Money!!!

The normal expenditure if you live your life normally and not lavishly will be as follows:
* Rents: (Varies according to places including gas, water and electricity) $300 to $350 if you have a roomy sharing room with you.
$400 to $500 if you want your own room.
* Phone: $50 per month
* Insurance: $50 per month
* Grocery: $75 per month
* Total: $500 to $600 per month. (Some places, the total amount per month can reach upto $700)

So, how will you pay that amount? You have two options: On campus jobs and Assistantships.

On Campus Jobs (20 Hrs/ Week): In library, in college mess, in college restaurants, in college recreation center, in college stores. These jobs are more laborious and you will earn around $600 to $700 per month after taxes. So you can manage your own expenses. Start the search for on campus from the very first day you visit the college. There will be lots of competition, so it will be on first come first serve basis.

Assistantships (20 Hrs/ Week): There are three kinds of assistantships in most of the universities; Graduate Assistantship (GA), Research Assistantship (RA) and Teaching Assistantship (TA). Benefits; it will cover around 10 credits of your tuition fees and will give you a stipend of around $1000 to $1400 per month after taxes. Start the search from India itself. But from where to start our search? Look out for university’s career center websites or Human Resources websites for Graduate Assistantships. But for Research and Teaching Assistantships, you should be scanning the profiles of your professors, and if your interest matches professor’s interests and researches, then you can directly email the professors tell that you are the prospective student and interested in working with him, explaining him the reason why you want to work with him. If you are lucky, you will get a positive reply from the professor and you might get RA or TA.

Internships: Most of the colleges have career fairs in all the three semesters, i.e. Fall, Spring, and Winter. You have to apply for internships and full time jobs during that career fairs.