A brief overview and Status Check

Day 1- (Monthstone reading: 12 months)

I embarked on the journey to higher education quite some time back now, but my journey officially commences from today, on this blog here. For the clueless, this is the highway to education, and I am standing right next to the "monthstone" which reads '12 months'. Most of  the times the person on the driving seat is pretty clueless once he lands on this highway. Believe me you have no idea about how many people are out there, waiting to spot you and grip you with their claws, claiming that they would guide you to your dreams. So that's why this blog. This is where I honestly describe my journey as I drive on this road in order to pursue higher education. Ohh!! We didn't get formally introduced, did we?

So this is my story. I am a 25 year-old from India; an IT engineer by education, a music-lover and a photography enthusiast who wants to pursue his Master's in the field of 'Computer Science' (breaking it further- want to pursue the subjects  in 'image processing', 'information security', 'photography', 'computational photography' and 'Global Music') and pursue my Phd post that to study the security aspects in Computational photography. After having worked with a reputed IT firm for 3.5 years, I realized that the time was ripe to get my higher degree. I left my job in Chandigarh and came back to stay with my parent's in New Delhi. The weekend I reached Delhi, I had my GRE scheduled. Luckily I cracked the exam with a score of 325/340 and an AWA score of 5.0/6. Good start I thought, but trust me right now GRE score seems to be just equivalent to the amount of fuel that one has in their tank while on this highway. So suppose if your vehicle does not give a good average, you might just run out of fuel before you reach your destination. Anyways, there are a lot many parameters that seem to decide how feasibly you would be able to manage to the college of your choice. So for the past few weeks, I have been exploring these parameters. I have been visiting college websites, reading about professors I would really want to emulate and writing to them, shortlisting universities of my choice and taking counsel from the people who have already been through this phase and occasionally penning down a few words on my SOP. One more important thing happened in this duration. I was looking for internship opportunities with companies dealing with image processing, when I came across a start-up 'Uber-Labs' right here in Noida. I wrote to the guys and had an interview with them. These guys are really working with the cutting-edge algorithms in 'Feature-detection' and I totally could relate with the work. Being low on the technical know-how, I started reading books and material on image-processing alongside my regular rounds of university searching. Still there on the reading phase though, I intend to go full-throttle on this internship opportunity by October (till then I intend to wind up the application process, TOEFL...then September would also pass by in a jiffy, as my sister would get married in that month).

Just to give you a clear picture, let me share a rough timeline of events and a roadmap with you:

Timeline

May 14th- Left job atInfosys

May 25th- Back to Delhi

May 28th- GRE

June - Visiting University websites, shortlisting, talking to and writing to people and profs with my set of queries

July (up till now)- shortlisting to around 15 universities, brainstorming session with 'BrainGain Mag' team, finding about SOP, writing to admissions council, professors and students from universities.

Road-Map

GRE   (done)

University Selections  (in progress)

SOP 

LOR's 

Transcripts 

Financial Documents

Visa Interview

The road to education in India is relatively simple. You look around, see what the topper's in your class are pursuing from the very beginning and stick with trying your hand at that. So there is a bottle-neck situation which happens for the coveted fields of science, and then engineering and then, to quite an extent, management. Please do not misinterpret me if you are one who has been on this route, I only mean to share a picture with you that I see. I believe when it comes to making a choice on something that one is truly interested in, we start to weigh the consequences of our choice; something which is more to do with our conditioning since childhood. This makes it really difficult to be on the road solely meant for 'you'. I faced this predicament when I was working and it took a lot of effort to leave a comfortable good-paying job to opt for my dreams. This also meant letting go of a lot of things. I learnt that you would need to let go off a few things before you prepare to take more in your plate. However, despite the if's, but's and maybe's, the words from one of my favs ring inside "Here I am, on the road again"

Alright..enough said! I can go on endlessly about it so I better  hit the brakes for now. Hope I could give you a rough picture of how things are now from where I look.

Lot of things to come still. I would keep writing as I progress on this road. There won't be daily posts, but there would be posts coming in around every 2-4 weeks. I promise. People who have already been through this phase, please do share your insights and the things to watch out for and take care of to make sure one reaches their destination. Also, do give in helpful inputs which can guide a traveler on the highway. Others, keep reading and provide inputs; Also feel free to discuss and ask questions. I would also share information specifically related to the fields of image processing and computational photography .