[vijaygj]

How about networking? e.g. meetup.com. I found very good speakers giving talks in my area of interest.

About soft skills, I felt considerable writing efforts are required here as part of the normal master's degree. I am doing my master's degree in CS here. Even if I am writing a simple report on some project I spend extra hours to think from the reader's perspective. That builds up writing skills. You get constructive feedback if you present something. That builds up the presentation skills. May be this is a personal experience.

I also felt that you start appreciating positive things about your country more but this experience may not be specific to US.