myUface Blog

We’ll start off our series of posts looking at how to identify U.S. universities by taking a peek at something that will have a huge impact on your years in the U.S.:  cost of living.

If you take the same amount of money to New York, NY, and Fargo, ND, you’re going to have vastly different spending power.  Why should this matter to you?  Well, you’ll probably want to do things besides studying while you’re in the U.S..  You might want to, for example:

• go to an amusement park
• go out on the town
• take a date out to a restaurant
• see a movie
• hit the road and see some tourist attractions

All of these things will be more expensive in some cities than in others – meaning you’ll get to do them less often. For that reason, when you’re looking at a particular university, it’s a good idea to research the cost of living in that university’s home town.

There are a number of good resources on the internet to help you do just that.  To start with, check out Forbes magazine’s list of America’s most overpriced cities.  If a university is in one of these towns, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go there.  It does mean you should plan on spending more . . . . in some cases, a lot more.

This nifty cost of living calculator allows you to compare two different cities.  To use the above example, it turns out that, if you lived in Fargo and were contemplating a move to New York, you’d need to increase your salary by 136% in order to maintain your standard of living (i.e., if you make $50,000 now, you’d need $118,000 in Manhattan.  Ouch).

Money magazine compiles a lot of different data into a list of the best places to live.  Although this is intended for families (or at least for people who have already graduated), it’s still interesting to note that Fort Collins, CO (home of Colorado State University) is #2, where as Cambridge, MA (home of a few fairly well-known universities) doesn’t crack the top 100.

There are many other indexes, lists, and calculators available.  Whichever one you use, the bottom line is this: the cost of living of the town in which a university is located will have a big impact on the kind of life you’ll live while studying there.  For that reason, it’s important to do research on cost of living as you look into different Universities in the U.S.

For your consideration: You probably have a few universities you’re already interested in.  What towns are they located in?  What data can you find on the cost of living in those towns?

Posts in this Series

1. Conclusion - How to Choose a U.S. University - 02 Jun
2. Activities Around a University Campus - 01 Jun
3. Check Out U.S. Universities on iTunes U - 26 May
4. Extracurricular Activities - 25 May
5. Get to Know Your Potential Professors - 21 May
6. Don't Forget Your Life! - 20 May
7. What Do You Want to See in the U.S.? - 19 May
8. How Many International Students go to your Chosen University? - 18 May
9. The Problem with University Rankings - 17 May
10. Using Facebook to Research Universities - 14 May
11. Look at the Surrounding Neighborhoods When Looking at a U.S. University - 13 May
12. How Weather Should Factor Into Your Search for a U.S. University - 12 May
13. Looking for a University in the United States: Cost of Living (This post)
14. Looking for a University in the United States - 10 May

A lot of international students applying to U.S. universities like to use timelines or calendars to give them a schedule of tasks they need to complete.  That’s a good thing.  Timelines are useful tools for international students.  We’ve offered Summer and Fall timelines on this very blog.  The internet is full of similar schedules – you can see two examples here and here.

These kinds of resources can really help you prepare your application for U.S. universities.  Timelines can keep you aware of upcoming deadlines and help you structure your time.  However, there is a limit to how useful these tools can be, and in my experience a lot of international students end up losing time because of them.

Here’s why:  often, international students download and study one of these timelines.  They resolve to follow it exactly. However, they are intimidated by all the work the schedule says they have to do.  As a result, they find reasons to procrastinate.  They fall behind the schedule.  Now they feel really terrible.  Not only do they have a lot of work to do, but they have a shorter amount of time to do it!  They feel even more intimidated, which makes them procrastinate more, which makes the further behind.  And so on and so forth until, at the last minute, they whip together an application.  Which is often not very good.

To avoid this situation, follow these simple guidelines:

1. Remember, timelines for international students are guides, not rules. If you work according to a different schedule – if you start later on some tasks and earlier on others – that’s OK.
2. If you fall behind the schedule, try to remember that it is very possible to catch up.  Applying to a U.S. university is a lot of work, but it’s not an impossible amount of work.  You can do it!!!
3. Try to develop strategies that keep you from procrastinating.  Here are some internet resources to help you do just that.
4. Finally, and most importantly, RELAX. Remember that you are a smart, dedicated, effective person.  Remember that you want to complete your applications.  Remember that you want to spend the time to make those applications good.  Remember that you want to finish them ahead of schedule, to reduce your stress.  Focusing on the fact that you want to do all these things will reduce any feelings you have that you “have” to follow the schedule.

In short, use schedules and timelines as a tool.  But remember that you are the one controlling the tool – the tool shouldn’t control you.

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.

I’m happy to announce the release of our first myUface student guide,“The Advantages and Disadvantages of University Study in the United States.”

It’s a compilation of some of our early blog work about the advantages and disadvantages of study in the U.S.

Enjoy!

the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-university-study-in-the-united-states

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.

