March 11
This past month we’ve had some pretty incredible developments at myUface. We have had several universities contact students, asking them to apply to their programs. We are really close to finalizing our first placements.
But the best is yet to come. Soon, universities will look at their incoming classes and count how many spots they need to fill with additional international students. At that point, they’ll become even more interested in students who filled out myUface applications.
So, if you haven’t finished your application, do so now. Remember, that means completing the application AND uploading essays, resumes / CVs, and recommendations. That means letting us know about any standardized test scores. That means, in short, making sure your application is as good as you can possibly make it.
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Tags: Completing your myUface application, universities are looking for international students
Posted in The Application | No Comments »
March 7
Many of our myUface students either have received, or will soon receive, emails directly from US universities. As this happens, we would like to bring to you attention a couple VERY important thoughts.
- Be professional! These universities are interested in learning more about you. Your response to universities will tell them much about you. If you don’t respond in a professional and mature way, then the university will likely not come aware with a positive impression of you.
- Respond! Once you get an email from a university, respond to them! If you don’t, it looks bad both for you and our network. Even if you are not interested, it makes sense for you to talk with the university, learn about them and generate interest in you!
Remember, even if the university that contacts you is not your first choice, it may be a great fit for you. Moreover, if you have a couple universities that you are talking with, you might be able to negotiate a better financial package from one of them!
As always, we’re here to help. If you hear from a university and would like to talk about it, let us know.
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Tags: etiquette with U.S. universities, how to communicate with universities
Posted in Choosing a University, The Application | No Comments »
March 4
We hear it from international students all the time: “I want an MBA, but only from one of the ‘good’ schools – you know, Harvard, Yale, etc.’”
It’s no surprise that students gravitate towards those schools, because they are commonly listed at the top of international rankings. We have an important message to share with you, however: in many cases, the rankings don’t make sense. The rankings are made for the entire student population. But you aren’t the entire student population. You’re you. And for your needs, sometimes a small, unheard of school will actually provide a better education, and usually at a fraction of the cost.
This article in the Financial Post Magazine delves into the issue of rankings in a wonderful way. I encourage all of you to read it! Money quotation:
So while any observers and even some professors are rightfully questioning the value of an MBA from anywhere, a similar question has long been asked of MBA rankings. There’s no doubt they sell magazines and newspapers, and hence, advertising. For proof, just take a look at how fat MBA issues are compared to the ones that sandwich them. That’s certainly value for cash-strapped publishers, but less certain is whether there’s any value for the people who read them.
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Tags: International students in the U.S., MBA rankings, rankings
Posted in Choosing a Program | No Comments »
March 3
As many of our loyal readers know, students on F-1 visas have the option of staying in the U.S. after their program for what is called “Optional Training (OPT).” The idea behind this is to give students a chance to learn from a professional experience in the U.S., that will compliment their academic training.
According to this article, the amount of time allowed for OPT will be extended from 12 months to 29 months for students in the so-called STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics):
“The OPT facility is career-related and gives students the opportunity to gain experience and additional skills related to their area of studies. This flexible option is helping many Indian students, especially from the STEM disciplines, to acquire valuable work experience in the US, related to their area of studies,” James W Herman, minister, counsellor for consular affairs at the US Embassy, told ET.
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Tags: OPT rules, practical training in the U.S.
Posted in Higher Ed. in the U.S., Welcome to the U.S. | No Comments »
February 23
Cheap, effective and credits you can transfer to a 4 year school. What’s not to love?! We just got back from a conference attended by over 300 community colleges and let me tell you, they want international students to apply. What’s great about community colleges is that many of them have agreements with the large state schools to accept on a 1 to 1 basis their credits. Oh, and by the way, those transferred credits will cost you much less than if you were to have received them at the big state school. You can cut thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars off the cost of your education by studying for 2 years at a community college, then transferring to a big state school for the last 2 years. And you get the diploma from the state school!
