myUface Blog

Three excellent questions today from a myUface user about one-year programs:

1. Are there any full scholarship programs for one-year study in the U.S.?
2. If so, can I transfer from my current university to a U.S. university, and then return after a year’s study?
3. Would a one-year program be non-degree or degree?

And answers, from us:

1. In general, there are very few full scholarships for one year programs.  If you are looking for a full scholarship, a one year program I would suggest you look into the Eurasia Undergraduate Program (we have some information about this program on our site or you can google it).  This program offers a limited number of fully funded opportunities to study in the US for one year.
2. Transfer credits.  This is a generally a tricky issue from both sides.  If you are hoping to study at a US university for one year, return to your home institutions and graduate with diplomas from both universities, this will likely not happen.  As a very general rule, you would have to study for at least 2-3 years in a US university to be able to accrue enough credit to get a diploma.
3. Almost all one year programs are non-degree.  However, there are certificate programs you might look into that are roughly one year.

We get lots of questions about the fact that myUface is free for everyone – free for universities and free for students.  People seem skeptical:

“Is it really free?  I don’t have to pay anything?”

“OK, we understand, it’s ‘free.’  But seriously, what do I have to pay?”

This skepticism is understandable.  After all, in the multi-billion dollar industry built around international students, most companies are out to make money.  Students are used to paying for test preparation, for agents, for visa help – for almost everything.

Nonetheless, it’s true:  myUface is FREE for students, and FREE for universities.

No, really, it is.

The next question we get is simple:  “Why?”

Look, it’s not that we hate money, or that we don’t care about making a profit:  we do.  But our first concern is creating something that is useful in bringing international students and universities together.  All of the founders of myUface have worked abroad.  We have all met talented, smart students who would have been great successes at a U.S. university, but never made it there because the system of applying to those universities was too complicated, or the application fees were too high.  It breaks our heart to think of all the students scattered around the world that deserve to be at a U.S. university, and could get there with just a little help.

If we can be that help, we’ll be happy.

Then, after a year or two, if the site is working well and if we’re making those connections, then we’ll stop and think about how to make a small amount of money.  Maybe through advertising?  Through university subscriptions?  Who knows?

But for now, we’re free.  F-R-E-E FREE!  We don’t want to let something as stupid as money get in the way of what we think is a pretty good idea.  And it’s worth mentioning, there are some things we will never do:

• We will never take money from students.  Never, never, never.
• We will never charge universities a placement fee based on a particular student.  We may one day ask them to subscribe to the site, but we will never charge them for students once they’re signed up.

In this way we can avoid conflicts of interest and keep the focus where it needs to be:  on getting talented students to U.S. universities.

Great question today about myUface.  A student wrote to ask when the site would be fully operational.  He notes that we had mentioned before that it might be ready by the middle of July.  So, he wonders, what’s going on?

Great question.  Right now at myUface we are focused on two things:

1)  Completing the site so that it’s useful for students and easy to use.

2)  Reaching out to universities to partner with us.

I’ll be totally honest:  both are taking longer than we’d planned.  But not so much longer than we planned.  I would say you can expect to see a fully functional site sometime in the next few weeks.  And sometime soon after than you can expect universities to begin using myUface to meet international students.

In the meantime, please, keep reading the blog, keep researching universities, and keep thinking about your career goals.

In this week’s mailbag I’ll respond to two different questions, the first about visa problems and the second about the myUface podcast.

1)  A student writes to ask if there are “lists” that U.S. Embassies maintain of people who are ineligible to get student visas, and why.

The short answer is, “I don’t know.”  I assume that there are lists that consulates keep of people who are ineligible.  For example, if you lie in a visa interview and are caught lying, your name might be added to a list that lets the consulate know they need to check all future visa applications with a special eye.  But how large are these lists?  Are they formal documents?  How do you get on and off them?  These are questions I just don’t know the answers to, unfortunately.

The only lists we know exist are those that exist for very special circumstances.  For example, there almost certainly is a list of terrorist suspects.  In some cases, student visas may be delayed because a student’s name is the same as or close to the name on such a list.  Another example of this are lists of alleged war criminals from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.  Again, this is just a list of names, but the process of checking these lists can, in certain cases, delay visas for students.

