myUface Blog

Got some great questions for the mailbag today, folks.  Let’s get right to them:

I want to study in the U.S. but I have heard it’s too expensive.

Universities in the U.S. charge very high tuition, but there are programs that offer scholarships or that have very reasonable prices. For example, many students begin their academic life in the states at community colleges, and then transfer to a traditional four year university after two years. This saves money.

Do I have to be rich to go to university in the U.S.?

No. Although it will probably take a significant amount of money to study in the U.S., you can find ways of helping pay for your education, such as scholarships. myUface.com doesn’t offer scholarships, but many of our university partners do.

Is getting into a U.S. university difficult?

No. Absolutely not. Studying at a U.S. university is just as simple as studying at a university in any other country. Anyone who tells you differently has an agenda.

We admit, it can seem that getting into a U.S. university is an impossible task. But that’s why myUface.com exists – to show you that, in reality, your dream of studying in the U.S. is completely realistic.

I’ve heard of Harvard, Yale, and a few other U.S. universities. What are the other ones like?

One of the great strengths of the U.S. university system is the sheer number of U.S. universities that exist. Many people have heard of Harvard, but few know that Harvard isn’t even considered a very good school in a number of important fields. Another thing to remember is that in the U.S. educational system a lot of learning happens outside of the classroom. The community in which your university is located is just as important as the university itself. Every university has strengths and weaknesses and what is a good fit for one person will not be a good fit for another. Therefore, don’t concentrate only on the “famous” universities. Use tools such as myUface.com to understand the full breadth of the U.S. university system.

And don’t worry. There’s an institution out there that is perfect for you!

E-mail your questions to blog@myuface.com.

Many U.S. universities have put a large number of their classes on iTunes.  This allows you to listen to actual lectures by actual U.S. professors, on subjects ranging from physics to the historicity of religious figures.  This service is called “iTunes U,” and it is a potentially great resource for international students, for a few reasons:

1. You can use iTunes U to get a sense of what classes are like at U.S. universities.
2. iTunes U has hundreds of universities participating.  There’s a good chance one of the universities you’re interested in has an iTunes U page, allowing you to listen to actual classes at your prospective university.
3. iTunes U will show you how differences in the reputation of schools don’t necessarily translate into differences in academic quality.  Some of the lectures you’ll listen to from so-called “second-tier” schools will far exceed, in the quality of instruction, lectures from so-called “elite” schools.
4. The lectures themselves are incredibly interesting and educational.

To use iTunes U you’ll need to download iTunes itself.

Happy listening!

Other Posts in this Series

1. Conclusion - How to Choose a U.S. University - 02 Jun
2. Activities Around a University Campus - 01 Jun
3. Check Out U.S. Universities on iTunes U (This post)
4. Extracurricular Activities - 25 May
5. Get to Know Your Potential Professors - 21 May
6. Don't Forget Your Life! - 20 May
7. What Do You Want to See in the U.S.? - 19 May
8. How Many International Students go to your Chosen University? - 18 May
9. The Problem with University Rankings - 17 May
10. Using Facebook to Research Universities - 14 May
11. Look at the Surrounding Neighborhoods When Looking at a U.S. University - 13 May
12. How Weather Should Factor Into Your Search for a U.S. University - 12 May
13. Looking for a University in the United States: Cost of Living - 11 May
14. Looking for a University in the United States - 10 May

Students at U.S. universities usually involve themselves in the extracurricular activities offered at those particular universities.  Eracurricular activities are clubs, sports, and other student groups organized outside of (extra) the normal academic program (curricula).

This article gives a good overview of the value  U.S. universities place on extracurricular activities:

As the development of the well-rounded individual is a principal goal of extracurricular activities on college and university campuses, the numerous experiences these activities afford positively impact students’ emotional, intellectual, social, and inter-personal development. By working together with other individuals, students learn to negotiate, communicate, manage conflict, and lead others. Taking part in these out-of-the-classroom activities helps students to understand the importance of critical thinking skills, time management, and academic and intellectual competence. Involvement in activities helps students mature socially by providing a setting for student interaction, relationship formation, and discussion. Working outside of the classroom with diverse groups of individuals allows for students to gain more self-confidence, autonomy, and appreciation for others’ differences and similarities.

