myUface Blog

In today and tomorrow’s post I’m going to speak very briefly about two supposed reasons not to study in the U.S.  Occasionally I’ve heard these from  students.

Reason #1:  It’s too hard to get a visa

Verdict: FALSE

You do hear about a number of international students who don’t get visas to the U.S.  The process also seems complicated, filled with all kinds of strange-sounding documents like I-20s.  The truth is, though, when you hack through all the confusion, the process of getting a U.S. visa is really quite simple:

1. You apply to a university in the U.S.
2. The school accepts you and send you some documents you need to apply for a visa
3. You apply for a visa interview at the U.S. Embassy, and go to the interview with the necessary documents
4. The embassy approves your application and puts a visa in your passport
5. You get on a plane for the U.S.

Now, there are certain steps of the process which do present real difficulties for large numbers of international students.  Quite often the above scenario can become much more complicated (and throughout the year we’ll talk a lot more about visas).  But for the majority of international students the process – though long – ends in success. It’s also worth mentioning  here that many think the Obama administration may be more open to international students.

The bottom line is that, for most students,  if you’re serious about studying in the U.S., the visa process is more of a hassle than a real disadvantage.

For Your Consideration:

Have you hear horror stories of students not getting U.S. visas?  Please share them with us!

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.?

A great benefit of the studying at a U.S. university is that you’re sure to find one that very closely matches your interests.  How do I know?  Because there are 4,314 degree granting institutions in the United States, and surely at least one of them has a program that would interest you.

Astonishing Variety

Nowhere else are you going to find such a vast number of educational institutions from which to choose. Some other quick stats:

• Of the 4,314 institutions mentioned above, 643 are “public” and 1,640 are “private.”
• 2,629 offer four-year degrees; 1,685 offer two-year degrees
• In California alone there are 412 institutions; for those of you who like tropical climates, we note that Hawaii has 23, Florida 174; for those who like the cold, Alaska has 8 and North Dakota 22.
• There are over 1,600 different educational programs offered by U.S. universities, covering everything from Construction to Library Science to Public Administration to Indian Studies to Theology and Pastoral Ministry.
• The length and cost of degrees differs as well.  There are at least 23 different kinds of Associate’s degrees, most of which take two years to complete; and there are at least 38 different bachelor’s degrees, most of which take four years to complete (with some exceptions).
• The same degree at two different universities will be a very different learning experience.  This is because, as we talked about in yesterday’s post, most universities try to give their students practical experience with organizations and businesses in the surrounding community.  If you got a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Michigan, for example, you might spend a lot of time learning about the Manufacturing sector; whereas the same degree from a university in Silicon Valley would give you more background and experience in IT.

Diversity Again

The secret to the astonishing number of universities and programs is, again, diversity.  The U.S. has such a diverse country, not only in terms of its ethnic makeup, but also in terms of its geography and economy.  The degrees that are most needed in Boston, Massachusetts are not going to be the same as the degrees that are most needed in Fargo, North Dakota.  And since universities in the U.S. aren’t controlled by the central government, they’re free to determine – independently – the programs that will most likely serve their community.  That’s why you’ll find more universities and more programs in the U.S. than anywhere else.  That’s a huge advantage if you know exactly what it is you want to learn.

But aren’t all those options confusing?

They don’t have to be.   Services like myUface can help you find a university that fits your needs.

For Your Consideration:

What exactly do you want to study in the U.S.?  Have you identified any programs that match your goals?

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 a great benefit of going to university in the United States: your studies are generally going to be focused on practical, real-world applications. What does this mean?

• it means you will graduate not only with theoretical knowledge of a subject, but also with experience of using that knowledge in actual, real-world situations.
• it means that when a prospective employer asks about your “work experience,” you’ll have a good answer – even though you just graduated!
• it means that employers will value your degree more than degrees from universities in other countries, because they know you’ll need less training to adapt to the workplace.
• it means that you’re going to spend a lot of time in university actively implementing what you’ve learned.  For many students this aspect of their education is the most rewarding.