In general, though, you don’t need to worry about these kind of lists or whether you’re on them.  So long as you tell the truth in your visa documents and interview, there’s no reason why you’d ever end up on such a list, even if your application were denied.

2)  Another student writes and asks, “What happened to the podcast?” Good question.  The podcast is alive and well, but we haven’t put out a new episode as we’ve been focused on developing the full myUface students site (it’s only a few weeks away now) and researching other topics, like financial aid.  But I promise, a new podcast is coming soon.

Remember, if you have any questions you’d like answered on the blog, leace us a comment or e-mail us at blog@myuface.com.

A student wrote to ask if there’s such a thing as asking too many question sof a university – especially when it comes to financial aid.  The student is afraid that asking too many questions might annoy the university representative, and hurt his or her chances of being accepted to that university.

The answer is that sure, at some point you should stop pestering university staff about financial aid.  If you ask about scholarship opportunities and loans, how other international students finance their education, etc., and you receive all the answers, then at that point there’s really not much more the university staff can tell you.  At that point asking more questions might seem a little pushy.

But in general, so long as you are polite, and so long as you remember that the university admissions staff has thousands of students they work with, and not just one (you), than you should feel free to ask as many questions as you want.  Remember, the job of admissions staff is to find qualified, talented students and enroll them in their university.

So while there is such a thing as askign too many questions, the much more common problem international students have is not asking enough!

This week I received a very important question and I wanted to  answer it immediately.  Here it is (edited somewhat for grammar and spelling):

I am new to blogs and I am not sure how I am supposed to comment on what you write or ask questions.  Can you help me?

This is a great question, and I apologize for not writing about this sooner.  It’s good to remember that not everyone is familiar with all of the new internet technologies that have proliferated in the last years – and that’s OK! I actually completely understand where you’re coming from – I have no idea, for example, what “Twitter” is or how in the world I should “Tweet.”

I’m going to give you a short answer today.  I’m also going to make this question the subject of an upcoming podcast, and I’ll also put together an instructional video about this subject.  Thanks again for the question.

How to Ask Questions

I can tell by the fact that the reader did succesfully ask a question that he knows how to do this, but it’s worth repeating.  To ask a question of this blog, all you need to do is send an e-mail to:  blog@myuface.com.  That’s it.  If you want to ask a question for the podcast, send an e-mail to:  podcast@myuface.com.  We answer EVERY question we receive.

How to Make a Comment

When you click on the title of any blog post, that post will open in a separate window.  Down at the bottom of a post there’s an empty box beneath the words, “Leave a Reply.” Type your comment in this box and click on the button that says, “Submit Comment.”  Follow the instructions, and that’s it!

Generally speaking, I’ve found that international students are much more likely to submit questions than leave a comment, and that’s fine.  However, I urge you to make comments so that other readers of this blog can share their own opinions and experiences.  Our goal here is to build  an online community of international students, so please, comment!

Why Ask A Question

Let’s say that you’re trying to find the answer to a questions about studying in the U.S.  Sure, you can research that question yourself.  But you could also submit it to us, and we’ll research it for you. We’ll post the answer in the blog or speak about it on the podcast.  Seriously, it’s our job.

So please, ask questions, make comments.  We’ll be happy to do your research for you!

I received this question earler this week:  If I already know what university I want to go to, do I need to apply to more than that university?

Let me give you two answers, the long answer and the slightly-less-long answer:

The Slightly-Less-Long Answer is Yes, you should still apply to other universities, for a very simple reason:  you might not get into the university you want to go to.  It’s an unpleasant but important truth.  Even if you meet all of the requirements in terms of test scores, GPA, etc., sometimes, for whatever reason, a selection committee will reject your application.  And if that happens, you want to have a backup plan.

The Long Answer is that Yes, you do want to apply to other universities, and not only because you want to have a backup plan, but also, and more importantly, because you want to keep an open mind about U.S. universities.  You may have one university that you really like, but remember, there are over 4,000 U.S. institutions granting degrees of some kind, and chances are many of them would be a very good fit for you.  You don’t want to limit yourself to just one or two institutions!  You want to explore many different universities, with slightly different programs, perhaps in different parts of the country.  Those universities may offer different financial aid packages, different housing options, different services for international students, and all of this should obviously factor into your decision.  When you focus on only one university you lose the ability to weigh all these different factors.