The article goes on to identify the main kinds of extracurricular activities available at universities in the United States, and they are:  athletics (i.e. the basketball team), academic and social organizations (i.e. the philosophy club), volunteer activities (i.e. cleaning up local parks once a month, or tutoring local schoolchildren), multicultural activities (i.e. French club), The Arts (i.e. the student orchestra, choir, ballet, theatre group, etc.), and student government. There are also many other extracurricular activites available at U.S. universities that don’t fit cleanly into any of these categories (for example, Debate Club – is it a sport?  A professional organization?).

The point is, no matter what sport you play or hobby you enjoy, there’s going to be a club or group in which you can participate.  You’d be surprised by the diversity of these organizations.  For example, if you like unicycling, you might consider going to Harvey Mudd, where they have a very-well organized unicycling club.  Seriously, if you look hard enough, you can find a club for anything.

Most activities offer different levels of involvement.  For example, if you’re really serious about basketball, you can consider playing on the official university team . . . or you could play in a basketball club for students who like basketball, but don’t want to devote all their time to it.

So, why is this important to think about when looking for a university?  Well, extracurricular activities are a big part of college life in the U.S., so you want to make sure that you choose a university that has some activities you’d enjoy.  Most big universities will have every kind of club, but some of the smaller universities may not offer every kind of activity.  For example, although most U.S. universities will have a basketball team, many will not have fencing teams (although many will).  If you’re passionate about a particular activity, make sure your university offers that activity.  You can do this by either:

• looking on the university’s web page, usually under a link called “Student Life” or “Campus Life.”  Here’s the example from Harvey Mudd, home of the unicyclists.
• asking someone in the admissions department

The bottom line is, don’t ignore your non-academic hobbies and interests.  Research what universities have to offer, and make sure you make extracurricular activities part of your decision-making process in choosing a U.S. university.

For your consideration: What sports or hobbies are you interested in?  Do universities in the U.S. generally offer such activities?  If not, can you find a U.S. university that does?

Other Posts in this Series

1. Conclusion - How to Choose a U.S. University - 02 Jun
2. Activities Around a University Campus - 01 Jun
3. Check Out U.S. Universities on iTunes U - 26 May
4. Extracurricular Activities (This post)
5. Get to Know Your Potential Professors - 21 May
6. Don't Forget Your Life! - 20 May
7. What Do You Want to See in the U.S.? - 19 May
8. How Many International Students go to your Chosen University? - 18 May
9. The Problem with University Rankings - 17 May
10. Using Facebook to Research Universities - 14 May
11. Look at the Surrounding Neighborhoods When Looking at a U.S. University - 13 May
12. How Weather Should Factor Into Your Search for a U.S. University - 12 May
13. Looking for a University in the United States: Cost of Living - 11 May
14. Looking for a University in the United States - 10 May

Students who are applying to either the Bolashak Fellowship in Kazakhstan or the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program – or to any sponsored fellowship or scholarship – should check out how myUface can help.

For one thing, a lot of the advice you’ll find on this blog will DEFINITELY make you more competitive when applying for the Bolashak, Global Undergaduate, or other sponsored programs.  For example, our timeline for applying to a U.S. university is a good resource whether you’re applying independently or through a program.  Having trouble staying focused and getting all your materials together?  We have collected some online resources to keep you from procrastinating.

Later this year we’ll be talking about completing applications, writing essays, preparing for tests, and doing well in interviews – all of which are very important to putting together a good application for any sponsored program.

So please, visit often. And do not hesitate to ask questions by commenting on the blog or e-mailing us at blog@myuface.com.

In this week’s podcast we are coming to you from Tirana, Albania.  We use the opportunity to discuss the views of Albanian students on the issue of whether to study at home or abroad.  Hope you enjoy it!

As always, send us your questions at podcast@myuface.com.

