myUface Blog

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 myUface 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.

Go BACK to “Questions and Answers.”

Take a moment and read this article about Abilene Christian University and its decision to integrate mobile technology – iPhones and iTouches – into its classrooms.  Fascinating, huh?

A few points:

• this is the kind of innovation that goes on all the time at U.S. universities, and makes them the best in the world
• notice that such innovation doesn’t only happen at the big famous schools everyone has heard of.  How many international students have heard of Abilene Christian University?  If this mobile learning trend succeeds, my guess is this university’s profile is going to go way up.

What do you think?  Can you imagine learning with an iPhone?

A big mistake a lot of students make in writing essays for college applications is that they try to think too much about what their readers want to hear.  Now, I can hear you objecting – “Wait a minute,” you’re saying, “We’ve just spent the last four days imagining what admissions officers like to read.  Now you’re telling me not think about what they want to hear?  That doesn’t make sense!”

Here’s the explanation:  you want to know your audience.  But you don’t want to think only about your audience.

The most important thing about your essay is yourself.

You need to write something about yourself, in a language and a style that your audience appreciates.  The message (you) does not and should not change.  The way you deliver that message can change.

When you write something only because you think the readers of an essay will like it, you’re not going to write something genuine.  And, chances are, you’re going to write something that other students are also going to write (because they too are trying to figure out what the readers want to hear).  So you’ll end up with something flat and unoriginal.  Which is not good.

Posts in this Series

1. Tell Us About Yourself: Final Advice for Essay Writing - 08 Oct
2. Should You Pay To Have Your Essay Edited? - 01 Oct
3. The Greatest Editing Trick For College Application Essays - 29 Sep
4. How To Edit Your Essay - 28 Sep
5. The "What They Want to Hear" Mistake (This post)
6. Know Your Reader, Part Four - 16 Sep
7. Know Your Reader, Part Three - 15 Sep
8. Know Your Reader, Part Two - 14 Sep
9. Know Your Reader, Part One - 13 Sep
10. Listen to an Admissions Officer Discuss Essays - 11 Sep
11. How to Write an Essay for University Applications - 09 Sep

What do you think admissions officer are looking to get from reading your essay?  Why do they insist on an essay as part of the application?  What do they think an essay is going to tell them?

A lot of students view an essay as a kind of test that they must pass.  They think the job of an essay is to impress their reader with wonderful thoughts and beautiful language.  But I would suggest that the readers of your essays don’t see the essay in this way at all.

The readers  look at an essay as a chance to learn something meaningful about a candidate, something that isn’t quantifiable (like test scores, grades, etc.)  They want to learn what it is a candidate says about him or herself, in order to have a more complete picture of who an applicant really is.

If you look at an essay in this way, you realize that the goal is not to provide a certain thought or idea, and it’s also not to write in “beautiful” language.  The goal is much more simple:  to tell the reader something true, interesting and unique about yourself.  Let me write that again in bold letters:

The goal of an essay is to tell the reader something true, interesting and unique about yourself.

Or, if you’re answering an essay with a specific question, the goal is to provide the reader with an answer to the question that reflects something true, interesting and unique about you.

Got it?

There’s no “right” or “wrong” answer to writing an essay, just as there’s no “right” or “wrong” person.  As you move forward in writing your essay, keep this in mind, and try as much as possible to STOP thinking about an essay as if it’s a test.

After all, that’s not how the readers think about it!

Posts in this Series

1. Tell Us About Yourself: Final Advice for Essay Writing - 08 Oct
2. Should You Pay To Have Your Essay Edited? - 01 Oct
3. The Greatest Editing Trick For College Application Essays - 29 Sep
4. How To Edit Your Essay - 28 Sep
5. The "What They Want to Hear" Mistake - 17 Sep
6. Know Your Reader, Part Four (This post)
7. Know Your Reader, Part Three - 15 Sep
8. Know Your Reader, Part Two - 14 Sep
9. Know Your Reader, Part One - 13 Sep
10. Listen to an Admissions Officer Discuss Essays - 11 Sep
11. How to Write an Essay for University Applications - 09 Sep

Let’s continue thinking about the mindset of a “typical” admissions officer reading application essays from international students.  Let’s ask the question, what do they like about their job?

