How important is getting an internship while you're still a student?

Getting a college degree is still very important, and it doesn't matter much what you want to do when you graduate or even if you're still not sure what career to pursue. Unless you're the next Bill Gates, something tells me you should probably invest in a Bachelor's degree.

On the other hand, you should also be aware that just having a degree won't get you far. With the youth unemployment rate in the United States at 16.2%, there are 8.2 million young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 who can’t find full-time employment.

Also, there is a growing number of college educated people who work in positions that don't require a college degree. The truth is that we are taught that we should all go to college if we want to make something of our lives.

Although this is often true, there just aren't enough positions in the economy for all college graduates to fill them. So, naturally, there is an excess of potential employees that have to take up jobs that they went to college to avoid. Not to mention that these jobs don't pay enough for the expensive student loans to be paid off.

No internships in their time, maybe it would have helped them
By Bain News Service, publisher [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

With the situation as it is, the best thing to do is to think long and hard about whether you should go to college in the first place and if so, what kind of job you could get after you graduate. Think of college as an expensive school that will help you get educated so you can get a good job after you graduate, not just a place that will help you "understand yourself better".

However, in the real world, tough as it is, this won't be enough. You should definitely also explore the world of paid and (much more common) unpaid internships. It will give you some kind of experience when you come to your first real job interview (trust me, these things matter to HR people) and it will also give you the idea what kind of career you're suited for.

Some people thrive in a fast-paced environment and think they wasted their day if they don't get 200 emails every day. Others are better at doing research, hidden in some remote office at the end of the hall. It doesn't make them less important, it's just the kind of environment that makes them give 100% because that's what makes them feel comfortable.

Some people like to ask a lot of questions and like a boss that is more hands-on, others are irritated if someone micromanages too much.

You'll never know where you belong until you actually start interacting with other people in an office environment. I know most of us like to think of ourselves as mighty corporate executives in the making, but the truth is we are wired differently, and maybe interning can show you what kind of work environment (and potentially industry) you should steer clear from.

It's much better to learn in your second year of college that you're not that interested in working as a business analyst, then after you finish college and get your first job.

To sum it up, internships help you find out what you want and what you don't want to do in life.

But they also help you learn valuable stuff. Sure, you'll probably do some copying, editing, typing, and such (they probably won't ask you to make coffee, it's kind of the definition of exploiting young interns now and is frowned upon) but if you have a good boss and you do everything they ask you for, they'll be sure to throw you a bone or two and give you something that you can actually put on your resume.

For example, I published my first report as an intern!

This is a major thing and it will give you ammo next time someone asks you for a writing sample so you don't have to send some silly school paper feeling like a five-year old all of a sudden.

Lastly, doing an internship will give you an opportunity to get a mentor and will definitely help you get your first job, I've seen this happen many times. All these senior folks talk to each other and a recommendation from the right person can be more important than a Harvard degree at times.

So, don;t drag your feet and sacrifice a summer or two to get ahead of competition. Four years fly by fast and if you don't hit the ground running you might get that job at Burger King you once did as a teenager. Only this time you'll have a $200,000 loan to pay off.

Some college and graduate school rankings

I know one of the most interesting things for future college/grad students are school rankings.

There are so many different options out there and you want to find the right fit for your interests and affinities. Nothing wrong with that, it's what school rankings are for!

I've made a selection of rankings that I think a lot of you might find interesting but I understand that I can't cover everything here. Good sources for this kind of things are www.collegexpress.com and http://www.usnews.com/rankings where I found most of the stuff published here.

University rankings from a couple of years ago

Colleges that have a relatively low cost:

1. Adrian College (Adrian, MI)
2. Drake University (Des Moines, IA)
3. Alfred University (Alfred, NY)
4. Hendrix College (Conway, AR)
5. Alverno College (Milwaukee, WI)
6. Mercer University (Macon, GA)
7. Prescott College (Prescott, AZ)
8. Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ)
9. St. John's University (Collegeville, MN)
10. Baldwin–Wallace College (Berea, OH)

Colleges that meet the financial needs of students:

100%: University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
100%: University of Richmond (University of Richmond, VA)
100%: University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
100%: Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
100%: Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY)
100%: Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)
100%: Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA)
100%: Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT)
100%: Williams College (Williamstown, MA)
100%: Yale University (New Haven, CT)

Note: The percentage listed represents the amount of need that was met for students who were awarded need-based aid.

