any other groups of the university to seek accommodation.
- My accommodation was only 10 minutes walk from the department of electrical engineering and mostly Indian students stay in sharing apartments.
Exams
- New Mexico State University required GRE scores for Master of Science(MS) courses and GMAT from Master of Business Administration(MBA) course and either TOFEL or ILETS is required by the students from the applicants who are from the countries where English is not the first official language.
- The university requires Statement of Purpose, atleast 2-3 Letter of Recommendation, CV and financial documents to support the application process. Interview was not part of application process in my university and I had not given any interview during admission process.
Fees
- The breakdown of fees for entire course was around $25000 that includes tuition and fees, living expenses, books and insurance.
- The fees used to charge on the semester basis, it mostly depends on university, different universities have other criteria.
- The monthly expenses depend on the location of the university.
- Las Cruces was a cheap where I got apartment in reasonable price, the university was walkable from my place, the university provides cab during night time and other expenses includes groceries, internet, electricity and it can be shared with the roommates.
Scholarship
- Yes, I had received the graduate assistantship from Head of the Department(HOD) of the department of electrical engineering in the starting of second semester because I had scored 3 GPA in the first semester for the second and third semester and another assistantship from department of education in fourth and fifth semester because of my communication skills and recommendation from my advisor.
- The amount was that my overall fees structure got down to $8500 from $25000 and received $4000.
- Yes, some of my batchmates received the same kind of assistantship and their fee structure also got down.
- The average receive scholarships mostly depends on the funding of the department and university so it changes every year and the typical amount is mostly $4000 and reduction in fees structure.
