Getting an ApplicationIt wasn't long ago that you endured the tiring and arduous process of applying for admission to college. Remember the SATs? Writing six different college essays? Interviews and campus visits? Running home to check the mail every day? Well, in case you're afraid that applying for admission to a study abroad program is going to cause you to relive that nightmare — it isn't.
Submitting applications to study abroad is a shorter, less involved, and therefore less painful process. No standardized tests, interviews, campus visits, or tours are required. In fact, you most likely board a plane to your destination abroad never having seen the university in person (other than in pictures) nor visited the country to which you're going. That's all part of the adventure on which you're about to embark.
Although obtaining an application may seem like an obvious first step, you need to remember that, in most cases, you're dealing with a university that's overseas and therefore forced to reckon with international mail. Believe me, that can take awhile, so request an application as far in advance of any deadlines as possible.
You likewise need to be persistent in your request. When an application doesn't arrive in your mailbox within two to three weeks, don't hesitate to make another request or send a friendly e-mail asking where your application is. Universities in other countries sometimes do not act as quickly on requests as students in the U.S. may like.
If the application you need is available online, print it out, or if your home university's study abroad office has one, take advantage of this convenience by stopping by the office to collect materials.
Completing the Study Abroad Application
The actual study abroad application (minus any essays) is fairly short and need not take you hours and hours to complete. It asks for basic information, such as your name, address, which academic department you're applying to, when you plan to study abroad, and where tuition bills should be sent. However, bear in mind that your application is a reflection of who you are. Follow instructions on filling it out completely and as neatly as possible. Whenever possible, either type your application or fill it out online. Always use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Furthermore, meeting the application deadline is critical.
Deadlines vary. In general, deadlines for fall and full-year programs occur anytime from December to mid-April. Spring program deadlines tend to fall from October to mid-November. Many programs have rolling admissions instead of a specific deadline, so submit your application as soon as you know that you intend to apply to a program!
Otherwise, check deadline dates carefully. Some universities and programs have strict policies requiring that applications received after the deadline be reviewed only if space is still available in the program after on-time applications have been reviewed.
Other important details to bear in mind include:
- Keeping a copy of everything you send in case your application package gets lost in the mail.
- Supplying your signature where necessary. The application may request it in many different places.
- Making sure you've supplied your school abroad with enough information about you so that it has a complete picture of who you are and what your academic strengths are. Doing so is the only way admissions committee at your host school will find out about you.
- Providing up-to-date contact information so that if anything is missing the host university can reach you as soon as possible. The application asks for your school address and home address, so be sure to indicate to which address the school abroad needs to send any correspondence, including any acceptance packet.
- Include a check, money order, or credit-card information to pay the application fee that most programs and schools charge. Never send cash! Whenever you need to pay the application fee in your host country's currency, the easiest way is to use a credit card. Otherwise, you must work with your bank's international department to be able to pay the fee.
- Sending an I.D.-sized photo whenever the host program or university requests one (usually 2 inches by 2 inches). Universities abroad often require these photos and use them to make your student I.D.
- Sending a copy of your birth certificate or passport whenever required. A copy of the identification page of your passport usually will suffice. If you don't yet have a passport or passport number, let your host school know that you're in the process of applying for one and will send that information as soon as you have it.
Submitting Special Application Material
Some universities or university departments abroad require additional application material. The most common requests for additional material include writing samples, art portfolios, and audition tapes. If a school requires you to submit a writing sample, make sure you choose one that meets the length requirement. Sometimes a university or program asks for a graded copy of a paper, so make sure that you choose a paper on which you received a good grade! Likewise, make sure that you submit a paper that you wrote for a course in your major subject area because you're probably applying to a department representing the same or similar major at the university abroad. If you're a visual or studio art major, most universities will ask you to submit a portfolio. If you're a music major, you may need to send a portfolio or an audition tape, depending on your area of expertise.In general, do not send additional application material unless the school specifically requests it. Some schools specifically prohibit you from sending additional information. Large packages of materials don't make you a stronger candidate. You do not want to overload an admissions committee with too much information because its members may get lost in it, not know what to read, or not have time to read everything.
Submit portfolios, audition tapes, and your application well in advance of the deadline, so the admissions committee has plenty of time to review it and to contact you if they have any problems with your materials. Remember that videotape formats differ from country to country.
Writing Those Essays
If your university abroad requires you to write a personal essay or statement for your application (some don't!), doing so isn't as big a deal as those essays you wrote for admission to college — unless it must be written in a foreign language. The host school usually merely wants to find out more about you, why you want to study abroad, and whether you can intelligently think and express yourself in writing. The length requirement for these essays is typically less than two typed pages.Whenever you need to write your essay in a foreign language, make sure to have a professor or student who's proficient in the language review it for major errors before sending it off.