Presumably, they enjoy what they’re doing.  So we might want to ask ourselves, what do they like about it?  If they’re like most people, they probably don’t like filling out reports and doing finances.  They probably like, on the other hand, the chance to meet new students from all over the world.  What do they like about that?

My guess is – and I have to admit, it’s only a guess – that most admissions officers who work with international students like it because it gives them a window into other countries, cultures, and places.  They probably enjoy the things they learn about the world in the course of reading student applications, or in working with students from abroad.  The chance to work with people from many different countries is, after all, something that differentiates their job from many other jobs.

So let’s move forward on the assumption that the readers of your application are generally interested in learning about other countries and cultures.  Why does this matter? Well, you can make sure to highlight the part of your life experience that is particular to your culture.  This doesn’t mean that you entire essay has to be about your home country.  At the same time, you should make sure you provide some information about what’s unique to your environment.  After all, your environment has undoubtedly contributed to who you are as a person, so by talking about what’s unique in culture, you’re also talking – at least to a certain point – about what’s unique in your self.

In short, making a place in your essay to explain some important points about your country or culture can make your essay more interesting to read, and also can provide a window into your own personality.

Posts in this Series

1. Tell Us About Yourself: Final Advice for Essay Writing - 08 Oct
2. Should You Pay To Have Your Essay Edited? - 01 Oct
3. The Greatest Editing Trick For College Application Essays - 29 Sep
4. How To Edit Your Essay - 28 Sep
5. The "What They Want to Hear" Mistake - 17 Sep
6. Know Your Reader, Part Four - 16 Sep
7. Know Your Reader, Part Three (This post)
8. Know Your Reader, Part Two - 14 Sep
9. Know Your Reader, Part One - 13 Sep
10. Listen to an Admissions Officer Discuss Essays - 11 Sep
11. How to Write an Essay for University Applications - 09 Sep

Let’s continue getting to know the reader of our college admissions essay by asking ourselves what else they are reading, besides our essay.

What else are they reading? Generally, they’re reading more essays.  Boring, right?

An admissions staff member will read hundreds, if not thousands, of applications over a few weeks or months. A few things happen when you read so many things that are in the same format:

1. you become very frustrated with the format.
2. the individual essays begin to blend together in your mind, because, generally speaking, they are very similar to one another.
3. you develop automatic ways of evaluating the essays, in order to save time (i.e., good story about leadership here, okay, that’s a plus; poor sense of career goals here, that’s a minus).

Why does this matter? Can you subtly change the format of the essay? Can you depart from the standard, three paragraph format that everyone else uses? Can you say something unique, something different? If you can do these things, then your essay will make the reader wake up and take notice. The reader will think, “Hey, this is different,” and he or she will be pleased that it is different. However, at the same time, the reader will struggle to fit your work into the standard mechanisms he or she has created for evaluating essays. So if you do say something different and unique you have to be certain that it is something positive, or at least something that will be evaluated positively.

There’s a pretty simple way to do this, actually, and we’ll get back to it in a later post in more detail.  But here’s a quick summary:

DON’T think, “What can I say that is really different and unique?”  If you do this, you’ll write something different just to be different, and the result can sometimes be weird.  Example: Most people will write a safe essay that doesn’t really answer the question.  Well I’m not most people.  And I’m not interested in safety . . . A student might write something like this thinking, “Wow, this is going to be great, it’s so different!”  A reader would probably say, “Wow, what is wrong with this student?”

DO think, “What about me is really different and unique?  And how can I write about that in this essay?”  If you focus on your own unique character, personality, etc., then you’ll end up writing something different that is also something true. And THAT is pure, essay-writing GOLD!  Example:  my views of my role as a woman in society were shaped primarily by my mother.  She was the model, traditional housewife.  She always spoke softly and almost never challenged the decisions of my father.  She would tell me often that the best I should hope for in life was to find a good husband who would take care of me and our children.  In high school when I took a class on leadership, I learned that “modern” women were supposed to act differently.  We were supposed to speak up and challenge others.  We should have grand ambitions and should fight, night and day, to achieve them.  I became almost ashamed of my mom.  But as I have grown older and gained more experience, I have come to realize that my mother was, in her own way, a quiet leader.  And although I do have grand ambitions, and I’m not afraid to challenge others, I have also learned more than a few lessons from my mother – things that make my own approach to leadership quite unique.  Let me tell you what those are . . .

