ALUMNI POV : University of Wisconsin, Madison

Difficulty was easy to v.easy for intro level courses which are meant to weed out students, much like JEE in India. But the difficult creeps up with 2nd and 3rd year courses.

The courses are very theorectical and the practical applications are left to students.

Negatives are that they are too theoretical.

Applied to 4 colleges.

Columbia University: Waitlisted, waited and then did not get

Princeton University: did get but was too expensive and did not get a scholarship

University of California- Los Angeles: did get but received UW Madison's offer first and had to respond to its offer within 2 weeks

University of Wisconsin Madison: Got and offer and attended. Go Badgers!

The most important factor was cost. While I was looking at Physics and Math courses during my application process, I had realised that the actual content of various schools was quite similar and the differentiating thing was the rubber stamp of the university (prestige).

For most colleges, you have to apply via the CommonApp. But there are separate application procedures for California and Texas colleges. The best way for undergrads is to google, (ABC university undergrad programs/majors) and see what fits best. They always have an admission page there (this is what councillors in India do, so do it yourself and save money). Be sure to have great extra circulars and good standardised test score.

If you can do take the AP exams, they are ez and will help you skip classes and save $$$. SAT(with essay) and Toefl are also needed for most and all of the top tier ones. SAT subject test is useless, so dont waste your money. The minimum scores are all highlighted on the web, quick and ez searches.

I can honestly tell you that the most important factor is the Statement of purpose. A poorly worded one will drop your chances to 0, no matter how excellent you are otherwise. Think about it yourself, if you were deciding on who to choose and who to reject. Your marks, test scores and other things are numbers that come into play only when you a decent to good SOP. If your SOP is meh then there is chance that no one will even look at your scores. And if you make mistakes in it (grammatical, syntactical, poor word choice, try to be political) then it would leave a bad taste in the mouth of the reviewer and skew their judgement.

LORs while important are much the same your all teachers and only exist to ensure candidature.
I went for the September (Fall/Autumn) intake in all of my universities. The other major one is February (Spring) intake but we have our boards exam at the time. This is similar to american schools since they too have their exams over by May and start university in september.

The admission process varied but for UW Madison took about 6 months from June to December. The reason being that I took all of my exams (SAT, Toefl and SAT subject tests) in the summer vacation and then prepped for JEE and then boards and then close to the deadline applied for american universities. I dont advise this.

Start early, in fact an important thing is to take the AP exam which happen in feb-march. You may need a month or more for its prep, so start early.

Typically 3 classes in a day and 6 different types of classes in a week.

Indian and in fact international students were practically non-existent.

I could not tell you how many campuses were there, since private buildings were converted into university buildings all the time. The most astonishing thing to me was these buildings were not barricaded or secured in any way, essentially one could walk into a building at any moment.

There were 2 gyms that included everything, even basketball, badminton courts and even swimming pools. Medical services are very good, I can attest first hand since I suffered an allergy attack from shrimp. Medical services and police are coordinated with the city police. There are several libraries, student organizations, too many to name here. Clubs exist for everything even cricket which was started by friends and I.

On Campus:

For undergrads mostly small on-campus job. As per our visa agreement, we are not allowed to work off-campus. TA, RA, DA positions are available for masters and phd students. Pay range is $15-$20 per hour. On campus jobs are mostly in food services and desk jobs. Max 20 hours per week.

Apart from this, one can get a part-time internship, if possible.

Most Indians work in food services during undergrad as cashiers, front-end workers, dish washers, sweepers. I can assure you that nobody looks down on these jobs or thinks of these workers as any less. Infact a lot of people put these on their resumes. All jobs are hard to get.

I personally also worked as a math tutor and a peer mentor but these are give out to a select few and are dependent on the education.

At the time SAT/ACT was a requirement. Look into ACT too, I dont know why us indians dont look into ACT. Toefl, since I am an Indian and that's the minimum. Above it, I suggest APs and I deject SAT subject tests.

LORs, SOP and resume were all required. A basic profile of you, and somewhat of your parents too and a finanical statement to show that you can pay for your education.

Now, some universities have done away with SATs and only look for Toefl. If SAT is optional, still take it, score good and get in.

Interview was a requirement for MIT and columbia. Columbia was a simple phone call whereas MIT was video call.