So we’ve considered most of the advantages and disadvantages of going to the U.S. for your university education.  But you may still be having difficulty deciding if studying in the U.S. is the right decision.  In this final post, I will present three pieces of advice about how you should go about making the decision whether or not to study in the U.S. (or anywhere else, for that matter):

1. Remember, you won’t be studying at a university called “the U.S.”  You’ll be studying at one particular university in the U.S.  So please, do some research about individual universities.  DON’T think that every university in the U.S. will be more or less the same, because they AREN’T.  Until you bring real universities into your decision-making process, you won’t be making an informed decision at all.
2. Keep your options open. Remember, you don’t need to decide right now that, no matter what, you’re studying in the U.S.  You have should research different programs in many countries, including your own.  You may want to consider pursuing entrance into U.S. universities and, at the same time, applying to universities in other countries as well.
3. Find good advisers. Making the decision to study in the U.S. will be easier if you connect with people who are familiar with the U.S. system of education.  Find such people and develop a relationship with them. The right adviser can help answer all your most difficult questions and lead to a better decision. In your country, look for an Educational Advising Center.  On the internet, you need go no further that myUface.  Remember, you can always ask us questions and we will always give you the best advice we can!

The decision to study in another country is a daunting one, but it can be fun as well.  The options for international students are more diverse and exciting than ever before.  Consider all your options carefully, but always remember:  if you do your research, take your time, keep your options open, and find good advisers, you will find the perfect program for you!

SERIES:  Why study in the U.S.?

• April 20 – Introduction
• April 21 – Diversity at U.S. campuses
• April 22 – Value of U.S. degrees
• April 23 – The Facilities
  
• April 24 – Practical focus of U.S. education
• April 25 – Variety of U.S. programs
• April 26 – The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: visas
  
• April 27 - The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: cost
  
• April 28 - Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.:  it might not help in your profession
• April 29 – Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.: will you fit in “going back?”
• April 30 – Other disadvantages
• May 1 – So, should you study in the U.S.?

Here is a list of five other disadvantages to studying in the United States for you to consider:

1. Studying in the U.S. – or in any foreign country – involves adjusting to a new culture and way of thinking. Although this is an exciting challenge to overcome, and will positively shape your character and personality, it is nonetheless a difficult process.  For some students, it can take up to a year to fully adjust to their new environment.  For others, it can take days.  In either case, the adjustment process requires flexibility, perseverance, and mental toughness.
2. For most international students the United States is very far away from their home country.   Because of the time difference, organizing ways to connect with those in your native country can be challenging.
3. Similarly, the distance between you country and the U.S. will make it hard to travel home during short breaks in the Spring and Fall, or over the weekend; whereas if you studied closer to home, you could easily visit friends or family for short periods of time.
4. A huge benefit of U.S. university is that it provides a high quality education.  The flip side of that is that obtaining a U.S. degree is very challenging and requires hard work.  You will be challenged by professors and fellow students.  If you are looking for an easy path to a degree, this may not be it.
5. English, english, english, all the time.  Though studying in the U.S. can be a great way to perfect your spoken and written English, it can be difficult if you are not fully committed to learning the language.  Do you like English?  Do you really like English?

For Your Consideration:

Can you think of other disadvantages to studying in the U.S.?  If so, please share!

SERIES:  Why study in the U.S.?

• April 20 – Introduction
• April 21 – Diversity at U.S. campuses
• April 22 – Value of U.S. degrees
• April 23 – The Facilities
  
• April 24 – Practical focus of U.S. education
• April 25 – Variety of U.S. programs
• April 26 – The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: visas
  
• April 27 - The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: cost
  
• April 28 - Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.:  it might not help in your profession
• April 29 – Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.: will you fit in “going back?”
• April 30 – Other disadvantages
• May 1 – So, should you study in the U.S.?

Here’s another potential disadvantage of studying in the U.S. that you should consider:  in certain countries, and within certain professions, people who possess U.S. degrees are viewed with suspicion and even resentment.

To use an extreme example to illustrate the point:  in certain authoritarian countries, if you possess a U.S. degree the security services may suspect you of being a spy.  Really, it happens.

OK, for most of you this will not be a problem.  But you could suffer from suspicion of your degree in other ways:

• colleagues may be threatened by your degree.
• colleagues may feel that your degree doesn’t apply to the “way we do things here.”
• colleagues may have negative political feelings about the U.S. as a country, and apply those feelings to their relationship with you.

Are these reactions fair or reasonable?  Absolutely not.  But they can be surprisingly common, especially in fields like economics, politics, public policy, and so forth.  I once met a group of Harvard graduates who had studied politics, but who were almost completely ignored by the politicians in their own country, and had all moved onto different fields.

By the way, this in no way applies only to U.S. universities.  Usually, if this kind of attitude exists at all, it will exist in relation to foreign degrees in general.

The bottom line is, be aware of the “culture” that exists within your chosen profession, and ask yourself, would holding a U.S. degree help me or hurt me here?  How will I fit in “going back?”

For Your Consideration: do you know what you’d like to do as a career?  Do you know someone within that career who has studied abroad?  How is their degree received among their colleagues?

SERIES:  Why study in the U.S.?