Why are U.S. universities more focused on the practical applications of knowledge? Well, there are many reasons.  Here’s a few:

• Historically, universities in the United States have received more of their funding from private sources – from students themselves, from corporations looking for specific research, or from philanthropists (generally men and women who had made a lot of money in the business world).  These private funders have been more interested in education that yields practical benefits.
• American culture generally places a higher value on practice than it does on theory.  Americans are more interested in whether something works than in why it works.
• Americans have developed educational methodologies that suggest that the most effective way to learn about a theory is to implement it.   One popular practice, called “Service Learning,” assigns students real work with groups that aren’t able to pay for it.  In a marketing class, for example,  you might help a local non-profit organization design its web page.  In other words, American universities do teach theory – they’re just more likely to teach it via practice, rather than via textbook.

The combination of practical experience with “book learning” is one of the most unique and fascinating aspects of the U.S. higher-educational system.

For Your Consideration:

What do you think?  Do you think students should go outside of the classroom and do “real-world” activities as part of their education?

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.?

If you’ve done any research at all about U.S. universities, you’ve probably heard quite a bit about how expensive it can be to study in the U.S.  Although I want to note that the difference in cost between universities in the U.S. and other countries is often exaggerated, I think it is safe to say that, in general, and with many individual exceptions, the cost of a higher education at a U.S. university is going to be higher than in other countries.

This is often brought up as a reason not to study in the U.S.  Certainly, cost should be an issue in deciding what university to attend, but it should not be the only issue.  It helps to remember that, in most cases, university costs are high for a reason, and that quite often the increased cost of U.S. university education reflects, at least to a certain extent, the higher expenditures made by U.S. universities upon the educational process. The OECD notes that the United States spends more per tertiary student than all but 3 OECD members (Norway, Luxembourg, and Switzerland). A large part of that comes from student tuition costs.

More money spent for each student means more money for state-of-the-art facilities.  By facilities I don’t only mean classrooms, but also money for research, for top-notch professors, for sports venues, for student comfort, for libraries, for IT resources, and so on and so forth.  Quite often, then, the high cost of a university can positively reflect the quality of the education you’ll receive at that university.

In fact, the situation is even better – many of the most expensive universities in the United States actually spend more – sometimes two or three times more – on each student than that student spends on tuition.

The point here is that when it comes time to look at individual universities, don’t look at the cost in a vacuum.  An expensive school might be worth it because of the quality of education it provides.  An inexpensive school might actually present less value because it doesn’t provide the same educational resources.  Of course, in many cases, and depending on what you want to study,  expensive universities will provide poor quality, and inexpensive universities will provide high quality.

Don’t be scared off by the high cost of U.S. universities.  Look at the total picture, including the educational quality they provide, in making your decision.  And keep in mind that in many cases, you’ll get what you pay for.

For Your Consideration:

Do higher tuition costs translate into better facilities?  Do better facilities mean a higher quality education?

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.?

One very important reason to consider a university education in the United States is the value of the degree you’ll receive at the end of it.  According to one recent report from National Public Radio,  degrees from U.S. universities are so highly regarded abroad, that having one is “solid gold.”  This is especially true of business degrees:

“Business degrees are far and away the most popular end objective of most foreign students,” says John Fernandez, president of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. He says that developing countries just don’t have much to offer in this area. “There are few, but not enough to deal with the masses that they must send through higher education, so that’s good news for United States-based business schools.”

It’s not just business schools, however.  Regardless of your field of study, a degree from a U.S. university will be recognized by the overwhelming majority of employers throughout the world.

