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Graduate School in the US

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As some of you already know, I've been working on my applications for grad school in the US for the better part of the last academic year. Well, I have good news! I've been admitted to NC State University in Raleigh, NC, and I will be going there in the fall. Well, that's the plan anyway ;) I have been accepted on academic grounds and the university has accepted all the paperwork, but I still need to get the actual student visum. I can't imagine that that will still be a problem at this point, though. So, I have my appointment at the embassy on the 10th of July. If that goes well, I will be in the States on the 24th of that month.

I don't think I need to tell you guys how utterly wonderful this is :) I'm really looking forward to being in the U.S. semi-permanently for the next two years. I hope to find a job near the end of my studies so I can remain there (probably after a short trip back to the Netherlands to get the new visum, I don't think they issue that from inside the US).

Oh, I will be doing more or less the same thing at NCSU as I'm doing now. The program is called Microbial Biotechnology, which is pretty close to what I've been studying for the last year in my M.S. here at the University of Technology Delft. However, a significant part of the program also involves business classes which should be enormously interesting. Basically, you do half a MBA in this program as part of the course work.

I'll update this thread in a month, when I know definitively if they will issue me the visum or not. I'll try not to look too shady at my interview ;)

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Congratulations man!! Welcome to the U.S., particularly the southeast. I've been to Raleigh a few times, as well as Cary, N.C. (which is nearby). If you like band music, you should really go to Cary Band Day while you are in their neck of the woods.

Perhaps I'll pass by your way on one of my motorcycle excursions.

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Congratulations. BTW, if you can't imagine there being a paperwork problem, I can tell you some harrowing tales. Be flexible in your travel plans.

Gee, thanks. Now I won't be able to sleep until I get my visum! :)

I will just check and double check in advance if I have all the information they could want. I figure if I can give them anything they could reasonably ask for it should help. I know which forms and supplemental documents I need to bring, so I don't think that will be a problem. But generally, I think that getting a temporary visum such as a student visum is easier than the immigrant visa.

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As some of you already know, I've been working on my applications for grad school in the US for the better part of the last academic year. Well, I have good news! I've been admitted to NC State University in Raleigh, NC, and I will be going there in the fall. Well, that's the plan anyway ;) I have been accepted on academic grounds and the university has accepted all the paperwork, but I still need to get the actual student visum. I can't imagine that that will still be a problem at this point, though. So, I have my appointment at the embassy on the 10th of July. If that goes well, I will be in the States on the 24th of that month.

I don't think I need to tell you guys how utterly wonderful this is :) I'm really looking forward to being in the U.S. semi-permanently for the next two years. I hope to find a job near the end of my studies so I can remain there (probably after a short trip back to the Netherlands to get the new visum, I don't think they issue that from inside the US).

Oh, I will be doing more or less the same thing at NCSU as I'm doing now. The program is called Microbial Biotechnology, which is pretty close to what I've been studying for the last year in my M.S. here at the University of Technology Delft. However, a significant part of the program also involves business classes which should be enormously interesting. Basically, you do half a MBA in this program as part of the course work.

I'll update this thread in a month, when I know definitively if they will issue me the visum or not. I'll try not to look too shady at my interview ;)

You will like the Raleigh-Durham area, I think. Sometimes it can be rather hot and humid during the high summer, but overall it is a friendly and pretty area. I spent some time in that area and I found that all of the stereotypical assertions about Southern Hospitality to be quite true. The folks around Raleigh are a good deal less "up tight" than you will find in Boston, New York in in the urban parts of New Jersey (where I live now). I think once you get away from the very large cities you will see the "real America" more clearly.

Good luck to you and enjoy your stay.

Bob Kolker

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Congratulations Maarten.

On the visa thing, as far as I am aware, an applicant for a student visa (and any other non-immigrant visa) must not demonstrate an intent to immigrate. Never lie to a visa officer. However, you are not required to offer reasons why you would want to stay in the U.S. Often, the visa officer will ask you what ties you have in your home country, that will make you want to return home. The questioning at U.S. Embassies tends to be visa-specific and country-specific, so if you know anyone from your country who has got a student visa it would be a good idea to have a brief chat to ask what the questions are like.

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Congratulations Maarten.

On the visa thing, as far as I am aware, an applicant for a student visa (and any other non-immigrant visa) must not demonstrate an intent to immigrate. Never lie to a visa officer. However, you are not required to offer reasons why you would want to stay in the U.S. Often, the visa officer will ask you what ties you have in your home country, that will make you want to return home. The questioning at U.S. Embassies tends to be visa-specific and country-specific, so if you know anyone from your country who has got a student visa it would be a good idea to have a brief chat to ask what the questions are like.