• April 20 – Introduction
• April 21 – Diversity at U.S. campuses
• April 22 – Value of U.S. degrees
• April 23 – The Facilities
  
• April 24 – Practical focus of U.S. education
• April 25 – Variety of U.S. programs
• April 26 – The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: visas
  
• April 27 - The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: cost
  
• April 28 - Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.:  it might not help in your profession
• April 29 – Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.: will you fit in “going back?”
• April 30 – Other disadvantages
• May 1 – So, should you study in the U.S.?

Today we’re going to talk about a potential disadvantage to U.S. university study.  First, a brief look back:  in our last two posts – here and here - we discussed supposed disadvantages of studying in the United States:  the difficulty of obtaining visas, and the high cost of a U.S. university education.  We discovered that, although there was a kernel of truth to both of these, neither represented a particularly huge problem.

In contrast, today we’ll be talking about a real disadvantage for many of those who choose to study in the U.S., and it’s this:  for many professions in many parts of the world, a U.S. education simply does not provide the appropriate preparation.  Let me give you an example:

A student I met from an Eastern European country had always dreamed of studying in the United States.  He wanted to become a lawyer.  The problem was that, in his country, a law degree is awarded at the end of undergraduate education at a specialized legal faculty.  In addition, his country’s system of law was completely different from that practiced in the U.S.  In other words, by going to get an undergraduate degree in the U.S., he would have:

• missed out on getting the degree he needed to practice law in his home country
• learned very little information that actually pertained to his own legal system

Now, that’s not to say he shouldn’t have wanted to study in the U.S.  In fact, despite the disadvantages of a U.S. university in this regard, he ended up coming to study in the States.  But even he acknowledged that those four years were in a certain respect wasted, at least in terms of how they strictly applied to his chosen profession (they were certainly not wasted in terms of his life – he had a great experience, made lifelong friends, helped him develop leadership and cross-cultural skills, and so on).

The bottom line here is that before you decide to pursue university education in the United States, you should do some research into how it might impact your chosen profession.  In the majority of cases, a U.S. degree will probably advance your career.  But in certain cases, due to the system used in your country, it might not provide you with the appropriate qualifications.  This is particularly possible in some of the following fields:

• law
• education (i.e. getting certified to be a teacher in a public school)
• medicine or dentistry

For your consideration: do you know what you’d like to do as a career?  What are the requirements in your country for having such a career?  Do you need a specific degree?  To pass a certain test?  How will education in the U.S. impact your ability to meet such requirements?

SERIES:  Why study in the U.S.?

• April 20 – Introduction
• April 21 – Diversity at U.S. campuses
• April 22 – Value of U.S. degrees
• April 23 – The Facilities
  
• April 24 – Practical focus of U.S. education
• April 25 – Variety of U.S. programs
• April 26 – The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: visas
  
• April 27 - The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: cost
  
• April 28 - Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.:  it might not help in your profession
• April 29 – Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.: will you fit in “going back?”
• April 30 – Other disadvantages
• May 1 – So, should you study in the U.S.?

As in yesterday’s post, I’m going to speak very briefly about a supposed reason not to study in the U.S.

The reason?  It costs too much.

Verdict: False

As we mentioned in a previous post in this series, while it is true that a U.S. university can be expensive, it’s also true that the U.S. spends more per student than almost any other country.  So it’s not as if you’re paying for nothing.

But more than that, is university study in the U.S. really so much more expensive than other countries? I’m always skeptical of claims like “universities in _____ country are expensive,” because, as we saw in yesterday’s post, there are so many different kinds of universities and programs available.  In every country, you’ll find some programs that are expensive and some that are not.  For example, let’s look at some very basic tuition information available on the web (NOTE:  these are estimates taken from random sites for the purposes of illustrating a point):

• Tuition in the U.K. is between £3,500 to £18,000 a year
• Tuition in Australia is between $A10,000- $A16,000 a year
  
• Tuition in the U.S. is between $5,000 and $30,000 a year

Using today’s exchange rates, and taking the middle point of those ranges,  tuition costs work out to be:

• UK:  $15,695
• Australia:  $9,347
• U.S.:  $17,500

Now, are there differences?  Yes.  Are the differences so overwhelmingly big so as to make you immediately discard the idea of studying in the U.S.?

Probably not.

The bottom line is that, yes, the U.S. will tend to be more expensive for university study . . .but probably not by such a large amount as to outweigh the various benefits of going there. And always remember, there are going to be universities in the U.S. that cost less than the average university in the U.K. or Australia.  It all depends on what you want and what kind of program you’re looking for.

For Your Consideration:

Have you looked at specific universities in the U.S.?  Do you know how much it would cost to attend?  Have you looked for other schools which might cost less?

SERIES:  Why study in the U.S.?

• April 20 – Introduction
• April 21 – Diversity at U.S. campuses
• April 22 – Value of U.S. degrees
• April 23 – The Facilities
  
• April 24 – Practical focus of U.S. education
• April 25 – Variety of U.S. programs
• April 26 – The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: visas
  
• April 27 - The supposed disadvantages of study in the U.S.: cost
  
• April 28 - Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.:  it might not help in your profession
• April 29 – Some real disadvantages of study in the U.S.: will you fit in “going back?”
• April 30 – Other disadvantages
• May 1 – So, should you study in the U.S.?