From a 9–5 in India to an MS in the US: Why I'm Moving to Buffalo

In exactly two weeks, I'll be leaving India to start an MS in Computer Science at the University at Buffalo.

For most of the last year, this plan existed as GRE preparation, university spreadsheets, SOP drafts, recommendation letters, application portals, bank statements and visa-slot trackers. Now my visa is approved, my flight is booked for July 29, I have a house waiting for me in Buffalo, and my room is slowly filling up with things that somehow need to fit into two suitcases.

The decision itself started much earlier.

The layoffs that made me rethink my plans

In early 2023, layoffs started happening at my company, LitmusBlox. Some senior employees were let go, and seeing people with considerably more experience than me lose their jobs forced me to think seriously about my own career.

I saw two realistic options. I could start preparing for another software engineering job, which meant getting back into DSA, interviews and everything that comes with a job switch. Or I could use this point in my career to pursue something I had considered before: a master's degree abroad.

Graduate school wasn't the obvious choice for me. Since my undergraduate years, I had wanted to start working as soon as possible. I enjoy building things, solving practical problems and seeing a visible result much more than spending months studying theory. Going from earning a salary and working on actual products back to assignments and exams felt like a step backwards in some ways.

At the same time, I wasn't completely satisfied with how I had approached my undergraduate degree. I had often been more focused on getting a good GPA than on understanding every subject deeply. After working professionally for a couple of years, I also had a better idea of why some of those fundamentals mattered.

A master's gave me a chance to revisit computer science with a different perspective.

There were practical motivations as well. I wanted international exposure, the experience of living independently, and the chance to meet people from backgrounds very different from mine. I also wanted to work in the US for a few years after graduating. The software industry there, the earning potential and having a degree from a good US university all played a role.

My parents naturally preferred having me closer to home, but they were supportive. The harder person to convince was probably myself.

GRE prep after work

I started preparing for the GRE in May 2023 while continuing my job at LitmusBlox. My workday was roughly 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM in a hybrid setup, so most weekdays followed the same basic pattern: work, dinner and a short break, followed by GRE preparation from around 9 to 11 PM.

Some evenings went according to plan. Others definitely didn't.

There were days when I would sit down after work, open a practice set and realize within a few minutes that I was struggling to keep my eyes open. On particularly tiring weeks, I sometimes stopped studying entirely for two or three days before getting back into the routine. Gym sessions became less frequent, and weekends that would normally have been free started disappearing into preparation.

I mostly self-studied using Manhattan Prep, Magoosh, ETS material and videos from The Tested Tutor. Quant came more naturally to me.

GRE Verbal did not.

Coming from an ICSE/ISC background, I thought I was reasonably comfortable with English, but GRE vocabulary was a different level. I spent a lot of time going through Magoosh and other online flashcards while trying to improve my verbal score.

Across five mock tests, I scored 304, 311, 305, 298 and 311. My target for the actual test was 315+.

I scored 307.

I wasn't happy with it. Looking back, one weakness in my preparation was that my plan was probably too flexible. Since I had designed the schedule myself, I could also change it whenever work became tiring or I simply didn't feel like studying. That helped me survive nine months of preparation alongside a job, but I probably would have benefited from more structure.

I took the TOEFL around October 2023 as well. After months of GRE preparation, it felt considerably easier. I prepared for around two weeks and scored 102.

The thing I remember most clearly about TOEFL was actually the test centre. During my listening section, people around me had already reached their speaking sections and were answering into their microphones. Trying to follow one voice through your headphones while several people are speaking around you is a surprisingly effective concentration test.

I was also struck by how many people were there taking the GRE and TOEFL. Until then, studying abroad had mostly existed as my own private plan. Sitting in a room full of people trying to do something similar made the competition feel much more real.

Turning the application process into a spreadsheet

Once the exams were mostly done, university shortlisting became the next project.

I researched somewhere around 20 universities and, naturally, eventually reduced one of the biggest decisions of my life to an Excel spreadsheet.

I compared CS rankings, tuition, expected living expenses, location, credits, admission difficulty and job opportunities. I used Admissions.fyi, Yocket, Reddit, university websites and conversations with friends, and I managed the entire application process myself rather than going through a consultant.

In the end, I applied to five universities: Arizona State University, University at Buffalo, Clemson University, University of Houston and University of North Texas.

Cost influenced the list more than I originally expected. There were universities I liked, including NC State and some California options, but once I calculated tuition and living expenses, the total cost became difficult to justify. Rankings mattered, but I didn't want to spend substantially more money just to move a few places higher on a list.

The application process also involved plenty of less glamorous work.

I went through around four or five drafts of my Statement of Purpose. The experiences and ideas were mine, while I used ChatGPT to help refine grammar, flow and sentence structure, and then asked family and close friends to review it. The hardest part was starting without sounding like every other person writing about a “passion for technology.”

My professional experience ended up becoming an important part of the story. At LitmusBlox, I had moved from university projects to software where maintainability, performance and reliability mattered because real people were using what we built. That experience had made me more interested in understanding what sat underneath the tools and frameworks I was already using.

Letters of Recommendation were more awkward.

I needed three and approached a mix of professors and managers. By then, it had been roughly two and a half years since I had properly interacted with some of my professors. Sending a WhatsApp message after years of silence and immediately asking for a recommendation letter isn't a particularly comfortable way to restart a conversation.

Some responded quickly. Others required reminders as application deadlines got closer. A few times I had to call because messages had gone unanswered. I also ended up visiting college twice to get signatures. Some recommenders asked me to prepare a rough draft or send points about my work before they made their changes.

By the time the exams, applications and transcript work were done, I had already spent around ₹1,03,000, and that was before the visa process had even started.

