What is it really like to study at Stevens Institute of Technology as an international student?

The very first thing Suchi mentioned — before academics, before cost of living, before anything else — was the view. Stevens sits right on the Hoboken waterfront, and the Manhattan skyline is directly across the Hudson River. It sounds like a small detail, but when you are grinding through a demanding graduate program, having that kind of view outside your classroom window genuinely changes the atmosphere of studying. It is one of those things you cannot fully appreciate until you are actually there.

What it is like to navigate New York and New Jersey as an international student — especially on your own

A huge part of what many of you ask me about — and what came up directly in this conversation — is what it is like to do all of this independently. Moving to a new country for graduate school, finding housing, getting around the city, building a social life: it is a lot to manage alongside a rigorous academic program. The honest answer, based on what Suchi shared, is that it is absolutely doable, but it helps enormously to hear from someone who has already lived it before you arrive. That is exactly the kind of candid, ground-level perspective I wanted to capture here.