Examples of short-answer/essay questions and imperatives include the following:
- Have you traveled or studied abroad before? Where?
- Describe your family.
- Tell us about your personal interests and hobbies.
- Why are you a good candidate for studying abroad?
- Why do you want to study in this country? At this institution?
- How does a semester or year of studying and living abroad fit into your overall educational goals?
- What do you want to achieve during your experience?
Although you need not stress too much over this essay, it nevertheless can make you or break you. Students with excellent personal statements have been admitted to programs even when they've fallen short of the program's grade-point average (GPA) requirements. Your essay can be the deciding factor, especially when you're a borderline case. Because the essay can be a good indicator of your personality, make sure that you communicate your enthusiasm for studying at the host university and let officials there know about your unique qualities.
Here's a quick list of dos (mixed with a few don'ts) for effective essay writing:
- Do stay upbeat. Admissions committees generally like positive, lively students. Don't belabor any of the three Ds: Divorce, Disease, Death.
- Do make sure that your essay shows your creative side, whenever possible.
- Do proofread! Have others proofread! Don't rely on the computer's spelling and grammar checker.
- Do make sure your essay has a point. Don't make it a laundry list of everything you've ever done or a chronology of your life. Make sure to say something meaningful.
- Don't focus on quantity. Quality is preferable. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible. Concise, well thought out essays are the best.
- Don't exceed the page or word limit.
- Don't overuse the thesaurus. Clear and direct writing in your own words is more impressive than writing tangled up topics with big words.
- Don't use trite phases. In other words: "I hope that by learning more about Africa, I can save the world someday." Unless, of course, you can back it up.
- Don't aim for a polished, PR statement. Make sure your essay reveals something about you.
- Don't brag that being a student at your home university makes you more qualified for admission. Your home university may be well known in your state or region, but the U.S. has thousands of colleges, and it's quite possible that the person reviewing your application has never heard of it.
Putting it in the Mail
I know, this also seems obvious, but prepare a checklist of everything that you need to send with your application. Go through this checklist after you complete your application. Make sure that you have the correct mailing address and have affixed adequate postage when mailing your application. If some not-too-expensive means of delivery confirmation, signature on delivery, or other way of tracking your envelope is available when you send in your application, it may be worth what you spend for the service. And don't forget to ask the postal worker who helps you for an estimate of when your package will reach its destination.Without being too much of a pest, follow up with your study abroad program or university abroad to find out whether and when your application arrived safely and whether it is complete. It is not unusual that everything that you send will arrive on time, but a recommendation or transcript still ends up missing. When that is the case, you may need to give professors and staff at the registrar's offices gentle reminders to send the documents as soon as possible (if they haven't already). It doesn't hurt to tell them that because your school abroad already has received your application, it will be processed as soon as they submit the outstanding documents.
Waiting
After your application is submitted and complete, you cannot do anything but wait. Be patient! Most programs notify you of acceptance or rejection anywhere between two and eight weeks. Because of differing university calendars at home compared with those abroad, you may often be waiting on a decision from a university abroad when planning for the next semester at your home university begins. My best advice in this situation is to pretend that you won't be accepted into your study abroad program and thus will be spending the next semester or year at your home university. Go ahead and fill out registration forms for classes and apply for housing as if you're not going anywhere. Making these plans at your home university is easier when everyone else on campus is making them, besides when you find out that you're definitely going abroad, you can simply cancel them.Assuming you'll be studying abroad isn't any fun, especially when you find out that you're not going away because your application was rejected or you didn't get enough financial aid. When that happens, you end up having to scramble to choose courses or risk not having any housing because you missed the deadlines. It is a little bit of a juggling act to have to think about being in two places at once for one semester, but a little extra work now is worth not having so many headaches later on!
The Waiting is the Hardest Part
I can sympathize with the slowness of universities abroad. I submitted my study abroad application in December and didn't get an official response until the end of April. In the meantime, I had to pretend that I was going to be staying at my home university for the following year. What fun it is to be leading a double life! Despite many phone calls to my study abroad program and potential university, there was nothing I could do to get the process to move more quickly.One reason it took so long is because the academic departments I was planning to study in made the admissions decisions for visiting students. Without the luxury of an admissions office, the departments were juggling normal teaching and research responsibilities with the task of reviewing applications. The other reason my application took so long to process and review is simply because of "Irish time." The Irish are always late for everything and there's never any rushing around — in other words, what you can't do today you can do tomorrow. In fact, many countries and cultures outside the U.S. don't have the same regard for time and punctuality as we do. You just have to be patient. Complete guide read Erin E. Sullivan's book