That reminds me. Do you perhaps know if it is enough to describe the ties that bind me to my home country? For example, all my family lives here, but I'll be damned if I know how to get proof of that on paper. I mean, I can show them that I'm studying here right now, so I can get some supporting documentation for that, but it's still a hard thing to prove.

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Oooh, this is exciting, Maarten. I'm actually going to be in Raleigh during the fourth of July weekend. We'll just miss each other apparently. That's okay: maybe next time!

You will love Raleigh and you'll do great in your program. Congratulations!

Edited by Mimpy
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... I'll be damned if I know how to get proof of that on paper.
Not sure if the embassy sees through the typical "proof" offered; but, I doubt it's that important (unless substantial -- like you're going to inherit a chain of profitable Amsterdam stores, or something!)

More important is to think through a bunch of reasons, and to be prepared to use them. For instance "family ties" is a broad reason, but one may think about more personal detail (e.g. only child, only son, eldest kid, other siblings live in Russia...whatever fits for one's own situation -- remember, the concrete facts must be true). Also, what else can draw one back: language, culture, etc. (e.g. one might have been to the U.S. and found it to be great, and a place one really loves, but there may be cultural reasons why one thinks one's home town is a superior place to actually settle down). Then, there is the possibility of getting a job in your home country (e.g. after this particular US study, one might become eligible to jobs at home that pay pretty well, so why not have the "best of home and money"). One way to explore this is to imagine one is actually very firm about going to the US for a short while and then returning home. Once you're in character, figure out your motivations.

I'll repeat my advice about checking with someone local who has been through the process.

Edited by softwareNerd
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Not sure if the embassy sees through the typical "proof" offered;

Being able to provide evidence of having strong ties to your native country is very important - it is the most significant thing which could prevent you from getting your student visa. Typical/required evidence for a student is a proof of being a full time student in your native country and being commited (having an intent) to finishing the program and then getting a job there. They will also ask you to show evidence that you have been accepted to a program in US (as part of your studies). (Good advice from softwareNerd in terms of additional support. )

Edited by ~Sophia~
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  • 3 weeks later...
So, I guess now it's official! ;)

Ehhhhhxcellent!

I was going to suggest copies of your family's latest phone, electricity and water bills to show solid ties, but it looks like you don't need to any more.

Congratulations!

JJM

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Congratulations!

I attended NCSU 1984-1988 and graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. I also started reading Ayn Rand my last semester there thanks to a classmate who loaned me The Virtue of Selfishness. Do expect an unusual number of Jesus freaks, however, as the state does compose part of the so-called "Bible Belt"!

I have yet to see the Ayn Rand Institute list an Objectivist or Ayn Rand Club at NCSU. Perhaps you can break new ground there. I hope so.

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On the visa thing, as far as I am aware, an applicant for a student visa (and any other non-immigrant visa) must not demonstrate an intent to immigrate.

This just always stuns me. We ought to have the attitude of having open doors, especially for the best and brightest of the world.

The liberals want to let the poorest of the poor in. The conservatives don't want to let anyone in. I think we should let lots of people in, based on merit!

Congratulations Maarten. I hope you enjoy your time here!

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This just always stuns me. We ought to have the attitude of having open doors, especially for the best and brightest of the world.

The liberals want to let the poorest of the poor in. The conservatives don't want to let anyone in. I think we should let lots of people in, based on merit!

Congratulations Maarten. I hope you enjoy your time here!

Yeah, that's what I don't really get, either. The way I look at it, these temporary visas are just stepping stones towards the real thing. I don't get why anyone would want to go to the U.S. on a temporary visa and not want an immigrant visa in the future, either. I can't imagine that's a very rare scenario, so it's a little silly to pretend that everyone who gets a non-immigrant visa doesn't want an immigrant one ;)

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I think we should let lots of people in, based on merit!
Or, how about just letting anyone in who wants to come? More people in closer proximity means a higher standard of living!

Congratulations, Maarten! I hope you are able to "upgrade" to permanent citizen status later... and good luck with school!

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This just always stuns me. We ought to have the attitude of having open doors, especially for the best and brightest of the world.
The thing about the best and the brightest is that they are often persistent. A close relative had his student-visa application rejected by the U.S. embassy 4 times. Each additional time, he would think about what else he could say, and then try again. The fifth time, after he gave the visa-officer his latest story, the officer smiled at him and said something like: "Well, nothing significant seems to have changed in your details, but I'm giving you the visa". And that was it. If he'd been rejected, he would probably have worked a few years and tried for a work-permit instead of a student-visa. There are still more people who want to come here than the U.S. wants in. The real problem lies a couple of decades in the future. With every passing year, the U.S. is losing it's relative attraction (only relative, mind you).

