myUface Blog

A number of users are asking, “What happens after December 31st?”

Well, for those of you who have completed your application, two things will happen:

• first, we’ll review your application.  We may contact you with a few minor suggestions or questions.
• second, we’ll contact universities on your behalf, sending them your information.

After that, hopefully, a university will take interest in your application and will move towards offering you a spot in their class.  Remember, though, that universities may not be interested in your application, especially if you require 100% financial aid.

For those of you who have not completed an application by December 31st, that’s OK!  You can keep working on your application until it is complete.  At that time, we’ll go through the same process with your applications.  There is a definite benefit in being a part of the first groups of students to have their applications sent to universities, and if you can finish by December 31st we encourage you to do so, but if you don’t finish by the 31st you shouldn’t give up!

A few students have asked us some questions about what exactly myUface provides for free, and, in order to be completely clear, we wanted to clarify exactly what it is myUface does.  We don’t want to mislead anyone!

We will send your application to appropriate US universities for free.  We will do our best to find universities that are interested in you as a student.  We will not offer to pay for your U.S. education, however.  We are not a sponsored program, and we are not a scholarship site.  There are definitely costs involved with studying in the US – application fees, travel to the university, room and board, tuition, etc.  myUface can offer advice for reducing these costs.  myUface can try to find universities who will offer you financial aid. However, we do not offer financing ourselves.  Only help finding ways to study.

Again, our service is free, but not the university itself unfortunately.

Once we have your application, we will find the best opportunities for you given your personal needs.  If you have absolutely no financial means, we can work with you to identify fully funded programs for you to apply to.  For instance, in some countries the US Government offers a fully funded 1 year undergraduate program.

Also, if you are in one of the countries that offer an “Opportunity Grant”, you can apply for up to $10,000 in funds to help you pay for things like testing, application fees, travel.

Here you can find an archive of our advice on finding financial aid.

As always, feel free to ask any questions you have.

The days before the New Year are important ones for international students and for U.S. universities.  So much work has gone into preparation – the students are preparing to send their applications to universities; the universities are preparing to sort through applications, looking for the best students to fill their incoming class.

The holiday season is like one long, final moment of peace before the hectic pace of application season.  So as you work to complete your own applications, remember to take a few moments this holiday season to relax as well.  In January things will really begin heating up . . .

I know that many of our readers wonder if it’s absolutely necessary to have standardized test scores before applying to a U.S. university.

Well, unfortunately, these are something that almost every university in the U.S. will require. If you are thinking about an undergraduate degree you will need two tests in particular – the SAT and the TOEFL. Graduate degrees require different tests based on the degree (but almost all will require a TOEFL).

If you’re not sure if you want to go to all the trouble of taking tests just yet, you can start by filling out the rest of the application here on myUface.  There may be a university who would look at the rest of you information and say, “Wow, this looks like a great candidate, but they needs test scores.”

In that case, you’d have good reason to prepare for those tests.

Our blog readers will know that we at myUface are BIG fans of the US Government funded “Opportunity Grants”. Why? Where else can students apply for up to $10,000 in financial support to help them afford college? We just can’t emphasize enough what a great program this is. Therefore, we wanted to take the time to once again encourage the myUface community to look into Opportunity Grants and explain them here in a bit more detail.

We talked with one of our colleagues from American Councils for International Education  and here’s what we learned:

1. What Are Opportunity Funds?

Opportunity funds supports underrepresented students of modest means by covering the up-front costs of applying to university in the United States. Such costs may include: test preparation and fees; visa and application fees; transportation costs; books and settling in allowance, English language courses, and when appropriate, top-off funds toward tuition. Opportunity support can be used for both graduate and undergraduate education at accredited, degree-granting institutions in the United States. The total amount of support per recipient may not exceed US$10,000. Opportunity support has been provided since 2006 and currently is offered in 23 countries worldwide.

2. Which countries do you have to live in to be eligible?

Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama

How can the myUface community apply? First, you MUST be a citizen and resident in one of the countries listed above. Second, you have to apply to an accredited US university (no short term programs, non accredited universities, etc). Third, you have to apply at your local office of EducationUSA in your country. You can get a list of education advising centers here. Better yet, write us on the blog or email us at contact@myuface.com and WE will get in touch with an educational advisor in your country and start the process for you!

Don’t let this great opportunity pass you by! Remember, myUface wants to help you get into U and there might be up to $10,000 available to help you do just that!!!!

The myUface application asks you the following question (question #3 under “Academic Questions”):

What type of program are you interested in applying for?

Choosing the type of program you are interested in is important. myUface can help you get into a short term program, a community college, 4 year undergraduate program or 1-2 year grad program. We also ask that you choose a major or focus. Based on this information, universities will decide whether or not you are a good fit for them. Please don’t forget this! Also, it’s important that you describe in your writing why this choice is important for you and your future. If you choose to study ESL, for example, then how will studying English help you in your future?

Often, international students write essays or personal statements that are too short – two paragraphs or even a few sentences.

Remember, an essay or a personal statement is your opportunity to really describe who you are and why you would be a good student in a US program.  We highly encourage you to look once again at what you’ve written for your university and applications.  Make sure that:

• It tells something about you that is important
• That the grammar and punctuation is correct. We recommend that you write your pieces with Word, WordPerfect or other tool that has a spell-check.
• You do some research into how to write a good essay.  The myUface blog has a lot of advice on this subject, and you can find it here.  The College Board website also has some very good material on the subject.

Today we have good news to report:  in the two weeks since we’ve announced the myUface site and tried to spread the word about it, over 200 students from all over the world have signed up and started an application.

Now, you may be wondering, Is this really good news? After all, if there are more students, doesn’t that mean more competition?

The answer is no, and here’s why:  the more students that sign up to myUface, the more universities in the U.S. will be interested in our database.  The more universities are interested, the more the database will be searched.  The more the database gets searched, the higher the chances that your application will be noticed by a university in the U.S.  So, 200 applicants is good news for all of us.

That’s one of the things we hope distinguishes myUface from other student placement sites (aside from the fact that myUface is free for everyone):  here, we’re trying to build a community of students. When one member of that community wins, we all win.

Tomorrow we’ll talk a little bit more about our two hundred applicants and what needs to happen for them to get their applications ready for U.S. universities!

You can find our ninth podcast here.  In it, we talk about the steps you need to take before you go looking for scholarships from U.S. universities.

In this video we walk you through the process of opening a myuface.com account and application.

How to Open a myuface Application on Vimeo.