Kiplinger's analyzed the unemployment rates and salaries for graduates of the 100 most popular college majors, and these are the ones that would give you the most fruitful career.

Kiplinger's 10 Best College Majors for a Lucrative Career:

1. Pharmacy and Pharmacology
2. Nursing
3. Transportation Sciences and Technology
4. Treatment Therapy Professions (respiratory, radiation, and recreational therapists)
5. Chemical Engineering
6. Electrical Engineering
7. Medical Technologies
8. Construction Services
9. Management Information Systems
10. Medical Assisting Services

Colleges that provide a large number of grants for good students, even if they don't qualify as needy:

1. Amherst College (Amherst, MA)
2. Baylor University (Waco, TX)
3. Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH)
4. Davidson College (Davidson, NC)
5. Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
6. Franklin & Marshall College (Lancaster, PA)
7. Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA)
8. Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
9. Haverford College (Haverford, PA)
10. Lake Forest College (Lake Forest, IL)

Fine Business Programs at Small/Medium-Size Colleges:

1. Albertus Magnus College (New Haven, CT)
2. Albion College (Albion, MI)
3. Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH)
4. Alma College (Alma, MI)
5. American University (Washington, DC)
6. Fordham University (New York, NY)
7. Ashland University (Ashland, OH)
8. Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI)
9. Baker University (Baldwin City, KS)
10. Pacific University Oregon (Forest Grove, OR)

10 Cool Colleges for Entrepreneurs:

1. DePaul University (Chicago, IL)
2. Florida International University (Miami, FL)
3. Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
4. Howard University (Washington, DC)
5. Simmons College (Boston, MA)
6. Sitting Bull College (Fort Yates, ND)
7. The University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ)
8. The University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX)
9. University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, CO)
10. University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

GRADUATE SCHOOLS

Business schools (finance):

1. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
2. University of Chicago (Booth)
3. NYU (Stern)
4. Columbia University
5. Stanford University
6. MIT (Sloan)
7. Harvard University
8. University of California (Berkeley) (Haas)
9. Northwestern University (Kellogg)
10. University of California (Los Angeles) (Anderson)

Law schools:

1. Yale University
2. Harvard University
3. Stanford University
4. Columbia University
5. University of Chicago
6. NYU
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. University of Virginia
9. University of California (Berkeley)
10. University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)

Medical schools:

1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Johns Hopkins University
4. University of California (San Francisco)
5. University of Pennsylvania (Perelman)
6. Washington University in St. Louis
7. Yale University
8. Columbia University
9. Duke University
10. Chicago University (Pritzker)

Engineering:

1. MIT
2. Stanford University
3. University of California (Berkeley)
4. California Institute of Technology
5. Carnegie Mellon University
6. Georgia Institute of Technology
7. University of Illinois–​Urbana-​Champaign
8. Purdue University–​West Lafayette
9. University of Michigan–​Ann Arbor
10. University of Southern California (Viterbi)

Fun facts for international students, especially if you're Chinese (I found this in the Washington Post):

723,277: The total number of international students in the United States last school year. That’s a 4.7-percent increase from the previous year when there were 690,923 international students.

32 percent: The growth in the number of international students in the past decade.

$21 billion: The amount of money international students spend in the United States on tuition, fees, housing and living expenses.

70 percent: The percentage of international students whose primary source of funding for college is from their personal funds, family, government and other foreign sources.

157,558: The number of students from China, a group that makes up 22 percent of all international students. (This group grew 23 percent in one year for all Chinese students and 43 percent for undergraduates.) Other popular countries of origin are: India with 103,895 students, South Korea with 73,351 and Canada with 27,546.

8,615: The number of international students at the University of Southern California, the most popular host school last year.

These are just some of the few rankings and stats you might find helpful. It's not a bad way to start!

American higher education - basic concepts. Part 2.

Hi guys!

This post is meant to answer the questions I have been getting on facebook from a lot of you in the past couple of weeks.

I thought it would be enough to make a general overview in the beginning but now I understand I have to explain some basic terminology first before you can really understand any of the stuff I post here.

