Beyond Boundaries

My son is in the first year of computer engineering and aspires to join a reputed university in US/UK/Canada for further study. What are the different options?
—Viren Soni
There are several highly reputed computer engineering graduate programmes in the US; the best universities include Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, and University of Washington, Seattle – the list is extensive. In Canada, the top colleges are University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, University of British Columbia, and McGill. There are several universities in the UK that offer computer science degree. The application criteria for admissions will typically be college marks, GRE score, work and research experience, essays and recommendations. It is essential to match your university list with your academic profile through extensive research to ensure that you get into the best programme you can.

My daughter is in class X. She wants to pursue forensic psychology from John Jay College in New York. Please let me know about the college and if there are any other good colleges/universities besides this, not necessarily in USA.
—Saumil Desai
John Jay College offers a good course structure for forensic psychology. The course is highly competitive.  Alliant International University - California School of Forensic Studies and the American School of Professional Psychology are good colleges in USA. Their focus is more on clinical forensic psychology. Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology also offers a psychology degree with a forensic psychology concentration. In the UK, the University of Portsmouth and the London Metropolitan University are well known for their forensic psychology courses.

My daughter is in class VIII.  Is it possible for her to pursue studies abroad in the engineering field directly after class X especially in Singapore and Canada? What are the requirements in terms of entrance tests and eligibility in these countries?
—Savitri Raman
Almost all universities in Canada, the US and Singapore require students to complete 10+2 to be eligible, so your daughter would have to apply while in her class XII. Some engineering programmes in Canada require math, physics and chemistry in class XII. For admissions to the US and Singapore (NTU), a standardised test called the SAT and the NTU entrance respectively are required- which can be taken in Mumbai itself. If your daughter would like to go to Singapore or Canada post grade X, she would be eligible to apply to boarding schools as a high school student.