There are two reasons for this, and understanding them will help you more fully understand the true value of a U.S. degree:

First, to gain accreditation in the U.S., a university has to go through a rigorous, transparent, well-established process that provides independent verification of the quality of education provided in an institution.  The specific process of accreditation is a subject for another post, but here’s a snapshot:

Accreditation in higher education is a collegial process of self-review and peer review for improvement of academic quality and public accountability of institutions and programs. This quality review process occurs on a periodic basis, usually every 3 to 10 years. Typically, it involves three major activities:

• A self-study by an institution or program using the standards or criteria of an accrediting organization.
• A peer review of an institution or program to gather evidence of quality.
• A decision or judgment by an accrediting organization to accredit, accredit with conditions or not accredit an institution or program.

This means that when an accredited U.S. university awards a degree, the quality of that degree has been vouched for by an independent process of quality assurance.  That makes employers feel better about your degree.

Second, a very large number of international students have graduated from U.S. universities and gone on to successful careers around the globe.  Having experienced the U.S. educational system themselves, they know its strengths and are likely to positively evaluate candidates who also received a U.S. degree.  The influence of this factor will only increase as, year after year, U.S. universities continue to host international students.

To conclude briefly, because of the strong, independent system of accreditation in the United States, and the ever-growing network of graduates from U.S. universities throughout the world,  the reputation of U.S. degrees has never been better.

And here’s the bottom line: if you choose to study in the U.S., you can be confident that the value of your degree will garner respect all over the world.

For Your Consideration:

Think of graduates from U.S. universities that you have met.  What special skills do they seem to possess that might be a product of their educational experience in the U.S.?

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.?

If you enroll to study at a “typical” U.S. university, you’ll encounter students and professors from a bewildering array of backgrounds. Students of many different nationalities and socio-economic backgrounds will share the same classrooms, assignments, and living spaces. A look at the list of the top 20 source countries for international students at U.S. universities will give you some idea of the variety of nationalities represented at U.S. campuses.

There are three main reason why you should care about diversity in a university you attend:

First, diversity among the student body may increase the quality of the education you receive. Here, for example, is the President of the University of Virginia’s view of the value of diversity in the educational process:

We value diversity here because it has to do with the human richness, the variety of experiences and backgrounds and perspectives and reasons for learning that distinguish us as people, based on our own backgrounds, our own expectations and our own prior experiences.

If you are in a classroom with twenty students from an identical cultural background, chances are that all twenty will have a similar approach to material presented in that classroom. If you are in a classroom with twenty students, each of whom is a from a different cultural background, then you will most likely experience many different perspectives about the material presented.  Although different studies have come to different conclusions regarding the impact of diversity on education, there is a general consensus that a diverse learning environment presents certain unique opportunities to students and teachers alike.

Second, as we move into a more and more globalized world, the ability to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds, and to perform well in a variety of cultural settings, will become more and more in demand.  For example, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a ” leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education,” lists, among others, the following skills as vital:

• Global Awareness
• Communication and Collaboration
• Social and Cross-Cultural Skills

It’s very easy to see how studying at U.S. university with a diverse student body would help you build all of these skills.

To put it more simply, imagine that you have just graduated and you are interviewing for a great job  with a large, international company.  The interviewer asks you, “How do you work with others from different cultural backgrounds?”  If you’ve just graduated from a U.S. university, you’ll be able to answer that question very confidently, providing a number of concrete examples.

Third, the contacts you make with students from different countries and cultures can help you in your professional career.  This is especially true if you see yourself going into an international career.

And let’s not forget the most important reason for you to value the diversity you’ll find on U.S. campuses: meeting students from other backgrounds is just plain interesting.

For Your Consideration:

Does the thought of studying with people from all over the world interest you?  Why or why not?

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.?

According to the Open Doors report, there are approximately 623,805 international students at U.S. institutions of higher learning. That’s 3.5% of the total student body, and more than the entire population of Wyoming.  And for every student that is studying in the U.S., there are many more who want to study in the U.S.

You may have heard about the increase in students going to study in other countries, such as Britain or Australia. You may have even been contacted by a university in a country other than the U.S., and they may have told you something like this: “Yes, the U.S. used to be the top destination for international students, but they’re on the decline. The newest hotspot for international students is _______.”