So, here is more on the American higher education system 101 (that means the most basic concept) from an international student's perspective.

By User:Kalan (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-2.5
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-sa/2.5)],
 via Wikimedia Commons

Financial aid

You can get more details on how to get financial assistance here but let's do a short overview.

Going to university (college or graduate school) in America is very expensive and could easily cost you more than $100,000. Americans usually "solve" this problem by taking out a federal student loan which is not offered to foreign citizens.

Don't think they have it easy. Most American students have a huge debt when they graduate college and they have to find a good job right after they get out of school to start paying off interest that has accumulated in the past four years.

This is a huge burden and they end up paying much more than what they borrowed under steep interest rates.

In other words, you're not missing out on anything good.

Now, let's see what you can do to pay high tuition fees at American universities. Note: these prices vary from one school to another and you should check the prices on the website of the universities you are interested in. The bigger the name the higher the price.

As I posted earlier you can find this money in by :

• borrowing from a bank in your home country (depends on where you're from); 
• getting a scholarship in your native country (maybe your government gives out scholarships to talented students on the condition you work for them for a number of years after you graduate); 
• applying for scholarships in the US; 
• asking the university for merit-based aid; or 
• paying out of your parents' pocket.

Basically, what you might need help with is learning how to apply for merit-based aid and American scholarships.

Merit-based aid (as the name suggests) is the money you get from the university after they decide you will be accepted into the program you applied for. 

You usually send the application materials in the fall/winter and start getting replies in March and April. When they answer you they send you a letter saying if they invite you attend their university or not.

If the answer is yes, they might offer to give you some merit-based aid, which means they will forego part of the tuition you were supposed to pay them. This might be a couple of thousand dollars or even a full amount of your tuition (in which case you get to study for free).

To be able to get the full tuition off is very hard and you'd better be a genius if you hope to get that.

In any case, whatever they offer to give you, take it!

If they don't offer you any aid or if it covers only part of your tuition, don't despair. This is what most students get. You can always apply for scholarships available from your university or from other institutions.

First you need to get that acceptance letter, but when you do you become eligible for many scholarships offered by rich private individuals, corporations, foundations, trusts, etc. You should know that most of them have deadlines in March and plan accordingly. 

You can get a bunch of small amounts from different places and pay your tuition that way. $1,000 here, $5,000 there and you're already closer to your goal. 

Try creating a profile on these 3 websites and see if they can match you with some good sources of funding:

1. www.scholarships.com
2. www.fastweb.com
3. www.collegeboard.org

Another good source are universities themselves. If you are good at a sport and the school you are interested in has a team in that sport, you can apply for a sports scholarship. This is the easiest and cleanest way to get a free ride and it is available to everyone. Americans are crazy for college sports even after they graduate and the universities invest a lot of money into it. 

If you want to apply to graduate schools you will not be eligible to play on any of the teams (only open to college students) but maybe you can be an assistant coach. That pays well, too.

Admissions process

Like I mentioned above, the application process usually starts in the fall/winter and you get answers from universities in March/April.

That means if you want to start school in the fall of 2014 you should get your application material ready in the fall of 2013, basically a year in advance.

Part of your application will be the results of the tests you need to take, personal statement, your resume/CV, and any other documentation they ask you to submit. To find out what they want from you, visit the websites of the universities you want to apply to and go to the admissions page. 

To see how a page with this kind of information looks like, click here.

To see how you can start your search, click here.

Another important thing to know is that you should apply to more than one school, typically 4-5 will be enough. You are going through a lot of trouble to apply and you should have a back-up option or two.

Visa issues

There are a lot of swindlers out there so if someone tells you they can help you get a US visa, run the other way!

There is only one way to obtain a visa and that is in your local US embassy, nobody can interfere with that process in any way, legal or not. If someone tell you they have a connection that might help, that you can choose the type of visa and so on, know it's horseshit - they're trying to get money out of you.

The only fee you need to pay for the visa is the one you pay before your embassy interview, and you pay it to the embassy, there are no intermediaries there.

The visa you can get as a foreign student is called F-1. Another type of academic visa is J-1 and it is reserved for visiting scholars.

After you've received an acceptance letter from a university offering you to study there you should answer back saying you accept and they will send you an I-20 form. Then you make an appointment at the embassy and make note of everything they want you to bring to the interview.

