Each semester, I help with the MSU orientation for international graduate students.
Check Graduate-Student-Advice for the material that I created. For example:
In the US, quite often, professors will give students some choices about the topic for the class projects. For example, you might be required to write a paper about the financial situations of a business, but you get to choose which business to feature. Or you must do a literature review, but you get to choose the topic. My recommendation is that (whenever you have a choice) you always select projects or topics that will relate to your capstone project (thesis, creative project, alternative paper, etc). This is efficient and useful for your work. These projects can help you narrow your capstone focus or even to change your focus when it is not the final capstone topic. A topic related to your home country will be useful. Comparison studies (your country and US or another) are also useful. I recommend using data that already exists somewhere else, so you save time and money. Your thesis should be a new analysis or new way of thinking about the existing data.