Now, some good news: by filling out a profile here on myUface you’re in effect applying to a number of different universities at the same time, since our university partners will have access to your information and will be able to invite you to apply if they think you’d be a good candidate.  This does NOT mean you should not apply to other universities independently, but it will help you in the application process.

I received two questions for today’s mailbag.  Let’s get right to them:

What universities does myUface partner with?

Good question.  myUface started developing relationships with universities in March.  We’re going to continue establishing partnerships throughout the summer, at the same time as we continue to build the website and reach out to international students.

We’ll begin officially announcing our university partners sometime early this fall, and they’ll begin using myUface to connect with students at that time.

I can tell you this:  we have a lofty goal of 100 university partners by December 31, 2009.  What that will mean is this: by filling out a myUface profile, you’d effectively be applying to 100 different universities at the same time, with just one application.

Is myUface on Facebook?

OK, I have a confession to make. I only received one mailbag question.  I made this one up.

But I just really wanted the opportunity to tell you that YES, myUFace is now on facebook. And if you become a fan, I’ll give you a cookie!  Well, not really.  But I’ll hope that someone else gives you a cookie.

Got some great questions for the mailbag today, folks.  Let’s get right to them:

I want to study in the U.S. but I have heard it’s too expensive.

Universities in the U.S. charge very high tuition, but there are programs that offer scholarships or that have very reasonable prices. For example, many students begin their academic life in the states at community colleges, and then transfer to a traditional four year university after two years. This saves money.

Do I have to be rich to go to university in the U.S.?

No. Although it will probably take a significant amount of money to study in the U.S., you can find ways of helping pay for your education, such as scholarships. myUface.com doesn’t offer scholarships, but many of our university partners do.

Is getting into a U.S. university difficult?

No. Absolutely not. Studying at a U.S. university is just as simple as studying at a university in any other country. Anyone who tells you differently has an agenda.

We admit, it can seem that getting into a U.S. university is an impossible task. But that’s why myUface.com exists – to show you that, in reality, your dream of studying in the U.S. is completely realistic.

I’ve heard of Harvard, Yale, and a few other U.S. universities. What are the other ones like?

One of the great strengths of the U.S. university system is the sheer number of U.S. universities that exist. Many people have heard of Harvard, but few know that Harvard isn’t even considered a very good school in a number of important fields. Another thing to remember is that in the U.S. educational system a lot of learning happens outside of the classroom. The community in which your university is located is just as important as the university itself. Every university has strengths and weaknesses and what is a good fit for one person will not be a good fit for another. Therefore, don’t concentrate only on the “famous” universities. Use tools such as myUface.com to understand the full breadth of the U.S. university system.

And don’t worry. There’s an institution out there that is perfect for you!

E-mail your questions to blog@myuface.com.

In last week’s mailbag, I answered some of the most common questions about myuface.com.  As soon as I had finished that post, though, I started thinking about three other questions I had forgotten to answer, but which we hear quite often.  So I want to finish them off today:

If myUface.com’s basic services are free to use, how does it make money?

Good question. There are a few answers:

First, myUface.com charges a university a fee whenever a student from myUface.com is placed at their university. Through collecting fees from universities, we can offer our basic suite of services to students at no charge.

Second, myUface.com receives a small amount of advertising revenue.

Third, myUface.com does charge students for a few optional services.

Finally – and most importantly – the reason we founded myUface.com is not to make money. Of course we’d like the site to succeed financially, but more than anything else we’d like to see more international students in the U.S.

Who is in charge of myUface?

myUface is owned and operated by three Americans who together have 27 years of experience in the field of international education, and who have spent a combined 19 years living abroad. We decided to start my Uface because we got tired of seeing bright, talented students who dreamed of studying in the U.S. go to universities in the U.K. or Australia simply because the system of college admissions in the U.S. was so difficult to understand.

We want to help as many students as possible gain access to the world’s best education. That’s why we created myUface.com.

Does myUface.com offer scholarships?

No. But some of our university partners may offer scholarships to outstanding international students. In addition, at the myUface.com blog we will give some advice about international financial aid opportunities.

Other questions?  Mail them to blog@myuface.com.