What are the best Ivy League Colleges?

Education in the United States: What is the total expense for an MS and PHD integrated course from Ivy and non Ivy league colleges with and without scholarships for a fresh bachelor in engineering from India?

• I also need insights on the structure and requirements for admissions to persue post doc in chemical engineering from Ivy league and non Ivys in US if I do my PHD from IITs. Please specify about the expenses involved.

• Answer:

  That depends on a lot of variables.  Graduate tuition at an Ivy League school is somewhere in the range of $30,000 to $40,000 per year, with another $20,000 per year in estimated living expenses. Other universities vary in their costs, but I'd expect to pay at least $15,000 per year in tuition, plus living expenses (rent, food, transportation, entertainment, etc). Your living expenses will vary based on location and lifestyle, but you can usually count on having to spend at least $15,000 to $20,000 a year just in normal living expenses. I don't know how many scholarship programs cover post-graduate studies. Most schools, if they accept you as a PhD candidate, will offer you a fellowship in which you work as a Research Assistant or Teaching Assistant (in Chemical Engineering, it's usually a Research Assistant). In exchange, you'll generally get free tuition and a stipend to help pay living expenses (though that stipend usually won't cover all your costs). Master's Degree candidates usually aren't offered the same thing. In fact, many US schools will discourage you from pursuing a Master's in Chemical Engineering, because it costs a lot and doesn't do much for your career prospects. To apply as a PhD candidate, you really don't need anything more than a bachelor's degree. Your school, your grades, work experience and recommendation letters will all be taken into account. PhD candidates are usually funded by the department for the first year, and after that, a professor needs to take you into his or her group. The professors get funding for their projects through grants, fellowships, and private investment. Accordingly, professors try to estimate how many graduate students they'll be able to fund, and the department will limit the number they accept accordingly. So depending on the funding situation, schools make need a lot of new grad students or they may only accept a few. It's hard to predict. In any case, the stipend you get will usually be pretty small, so you'd better be used to living on very little money.