Notice how nothing in this short paragraph is incredibly strange.  Many people have “traditional” mothers.  Many people have taken leadership classes.  Many people struggle to find a balance between “traditional” and “modern” values.  So there’s nothing that screams, I AM SOOOOOOO DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE, LOOK AT ME!!!!  At the same time, it’s clear that the writer is unique.

You want to find something in your life, your personality, or your experience that defines who you are, and then you want to relate that in the clearest, simplest way possible.

Posts in this Series

1. Tell Us About Yourself: Final Advice for Essay Writing - 08 Oct
2. Should You Pay To Have Your Essay Edited? - 01 Oct
3. The Greatest Editing Trick For College Application Essays - 29 Sep
4. How To Edit Your Essay - 28 Sep
5. The "What They Want to Hear" Mistake - 17 Sep
6. Know Your Reader, Part Four - 16 Sep
7. Know Your Reader, Part Three - 15 Sep
8. Know Your Reader, Part Two (This post)
9. Know Your Reader, Part One - 13 Sep
10. Listen to an Admissions Officer Discuss Essays - 11 Sep
11. How to Write an Essay for University Applications - 09 Sep

In our last essay-writing post, we heard from an actual admissions officer about good and bad traits of college application essays.  In the next three days, I want to challenge us to spend some more time inside the mind of the people who will be reading your applications.

In general, most of the essay-writing advice on the web is going to focus on you, the writer.  This is important, but we should never forget that what really matters is not how you feel about your essay, but rather what the person reading it feels.  We need to spend more time thinking about our audience.

So what about that reader?  Let’s take some time and think about some key aspects of that reader’s experience of college essays, and see if we can learn anything useful.

Where are people reading your essays? College essays are typically read in an office environment.  There are computers, desks, chairs, phones, etc.  The language of the office is precise, technical, bureaucratic.  Why does this matter? If you write an essay about something outside, something happening in another environment, with language that is active and colorful, you may be able to get your reader to sit up and feel refreshed, or to feel that your essay is something new and different. 

Example: The most challenging moment of my life came on the side of a windy, bare mountainside.  The air was crisp and cool, the sun was bright, and as far as I could see, I was the only living thing.  The problem was, I was lost.  I had become separated from my classmates on a hiking trip, and now, as I looked around me, there was nothing but rocky ridge after rocky ridge, separated by dark, forested valleys.  How would I find my classmates?  What would happen to me if I didn’t?

Do you see how the above immediately takes you out of your environment and makes you imagine yourself standing with the writer on a mountain?  Do you see how the descriptions  – “windy,” “bright,” “crisp”" – contrast with the typical office space?  These contrasts will create pleasure in the mind of most readers.

This doesn’t mean your essay has to be about hiking or nature.  It could be about a busy street, a crowded shopping mall, a loud and noisy classroom – just don’t make it about a quiet, clean office, and the challenges you faced in filing papers.

Tomorrow we’ll speak about what else our audience members are reading.

Posts in this Series

1. Tell Us About Yourself: Final Advice for Essay Writing - 08 Oct
2. Should You Pay To Have Your Essay Edited? - 01 Oct
3. The Greatest Editing Trick For College Application Essays - 29 Sep
4. How To Edit Your Essay - 28 Sep
5. The "What They Want to Hear" Mistake - 17 Sep
6. Know Your Reader, Part Four - 16 Sep
7. Know Your Reader, Part Three - 15 Sep
8. Know Your Reader, Part Two - 14 Sep
9. Know Your Reader, Part One (This post)
10. Listen to an Admissions Officer Discuss Essays - 11 Sep
11. How to Write an Essay for University Applications - 09 Sep

Today on our tour of U.S. States:  North Dakota, the Peace Garden state.  Hey, that sounds nice!  Who doesn’t like peace and gardens?

