myUface Blog

Interested in studying at UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego?  Who isn’t?!  Great schools in fantastic locations.  What if we were to tell you that one of myUface partner schools had over 50% of their international students successfully transfer to these schools while savings thousands of dollars in the process?  It’s true.  Diablo Valley College (www.dvc.edu) in California has transfer agreements with these three UC schools and 51% of their international students successfully transferred last year.  Let us know if you’re interested in applying! DVC is a great place to start, is reasonably priced and can help you transfer to the school of your dreams!

Yesterday we talked about how the U.S. universities you’ve never heard of nevertheless offer a high quality education.  Today I want to tell you that they also have high standards for admitting students.

Why do I say this?  Because, to be honest, many myUface students didn’t put a whole lot of effort into their applications.  In many cases they didn’t complete all the parts of their application.  In other cases they completed their application, but clearly didn’t spend a lot of time on their essays and recommendations.  The attitude seemed to be, Hey, I’m a smart student, so of course universities need me.

You are all smart students, no doubt.  But remember, to get into any U.S. university you are competing with other smart students from the U.S. and perhaps across the world.  In order to choose between so many smart students, universities have created very detailed, demanding applications.  myUface bases its own online application on those created by universities.  What message are you sending a university when you don’t complete the application, or you complete it poorly?

The message you are sending is clear:  This doesn’t actually matter very much to me. Now, ask yourself, if you were in charge of a university, would you admit such a student?

Probably not.

So, here’s a realistic expectation for you:  unless you fully complete your applications (both for myUface and for universities), you should not expect to gain acceptance to a U.S. university.

We’ll talk more tomorrow about what a “complete application” means.

Yesterday we wrote about having realistic expectations regarding “elite” universities n the U.S.  Many international student set their heart on attending a university like Harvard without understanding:

• how difficult it is to get into such universities, especially if you need a scholarship; and
• how the demand for an education at such universities makes them extremely expensive, generally speaking

The flip side of this expectation is that most international students think that every U.S. university that isn’t a well-known school must be bad.  We hear this at myUface all the time:  “What?  I’ve never heard of that university.  It can’t be very good.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.

To gain accreditation in the U.S., every university has to meet a set of exacting standards.  Those standards ensure that the quality of the education you receive at any U.S. university will be high.   At every U.S. university you’ll meet interesting students form all over the world.  At every U.S. university you’ll take classes with brilliant professors who fascinate you, and you’ll take classes with boring professors who frustrate you.  At every U.S. university you’ll have a chance to earn not only a degree, but knowledge and skills that will positively impact your career.

So, if every U.S. university is similar, why do people go to so much trouble to get into the “elite” schools?  Don’t get us wrong, there are advantages to going to such universities:  for one thing, the prestige associated with your degree will be higher.  For another, the alumni networks of such universities tend to be stronger, and this can lead to advancements in your career.  And many would indeed argue that the quality of the faculty and fellow students at such universities is a little higher, leading to a more challenging educational experience.

The point here is not that Harvard, Yale and such universities are “bad,” or even that they’re overrated.  They are exceptional institutions that rightly have wonderful reputations.  The point is that all the other U.S. universities – the ones you haven’t heard about – are also high-quality institutions from which you can benefit immensely.  And that’s GREAT NEWS!!!

So before you form an opinion about whether a university is good or not, do some research.  Don’t judge the university solely based on whether or not you’ve heard of it.  And understand that every U.S. university, if accredited, offers an outstanding educational experience.

We’ll start our look into how students can improve their applications for next year by tackling a difficult subject:  realistic expectations.

Let me start out by saying that I realize everyone has a dream to study at one of the “elite” U.S. universities, like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc.  And there’s nothing wrong with having that dream.  At the same time, you have to understand that millions of students from around the world share the exact same dream, and so the competition between students to be able to study at these schools is intense.  That competition does two things:

• First, it makes it much harder to gain acceptance to those universities
• Second, it allows those universities to charge higher tuition if they so choose.

This means that it is incredibly hard to get into one of these universities; and it’s even HARDER to get into these universities with a large scholarship.

Many students have a dream to study at an elite U.S. university.  But most of the students who accomplish that dream have been working at it for years.  They’ve spent the time, and identified the financial resources necessary to make their dream happen.  If you’re just starting to think about your university options, or you’re not willing to put in the time and effort to make your application near-perfect, you are operating at a huge disadvantage.

The good news is that you have many alternatives to those “elite” universities.  And we’ll turn to what you can expect from them tomorrow.

The first academic year for myUface and its users is coming to an end in the near future. In this year, we’ve accomplished a lot: we built the myUface site, wrote about tons of subjects here on the blog, made contacts with hundreds of universities and Educational Advisors, and saw a number of students placed in universities in the U.S. Overall, we’re very pleased with our progress, and looking forward to what we can accomplish in Year Two.

At the same time, we’ve learned some very valuable lessons about placing students through the internet, lessons that we’d like to share with all of you. So, over the next few weeks, I’ll be running through a review of the site and its activity, particularly as it pertains to you, the myUface user.

Just to be clear, we’re still working this year to place more students, so don’t think we’re finished.  And for those students who don’t get placed this year, we’ll be sending each and every one of you a report on what we found when we shared your information with universities.  This will help you to understand what aspects of your application need to be improved for you to get accepted next year.

Throughout, as always, we welcome your questions.