Among other things, they will ask to see the I-20 form and the acceptance letter from the university, so don't throw it away! Another thing they might ask you to bring is a bank statement proving you can pay whatever you didn't receive in scholarships. If you have secured financial aid, bring the letters that confirm that, as well.

If everything is ok, you will be issued an F-1 visa for the duration of your studies.

You can travel internationally with this visa but to come back to the US you will have to present the I-20 form with your passport at the border every time. The I-20 form needs to be signed every 6 months by someone from your university (usually from the office that deals with international students) to keep it valid.

After your program is over you have the right to apply for the Optional Practical Training (OPT).

This means you can work (at a company, for example) for at most one year on a student F-1 visa towards getting practical training to complement your field of studies.

Conditions:

1. OPT must relate to your major or course of study.
2. You can apply for 12 months of OPT at each education level, (i.e., you may have 12 months of OPT at the bachelor’s level and another 12 months of OPT at the master’s level).
3. Your DSO will provide you with a new Form I-20 that shows the DSO recommendation for this employment.
4. You must apply for work authorization by electronically filing a Form I-765, “Application for Employment Authorization,” with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and paying a filing fee. USCIS will send you a Form I-766, “Employment Authorization Document,” (EAD) upon approving your Form I-765.
5. Wait to start work until after you receive your EAD.
6. While school is in session, you may only work 20 hours per week, after you finish school you can work 40 hours per week.

This is where a lot of confusion comes from. It is true that it is very hard to travel outside the US during your OPT and most people tend to not leave the country in this period but that only applies to OPT, not the whole duration of your studies!!! This is because your visa is technically expired but you are in the country legally as long as you have a valid I-20 form.

Ok, that's it for now. Join the group on facebook and keep sending me questions, I'll do my best to answer them here!

How to get your hands on a university scholarship

According to Bloomberg, "former students are hobbled by a collective $1 trillion in education loans".

The universities are raising their costs every year claiming economic difficulties and young people are still willing to borrow vast amounts of money to get the most basic shot at success in life. 

Of course, it's hard to build a career, start a new business or get a normal-paying job when the first thought on your mind is how you'll pay this month's installment of your student loan.

It doesn't matter if you're gunning for college or graduate school, and it doesn't make much difference what you want to study, you have to explore the possibility of getting one or more scholarships.

Not the best hairline but you want to have his attitude

If you're American you should obviously explore the possibility of getting a federal student loan. However, take a couple of days to see if you can get some of that future burden off by getting a scholarship or two along the way. Do some research and see if it's worth investing more of your time in it (answer: it is).

If you're an international student, you probably already know that you're not eligible for a federal student loan.

This means you can:

• borrow money back home (depends on where you're from); 
• try to get a scholarship in your native country (maybe your government gives out scholarships to talented students on the condition you work for them for a number of years after you graduate); 
• apply for scholarships in the US competing with American students; 
• ask the university for merit-based aid; or 
• pay out of pocket in which case you should proceed to the top of the page and press the big letter X in the right-hand corner because you don't need to be reading this at all.

Now, if you do need the money, you want to apply for scholarships and don't know where to begin here is a simple way to start. Try creating a profile on these 3 websites and see if they can match you with some good sources of funding:

1. www.scholarships.com
2. www.fastweb.com
3. www.collegeboard.org

Do this way in advance and know that many of the deadlines are at the end of March every year.

See what kind of requirements they have and if your background fits the kind of people that won their awards in the past. 

Check out if there are any scholarships for students of your ethnicity or from your part of the world/US. You'd be surprised how many small scholarships you can find that are designed strictly for one group of people. 

Also, do some research on your school's website, see if they are offering any scholarships and what hoops you need to jump through to get some of that sweet green.

Money schools are willing to offer you, especially if you're a graduate student, should be a major incentive to add/drop a school from your wish list. Some of the really big schools, especially in urban environments like New York, DC, or San Francisco, will charge you up to $60 K/year. 

Add living expenses to that and you're in trouble. If you can't get any relief from them financially, it doesn't matter much if you get an early acceptance letter in March - you still won't get to go to that awesome school you chose!

Check out the ten most expensive colleges in the US!

