LSE Foundation makes MS from UMass affordable

Two years ago, Lakshmipat Singhania Education (LSE) Foundation had an agreement with University of Massachusetts Amherst regarding making selected masters programs of UMass accessible to Indian students who otherwise cannot afford them. The agreement made it possible through two mechanisms. 

First, since the MS programs accept students from diverse backgrounds and they need to do many basic courses before they can take up advanced courses, LSE Foundation took the responsibility of ensuring that those basic courses will be completed in India. This reduces the cost substantially as the student can complete the required advanced credits specific to that MS program within just one year in US.

Second, all students who go through LSE Foundation will be provided a scholarship to pay for a little over 50% of the tuition costs at UMass when the student is there. So you pay less than 50% of the usual tuition at UMass for the period you are on their campus.

This scheme has other advantages as well. University of Mass. requires 16 years of education for admission to its Masters programs (12 years of schooling and 4 years of college). This normally means that students who have done a 3-year bachelors program in India cannot be admitted to Masters programs there. But in this agreement, since the students will do one additional year of college in India (to complete all those basic courses), they are eligible to get admission to MS. UMass will process applications and may have a personal interview and if they find the student suitable, offer admission subject to completing this one year in India successfully.

The other advantage is that they waive the requirement of GRE/TOEFL for students coming through this route.

UMass faculty will keep in touch with these students throughout the year by means of special lectures/seminars, etc. Also, since this is a regular MS program, you get the permission for work after this Masters as Practical Training like any other MS from any US university.

There are three MS programs at UMass where admission is possible through this route. They are:

• MS in Data Analytics and Computational Social Science
• MS in Resource Economics 
• Masters in Public Policy

These are very well regarded programs of UMass. The first two MS programs (Data Analytics and Resource Economics) are classified as STEM program and hence eligible for additional OPT benefits.

Why am I writing about this. First, because I find this a very exciting opportunity to study in a top university in the world. If there was a program of interest to my daughter, I would have encouraged her to apply.  Second, because LSE Foundation has chosen JKLU to conduct those common courses for all students selected for this program. So we run the academic part of this program.

The academic content that has been prepared in consultation with UMass is so interesting that we were reached out by some students early on in 2019 asking if they could do just that part and not necessarily seek admission to MS in UMass. So the LSE Foundation decided that we should offer a one-year Diploma that we call "Post Graduate Diploma in Analysis and Research" to all students irrespective of whether they go on to UMass or not.

The faculty for this program is carefully selected and several of them are visiting faculty from top institutions of India.

Currently, the admission for this year's PGDAR program is open. (These will go to UMass in Fall 2022.)

I would be happy to answer any questions or point to the right person who can answer your questions on these programs.

BTech@JKLU: Can high quality education be free of cost?

Is your JEE Mains performance in the year 2020 or Jan/Feb 2021 higher than 80 percentile. Do you know someone who meets this criteria and is looking for admissions to engineering programs. Then this blog post is for you.

I am only explaining the scholarship policy for BTech admission this year. A small blurb about the program is written below. But I would be happy to answer any questions on the program itself. Please write them as comments below or send me an email.

Most universities provide scholarships to some of their students. JKLU also does. Most scholarships are meant to cover a part of the cost and not the entire or even substantial cost. We also did the same. And in many institutions, the criteria for continuing the scholarship is restrictive and as a result, the number of scholarships in successive years are much less than initial offerings. We followed the industry practice. We were always more liberal in providing scholarships than our peers, but we now want to go much further. After all, we are completing 10 years.

We are making it easier for good students to have free education in all four years, and for a very large number of students, we will make costs very low. This, together with the opportunity to learn with a pedagogy and curriculum designed in collaboration with the best in the world, with international gateways, innovative faculty and unique inter-disciplinary curriculum, makes it a very special opportunity.

Sample this: Male applicants with a JEE Mains score of 91 percentile or higher will get complete waiver of both academic fee and hostel fee. Female applicants get free education at 90 percentile or higher. This means, going by JEE numbers last year, an unprecedented opportunity of free high-quality engineering education.

