'Indians want to study in United States from undergraduate level'

More and more Indian students are going to the US to pursue undergraduate studies, a departure from the earlier trends when preferred programmes of study would be postgraduate studies.

Phillip A Min, the US Consul General in Chennai, said  the new phenomenon had emerged gradually. Now, Indian students want to go to the US right from the undergraduate level,he said.

Besides, the number of Indian students in the UK has gone up considerably. According to the American diplomat, the US consulates in India have received as much as 40 per cent more applications from students since last year. “Although I do not have the exact figures, there has been a definite increase of 40 per cent since last year in the number of student applications received by all the US consulates in India,” he said. He was speaking at a programme organised by Yashna Trust, an EducationUSA advising center on Wednesday. Indians in the US form the second largest student community at about 1.80 lakh.

Kasturi Pananjady, a former student at National Public School, Indiranagar, is all set to go to the US to study an undergraduate degree in humanities at Brown University. “I wasn’t satisfied with my options here. I love maths but at the same time I love literature. But there are fewer colleges to choose from,” she said. Pananjady, who eventually aims to be a journalist, believes that her choice of subjects will help her in her aim.

Parents expressed concerns about the monetary expenses for their children to get US college degrees. Consulate officials explained that students would have to spend anywhere between $25,000 and $65,000 depending upon the college. International students can avail themselves of scholarships.  Answering a query about the prospects of differently abled children, Swetha Muthanna, director, Yashna Trust, said there were many provisions  for such candidates to qualify, those were not based solely on a candidate’s “disability” but also factored in other factors like merit.