I just completed my third semester from a so called local engineering college located In a small town in Andhra Pradesh. Now, the time has come to decide my career path. I had 3 options in my mind
- Get a job in Infosys, tcs or wipro – me being a below average student find this to be rather impossible..
- Pursue MS in US – this seems to be the most feasible as there are tons of universities spread across all the states in US and pursuing studies abroad sounds great!
- The worst case- assist my dad in running his kirana store (general store) – I really dint want to do this as it hurts my ego – after all I am going to be engineering graduate
As expected, I attended few off campus drives and failed in the first rounds! Have written GRE and managed to get about 1000 that is good enough for me! My desire to get a job still remained and I arrived at Ameerpet, Hyderabad. Thanks to the recession, I could not get a single job and my skills added to the situation! Now, I have decided to go with my second choice – ms in us. I approached this consultancy – ABS consultancy and paid few thousands to them to suggest me few universities. They gave a list of them and the great Tri valley is one of them. I also got in touch with a guy studying there and he told me that the university is a free zone and provides visa extensions in an easy way! The consultancy also suggested that it is one of the best universities suitable for my profile- wow! What luck!
I told my decision to my dad and he, being just an owner of a general store, arranged funds for fulfilling his loving son’s dream to pursue masters abroad. I know how hard he worked to arrange for the funds and how long it took for him to save this amount and how long it is going to take him to earn back that amount! As I could not get any scholarships or waivers, I had to utilize this money and I was ready to fly after getting an i20 from Tri Valley. I felt proud that I received an I-20 from an American university. I still remember the day I took my flight to USA- I am using all the money my dad has saved till date for something that saves my ego? What a life! Anyways, I will work hard and get a good job in USA and make my dad happy!
After reaching USA, I am so excited, enthusiastic, ablazed and a bit worried too. I resided with the guy whom I met online and he was friendly enough. Days passed by and I noticed few changes in me- started counting money in terms of dollars and weight in terms of pounds. My university is not accredited, I am not sure what course I am doing and I am working in a company as the university granted me CPT- I initially thought I was lucky to get into Tri Valley as I got the CPT so soon! Still, there was always a fear in me that the government will bang me some day or the other.
The black day of my life has come as I imagined: A hard knock on my door and there they were a group of officers who took us to a building and started questioning us. I am just blank and I am not able to understand what’s happening around me. I laughed at the US government and now I am here crying in a place, which is located 1000’s of kilometers away from my loved ones! A GPS system was attached to my leg to make sure that I do no move out! Am I a terrorist who arrived here to destroy the life in USA?
True that the university fooled us and the government of USA but I tell you, it is our mistake too! We know that it is illegal to get a CPT before one year and we are already working under that name. We know that the university is not accredited. We know that we are cheating the USA government. We just understood that things like these work only in India and not in USA. Tri Valley university scam ruined my life and I contributed to that!
- I should have checked for accreditation before deciding my university
- I should have followed all the rules and not accepted the CPT
- I should not have chosen such a third graded university
- I should not have come to USA just for the sake of being here
My sincere advise to my fellow students- please do not come here just for the sake of your status or working here – get good scores and join reputed schools and do check with it a 1000 times before finalizing it – beware of consultancies
Assisting my dad in our General stores seems like heaven to me compared to roaming around this area like a prisoner with a GPS lock stuck to my leg! I am sorry dad- I wasted all our money- I thought of earning a fortune here and clear all our debts and I left you – just tears!
No comments:
Post a Comment