The rugged wilderness of North Dakota

Activities

Once again, we’re in a state where most of the activities involve putting on a good pair of boots and going out to see Mother Nature in all of her glory.   As this list of activities from North Dakota’s tourism site shows, there are A LOT of different ways you can experience the beauty of North Dakotan wilderness.   North Dakota offers more opportunities than most states to see nature via horseback or motorized vehicle (such as an ATV, or All-Terrain Vehicle).  The state offers a unique chance to see a lot of untouched wilderness – it is the 19th largest state, but is has the 3rd least amount of people.  This means a lot of empty space.

Extracurricular activities

Sports and outdoor activities.  That’s what you can expect the focus of extracurricular activities to be.  Of course, like every other state, universities in North Dakota will have all the usual activities too (drama, debate, etc.).  But if you go to North Dakota and fail to experience the out-of-doors, you’ll be missing out.  Expect a special emphasis on winter sports such as skiing, hockey, etc.

Social Activities

Universities in North Dakota will offer a very eclectic mix of social activities.  The universities will be in medium-sized towns with all of the amenities, so if you’re a lover of all things urban, you’ll be able to survive.  At the same time, the universities will be home to many students from rural areas.  The mix of rural and urban student populations creates a good mix of activities and perspectives.  Contrary to any stereotypes Americans might hold about North Dakota, universities in the state boast the full range of cultural facilities, including art museums, theatres and concert venues.  In short, you won’t find a lack of a social life to be a problem.

North Dakota has art museums, and don't let people tell you differently!

Tourist Sites

We’ve already mentioned the nature, but it’s worth mentioning again.  I’d also like to put a word in for the culture in North Dakota – it is at the same time the state with the largest church-going population in the U.S., and a state with a large Native American population.  As such, it really offers a very unique view into several different American subcultures.  If you’re interested in experiencing new cultures, it’s an attractive choice.  And let’s not forget Theodore Roosevelt National Park, home to some of America’s great vistas.

Wow. Enough said.

Weather

Are you by any chance familiar with the Billy Joel song, “I Go To Extremes?”

Darling I don’t know why I go to extremes
Too high or too low there ain’t no in-betweens
And if I stand or I fall
It’s all or nothing at all
Darling I don’t know why I go to extremes

Little known fact:  it was written about the weather in North Dakota.  OK, not really.  But it could have been.  North Dakota, according to Wikipedia, “has some of the most extreme temperature variations on the planet.”  If, like Billy Joel, you go to extremes, this could be the place for you.  Having said that, North Dakota’s heat waves last only a day or two according to this site on North Dakota’s weather.  In fact, if you are interested in studying in North Dakota, but are scared by the weather, visit this site and it’ll cheer you up.  You can learn that

Winter is the grandest season of all to many North Dakotans. It is the season for snowmobiling in open and uncrowded fields, for such vigorous outdoor recreation as ice skating and ice hockey, for basketball, and for visiting with friends and neighbors. There is no medicine like a crisp North Dakota winter morning to put spring and vigor into the steps of old and young alike.

And also that

North Dakota’s delightful summer season is at its best in June, July and August, and is perfect for all outdoor activities. The days are warm, sometimes even hot, but nights are one-blanket cool for restful sleep.

Can I come too?

Cost of Living

Here’s some good news. It costs roughly half of what it would take to live in New York to live in Fargo, North Dakota (51.2%, to be exact). And salaries are only 24.8% lower.  Translation:  it’s a good place if you’re on a tight budget.

Source is here.

Notable Universities

Here’s a list of North Dakota’s fine universities.

Posts in this Series

1. Choosing a University in the U.S.: North Dakota (This post)
2. Choosing a University in the U.S.: Minnesota - 12 Aug
3. Choosing a University in the U.S.: Alaska - 31 Jul
4. Choosing a University in the U.S.: Utah - 24 Jul
5. Choosing a University in the U.S.: Colorado - 21 Jul
6. New myUface Guide and New Series - 20 Jul

A great way to understand what kind of essay you want to write for your university application is to listen to an actual admissions officer discuss how he or she reads application essays. Really, 95% of the advice you read on the internet about how to write application essays is going to be written by people who aren’t actually responsible for reading or evaluating those essays.  We want to encourage you to think more about how your essay will be read than about how it should be written.

So, here’s the assignment:  read, in its entirety, the following webpage, written by an admissions officer.

