Vanderbilt University, Nashville (The Commodores)

Contrary to popular opinion amongst Indian students, this university is actually well respected in the US. The latest USNEWS rankings places Vandy real high, just check it out. The CS dept is part of the electrical engineering and computer science department (EECS). They do decent research in AI, Robotics and Graphics. In terms of cost of attendance this university is sky high; and how else do you expect a university founded by the Vanderbilt family (One of the richest families in America) to be. All of the admits however are accompanied with some financial assistance. They have small student groups and in general the quality of education seems to be good. Here’s the most compelling reason so far to app to this university – bingo! You got it – it’s absolutely free to app online. The best part is you don’t even have to spend a single buck of your daddy’s paisa to officially forward your GRE and TOEFL scores; photocopies will do. The consequence of this is that in recent years the university has seen an exponential increase in the number of applicants and they are pushed to turn away even some really qualified applicants (like yours truly for example… ok ok. I’ll cut the, ahem, boasting part). Overall, I would say it is definitely one place you can app to just for the heck of it and if you do get thro with some financial assistance, you can consider moving to Nashville, Tennessee for the next few years.