Dear Sarika, The first step while applying for MS in the US is to make a list of universities which offer the candidate's choice of programme. This should be done around the months of May or June of the previous year. Ideally, one should start the process of admission at least 15 months prior to admission. While the US admission cycle has three intakes, Fall, Spring and Summer. a majority of the programmes start in Fall i.e., around September. Once the candidate has made a list of the colleges of his choice, the next step should be to check the deadlines of the specific courses the candidate is applying for. Usually, universities in the US do not have a common deadline for all courses. Therefore, it is necessary to check the individual departments of the universities to know the opening and closing dates for applications to MS in the US. Usually, applications for Fall start around September and close between December-January, though some universities accept applications till February. Also, the flexibility offered by the USA allows the student to apply for the course through three plans - Early admission plan, Regular admission and Rolling admission. Regular admission plan follows the same procedure of setting deadlines for admission by universities every year. On the other hand, early admission allows an aspirant to apply and fix admission before the start of the Regular admission. Rolling admission has the advantage of making application to the university of one's choice anytime of the year, provided there are vacant seats. Before going ahead with the application process, it is important to check the eligibility requirements for the MS course in the US. While different courses have different sets of requirements, here are some of the general eligibility criteria required for the programme. The first thing to keep in mind before opting for an MS is that a majority of the universities in the USA require the student to have a minimum of 16 years of education. Therefore, the completion of at least 4 years of education (graduation or diploma) after 10+2 is the basic criteria. However, some schools in the USA also accept 3-year undergraduate degrees. Admission for MS in the US universities requires the aspirant to take certain standardized entry level tests. Some of them are GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, IELTS, MCAT and LSAT, among others.