71% surge in Indian students enrolled in USA schools…What’s the buzz?

In past two years there has been a huge surge in the number of Indian students enrolled for studies in USA. There were a total of 181,051 Indian students enrolled for higher education in the United States in November 2015, according to data released by the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) under the Department of Homeland Security.

Detailed below are statistics that would put the buzz among Indian students to study in USA in right perspective.

But what has changed in the past couple of years to justify the increase – Job Opportunities. Silicon Valley based companies such as Uber, Purple, Lyft, Airbnb etc. have disrupted the traditional travel and hospitality industry and are now redefining the way it’s run. These tech based firms have opened a plethora of tech and data centric job opportunities for students with STEM degrees. According to the report, the median salary for a Data Scientist is an impressive $116,000 and there are numerous job openings.

On my recent trip to California, I had the opportunity to interact with engineers working in the valley and none had any major complaints about the job situation, a rarely seen scenario. Employment rate and pay packages are at an all time high. Most of these companies in the valley have data intensive operations and they need engineers and data scientists to support their operations now more than ever. Forbes in its article mentioned why data sciences is one of the plum fields to be in for the next few years.

Hence the buzz is here to stay for the foreseeable future and if you are planning to pursue a career in the field of data sciences, then USA is the place to be. A number of degree options such as Masters in Computer Science, Operations Research, Management and Information Systems, Business Analytics, Mathematics and Statistics etc can help you become proficient to work in the field of data sciences. Kindly make sure you select the right program at right university in right location to make the most of your investment.

— Deepak Lotia, Overseas Counselor at KnoWell Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.