[bTW: Applying again and again is common in countries like India. In fact, finally the U.S. embassy decided that after the third time one has to mail it in; no more attempts to plead and convince.]

As for merit, the current U.S. policy is that there is a quota for people with merit ,and a quota for people with family,and a quota for farm-workers, and a quota for priests, and a quota for ...you get the idea. There is also a quota for those who lack any merit, nor are in some special category. Seriously, it's the "diversity quota"; but, if I get started on that, it'll ruin this thread.

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  • 5 months later...

Update for those who are interested:

First semester went really, really well overall. It was a bit slow at first, mostly because I'm not allowed to work or anything except for the university, and I couldn't find a job like that. So I had too much free time. Heh. Anyway, I haven't received all my grades yet for this semester, but I'm 90% sure that for my two normal classes I'll get As. The 10% uncertainty is for one class, where I might still get an A+, because that depends on rounding. For some reason I managed to get all 96.x grades, and the cutoff is 97. But well, it's still a 4.0, so who cares.

My third class is this industry cases course we do every semester. This semester we went to one of the local biotechnology companies in the Research Triangle Park, Biogen IDEC. They're fairly large, and have some pretty interesting drugs on the market. Anyway, we first had to go through a few weeks of regulatory stuff and lectures about cGMPs and stuff, which was kinda boring (Yay FDA!). But yeah. Then we were divided into project groups and started working on a project. I picked the project about FTE (full-time equivalents) budgeting/forecasting, because I thought it would be cool to see how my accounting survey class would relate to an issue like this in practice (we actually did discuss what I was doing in accounting, so I was like: hey, I'm building a model using these methods we just discussed. I just didn't know they had a name =P) That was fun.

Most of my group was busy with other parts of the project, and I did most of the work in excel (which was most of the work in the project itself, but I liked doing it and you can't work on excel models with 4 people, anyway). What I basically did there was use their existing (god-awfully huge and unwieldy and not-transparent) model and start over with a very simple layout. We wanted to use other programs first, but that wasn't really a good option, so I just started doing it in excel. I built them a very simplified version, based on just one department and one product, as a prototype for them to later expand on.

But as far as FTE/cost budgeting goes, it works perfectly given the information they provided us with. They gave us the numbers on how many tests they run per batch of drug substance/product/raw materials and how many validation tests they do, and together with their time schedules for how long samples take to run, it gives you an output that is based on the number of batches they have running at the same time.

So practically speaking, their original model had a resolution of quarters, I brought that down to weeks, and all the input I really need is for a person to say how many batches will be thawed each week, and then together with the process time it calculates how many batches will be in process at the same time. Really quite simple and beautiful, if I do say so myself.

So this week (we just finished the project when the semester ended) I got an email from the person at the company I worked with, and she asked me if I would be willing to further expand it for other products and other departments :lol: So they loved it, which is good. I just need to talk to my adviser and discuss if I can make this work count as my industrial internship, cause then I can do an internship at a lab somewhere nearby in the summer, which will help me a lot if I decide to get a PhD after this.

And I might still do that, in something that relies heavily on (animal) cell culture. I first came into contact with that a few weeks back, when I applied to (and was accepted for) a TA position in the biotech department for the next spring, where they have me TAing this graduate level course on animal cell culture (with no prior experience, hah!). So I asked the professor if I could spend some time this current semester practicing the techniques, and I love it so far! It took me about three weeks to go from no knowledge to having finished all the preparations for the spring lab as far as growing cells goes (Had to grow up 25 vials with a few million adherent cells each, that was like 20ish flasks. Heh, logistically interesting). So now I'm practicing with this type of hybridomas (B-cell/tumor fusions that produce monoclonal antibodies), because I'll be growing this other professor in Wisconsin some (well, apparently 3 liters, which is a lot ;)) of supernatant for his research, and these guys are fairly sensitive, so I needed to get used to them first. But yeah, my professor for that is really pleased with me, and the nice thing about being a TA (and there's a reasonably good chance I'll be able to get one again for the coming semesters) is that I get free tuition.

Oh, and I'm currently learning how to drive for the first time. Got my learner's permit yesterday, and I can already drive fairly well. Drove around Centennial Campus in my roommate's pickup truck, and then took it back home. Without forgetting about anything, too! =)

That's it for now :)

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Hi Maarten,

Thank your for an update. I am glad to hear that you doing so well.

Developing a good cell culture technique is a very useful skill to have at the tech level. However, I think that your affinity for it should not influence your choice for a research project. Rather pick an area in which you are interested in; a problem you would be excited about solving. The techniques you will need to learn to complete any project, due to your approach and patience, will come to you as easily as cell culture did.

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