Another way to save money is a sports scholarship. If you're good at a sport and you were/are on your high school team check to see if the university has a team and if you could apply to be on it. If you're a graduate student, you can't compete but you can assist the coach. 

Most of the time, if it's not a division 1 team, you can probably get in without much coaching experience although some experience as a player is a must. Seriously, try it, I know a lot of people who got a free ride/ticket to the US thanks to this.

If you're an international college applicant, make sure you mention all the extracurricular activities you've done in high school. It may look downright silly to you but this may help you a lot if you're going for a merit-based/academic scholarship. 

American schools value this kind of activity a lot, and if you can show that you have different interests, you're active and willing to be part of student clubs and organizations they will be more likely to offer you some kind of financial aid.

To find out more about the types of scholarships follow this link.

If you're interested in scholarships available to international students you can check out some of them here.

I almost forgot, just like with schools, don't forget to apply to more than one place. 

Maybe your university can give you a grant that will cover one part of your tuition, and then you can add two or three small scholarships to help ease the pain.

Don't just think that the really big awards are worth it, there are some smart kids out there who save a lot of money winning those small amounts most students don't pay attention to. 

Do it, the 30 year-old you will be eternally grateful, I promise!

As a bonus, here's a nice and short documentary about the student debt crisis in the United States.

P.S. Check out this group on facebook where you can get the newest info on schools and scholarships!

How to write a grad school personal statement

I was lying on the floor covered in blood gasping for air while my life was flashing before my eyes…

That got your attention didn’t it? Well, if you want to do a good job applying to grad schools you’ll start your personal statement with a “hook”, something that will grab the reader’s attention straight away. It doesn’t have to be as exciting as what I just wrote but it has to stand out from a bunch of other boring essays the admissions folks have to slog through during the day.

Preview of graduate school

So, what is your personal statement and how important is it? Think of it as your ID, the one thing that can make you stand out among the competition.

Sure, there will be lots of smart candidates with excellent grades but many of them will come from different countries and once you start comparing apples and oranges, i.e. different grading systems it all soon starts to look terribly complicated and it’s hard to remember even the people with perfect grades.

GRE scores are usually not very important, as long as they’re not horrible. Prepare well and try to do a good job when taking the test but know that the most important thing is not to raise any red flags with a bad score. More about that in my previous post.

The truth is, if you want to stand out from the crowd, you need a great resume and an awesome personal statement. Of the two, it is the latter that tells more about who you really are and why you want to go to that particular school (the one you’re applying to).

Does this mean you should write a different personal statement for every school? Yes, but you can use the same “hook” (described above) and basic paragraphs about yourself and change the part about the school and why you want to study in their program. If they even smell a mass-produced personal statement you sent out to a lot of different schools you can bet your life you won’t even be considered for the waiting list.

The essay should usually be around 500 words long and you should check the exact guidelines on the school’s website. Always adhere to them because they are not flexible about this.

 What should be included in your personal statement? First of all, that sentence that separates you from the rest of the herd. Try to grab their attention right away, shock them even, and then take it from there.

I cannot tell you how many lame essays begin with “It has always been a dream of mine to come to your school because you are the best…” They know they’re the best (or at least that’s what they want to believe), they don’t need your input, thankyouverymuch.

What they want to know are two things: who you are and how you can make their program better. The first part of your personal statement should answer the first question, the ”hook” is there to make them want to read more about you, where you come from, what your ambitions are. This sentence will then lead into the opening paragraph that sets the tone and theme for the entire essay. Try to be as analytical as possible when doing this.

The second part should deal with how you can contribute to their program. In other words, you need to tie in who you are and what you want to accomplish with what they offer in their curriculum.

You also need to show you’ve done your research on the school. This is where you drop the name(s) of the professor(s) you’ve been writing to about their work and why you think they could benefit from having you in their class.

Remember, just like any employer you’ll ever interview for, they don’t want to hear so much about why this is good for you (they’re great, get it?!) but why it will be beneficial for the program to have your input there.

Many of these graduate classes depend heavily on the input of students, some are even book clubs (especially if you choose to study humanities, for example) and you want to show that you will enrich the working environment in class by actively participating with your (very interesting and informed) point of view.

They should glimpse that point of view in your personal statement.