Academic fee includes everything that is normally charged by universities, be it tuition, development fee, exam fee, registration fee, and god knows how many different lines are there in the fee schedule. We have only one number and you get complete waiver of the same. And even the hostel room is free for these students. The only thing you pay for are utilities and mess bill to make it even for day scholars and hostelers. That is it.

What is more. You get to keep this 100% free education for all four years if you maintain a CGPA of 8.0. Easy for students who are in the top 10 percent of the country. And by chance, you slip below 8.0. We don't remove scholarships completely. You still get a 75% waiver. So almost free. You can see details at the scholarship webpage.

We also have other levels of scholarships. 75 percent waiver for JEE Mains percentile of 89 to 91 (for female students: 87 to 90), 50 percent waiver for JEE Mains percentile of 87 to 89 (for female students: 84 to 87) and a 25 percent waiver for JEE Mains percentile of 83 to 87 (for female students: 79 to 84). We want to encourage female students to go for engineering education and hence the JEE Mains performance required for the same level is significantly lower than male students. Again, please do check out our scholarship page for details.

We will consider both the performance in JEE Mains 2020 as well as performance in JEE Mains 2021 (January and February rounds that have already happened). If you take JEE Mains multiple times, including in both years, we consider the best performance.

Here is the link for admissions page for more information and application.

Is there a catch? Of course, there is. Internally, we do have a budget for scholarships which is very liberal this year but not infinite. The current policy is applicable only for applications that we receive till Monday June 21st, 2021. We will make admission offers by 25th June, and a small initial payment will be required by 30th June. (For those who are offered 100% fee waiver, the initial deposit will be equivalent to the security deposit that we charge, that is, Rs. 10,000, and for others the initial deposit will be Rs. 25,000 only.)

An immediate question will arise. What if one changes one's mind and decides to take admission in another institution. We respect your decision. And we will refund your deposit but for a small fee of Rs. 1,000. And we will be quick. Very unlike many other institutions that may take months to refund and deduct 5,000 or even 10,000 rupees.

Another question: I took JEE in Jan/Feb. I have a percentile score of 89.5 which as per your table makes me eligible for 75% waiver. But what if I take next round of JEE and get a score of higher than 91 percentile. Would I be considered for 100% waiver.

Answer: Your scholarship depends on the policy as on the date of your application. If you apply before 18th June, we will offer you 75% waiver and if you accept that offer and deposit the initial fee, and later you show us proof of improved JEE score, we will upgrade your offer to 100% waiver. But if you do not apply and do not accept admission by 30th June, the scholarship policy as on the date of application will be applicable.

About the program:

JKLU offers BTech programs in Computer Science, Electronics & Communication, Electrical, Mechanical and Civil Engineeringwith exciting areas of specializations. We have a strong Project-based learning pedagogy that has been developed with the help of Olin College of Engineering, USA ranked among top 3 Engineering undergraduate programs (non doctoral) in the US by US News & World Report for 2021 and 2020, and was named along with MIT, as the top leaders in engineering education globally. We have close interactions with industry and in fact, it is necessary to spend one semester in industry. We also encourage our students to spend a semester in another fine institution in India or abroad. Our students have been to IIT Gandhinagar, University of Florida, University of Amsterdam and other places. Committed to our students’ entry into and long terms success in their chosen careers, our Centre for Communication & Critical Thinking helps them become confident, articulate and independent thinking professional. Our Director of Engineering, Prof. Sanjay Goel, an alumnus of BITS Pilani and IIT Delhi, is a well known academician with rich experience in leading innovations in engineering education. Similarly, the faculty is mostly with PhDs, and has been recruited from fine institutions.The infrastructure of JKLU is state of the art and we welcome all potential students and parents to visit us (if Covid situation permits) before taking a final decision. When you apply for admission, ask the admissions office that you wish to speak to some faculty member. Get answers to as many questions as you have. The career choices should be decided very carefully.