“Go skiing in the morning and scuba diving in the evening... Be sure to pack your fancy clothes for the parties!”

If you thought this was a marketing spiel for a luxe vacation spot, you couldn’t be further from the truth. On a recent sunny February afternoon, this was Sudha Kumar, a recruitment coordinator in India for the University of Southern California (USC), as she spoke to a conference room packed with engineering students at Bangalore’s leading PES Institute of Technology, selling the charms of the top-ranking school in downtown Los Angeles. Although more Indian students go to USC than any other college in the United States, with most of the world in an economic slump, the affable Kumar has her work cut out for her.

For years, the United States has been the primary destination of study for Indian students, with close to 100,000 headed there last year. Many middle-class Indians dream of getting an American degree followed by a job in the United States, a dream that has led to what has been termed, “brain gain” in the United States and “brain drain” in India.

But, as the deadline for this year’s fall admissions approaches, things look uncertain for thousands of bright Indian students coveting a U.S. engineering degree or an M.B.A.

The brutal U.S. job market, the rising cost of education paired with the declining rupee, and the dearth of universities and banks offering loans for financial aid, are all reasons that many Indian graduates, including those from PESIT, have decided to skip the visa lines at the American embassy this year.

That particular afternoon, though, students hung on to every word as Kumar got them acquainted with American university culture. “Just because your professor insists you call him Bob doesn’t mean he will cut you slack on your homework submission,” warned Kumar.

“Bring lots of underwear,” she advised, “the schedule is so demanding that you may not have time to do laundry.” Then she added on lighter note, “You may feel at home because Los Angeles, like Bangalore, has its share of traffic problems.”

While interest levels appeared high during Kumar’s hour-long talk, the students’ questions at the end of the session were revealing.

Did USC offer scholarships, one student wanted to know. None for the master’s programs, Kumar answered. Were the fees affordable, another asked. USC is an expensive school, Kumar admitted. How would the recession affect the job market, queried a third. The market for USC graduates was still looking good, Kumar said.

The session did nothing to ease the anxieties of 21-year old Mayank Goyal. He worried about getting a bank loan to study in the United States, and about not landing a job immediately after getting a master’s degree.

“I cannot get my father to finance me in this uncertainty,” said Goyal, who has another year to go before he finishes his telecommunications engineering degree. His father runs a dry fruits business.

The anxiety is pervasive. Siddhanth Dhodhi, 21, also from the same college, has applied for admission to USC as well as 11 other North American colleges. His father, a senior manager with Toyota Motor in Dubai, has promised him full financial backing.

Dhodhi has just received an admissions letter from Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y. A master’s degree in engineering there will take over a year and cost $53,000. This is where Dhodhi finds himself faltering. “What is the guarantee that the recession will be over by the time I finish? Is it worth the risk?” he asks.

His batchmate Kiran Sajjanshetty, 21, a university topper with a GRE score of 1,400 (which all but assures her admission into the best U.S. schools), has applied to five top-tier American universities.

Her dream college, Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, P.A., has offered her a seat but no funding. She has two more months to cough up the requisite $60,000 to cover her tuition and expenses. Her parents cannot afford it, Sajjanshetty said. And unless she shows the entire sum in her bank account, she will not get a U.S. visa.

Many of Sajjanshetty’s friends have stopped applying for overseas admissions altogether. Those who have completed their overseas degrees – like a senior who has just finished her master’s program at the University of Manchester – are returning home because they couldn’t find work.

Stories like these have unnerved this year’s aspirants. “Everybody is rattled,” said Sajjanshetty. “They are modifying their plans.”

Those who have jobs on hand are hesitating to leap into the uncertain world of studying overseas, said Sandesh Jayant, a computer science professor at PESIT’s sister college.

Sajjanshetty is confident that the economic downturn will not affect her future: she wants to get into research in robotics and artificial intelligence in the United States and feels that the vagaries of the recessionary job market will have no impact in this field.

But she is preparing for the worst. She has written to Carnegie Mellon asking them to defer her admission until next year. If none of the other colleges grant her financial assistance, she plans to do research for a year at her college before trying her luck again.

USC coordinator Kumar, meanwhile, reported that USC’s fall admissions numbers were up substantially, compared with last year. That’s not surprising, because U.S. college enrollment has been known to spike during recessionary years.

However, she suspects that many students like Dhodhi and Sajjanshetty will keep their options open until the very last day. “What will finally count is the conversion from application to admission,” says Kumar.