Now, it is the case that other destinations have increased in popularity over the years.  But the United States remains the top destination for international students. And far from decreasing, over the past decade the number of students in the U.S. has vastly increased, from 514,723 in 1998/9 to 623,805 this past year.

So, there is no doubt about it – the U.S. is the country of choice for international students.

But it’s worth pausing for a moment and asking a simple question: why?

This is obviously an important question if you’re planning to spend four years of your life studying in a foreign country. Over the next few days, I’ll seek to answer this question as honestly as I possibly can, providing you with both the benefits and the disadvantages of a university education in the United States.

Let me say right from the outset that I am not exactly a neutral evaluator. As a product of the U.S. university system, and as someone who has spent a fair amount of time working with it, I am what you might call a partisan of the U.S. higher educational system. I happen to think that it represents the best available option for a majority of international students. But I am also aware of its shortcomings, and I promise to present them to you in as unbiased a light as possible. I hope that, by reading this series of posts, you’ll gain a fuller understanding of what would await you at a U.S. university.

For Your Consideration:

What’s your impression?  Are U.S. universities a good place to study?

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.?
  

So this blog is about helping you, an international student, find and get into a U.S. University.

That is a big, big subject. There are literally hundreds of areas we need to cover. That’s why this is a daily blog, because we have so much to cover, and we’ll need a lot of time to do it. Don’t expect all of your questions to be answered by one post or even one months of posts. But I will promise you that, over time, we’ll get to all the important issues facing internationals students.

At the outset, I’ve identified seventeen (17!) broad categories which 99% of our posts will fall into. For those new to blogs, you can view all the articles for any one category by clicking on the links to the right of the page.

The seventeen (17!)categories are:

1. Should I Study in the U.S.? Why study in the United States? What’s unique about the higher educational system in the U.S.? What are the downsides?
2. Choosing a Program – What kind of programs are available? What distinguishes them from one another? What are the different fields available? What program / field is the best?
3. Choosing a University – How do I find the right University for me? What’s up with these rankings I keep hearing about?
4. The Application – what does an application to a U.S. university look like? What information do I need to fill one out?
5. Essay Writing – How do I write good essays?
6. Test preparation – What are the best strategies for getting good scores? Do I need to be really, really worried about tests?
7. Interviews – Do I have to have an interview to get into a U.S. university? If so, what should I expect? How can I do well?
8. Extracurriculars- How do you highlight your non-academic work on an application? Is work experience important?
9. Facing Failure – You probably won’t get in everywhere. How should you deal with failure?
10. Money Help – help understand the system and the processes for international financial aid
11. myUface – this is where I’ll cover new products and services offered by myUface to help you find and get into a U.S. university.
12. Success! – here we’ll share information about successes – both personal and institutional.
13. Welcome to the U.S. – what are the cultural differences between the US and other nations? What makes the U.S. unique?
14. Visas – information about the visa system and process
15. Higher Ed in the U.S. – what are some of the peculiarities of the U.S. higher-educational system?
16. Mailbag – each week, on Friday, I’ll answer questions from my mailbag
17. The Rest of It – although this blog is about international students and studying in the U.S., we are all open-minded, broad-souled individuals, who have other interests besides visa regulations. Anything that doesn’t “fit” into the subject of the blog, but which is nonetheless interesting, shall go here.

Month to month we’ll cover each of these categories. However, I do want to mention that certain months we’re going to spend more time on certain topics than others. For example, in December, when readers are rushing to finish their essays, you can expect more material on essay writing.

So we’ve covered what this blog is, who I am, and what this blog will be about. We’re ready to start.

In yesterday’s inaugural post I mentioned a brief background. Today I want to expand on that, giving you a more detailed picture of the author of the blog you’re reading. This material will always be available by following the “Biography” link at the right side of this page.

Again, my name is Nathan Truitt, and at myUface I am primarily responsible for Marketing and Student Outreach. In other words, it’s my job to find students interested in studying in the U.S. and to introduce them to the powerful tool that is myUface.com.

