How to Apply to USA Colleges and Universities? 2

Finish Right!

Each college or university that you may be thinking about applying will have its own application requirements, procedures that you will be asked to follow. We went over the first two and most important parts of the application requirements in my previous article.

Now let’s review the next most important thing when applying to a U.S. college/university program:

Academic Eligibility:

A completed application form and paid application fee may be the first two steps to perform when applying to a program of study in a U.S. college or university, but your application will not go anywhere, if you do not submit the remainder of the documents required by the program/institution you are applying to. Would you believe that in my career as an international educator, I have had many applicants who submitted an online application and an application fee and sent me an email the next day asking when I would be sending their I-20s and acceptance letters? It is not uncommon to experience this, especially when the student/applicant does not take the time to review school’s websites providing step-by-step application requirements or email messages sent by the admission officers.

The most important thing that will play a key role in helping the admission committee of the school /program you may be applying to is your GPA. What is a GPA? GPA stands for Grade Point Average, it is basically your overall success score! It shows how well or how poorly you performed during your previous education. Considering that U.S. education system can be quite different than the rest of the world, the grading scale will be naturally quite different as well. A good example to this would be India versus U.S.A. grading scales. While in India grades like First Class, Second Class etc. are used to determine how good of a student you are, in the U.S. a grading system of base 4.0 is used. (Numeric Grade “4.0” = Letter Grade “A”) But how in the world the U.S. admission officer will know about the grading scale used in your country? Will they really be able to determine or understand what a good student you were back home? Do not worry. Expert admissions officers with credential evaluations skills will know exactly how good or bad you did during your previous studies, or will ask for additional documents (Credential Evaluations Report). I will write more about the Credential Evaluations in another article.

The most important academic credentials are your transcripts: list of grades you have earned in each single course you took during your previous education.

Depending on the college/university you are applying to you may be allow to submit original documents directly to the school, but most will require these credentials to be in a sealed envelope from your former institutions. Most schools will not accept any documents you may submit as official unless they are issued and sent directly to the U.S. college/university you are applying to by the institution you previously attended. For example a Vietnamese student may send his/her academic credentials (transcripts, degree/graduation certificate etc. )issued by his/her school and put in a sealed envelope to a U. S. college/university but that U.S. college or university may or may not accept these documents as officials, in other word, your documents, money spent to those documents, and the time you took to get these all done might be for nothing. So how will you overcome this: check with the school you are applying to (Website, email the admissions/international admissions office, review the catalogs/brochures) and find out what do they consider official? Are you being instructed to contact your former schools to ask for them to send your original transcripts and degree/graduation certificate directly to the address of the U.S. school? Or are they going to allow you to send such documents yourselves. Why does this matter? If a student is given the chance to submit his/her own credentials to a U.S. school, this give that student the opportunity to make changes on these documents in other words provide fraudulent documents to increase his/her chance of getting admitted. Although most students would not do it, knowing that the student who may be delivering his/her own documents have the opportunity to do such thing makes most U.S. schools to request these important documents from the school so that student or any other third party has no opportunity to alter them.

So make sure how does the school you are applying to requires you to handle submission of your transcripts and degree/graduation certificate? Can you send it? Would that be OK? Or do they have to be sent by your school directly to the U.S. school?

Well what if your school only issues one set of transcripts and or diploma/graduation certificate or degree certificate? And that this one and only copy is issued to you and you would not like to surrender them? Well most U.S. schools will understand. It would be helpful to get an official letter prepared by your school explaining this practice. U.S. school may allow you to submit photocopies of your documents. Each school will have a different requirement when it comes to transcripts. Everyday international educators encounter with applicants who submit altered documents , and the only way to verify that the information on your transcripts may be for them to be issued and sent directly by the issuing school. But that is not the case, An authorized credential evaluator (subject of another article) such as WES – World Education Services or ECE – Educational Credential Evaluators may evaluated your transcripts and authenticate that they are accurate and not altered. Your future U.S. college/university may accept official credential evaluations report from a reputable evaluation agency (usually a member of NACES: www.naces.org) in lieu of official transcripts and degree/graduation certificate.

Test Scores: Remember that schools will measure your eligibility for admission not only by looking at your transcripts but also by looking at how well you performed in standardized tests that may help measure your math, English ability. Most programs will require you to sit for a specific test (SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, TOEFL etc.) and have your official scores submitted directly to them in support of you application, while some schools/program may not require such test scores or waive the test score requirement for a temporary duration of time (usually up to one semester).

As an international applicant one of the most important thinks you must prove to your future U.S. college or university is that you have the required English language proficiency in order to be successful in the program if/when you are admitted, and to measure your level of English language proficiency most schools will require you to sit for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam which will measure your English language proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and comprehension.

The school you are applying to may allow you to sit for Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as an alternative to the TOEFL examination. Each school will set its own minimum admission criteria and even different programs may have different English proficiency test score requirements within the same college or university.

Most colleges and universities may also recommend you to attend their ESL (English as a Second Language) programs and may allow you to be admitted to the college/university degree program without a TOEFL, IELTS, MELAB test scores if you successfully complete their ESL program.

If you meet the English Language Proficiency requirement of the school/program you are applying, but don’t meet the specific test requirement, and if that school/program does not allow you to take such test during the first semester of your studies by giving you a conditional admission, you may always explore the way for applying as a non-degree student. As a non-degree student you may be allow to take courses from the program/department of your original interest, and prepare for the test(s) required. Please remember that you will need to update your application for the degree program and meet the program admission requirements before you are allowed to continue studying for more than two semester. Some schools may only allow you to register as a non-degree student for one semester, while other for up-to two semesters at the most. Please check with the school you are interest in for more information.

Application Form, Application Fee payment, Official / original transcripts and degree/graduation certificate/diploma and test scores are not the only things you will be asked to provide when applying to a degree program at a U.S. college or university as an international student. While the list of required documents may vary from school to school, it is expected that you will also be asked to provide following documents:

- Affidavit of Financial Support Forms/Bank Letter/Scholarship Letter etc.

- Admission Essay/Personal Statement/Statement of Purpose

- Recommendation Letters

- Resume

Please remember to submit ALL required documents and payments asked by the school you are applying to by the set deadlines (if any). Most schools will not continue reviewing application files if you fail to submit all required documents and payment(s) in support of your application by the deadline they set. For more information on Financial Support forms, Admission Essay, Personal Statement, Statement of Purpose, Recommendation Letters and last but not least about Resumes please read the related articles submitted.

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