myUface Blog

Generally speaking, international students studying at U.S. universities will live in that institution’s dormitories. American students refer to these simply as “dorms.”  Generally, a dorm is a large, multi-story building in which students live in small, apartment-like rooms.  Most dorm rooms fit 2 or more people into a single room.  Bathroom and shower facilities are shared between several dorm rooms.

Many international students are used to living at home with their parents, and the transition to “dorm life” – especially to living with a roommate – can be challenging.  For that reason, it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can about dorms before you ever set foot in one.  Try googling “dorm life” to find articles such as this one.

The more you know about dorms, the better prepared you’ll be to study in the U.S.

Here’s an excerpt from a video on culture shock.  In it, international students share their experiences with studying in the U.S.  It’s an interesting window into culture shock.

This week we’re proud to rollout a new feature for our myUface users:  the myUface message center.

This is a new tab that appears on your screen immediately after you log in to myUface:

By clicking on the green “Messages” tab, you will be taken to your personal message center.  There you will have three option:  first, you can view New Messages you’ve received from myUface or from universities that have looked at your application.  When you view those messages, you will have a chance to REPLY:

You can also view SENT MESSAGES and READ MESSAGES (that is, messages you’ve already checked).

Finally, when you log into myUface you should see the text of any messages you’ve received on the right, below your application menu:

What does this mean for you as a user of myUface?  Well, it means that universities and myUface will have the chance to contact you directly through the site.  It meas you can keep all of the correspondence associated with your myUface account in one place – with your profile – instead of cluttering up your inbox.

It means you should log into myUface at least once a week and CHECK FOR NEW MESSAGES. Now, at the beginning, don’t be surprised if you don’t have any new messages.  If you’re application is close to complete, however, you should be hearing from us (and hopefully from universities).

We hope you enjoy this new feature of myUface!

Many international students wonder, what is the minimum TOEFL score required to gain entrance into a U.S. university?

This is a complicated question, because each university in the U.S. will have different requirements.  What’s more, each university may have two different requirements:  one for students who will enter directly into the university; and another for students who will enter through a pre-academic ESL program.  Finally, this question is complicated by the fact that there are three different kind of TOEFL scores – for the Computer Based TOEFL (CBT), the Internet Based TOEFL (IBT), and the paper-based TOEFL.

Confused yet?  A number of sites (such as this one) give a good but brief overview of the required scores for entry into a U.S. university.  ETS (the owner of TOEFL) gives the best summary of minimum scores here.

As you can see from the ETS site, the minimum requirements vary widely from university to university.  One thing is for certain, though:  you will almost certainly need to take the TOEFL and do reasonably well in order to get into a good U.S. university.  So get studying!

If there is one thing we love at myUface, it’s a 100% full scholarship that also fully covers all living expenses. When we find an opportunity like this, even if it’s not at a US-based university, we have to let our students know about it.

Thanks to the US Central Asia Education Foundation, citizens of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan can apply for a limited number of full scholarships. Check out the USCAEF Student Fellowships here.

Let them know you heard about the opportunity at myUface!

If you want more information on this opportunity, let us know. We would be happy to get you in touch with the staff of this program.