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.
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