Also, don’t fall into the trap of trying to be too academic. Write in the way that comes natural to you, not the way you think will make you sound more intelligent. That’s how you'll end up using words and constructions that look unnatural and out of place.

Always proofread several times what you wrote and have a couple more people you trust do it, too. It’s amazing how many mistakes we can overlook when we write something ourselves, someone else might catch it right away.

Here’s a nice little set of instructions on how to write a personal statement.

How do I explore graduate programs in my area of study?

So, you have your BA/BS degree in your pocket and hopefully a couple of years of work experience under your belt. In this day and age, if you want to be eligible for promotion in many companies or even if you just want to apply for a good position (often even an entry position) you need to have an MA. On the other hand, you need to be aware that not all graduate degrees pay off and that two additional years in school are a big investment that you should be able to cash in one day.

Another scenario is if you’re aiming for a Ph.D. If this is the case you should know that you are in for 4-5 years of serious work and if you don’t have a clear plan, even if it’s a couple of options instead of one – plans do change – for the love of god, don’t apply. Doing a doctorate is a serious thing, it usually involves working long hours as a research assistant/undergrad TA (teaching assistant) plus going to classes, doing homework, writing long essays and a thesis that will make everything else you’ve done in your life seem like a joke.

Student orientation
By Tulane Public Relations (Flickr: Student Orientation) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

On the other hand, if you’re completely in love with what you do, if you can see yourself working as a professor and/or researcher one day, and if the life of academics is the one for you, go for it! It’s a lot of work but it pays off at the end. Oh, and one more thing. Although you will probably get a scholarship from the university (accept nothing less, if you have to pay for it, they probably aren’t the right match for you anyway) do know that you will be as poor as a church mouse during your studies – the scholarships are very small and cover only the most basic stuff. 

Now, if after all this you’re still interested, let’s see what your first step towards applying could be.

The most important thing is to find schools that are the right fit for you, not the ones that would impress people when they ask you where you study. For example, when I was applying for grad schools in 2007 the example my academic advisor used was Harvard and its chemistry department – apparently they didn’t quite compare well against many universities you’ve never heard of that invested much more money (and effort) into this particular area of study. The point is, don’t go for the brand, look for the substance. People in your niche know what programs are good and when you apply for your first job after graduate school they might not be as impressed with a big university name as your friends and family might have been when you enrolled.

What you need to do is create a list of schools (programs) you are interested in and put them in order of preference – my first, second, third choice, etc. After you’ve done enough research this list will make itself, and may I suggest not opting for ten programs, 5-6 will do the trick. You should pick schools so that you are satisfied if any of them send you an acceptance letter and if they all reject you, well, it wouldn’t matter if you sent 100 applications.

By Ziko van Dijk (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Another mistake I’ve seen people make is apply only to the schools that top the rankings. So, it’s Yale, Princeton, Harvard or nothing! This is definitely the wrong attitude. There are plenty of great schools out there and if you can get into the one that’s number one in your field of expertise that’s great, but know that you should have some reserve options. For example, if you’re applying to 6 schools, make 2 your absolute priorities, 2 more realistic options, and 2 your fallback plan. Of course, you should know yourself best and only you (should) know what is realistic for you. The best option is the same for most people. If the two overlap you have hit the jackpot!

But there are so many schools, how do I cut the list to only a few good ones? Easy. Find a good academic adviser, get a list of all schools with programs in your area of study and start digging. If you want to know about rankings, check out US World & News Report. They are the most credible source out there but know that many faculty members complain of them privately because they have very rigid guidelines and don’t take into consideration all aspects of academic life.

Once you’ve found the schools that might potentially look interesting (up to 20, 30 if you’re really clueless) you just need to go to their websites and start doing incredible amounts of tedious research. But hey, if you’re not into that, you might as well give up on going to grad school in the first place.

You’ll soon see how all these websites look alike and you’ll learn the keywords like academics (to see what courses they offer and who teaches them), financial aid (differentiate between what is available to Americans and what international students can hope for – the answer is a lot less), bios of faculty members, housing (usually off campus for graduate students but there are exceptions), cost of study (take into consideration the cost of living at the location, living in Iowa will not hurt your pocket as much as finding an apartment, or a shoe box more likely, in NYC).