Other Podcasts

1. Podcast: Asking Questions - 18 Jul
2. Podcast: Give Yourself Time To Complete Your Application - 13 Jun
3. Podcast: What to Do if your Application is not Accepted - 06 Jun
4. Podcast - The View from Albania (This post)
5. Podcast: University Rankings - 16 May
6. Podcast: Timeline for Applying to a U.S. University - 09 May
7. The Inaugural myUface Podcast - 02 May

In last week’s mailbag, I answered some of the most common questions about myuface.com.  As soon as I had finished that post, though, I started thinking about three other questions I had forgotten to answer, but which we hear quite often.  So I want to finish them off today:

If myUface.com’s basic services are free to use, how does it make money?

Good question. There are a few answers:

First, myUface.com charges a university a fee whenever a student from myUface.com is placed at their university. Through collecting fees from universities, we can offer our basic suite of services to students at no charge.

Second, myUface.com receives a small amount of advertising revenue.

Third, myUface.com does charge students for a few optional services.

Finally – and most importantly – the reason we founded myUface.com is not to make money. Of course we’d like the site to succeed financially, but more than anything else we’d like to see more international students in the U.S.

Who is in charge of myUface?

myUface is owned and operated by three Americans who together have 27 years of experience in the field of international education, and who have spent a combined 19 years living abroad. We decided to start my Uface because we got tired of seeing bright, talented students who dreamed of studying in the U.S. go to universities in the U.K. or Australia simply because the system of college admissions in the U.S. was so difficult to understand.

We want to help as many students as possible gain access to the world’s best education. That’s why we created myUface.com.

Does myUface.com offer scholarships?

No. But some of our university partners may offer scholarships to outstanding international students. In addition, at the myUface.com blog we will give some advice about international financial aid opportunities.

Other questions?  Mail them to blog@myuface.com.

The most important people in terms of your university education in the U.S. are going to be your professors  – the men and women who will guide your academic program.  Yet, when it comes time to research possible universities, most international students spend absolutely no time researching the professors at the departments in which they’re interested.

Now, there are some good reasons for this.  Researching individual faculty members is difficult, a lot harder than researching an institution as a whole.  And of course there’s no guarantee that you’ll take classes from a particular professor.  But if you’re seriously considering a particular university – or, better yet, a department within that university – it’s not a bad idea to look into their faculty, particularly if the department is fairly small.  At the very least, doing so will give you an idea of the kind of topics you might learn at that university and in that department.

So, here’s how you can do some basic research about the faculty at a particular university.  I’m going to use my own alma mater – Pomona College – as an example.

1. Go the main web site.
2. Find the page that deals with individual departments, often called “majors.”  It will often be under the heading, “Academics.”
3. Click on the major or department that you’re interested in researching.  Generally speaking, this will give you a link to more information about the major.  In my case, I’m going to choose my old department, English, and I am sent to the department’s own web page.
4. Look for a list of courses in order to see the subjects taught at the department.  Also look for a list of faculty to see the names of the professors.  Often the faculty list will include information about each professor’s interests.
5. At this point, you’ll already have access to a lot of information about the department in which you’re interested.  You’ll know what courses are offered and a little about the professors in the department.  If you want more, though, try Googling the name of a faculty member.  For example, if I Google a particular professor (one of my favorites from my own college days), I find a link to an article he wrote for the LA Times. Reading it gives me some insight into his interests, his style of writing and thinking, and his opinons.  For really advanced research, you might even go to Google Scholar and type in a professor’s name.  This will show you  publications a particular professor has written, and sometimes provide free links to those resources.
6. Finally, you can find out what students think of a professor at ratemyprofessor.com.

The bottom line is that, in this day and age, you don’t have to settle for only the most basic information about a university.  You can use the internet to do very detailed research about individual departments and even professors.  Doing so will give you a wonderful insight into the academic life at a U.S. university.

For your consideration: Do you know what subjects you are interested in studying in the U.S.?  Have you looked at the faculty and courses of that deparment at any individual U.S. universities?

