myUface Blog

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.

We here at myUface want to take a moment to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.  And, as Thanksgiving is a holiday that encourages all of us to take a moment and reflect on the wonderful things we’ve been provided in our lives, I want to share something I’m thankful for, that helps explain a little bit the spirit behind this website.

I am extremely thankful for the fact that I was born in a country – through no merit of my own! – where it was very easy to keep informed about colleges and universities.  When I was 17, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and I certainly had no idea where I wanted to go to university.  I was very lucky that in the U.S. universities bend over backwards to reach out to students.  Every day it seems I got lots of mail from universities advertising their programs.  Then, at school, we had guidance counselors whose job it was to help us find colleges and apply to them.

At the time, of course, all of this seemed normal to me.  When I worked abroad, though, I got to see how difficult it is in some countries to find out about universities and apply to them.  In some of the countries I have worked in, students have to be extremely dedicated in order to have a chance at getting into any university, and they certainly don’t have someone assigned to help them.  For them, the thing I took for granted – having lots of universities contact me and show interest in me – is almost impossible.  I was constantly amazed  by the maturity of the students I met.   Had I been faced with such difficulties at seventeen, I very much doubt I would have succeeded.

So I am thankful for the accident of being born in a country where my lack of drive did not penalize me.

And this is a large part of the reason why we created myUface.  We hope that through this website we can make it easier – even just a little bit easier – for those hard-working, dedicated students abroad to find the university of their dreams.  We hope we can extend the benefits we enjoyed as American students – the benefits of having universities contact us, reach out to us, compete over us - to students from the rest of the world.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Your academic record does matter.  However, most universities will also consider your work experience, recommendations, essays, test scores, and other factors.  Just because you don’t have perfect grades does NOT mean you won’t be of interest to U.S. universities.  At the same time, you may want to work extra hard on the other aspects of your application in order to compensate for an average academic record.

This week is International Education Week, and you can take advantage by learning about the array of events going on around the world.  IEW events are great places to learn about U.S. universities and academic programs, and to meet and network with other students who may share your interests.

You can read about IEW here, and an online directory of events is here.  You can also contact your local US Embassy, or check their website.  Finally, your friendly neighborhood Education USA Advising Center should have all the information you need to take advantage of International Education Week.