myUface Blog

This past month we’ve had some pretty incredible developments at myUface.  We have had several universities contact students, asking them to apply to their programs.  We are really close to finalizing our first placements.

But the best is yet to come.  Soon, universities will look at their incoming classes and count how many spots they need to fill with additional international students.  At that point, they’ll become even more interested in students who filled out myUface applications.

So, if you haven’t finished your application, do so now.  Remember, that means completing the application AND uploading essays, resumes / CVs, and recommendations.  That means letting us know about any standardized test scores.  That means, in short, making sure your application is as good as you can possibly make it.

Many of our myUface students either have received, or will soon receive, emails directly from US universities. As this happens, we would like to bring to you attention a couple VERY important thoughts.

1. Be professional! These universities are interested in learning more about you. Your response to universities will tell them much about you. If you don’t respond in a professional and mature way, then the university will likely not come aware with a positive impression of you.
2. Respond! Once you get an email from a university, respond to them! If you don’t, it looks bad both for you and our network. Even if you are not interested, it makes sense for you to talk with the university, learn about them and generate interest in you!

Remember, even if the university that contacts you is not your first choice, it may be a great fit for you. Moreover, if you have a couple universities that you are talking with, you might be able to negotiate a better financial package from one of them!

As always, we’re here to help. If you hear from a university and would like to talk about it, let us know.

So far, we’ve received nearly 300 applications on myUface, and we’re working to connect all of these students to universities in the U.S.

We believe we’ll be successful with many of our candidates.  Others don’t have applications that are complete enough for universities to truly consider.  You may be wondering, How can I improve my chances of getting into a U.S. university?

Two things:

1. Make sure your myUface application is complete. More tomorrow on what “complete” means.
2. Don’t only apply to universities through myUface.  Increase your chances of getting into a U.S. program by applying independently to universities as well.

Some sites want you to maintain an exclusive relationship with them and them alone.  Here, our priorities are different:  we want you to get into a U.S. university, no matter if you do that through us or on your own.

By applying independently to a few U.S. universities, you give yourself a good chance of being accepted directly to a program.  If you also apply through myUface, you’ve ensured that you have several chances for universities to notice you.

Applying to myUface alone is a great step, but we encourage all of you to pursue university applications independently as well.

This week we’re proud to rollout a new feature for our myUface users:  the myUface message center.

This is a new tab that appears on your screen immediately after you log in to myUface:

By clicking on the green “Messages” tab, you will be taken to your personal message center.  There you will have three option:  first, you can view New Messages you’ve received from myUface or from universities that have looked at your application.  When you view those messages, you will have a chance to REPLY:

You can also view SENT MESSAGES and READ MESSAGES (that is, messages you’ve already checked).

Finally, when you log into myUface you should see the text of any messages you’ve received on the right, below your application menu:

What does this mean for you as a user of myUface?  Well, it means that universities and myUface will have the chance to contact you directly through the site.  It meas you can keep all of the correspondence associated with your myUface account in one place – with your profile – instead of cluttering up your inbox.

It means you should log into myUface at least once a week and CHECK FOR NEW MESSAGES. Now, at the beginning, don’t be surprised if you don’t have any new messages.  If you’re application is close to complete, however, you should be hearing from us (and hopefully from universities).

We hope you enjoy this new feature of myUface!

A lot of myUface users are asking if there’s a deadline to complete their myUface application, or whether there’s a deadline to complete university applications generally in the U.S.

The answer is, yes and no.

There is no strict deadline for completing your myUface application.  No matter when you complete it, we will do our best to connect you with a good program as soon as possible.  However, the earlier you start, the better.  If you are planning to study in the U.S. in the fall of 2010, you need to get us your completed application by sometime in March, probably, in order to give us time to connect you with universities.  Remember also that there is no promise that U.S. universities will be interested in your application.  This is especially true if you need a lot of financial assistance.

U.S. universities generally have a few different deadlines for submitting applications, and they tend to fill up their classes as applications come in.  Many of them do have a hard and fast deadline as well (usually in March, April, or sometimes May).

Also, remember that in a sense your myUface application is never complete – you can always come back and update or change it to make it better. Even if you miss out this year, you can get an early start on next year!

Every university application will ask for your GPA, or Grade Point Average.

Most will also ask you to supply the “scale” for your grades.

For GPA, you need to put in the average of the marks your received.  For example, if you got a 3, 3, 4, 5, 5 in five classes, the average grade you received is a 4.

You also need to provide the scale of those marks.  For example, if you got an average score of 4 out of a possible score of 100, that’s bad.  If you got an average score of 4 out of a possible score of 5, that’s good!

Over the course of my career working with international students, I have come across many incomplete applications.  Sometimes they are missing essays, sometimes they are missing test scores, sometimes they are missing basic biographical information.  The attitude of the student in these cases has generally been, “Well, it’s your responsibility to tell me what I’m missing and to help me assemble my application.”

Now, at myUface we actually enjoy helping students complete their applications, and are more than happy to do it.  However, I have to warn you, if you submit an incomplete application to a university your application will generally go straight to the trash heap.

I understand filling out an application is hard, and requires a lot of information.  But so is studying at a university!  In the minds of admissions officers, if you can’t complete an application, you probably can’t be counted on to complete other academic assignments.

So please, if you apply independently to universities, remember it is YOUR responsibility to complete the entirety of the application!

A number of users are asking, “What happens after December 31st?”

Well, for those of you who have completed your application, two things will happen:

• first, we’ll review your application.  We may contact you with a few minor suggestions or questions.
• second, we’ll contact universities on your behalf, sending them your information.

After that, hopefully, a university will take interest in your application and will move towards offering you a spot in their class.  Remember, though, that universities may not be interested in your application, especially if you require 100% financial aid.

For those of you who have not completed an application by December 31st, that’s OK!  You can keep working on your application until it is complete.  At that time, we’ll go through the same process with your applications.  There is a definite benefit in being a part of the first groups of students to have their applications sent to universities, and if you can finish by December 31st we encourage you to do so, but if you don’t finish by the 31st you shouldn’t give up!

The days before the New Year are important ones for international students and for U.S. universities.  So much work has gone into preparation – the students are preparing to send their applications to universities; the universities are preparing to sort through applications, looking for the best students to fill their incoming class.

The holiday season is like one long, final moment of peace before the hectic pace of application season.  So as you work to complete your own applications, remember to take a few moments this holiday season to relax as well.  In January things will really begin heating up . . .

Today we have good news to report:  in the two weeks since we’ve announced the myUface site and tried to spread the word about it, over 200 students from all over the world have signed up and started an application.

Now, you may be wondering, Is this really good news? After all, if there are more students, doesn’t that mean more competition?

The answer is no, and here’s why:  the more students that sign up to myUface, the more universities in the U.S. will be interested in our database.  The more universities are interested, the more the database will be searched.  The more the database gets searched, the higher the chances that your application will be noticed by a university in the U.S.  So, 200 applicants is good news for all of us.

That’s one of the things we hope distinguishes myUface from other student placement sites (aside from the fact that myUface is free for everyone):  here, we’re trying to build a community of students. When one member of that community wins, we all win.

Tomorrow we’ll talk a little bit more about our two hundred applicants and what needs to happen for them to get their applications ready for U.S. universities!