Posts in this Series

1. Conclusion - How to Choose a U.S. University - 02 Jun
2. Activities Around a University Campus - 01 Jun
3. Check Out U.S. Universities on iTunes U - 26 May
4. Extracurricular Activities - 25 May
5. Get to Know Your Potential Professors (This post)
6. Don't Forget Your Life! - 20 May
7. What Do You Want to See in the U.S.? - 19 May
8. How Many International Students go to your Chosen University? - 18 May
9. The Problem with University Rankings - 17 May
10. Using Facebook to Research Universities - 14 May
11. Look at the Surrounding Neighborhoods When Looking at a U.S. University - 13 May
12. How Weather Should Factor Into Your Search for a U.S. University - 12 May
13. Looking for a University in the United States: Cost of Living - 11 May
14. Looking for a University in the United States - 10 May

Of course, the most important aspect of your U.S university experience is the academic program . . . but, for many students, a close second is social life. U.S. universities have a well-deserved reputation for fostering a fun and active social life, both on campus and off.  If having fun outside of class is as important to you as learning inside of it, then the quality of a university’s social scene is definitely something you should consider when researching U.S. universities.

Now, I’ll be honest:  I can’t offer much personal advice on this subject, because, well, back in college I wasn’t exactly the coolest student on  campus.   My inability to dance was indeed legendary.  BUT, because this topic is of importance, I’ve fished around on the internet for some resources that might provide you with some good information:

• Forbes magazine, which, as readers of this blog know, has a “Best of” series for pretty much everything, has a “Best Nightlife” feature.  40 cities are ranked according to their suitability for singles, and “nightlife” is one of the criteria.  This will give you a good idea of what cities are considered to have good nightlife, and why.
• The Princeton Review has several rankings that relate to social life, the most notorious of which is their “Best Party School” ranking.  The link I’ve provided shows only the top 20 schools in this prestigious list.  To get more than the top 20, in addition to other data, you’ll need to visit The Princeton Review site, and sign up for a free profile.  The rankings aren’t only about the best party schools.  You can see which universities have the happiest students, the best radio stations, the most beautiful campuses, and more.  This is important because for many students a “good social life” is about a lot more than just parties.  Remember, as you peruse these rankings,  how to use rankings correctly.
• The Students Review site has a “top social schools” ranking that is a little broader than the rankings that focus only on the “best parties.”  What’s more, you can click on individual universities and see actual quotations from students that study there.

Another great resource will be the admissions office of any university in which you’re interested.   Most university websites have resources explaining what social life is like on the campus and in the surrounding area.  If you can’t find this information on the web, feel free to write to someone from the admissions department and ask.

Finally, this is a great area for Facebook research.

Now, one important warning:  remember that in the United States it is illegal to purchase alcohol until you are 21 years of age.  Most clubs and bars will check your identification before they let you in.  Keep that in mind as well as you’re imagining what your social life might be like at a U.S. university.

The bottom line is that your social life will be a very important part of your university experience in the U.S., so don’t forget to spend time researching the different resources universities have to offer.

For your consideration: How do you imagine you will spend your free time in the U.S.? Do all universities have the atmosphere and resources to support the kind of life you’d like to live?

Posts in this Series

1. Conclusion - How to Choose a U.S. University - 02 Jun
2. Activities Around a University Campus - 01 Jun
3. Check Out U.S. Universities on iTunes U - 26 May
4. Extracurricular Activities - 25 May
5. Get to Know Your Potential Professors - 21 May
6. Don't Forget Your Life! (This post)
7. What Do You Want to See in the U.S.? - 19 May
8. How Many International Students go to your Chosen University? - 18 May
9. The Problem with University Rankings - 17 May
10. Using Facebook to Research Universities - 14 May
11. Look at the Surrounding Neighborhoods When Looking at a U.S. University - 13 May
12. How Weather Should Factor Into Your Search for a U.S. University - 12 May
13. Looking for a University in the United States: Cost of Living - 11 May
14. Looking for a University in the United States - 10 May

What do you want to see in the U.S.?  What historic places do you want to visit?   What national parks do you want to experience?  What amusement parks do you want to enjoy?

Do these questions seem irrelevent to your search for a U.S. university?  They’re not.  One of the greatest benefits of studying in the U.S. is the opportunity it will give you to see America’s social, historical and natural places of wonder.