Here’s another secret about community colleges, many of them offer a 4 year baccalaureate degree. The degrees are generally in areas like nursing, criminal justice or other areas directly related to a trade but if you are interested, let us know. We’ll help you find the right program.
Some examples you might check out include:
- Tompkins Cortland Community College
- Daytona State College
- Madison Area Technical College
- Owens Community College
As always, this is just a sampling of schools. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of similar schools, all over the country. myUface can help you find more, or you can apply directly. Just know that community colleges may be your best and most affordable way to get a very good education in the US.
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Tags: affodable programs in the U.S, community colleges in the U.S., international students and community colleges, transfer credits
Posted in Choosing a Program, Higher Ed. in the U.S. | No Comments »
February 22
For any student interested in study at a U.S. University, it’s a good idea to spend some time reading about ongoing changes in the U.S. higher educational system. The better you can understand the way in which that system is changing, the better you can determine how you’ll fit into it – or even whether you should try to fit into it.
A great example is this article about the University of Iowa. It demonstrates how many public universities in the U.S. are responding to decreased funding, and also how student expectations are changing. These two influences – funding and student expectations – will have a huge impact on the way U.S. universities interact with international students over the next ten years.
The parts I highlighted:
As state funding becomes a smaller portion of UI’s budget and UI tries to become more self-reliant, pulling in more money from tuition has become a target. This has meant raising tuition — which has doubled in 10 years — but also boosting the mix of out-of-state and international students, increasing enrollment and improving retention rates . . .
[S]tudents have a more specific focus than in they have in the past. In 1999, 28 percent of first-year students came in as open majors, but now only 18 percent of students do, he said.
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Tags: career focus, international student recruitment, University of Iowa
Posted in Higher Ed. in the U.S. | No Comments »
February 18
This article at U.S News and World Report isn’t specifically about international students, but it does touch on all the issues that go into financial aid decisions at a U.S. university. Also, it does comment briefly on international students:
The aid policy for international students: A few schools on this list, such as Princeton and Grinnell College in Iowa, commit to meet the financial needs of noncitizens. Many others, such as Northwestern and Adrian, don’t guarantee full aid for international students.
Here is the list of colleges and universities that claim to meet the full needs of students. Unfortunately, it doesn’t specify if they will offer the same to international students.
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Tags: financial aid for international students, which colleges offer financial aid?, which U.S. universities offer scholarships?
Posted in Financial Aid | No Comments »
February 17
Often, international students become fixated on the rankings of universities provided by organizations like U.S. News and World Report.
In the Washington Post there’s a great article about a new way to measure university quality, called the student engagement survey.
Introduced 10 years ago by Indiana University researchers as an antidote to U.S. News, the survey has won buy-in from 1,400 colleges, with about half that number participating each year. Rather than rank colleges on overall quality, it attempts to quantify whether students at a particular school are learning, through a battery of questions: How often do you raise your hand in class? How many 20-page papers have you written? How often do you e-mail a professor? Each college is measured against similar institutions, and over time. But there is no overall ranking.
When you look at a university’s ranking, it’s also a good idea to look at data like that provided by such surveys, to get a fuller picture of the reality behind the ranking.
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Tags: university rankings and international students
Posted in Higher Ed. in the U.S. | No Comments »
February 16
Readers of this blog can now get a look at a number of various online resources by going to our new page, entitled ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
http://www.myuface.com/blog/additional-resources/
Here we’ll place websites, programs, etc. that we think you’ll find useful. To start with we’ve got about ten links, but this number will grow over time.
Hope you find it useful!
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Tags: resources for international students, scholarship information for international students, useful websites for international students
Posted in The Rest of It | No Comments »
February 16
For all those that want to keep up with myUface and with international student news generally, we are happy to report that we have started a Twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/gettingYOUintoU
We’ll use it to share news about our own efforts to connect students and universities, and about intl. student news in general. See you there!
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Tags: myUface and twitter
Posted in myUface | No Comments »