After you narrowed down your list even more and know you have a much better idea what you could hope for, check out the professors who teach the courses you are most interested in within these programs. If you already know some names and are a fan, that’s fantastic. If not, try to search their names using googlescholar. Find what they have written, read as much as you can, get a feel for what their course is about and what it would be like to be in their class or even cooperate with them if you’re a Ph.D. candidate.

Graduating students
By Sasikiran 10 (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Once you identify the professors that interest you most get in touch with them. It’s easy to find their profile on the faculty list section of the school website and that email address next to their name is there for a reason – use it! Get in touch, tell them what you’re interested in, mention some of their work and how it got you interested to join the program. You’ll definitely get a better feel for the school and it won’t hurt your chances in the admissions office once those faceless applications start pouring in. Some of these professors are on the admissions committees and they all talk to each other! Also, if you’re a Ph.D. candidate you’ll need a mentor and this is a great way to start working your way towards finding one.

Final thought, and this is especially important for international students who are not familiar with the way American universities work – make sure you note down all application deadlines way ahead of time. If you want to start school in the fall the application must be out the door usually in December or January and you won’t get an answer until at least early to mid March. Now, if you need to take the GRE/GMAT test (and you do) try to find the location nearest you where you can do this and please find a tutor or a good manual on how to prepare. But I’ll write about that in one of my next posts.

What’s coming up: how to find the right college. Stay tuned! Also, all you need to know about the GRE and TOEFL!

When should I start and how?

Now. Yes, that’s right, now now. There is no time like the present and it is never too early to start finding out more about what’s in store for you, not just during the application process but beyond.

For me, it all started when a friend of mine came to class one day and said she had attended an info session at the local office of EducationUSA (I had never heard of them before) and that she heard some interesting stuff about studies in the US. She said she might pay them another visit if she felt like it. I guess she didn’t because I went to their next presentation without her and got hooked for life. Here I am, eight years later, living in America having changed my entire life in the meantime.

When I first started seriously gathering information on potential schools I was in my third year of college (out of four) and I still had to take a year off after graduation to take all necessary exams and send off my application on time. For a foreigner with no experience this is usually a long process and it is never too early to start. In my case, from listening to that first info session to actually starting school it took a little less than three years. Don’t think it can’t be done in less if you have a good idea what you want to study and have a general knowledge of schools you would like to apply to but if you are as clueless as I was in the beginning it may take you a looong time.   

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
By Marchmain05 at en.wikipedia. (Taken by Marchmain05.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Here are some tips on how to get started. Try to find out if there are any NGOs that are loosely affiliated with the local US embassy (EducationUSA did the trick for me; I believe they have offices in most countries around the globe). They could help you find out more about the application process. Be sure to scour the embassy’s website, maybe they have participated in projects that would involve presentations from US universities – study abroad fairs are not uncommon but our usually poorly advertised outside the academic community. In addition, try to find out if your school has any ties to an American university, maybe one of your professors or teachers went to school there and that personal touch from someone who knows you well could make all the difference.

In my opinion, the first thing you need to do is figure out what you want to study. If you’re still in high school this is much easier. Unless you’re a math whizz and want to go to MIT (which makes it even easier to choose the right school) there is an abundance of good liberal arts colleges across America where you can explore your different interests before deciding on a major (the main focus of your study, for example it might be psychology or political science). If you’re gunning for graduate school like I did, you should be very specific about what you want. That means you should have a general idea what kind of career you might hope for after you get your (expensive) degree, how it complements your BA/BS in the job market, and whether you want to do an MA degree or pursue a Ph.D. (in 99 percent of the cases I would recommend this for those in search for a university career).

To sum it up, try to find an academic advisor that will explain to you what are the best schools in your area of interest. You will usually find them in nonprofit organizations that you can get in touch with either through your friends and professors or directly through the US embassy. These guys advise students for a living and they know good schools in most popular areas of study. Even if they don’t (my case), they must have access to publications that contain the names and rankings of schools in particular disciplines, usually with a short description of the program/school/college and contact information. Once you have this very basic information you’re ready for the next step.

 In the next post, I’ll write about how to do research on universities that meet your starting criteria and why it is important to get in touch with faculty members right away.