So as you’re researching universities, be sure to ask yourself, “What do I really want to see while I’m in the States?”  If you’re interested in political science, it’d be a shame if you came to the U.S. for four years and never set foot in Washington, D.C.  If you’re interested in film, how could you not visit Hollywood?  All of this is to say nothing of your non-academic interests.  If you ski, visit Colorado,Wyoming or Utah.  Are you a surfer?  California or Hawaii seem appropriate.

You get the idea.

Check out Forbes’ list of the top 25 tourist destinations in the U.S. for a good idea of the most “famous” places.  But don’t stop there.  Visit the state tourist agencies for those states that have universities you’re interested in.  See what you can visit in that state.  For example, if you are looking at a university in Utah, check out the Utah travel site at Utah.com.

Of course, the tourist sites that surround a university shouldn’t be the sole basis of your decision to apply to, or attend, a particular institution.  At the same time, don’t underestimate the extent to which your tourist experiences in the U.S. will impact your overall experience.  Visiting tourist sites is not only a great way to see some beautiful and important places – visiting tourist sites gives you crucial insights into a culture and what it finds important.

For your consideration: Visit the state tourist agencies for every state in which you are researching a university.  What kind of tourist attractions are nearby?  Do they interest you? Why or why not?

Posts in this Series

1. Conclusion - How to Choose a U.S. University - 02 Jun
2. Activities Around a University Campus - 01 Jun
3. Check Out U.S. Universities on iTunes U - 26 May
4. Extracurricular Activities - 25 May
5. Get to Know Your Potential Professors - 21 May
6. Don't Forget Your Life! - 20 May
7. What Do You Want to See in the U.S.? (This post)
8. How Many International Students go to your Chosen University? - 18 May
9. The Problem with University Rankings - 17 May
10. Using Facebook to Research Universities - 14 May
11. Look at the Surrounding Neighborhoods When Looking at a U.S. University - 13 May
12. How Weather Should Factor Into Your Search for a U.S. University - 12 May
13. Looking for a University in the United States: Cost of Living - 11 May
14. Looking for a University in the United States - 10 May

One thing you may want to consider when researching potential U.S. universities is how many international students study there.  A university that has a high percentage of international students is going to provide a different experience than a university that has almost no international students.

U.S. News and World Report has a list of the universities with the highest percentage of international students, just to give you an idea of what a “large international student population” means.  Note that the university with the highest percentage of international students still has 78% American students.

Many universities you’re researching won’t be on this list.  Finding out the percentage of international students that study there should nonetheless be easy.  Many university websites will have that information, or you can write to the admissions office.

Now, the important question is, do you want to go to a university with a high or low percentage of international students?  There are benefits to both approaches.

Typical benefits of going to a university with a high percentage of international students:

• students, professors and administrators will be familiar with international students and more sympathetic to problems you might have
• there will typically be an international student office to help you with issues specific to international students
• there will usually be an international student community which can provide you with a good social network and support system

Typical benefits of going to a university with a low percentage of international students:

• because there won’t be a large group of international students to spend time with, you’ll be “forced” to develop more friendships with American students
• you’ll be treated exactly like all the other students
• because you’ll be one of a few international students, American students may be more interested in your country and your story

For your consideration: would you like to go to a university with a high or low percentage of international students?  Why?

Posts in this Series

1. Conclusion - How to Choose a U.S. University - 02 Jun
2. Activities Around a University Campus - 01 Jun
3. Check Out U.S. Universities on iTunes U - 26 May
4. Extracurricular Activities - 25 May
5. Get to Know Your Potential Professors - 21 May
6. Don't Forget Your Life! - 20 May
7. What Do You Want to See in the U.S.? - 19 May
8. How Many International Students go to your Chosen University? (This post)
9. The Problem with University Rankings - 17 May
10. Using Facebook to Research Universities - 14 May
11. Look at the Surrounding Neighborhoods When Looking at a U.S. University - 13 May
12. How Weather Should Factor Into Your Search for a U.S. University - 12 May
13. Looking for a University in the United States: Cost of Living - 11 May
14. Looking for a University in the United States - 10 May