Sample schedule: Fall 2011- When to apply for MS or MBA in USA? Deadlines? International Students plan

The most important factor for getting an admission in a good school with scholarship is to apply ON TIME before deadlines. Typically good schools have multiple rounds of selection and the sooner you are in, the more likely you will be in the list for admission and scholarship decisions.  Some of the very good schools have deadlines for Fall 2011 as early as December 15, 2010 for international students.  I still remember my days of applying to US schools for MS: I had my plan all set for  GRE coaching, studying, etc and I also had applied to passport and registered for the GRE and TOEFL too by April for next year’s Fall Admission. The point is clear, the sooner you plan, the better your options to choose. This article will focus on fall 2011 application planning and task lists with dates that worked for me.  Please read the similar article that I wrote for spring 2011:  Spring 2011 Admission Deadlines and Planning with Schedule.  This article will be a kind of replica, but for Fall 2011 with dates adjusted.

Graduate School Application Deadlines for Fall 2011 ?

I write this statement all the time and I hate to write this again, but the reality is “The deadlines depends on the school you are applying to”.  In fact, some of the very good schools only accept graduate students in Fall term. For instance, Graduate School at Univ of Wisconsin for Computer Sciences accepts new admission only in Fall term.   The clear point is, your pool for admissions in Fall is much larger than applying in Spring. Also, applying to Graduate Schools in Fall has many Advantages when compared to Spring. Fall vs Spring Admissions. Let’s look at some the schools deadlines for Fall 2011. I am assuming you have read the Spring 2011 Admission Deadlines and  Planning That article that has all the links for Universities and I do not want to put them again. In general the deadlines for Fall 2011 are very different depending on School. They vary anywhere in the below list. I did NOT make up these, these are from Universities.

• Dec 15^th, 2010
• April 1^st, 2011
• Jan 1^st, 2011
• March 1^st , 2011
• Feb 15^th, 2011

Assuming Fall 2011 Application Deadline is  December 15^th , 2010 : Sample Schedule

Depending on the program, majority of the good schools like University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Purdue University have December 15^th, 2010 as the deadline for Fall 2011. So, if you are serious about getting into good school and get scholarships, you have to plan to apply by December 15^th of 2010. I am assuming and giving the plan for the best case scenario.

Sample Fall 2011 Application Plan with deadlines for International Graduate Students:

You may think or actually be, when applying for scholarships, very early for fall 2011 . But the reality is, the sooner the better. Because we are international students and it takes time for us to send if they ask anything or if we are missing something. I know friends of mine who applied with exact schedule as above for PhD for Fall 2010 and have admission and funding decisions already. They followed similar plan as listed above. In fact I applied for Fall and  I followed the same plan for my MS admission too and had my I20 along with scholarship by end of March of that year for Starting in Fall

As always, you will have to be very alert and do not miss any information about scholarships. You may read this article for info on scholarships : How to find scholarships info for internationals (MS, MBA) at Schools in USA ? Many great people have already said that, “the key to success is careful planning” and this schedule listed above might help you a little to plan well for fall 2011.

Original Image Credit (Modified ) : http://www.flickr.com/photos/emzee/259669867/

Related posts:

1. Sample schedule: Spring 2011 for applying to MS / MBA in USA with Deadlines
2. Plan/ Schedule to apply H1B visa FY 2013
3. Guide / steps to study in USA for International students? How to plan? Part – 1
4. MBA Admission Deadlines Concept Round 1, 2 and 3 for Fall. Why so many?
5. Guide to Apply to US schools. Admission and F1 Visa process for International students.