Types of Financial Aid Available in US Universities

The high cost of education in the US is a cause for concern for many students in India. Expenditure on education alone can range from $15000 to $50000 per year, apart from expenses on books and food, housing, health insurance, transportation and so on. What is more, graduate schools in US offer financial assistance to international students purely on the basis of merit, and rarely on the basis of need. The amount and type of assistance offered depends on the university, department and level of study.

Financial aid is more readily available in the fields of engineering, physical sciences and biological sciences rather than in humanities, social sciences, business and management, law, arts and communication. The possibility of assistance is also greater at the doctoral level than at the master’s level. The different types of financial aid available in US universities are:

1. Tuition Waiver: This means that students do not have to pay the tuition fee at the university. However, general fees related to the use of university facilities like the library, computers, sports and health services have to be borne by the student. A tuition waiver is usually awarded in conjunction with a scholarship or teaching/research assistantship.

2. Scholarship/Fellowship: A scholarship is awarded on the basis of academic merit and performance of students, so only outstanding students may be considered for such award before enrolling into an university. A full scholarship ensures that the entire living expense of students is paid for, while in partial scholarship they’d have to fund their education partly.

USEFI oversees US Government scholarships, the Institute of International Education (IIE) scholarships and East-West Center scholarships. These three scholarships are awarded under two categories – (i) pre-doctoral and (ii) post-doctoral. It’s available to those Indian candidates who are studying in the fields of humanities, social sciences and pure sciences. Applications in the field of applied sciences, technology or medicine cannot be accepted.

The East-West Center scholarships are offered for per-doctoral studies at the University of Hawaii to those candidates who have two years of work experience and a high second class in their Bachelor’s as well as their Master’s degree. Announcements regarding these scholarships are made by USEFI, usually in the month of July.

3. Assistantship: Most graduate students receive financial aid in the form of assistantship, which is a cash stipend (sufficient for their expenses) in return for which they have to work a maximum of 20 hours a week. The work generally consists of teaching or research. Often teaching or research abilities must be proved before assistantships are granted, hence it may be granted to foreign students only after one semester or year. They may also be asked to give the Test of Spoken English (TSE).

Writing Case Studies and Analysis for Businesses and Companies

Case studies are very important research tools in the field of commerce. The data from particular cases can be used to generate theories and extract principles which, in turn, can be used for effective business planning. If you are writing one, you must be very familiar with your subject and you must have multiple data sources.

Researchers in business usually focus on one company. The company profile will be tackled and, later on, all the factors that are related with the company’s performance. As a researcher, it is a requirement to research on the history of the company being presented. Know its growth history, crises it has faced and other critical points.

A cause-and-effect analysis will greatly help. If the company has strong exports, what could be the possible reasons? Does it have strong marketing or external relations? You can also explore the strong and weak points of the business. What are the rooms for improvement? For example, there might be good products but weak advertising.

Data gathering forms the bulk of the process. You also need to know about the external factors such as competition, economic situation of the business’ location and the demographics of the market. Personal interviews and surveys for customers or clients is the best way to generate first-hand data. Nowadays, the internet and social networking sites can help a lot in data collection.

Finally, you should make a written report of your study. Manuscripts are important aspects of case studies because it will contain the analyses of your findings. Don’t forget to include the significance of the study and recommendations for future researches. You will also use the manuscript in presenting your findings to your colleagues.

Case Study Examples in Business and the Sciences

Writing case studies is an important aspect of research in the social sciences. A case study can be exploratory or descriptive, where it simply describes or narrates information on a particular person, thing or phenomenon. It can also be a thesis, where the researcher has problems, hypotheses and tests to accept or reject the hypotheses. To give you an idea in writing one, here are case study examples in the fields of business, physical and social sciences.

In case study examples about business, the usual approach is to discuss about a particular company. When you discuss about a bakery, talk about the factors that influence its income and expenditures. Where is the business establishment located? Who are the regular customers and what are the attractive features of the bakeshop? You can use statistical tools like Microsoft Excel to find correlation between these factors.

There are endless combinations of factors in Psychology and Sociology. You can explore how the sex of an individual affects his/her behavior in public places. Do females more frequently use public toilets than males do? The correlations can be proven as causal, non causal, or even not related at all.

Case study examples in medicine are equally interesting. You can focus on a particular cancer patient who has recovered from the illness. What can be discussed here are the special conditions and treatment that led to full recovery. The advantage of a case study is its capability to disprove notions and generalizations. For example, you can disprove that a disease is 100% fatal by finding a case where the patient fully recovered.