This kind of information is absolutely priceless.  Here you have someone who has actually read thousands upon thousands of essays describing, in detail, HOW he or she reads and evaluates those essays.  And what does the admissions officer say?  Well, there are at least three important points:

First, technical excellence is NOT the most important aspect of an essay:

Ninety percent of the applications I read contain what I call McEssays – usually five-paragraph essays that consist primarily of abstractions and unsupported generalization. They are technically correct in that they are organized and have the correct sentence structure and spelling, but they are boring.

This is something to keep in mind when you come across a website offering to “edit” your essay for a certain fee.  Sure, those websites can make sure you are using correct grammar and punctuation, but they can’t make your essay any more original or interesting.  And THAT is something that is very important.  It is more important for your essay to demonstrate something unique than it is for your essay to be well-written.  Strange, perhaps, but true.

Second, DO NOT think too much about what a university wants to hear:

Far too many students begin the search of what to write about by asking: What does my college want to hear? The thinking goes something like this: If I can figure out what they are looking for, and if I can make myself look like that, then I’ll improve my chances.

Far too many students begin the essay process by asking, “What will make me sound good?  What will make a university want to accept me?”  The proper question is, “What will accurately portray me as an individual?  What will communicate what is unique about me as a student?”

Third, avoid the temptation to use big words:

students try to impress us with big words. In trying to make a topic sound intellectual, students resort to the thesaurus and, as a result, end up sounding pretentious or at least insecure about using the voice they would use to describe an event to a friend. The student assumes that these “impressive” words intensify the experience for a reader rather than diminish it.

This is not an English test, people.  It is a test of your ability to communicate something meaningful about yourself as a person.  Think about the times in your life when you’ve had a really important, meaningful, emotional discussion with someone.  Did you use a thesaurus in that discussion?  NO!  You used simple, everyday language, because that is the easiest and most effective way to communicate.

What else can you learn from this webpage?  Does it provide you with a new and useful perspective on writing your essay?

Posts in this Series

1. Tell Us About Yourself: Final Advice for Essay Writing - 08 Oct
2. Should You Pay To Have Your Essay Edited? - 01 Oct
3. The Greatest Editing Trick For College Application Essays - 29 Sep
4. How To Edit Your Essay - 28 Sep
5. The "What They Want to Hear" Mistake - 17 Sep
6. Know Your Reader, Part Four - 16 Sep
7. Know Your Reader, Part Three - 15 Sep
8. Know Your Reader, Part Two - 14 Sep
9. Know Your Reader, Part One - 13 Sep
10. Listen to an Admissions Officer Discuss Essays (This post)
11. How to Write an Essay for University Applications - 09 Sep

Dear Friends,

We are very pleased to announce the official opening of the myUface online profile, available, FOR FREE, at www.myuface.com. I want to take a few moments of your time to remind you about how you can use this tool to gain admission to U.S. universities.

The myUface.com student profile is a way for you to provide the information a university needs in order to evaluate you as a potential student. It includes biographical and financial information, academic history, notes about your hobbies and interests, and much more. Once you create an online profile, we will share your information with our university partners, looking for an institution that would be a good fit. In addition, our university partners will search the myUface database looking for students that fit their needs. Our ultimate goal is to connect talented international students like yourself with U.S. universities.

I need to stop and mention again that all of this is FREE for you as an international student.

The online profile is not 100% complete. Over the next weeks and months, we’ll be constantly adding new features to increase your ability to present yourself to U.S. universities. But please, start your profile now. The U.S. admissions process will start very soon, so there’s no time to lose.

Also, please feel free to let us know what you think about the service myUface provides, and how we could improve that service. This is our very first week of operation, so I’m sure some things will need work. The only way we’ll learn about what we need to change is if you, the students, let us know. So e-mail us early and often: contact@myuface.com.

Two more quick notes: remember, myUface is just one tool to help you get into a U.S. university. You should also pursue other options, like applying independently to U.S. universities. To help you, we have a daily blog with advice on preparing your university applications both here at myUface and on your own. Remember, our goal is for you to fulfill your dreams of studying in the U.S. We think myUface can help, but if you can find another way to realize your dreams, we’ll be just as happy for you.

Alright, friends, time moves on. In a few short months U.S. universities will begin to make decisions about which students will be part of the 2010 class of incoming students. It’s time to get to work – we’re ready if you are.