Rejections first, then Buffalo

My first application results were rejections.

Even if you know a university is competitive, opening a rejection email after months of preparation is disappointing. For a while, I still wasn't sure whether all of this preparation was actually going to lead anywhere.

Then, in February 2024, I received my first admit.

University at Buffalo.

That was the first time the plan felt real.

I later received admits from Clemson and the University of North Texas as well, but my main choice eventually came down to UNT and UB. Buffalo had the stronger ranking, good student reviews, a well-regarded CS program and comparatively reasonable living costs. I also spoke with one or two students and alumni through people I knew and asked them about professors, courses and the job market.

UB felt like the best balance between academics, reputation and cost.

The Systems track was another reason it appealed to me. I don't come from an AI/ML background; my professional work has been closer to software engineering, and areas such as databases and networking feel more naturally connected to what I've already worked on. The Systems capstone, which is related to databases, also felt much more familiar than suddenly trying to reposition myself entirely around AI.

By July, I had decided that Systems was the direction I wanted to pursue. I've been looking through courses in algorithms, security, data-intensive computing, networks, operating systems, computer architecture and databases.

I'm slightly nervous about going back to exams after more than two years in industry, so I've been practicing DSA again and working on a personal project before leaving.

Then there is Buffalo itself.

Coming from India, the weather is probably going to be the biggest shock. I had read about the major 2022 Buffalo snowstorm while researching the university, which didn't exactly make the transition sound easier.

Strangely, seeing snowfall for the first time is also one of the things I'm most excited about.

Ask me again after my first winter.

The visa and leaving LitmusBlox

My I-20 arrived on February 22, 2024. After that came proof-of-funds documentation, bank statements and the usual financial paperwork, but the most stressful part of the visa process turned out to be simply getting an appointment.

Suitable slots would disappear for weeks and then suddenly appear without much warning. I installed visa-slot trackers and joined Telegram and Discord groups where people posted availability updates. For a while, checking for appointments became part of my daily routine.

It took me roughly three weeks to finally get one.

My biometrics and interview were about a week apart, which meant making the Pune-to-Mumbai journey twice within the same week. After weeks of checking trackers, organizing documents and reading other people's interview experiences, the actual interview at the US consulate lasted about five minutes.

I was asked whether I had relatives in the US and what I planned to do after graduation. I had read Reddit threads and watched YouTube videos beforehand but didn't rehearse answers with anyone. I felt reasonably confident explaining my own plans.

Still, until the interviewing officer makes the decision, there is always some uncertainty.

My visa was approved on June 3.

At almost the same time, another part of my life was ending.

I had informed LitmusBlox about my plans months earlier when I asked my CTO for an LOR, but leaving at the end of May was still difficult. Many of us had joined the company as freshers, and over time the team had become quite close. I liked the work, the people and the overall environment.

The difficult part was that I wasn't leaving something I disliked. I was leaving a job and team I genuinely enjoyed for something far less certain.

There have definitely been moments when I've wondered whether walking away just as my career was progressing is the right move, particularly with the software job market already being difficult.

I probably won't know the answer for a while.

Preparing to actually move

Once the visa was approved, the questions changed very quickly.

Where am I going to live? Who am I going to live with? What exactly am I supposed to take halfway across the world?

I started searching for housing around the end of May through UB WhatsApp and Facebook groups. Someone in one of the Indian student groups created a Google Form and Excel sheet where incoming students could enter their roommate preferences, likes, dislikes and home states.

It worked surprisingly well.

I eventually found four housemates. None of us knew each other beforehand, and all of us are from different states in India. We finalized a house near UB South Campus for around $1,400 a month, split between the four of us.

There is one minor concern: none of us has actually seen the house.

We've seen the photos online. For now, the four of us are simply trusting that reality looks reasonably similar.

Packing started properly in early July. I have two checked bags, one cabin bag and a Notion page that has gradually turned into a combination of packing checklist, document tracker and “buy after reaching Buffalo” list. University health requirements added another set of tasks, including MMR and TB documentation, finding old vaccination records, and completing dental and eye check-ups before leaving.

None of these things is particularly difficult on its own.

Together, moving countries feels like one very long checklist.

Two weeks to go

The last couple of months haven't only been paperwork and preparation. I've been meeting close friends and relatives before leaving, and my colleagues and I also took a trip to Matheran.

My parents are excited for me, but naturally emotional and a little worried as well.

I understand why. I've never really lived independently before. Most of my life has been spent in a familiar environment: family around me, people I already know, familiar roads, my car and bike, my own room and a steady income.

In Buffalo, even the ordinary things will be new. I'll have to learn to cook properly, manage expenses, live with people I have never met, navigate a new city and return to academics after spending the last couple of years working.

I'm naturally introverted too, so part of this experience for me is seeing whether I can get better at talking to people I don't already know and becoming comfortable outside my usual environment.

As I'm writing this, most of the preparation is finally done. My visa is approved, my job has ended, the house is finalized and my flight is booked for July 29.

In two weeks, I'll leave Pune for Mumbai with two suitcases and a cabin bag. From there, I'll fly through Istanbul and New York before finally reaching Buffalo. It will be my first trip to the US and my first international journey alone.

I'm excited to see Niagara Falls, experience snowfall, meet my classmates and housemates, and find out what everyday life in the US actually feels like.

I don't know how difficult the courses will be, and I definitely don't know how I'll handle a Buffalo winter.

What I do know is that by the time I finish this degree, I want to understand computer science better, become much more independent, meet people I would never have met otherwise, and feel confident that I can manage myself outside the environment I've always known.

Hopefully, I'll also be starting the next phase of my career somewhere in the US.

For now, though, there is a more immediate problem.

I still need to finish packing.