myUface Blog

The four months from September to December are  the busiest for international students applying to U.S. universities.  On Sunday we talked about the Summer timeline.  Today let’s go over what we’ll need to do this fall, if we plan to begin attending a U.S. university in September of 2010.

September

• We should continue working on our myUface profile.  Not only is a myUface profile a good way to apply independently to a number of universities, it’s also a great place to store all of your application materials.  Having all your information in one place will make it easier to fill out other applications in the future.
• We should ask three individuals (teachers, probably) for letters of recommendation.  We want to do this early, in order to give them plenty of time to complete a good recommendation.  We’ll undoubtedly have more posts later about what to look for in a reccomender, but to talk about it briefly here:  the most important thing is that your recommender knows you well.  A lot of students try to get recommendations from “important” people who don’t really know them.  The result is an impressive name attached to an uninteresting recommendation.  It’s far better to get someone who knows you and can talk about your strengths.
• We should talk to our school about preparing transcripts.  Can they provide an English translation?  How long will it take?  Does it cost anything?
• Did we get a good TOEFL score?  If not, try again.

October

• We should have received applications by now from universities we’re interested in.  If we haven’t asked for application, we need to do so immediately. We should look carefully at each application, answering the following:  when is it due?  Is there a benefit to applying early?  Does the application require special information that other applications don’t require?   What are the essay questions?
• We should ask each university that we’re applying to about their requirements for transcripts.  Do they have any special format that they want us to submit transcripts in?  We should ask our school to send certified transcripts to each of the universities we’re applying to, following the university guidelines.
• We should make photocopies of the applications and begin to fill  in the copies. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT fill in information on the originals.  That comes later.
• We should provide our recoommenders with the addresses of the universities, so they can send the recommendations to the right place.  Even better, we should give our recoomenders addressed envelopes so there’s no way they can make an accidental mistake.
• We should begin writing our essays and statements of purpose.
• If we haven’t already, we should take the SAT.

November

• November is a month for work, plain and simple.  We follow up on recommendation letters, we complete our essays, we finish the rough drafts of our applications and begin on the final copies, we make sure our transcripts have been prepared properly, we take and retake standardized tests (if need be).
• Some U.S. universities will have “early application” deadlines.  By applying to a university early, you may have a better chance of being accepted.  However, by applying early you are also promising that, if accepted, you’ll go to that university.  If there’s one university you really really want to get into, it’s a good idea to apply early.  Early application deadlines can be as early as November, so be aware!
• Even if you’re not applying early, there’s no penalty for submitting applications before the deadline.  So try to not only finish, but send off, as many applications as you can.

December

In December we’re doing three things:

1. We’re continuing to finish and send off applications.  Our goals should be to complete all of our applications by the New Year.
2. We’re corresponding with universities, verifying that they’ve received our materials, asking if they need more information, and responding promptly to any requests they may have.
3. If we have poor tests scores, we’re scrambling to take them one last time.

That’s the calendar for Fall.  In a future post we’ll look at the Winter timeline.

Many international students interested in applying to a U.S. university don’t know when to start. In this post I want to give you the Summer portion of the standard timeline for applying. Following this schedule will give you plenty of time to prepare a successful application.

To make it more “real,” let’s assume that we’re a student who wants to start studying at a U.S. university in the fall of 2010. What do we need to do?

Let’s start with what we should start doing now

• we should be investigating universities in the U.S., and doing basic research about the programs that they offer.
• we should begin preparing for the SAT and TOEFL exams
• we should begin to think broadly about our career plans and our life goals
• we should make sure we get good grades in any courses we are taking at our high school

Over the summer, we should:

• If we feel ready, we should take the TOEFL.  Doing so will give us time to retake it if we get a poor score.
• We should make sure to register for the SAT.  In 2008, the SAT had administrations in October, November, and December – if we register for the October test, we give ourselves time to retake the test in December.
• Make a list of the top 10 universities you know you’re interested in.  Over the summer, learn as much as you can about their programs, with the goal of narrowing that list down to 5-7 universities by the end of the summer.  When you compile your list of universities, you should try to divide them into three groups:  one or two universities that you “dream” about, but may not get into; three or four universities that are very good fits for you, and that you have a good chance of getting into; and one or two “safety” schools, which may not be your top choice, but which you like and will almost certainly get into.

As Summer draws to a close, be sure to:

• Prepare letters or e-mails to the universities in which you’re interested.  You’ll need to ask for application materials.
• Finish your myuface online profile (available early summer).  This is like applying to hundreds of schools at once. And it’s free.
• Keep asking yourself the BIG questions:  what do you want to do in life?  How will studying at a U.S. university help your goals?  These questions are obviously important, but having good, well-thought-out answers will help immensely when it comes to writing essays.

These are the essential steps to take over the summer months to make sure you’re prepared to apply to U.S. universities.