I came to this position via a long, circuitous path. I grew up in many different places in the United States. I was born in Utah, spent most of my childhood in Colorado (with brief stops in California and New York), went to high school in Boston, and college in Los Angeles (at Pomona College). In college I studied English literature and Classics and I prepared myself for what I imagined to be an eventual career as an academic. During my senior year, however, I became a little tired of the life of being a student, and so I decided to take some time off – at least a year – to experience the “real world” outside of the friendly confines of the university.

I ended up joining the Peace Corps and serving as an a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) volunteer in Chardjou, Turkmenistan (and here let me give a shout out to School #2, where I worked). As someone whose only foreign travels up until that point had been to Europe, I was completely overwhelmed (in a good way) by my experience in Turkmenistan. The people were incredibly hospitable, and the culture, though completely different from what I was used to, was vibrant and full of age-old traditions. In Turkmenistan I had the opportunity to interact with tons of talented students, many of whom dreamt of studying in the United States. Through these students, I had my first exposure to the intimidating edifice that is the U.S. university admissions process.

After Peace Corps I stayed in Central Asia, moving next door to Uzbekistan, and working with an educational non-profit organization that provided scholarships for students to study in the U.S. In implementing the scholarship, I got to see the admissions process from the other side: our organization was responsible for recruiting talented applicants and then judging their applications. I learned how such competitions are organized and judged, and I gained an understanding of the criteria that educational institutions in the U.S. use in order to make decisions about international students.

Over the next three or four years, I stayed with the same non-profit, traveling to different countries: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, and others. Everywhere I went I met very talented students who wanted to study in the U.S. but who were confused by the process of finding and getting into U.S. universities.

Two years ago, my wife and I moved back to the United States. I still work at the same non-profit, this time on yet another aspect of the higher educational process: the funding side. I help our organization raise money to provide scholarships to international students. This has given me yet another perspective on the system of higher education here in the States.

Although I love my work, our organization offers very limited support for undergraduate studies. Keeping in mind the thousands of students I’d met and interviewed, who wanted to get their bachelor’s degree in the United States, I was always looking for programs to help them get into U.S. universities.

That’s why I’m very happy to be working with myUface. The myUface team all have similar stories to my own, We’ve all spent time overseas, where we’ve met talented, dedicated students who want to come to the United States. myUface is our attempt to create a powerful, online, and easy-to-understand tool to help precisely those students achieve their dreams.

So, that’s how I’m here, writing this. But enough about me. This blog is about you – and more specifically, your desire to study in the U.S. Tomorrow – and every day after that – we’ll turn to helping you achieve that goal.

Welcome to the myUface.com blog, where we will strive to provide you with all the information you’ll need to identify and gain admission to educational programs in the United States.

My name is Nathan Truitt, and I’ve been working with international students from different parts of the world for about a decade. I’ve also had the chance to work with university admissions staff on a variety of interview and selection panels. I hope my varied experience will allow me to:

• display a solid understanding of what you, international students, are looking for in the U.S., and what challenges you face in coming to study in America
• help you understand the way the admissions process work at U.S. universities, and give you some advice on how to navigate the process successfully.

Starting today, April 20, 2009, I will be writing at least one post a day, every day, without exception. Over the course of the coming months and years, I hope to work together with you, the readers of this blog, to create the most comprehensive resource on the web for international students. To do this, I’ll need your help. It’s not enough for me to write my own opinions and share my own information – I need to know what you want to learn about, and what information you need. For that reason, I strongly encourage you to make comments on the blog or e-mail me your questions. You can always e-mail me at blog@myuface.com. I welcome any and all questions about the U.S. admissions process, and I will do my best to provide quality answers in a short amount of time.

You do not need to use myUface in order to read this blog. However, I would strongly encourage you to pre-register for a free myUface account, for two, simple reasons:

• it’s free.
• it’s useful.

That’s a sufficient introduction to out first post. Over the next two posts, I will more fully introduce myself and the subject matter I will be covering in this daily blog.