July-August 2019

Courtesy Dilpreet Singh
Courtesy Lavanya Prakash
Go Online
Courtesy Manmohan Thorat
Study in the U.S.
http://www.usief.org.in/
Study-in-the-US.aspx
EducationUSA
India
www.facebook.com/
EducationUSAIndia/
University of
California,
Berkeley
www.berkeley.edu
Montgomery
College
www.montgomery
college.edu
University of
Maryland
www.umd.edu
Oklahoma State
University
https://go.okstate.edu/
From above far left: U.S. university alumni Dilpreet
Singh, advocate-on-record, Supreme Court of India;
Lavanya Prakash, technical accounting lead at Booz
Allen Hamilton, Washington, D.C.; and Manmohan
Thorat, EducationUSA coordinator, USIEF Mumbai.
points. Students, thus, come up with solutions
that work for people in different contexts.
“Universities in the United States, especially
Berkeley Law, have great diversity. My class
of 120 students had people from 49 nations,”
says Dilpreet Singh, advocate-on-record,
Supreme Court of India. “It gave me an
opportunity to draw a great comparative
perspective, in terms of academics, life and
relationships.”
Another noteworthy aspect of the U.S.
higher education system is the sheer number
of areas of study. This gives students the
freedom and flexibility to customize their
learning experience. At the undergraduate
level, students are encouraged to explore a
breadth of subjects and academic themes,
before they dive deep into their majors. In
fact, several U.S. universities offer undergraduate
students the opportunity to enter
their degree programs “undecided,” without
declaring a major area of study—a rare
phenomenon in international education.
Graduate students have the flexibility to chart
their own course within their interest areas,
through the specific research they choose to
pursue. “I went to Montgomery College, a
community college in Maryland, and
transferred to the Robert H. Smith School of
Business at the University of Maryland, where
I double majored in accounting and finance. I
had the flexibility to complete 150 credits in
3.5 years, which is otherwise a five-year
course-load,” says Lavanya Prakash, technical
accounting lead at Booz Allen Hamilton in
Washington, D.C. “Upon graduation, I landed
a great job at Ernst & Young. I loved the
experience of studying in the United States
because I was able to study everything from
maths to science, and not just focus on one
subject in the initial years.”
Students can choose the type of institution
they want to attend, the class size they deem
conducive to learning, the professors they
want to engage with, the research opportunities
and facilities they want to access, the
internships and post-study work options they
would like to avail, and the cities and
economic regions in which they want to be
located. American college campuses follow
the philosophy of building purposeful
architecture that complement learning through
constant engagement with spaces, people,
resources and processes. “I completed a
Bachelor of Science in mechanical
engineering, with a minor in sociology, from
Oklahoma State University. Of all the
countries, I chose the United States because I
was in tune with the culture, and I’d always
admired the country and its values,” says
Manmohan Thorat, EducationUSA
coordinator at United States-India Educational
Foundation, Mumbai. “My educational
experience was extremely rich in terms of the
knowledge I acquired at Oklahoma State
University. Whether in student groups,
classes, conferences or internships, I could do
justice to my interests and capabilities.”
These and many other remarkable features
of U.S. higher education form a robust
instructional paradigm, which has empowered
thousands of graduates to build meaningful
lives and careers. They have contributed to
strengthening their communities, built
visionary organizations and addressed the
challenges facing the world. While education
systems and students’ motivation to acquire
knowledge keep evolving through the ages,
the success stories of U.S. university alumni
are examples of the power of quality
education.
Bhavvna Jolly is a senior program officer,
EducationUSA, at the United States-India
Educational Foundation, New Delhi.
30 JULY/AUGUST 2019