myUface Blog

Talented international students (like those that read this blog) are a wonderful resource, not only for their own communities, or the universities they attend, but for the entire globe.  And, like any resource, there is likely to be a fight over it:

Last year, the number of international students attending American institutions hit an all-time high. International students contribute $18 billion to the U.S. economy; their full-fee tuition subsidizes many American students’ educations. Culturally, they internationalize campuses and increase diversity–laudable goals for colleges and universities aiming to prepare students for a globalized world. But as American institutions face an increasingly competitive global education market and an aging domestic population, discussion regarding international student recruitment is rarely . . .  civilized.

The article linked above is a very interesting look at the disagreements going on inside the U.S. higher educational system over how to ethically recruit international students.

And to clarify, once again, myUface’s stance:  we will never charge students a penny to use myUface – end of story.

If you follow the trends in international student recruitment, you’ve undoubtedly heard over the past few years that the U.S. is on the decline in terms of attracting talented international students.

That decline has been greatly exaggerated.

Now, according to The Australian, the U.S. is poised to grab back the initiative in a major way.  Prompted by falling domestic revenue, U.S. universities are reaching out aggressively to foreign students.  And they have the resources to make international students feel right at home:

[T]he cheaper US dollar, plenty of student accommodation and faster visa approval times should give the US an edge.

It’s a great article that gives you a good idea of the trends that are shaping international education.

This fascinating article shows how a quality education can open doors for you all over the world.  It’s about graduates from U.S. MBA programs seeking work in Asia:

At premiere institutions such as the University of Chicago’s Booth School, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and Northwestern’s Kellogg, the percentage of MBAs taking jobs in Asia . . .has more than doubled in the past five years, from roughly 5% of the graduating class to more than 10%.

The article is specifically about business school graduates, but the principle holds for a quality education at any level:  it opens doors for you, not only in your own country, or in the country where you are studying, but all over the world.

As many of our loyal readers know, students on F-1 visas have the option of staying in the U.S. after their program for what is called “Optional Training (OPT).”  The idea behind this is to give students a chance to learn from a professional experience in the U.S., that will compliment their academic training.

According to this article, the amount of time allowed for OPT will be extended from 12 months to 29 months for students in the so-called STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics):

“The OPT facility is career-related and gives students the opportunity to gain experience and additional skills related to their area of studies. This flexible option is helping many Indian students, especially from the STEM disciplines, to acquire valuable work experience in the US, related to their area of studies,” James W Herman, minister, counsellor for consular affairs at the US Embassy, told ET.

Cheap, effective and credits you can transfer to a 4 year school. What’s not to love?! We just got back from a conference attended by over 300 community colleges and let me tell you, they want international students to apply. What’s great about community colleges is that many of them have agreements with the large state schools to accept on a 1 to 1 basis their credits. Oh, and by the way, those transferred credits will cost you much less than if you were to have received them at the big state school. You can cut thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars off the cost of your education by studying for 2 years at a community college, then transferring to a big state school for the last 2 years. And you get the diploma from the state school!

Here’s another secret about community colleges, many of them offer a 4 year baccalaureate degree. The degrees are generally in areas like nursing, criminal justice or other areas directly related to a trade but if you are interested, let us know. We’ll help you find the right program.

Some examples you might check out include:

1. Tompkins Cortland Community College
2. Daytona State College
3. Madison Area Technical College
4. Owens Community College

As always, this is just a sampling of schools.   There are hundreds (if not thousands) of similar schools, all over the country.   myUface can help you find more, or you can apply directly. Just know that community colleges may be your best and most affordable way to get a very good education in the US.

For any student interested in study at a U.S. University, it’s a good idea to spend some time reading about ongoing changes in the U.S. higher educational system.  The better you can understand the way in which that system is changing, the better you can determine how you’ll fit into it – or even whether you should try to fit into it.

A great example is this article about the University of Iowa.  It demonstrates how many public universities in the U.S. are responding to decreased funding, and also how student expectations are changing.  These two influences – funding and student expectations – will have a huge impact on the way U.S. universities interact with international students over the next ten years.

The parts I highlighted:

As state funding becomes a smaller portion of UI’s budget and UI tries to become more self-reliant, pulling in more money from tuition has become a target. This has meant raising tuition — which has doubled in 10 years — but also boosting the mix of out-of-state and international students, increasing enrollment and improving retention rates . . .

[S]tudents have a more specific focus than in they have in the past. In 1999, 28 percent of first-year students came in as open majors, but now only 18 percent of students do, he said.

Often, international students become fixated on the rankings of universities provided by organizations like U.S. News and World Report.

In the Washington Post there’s a great article about a new way to measure university quality, called the student engagement survey.

Introduced 10 years ago by Indiana University researchers as an antidote to U.S. News, the survey has won buy-in from 1,400 colleges, with about half that number participating each year. Rather than rank colleges on overall quality, it attempts to quantify whether students at a particular school are learning, through a battery of questions: How often do you raise your hand in class? How many 20-page papers have you written? How often do you e-mail a professor? Each college is measured against similar institutions, and over time. But there is no overall ranking.

When you look at a university’s ranking, it’s also a good idea to look at data like that provided by such surveys, to get a fuller picture of the reality behind the ranking.

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.

Over the past week we’ve had hundreds and hundreds of new users visit the site.  I wanted to take a moment and share with you some resources we have that may be of interest to you:

First, we have two myUface guides:

1. The Advantages and Disadvantages of a University Education in the United States
2. Looking for a University in the United States

You can donwload both of these guides (for free of course) here.

Second, you should check out our Series:

1. Should you study in the U.S.? A comprehensive and honest guide to the benefits and disadvantages of a U.S. education (April 2009).
2. Looking for a U.S. University – All of the information you should consider in selecting a U.S. university – including some things you may not have thought about (May 2009).
3. Finding Financial Aid for your U.S. Education – Need help paying for a U.S. education?  Here’s a guide to how to look for and secure financial support.  It’s not easy, but it’s worth a try (June / July 2009)!
4. Preparing For A Visa Interview – A three part series on the misconceptions many students have about student visa interviews (July 2009).
5. Universities in the Fifty States – we look at what it would be like to live as an international student in each of the fifty states.
6. Writing Essays for University Applications – full of advice on how to write, edit and submit an essay with your university application.