(How to) A Guide to Study in the United States of America.
What a interesting topic, isn’t it? Especially for all of you who are currently in senior high school, and have a dream to go to United States for your university here is your smart guide!
First step, how to apply?
Agent/Educational Advisors
Agent/Educational Advisors are people that experts in finding schools and have connections here and there. They can help you in finding requirements and documents that you need to submit an application. They can also give you some recommendation about university that they seem suitable for you based on your preferences and ability.
You, Yourself, and Yes you can!
If you want to apply to certain university, and you know particular major that interest you, you can apply by yourself. It is not a hard thing to do, as long as you have the time to check on all the documents that are needed for the application, and of course, submit it on time.
So, after you apply you know that there are some requirement from the university that you applied for such as TOEFL and SAT exam result. Study hard, and get a great score in both. Typically for a common university, scoring 85 in a TOEFL exam can get you in, but for the IVY LEAGUE school perhaps you need to have at least 90 and above, and if you could get more than 100 will be better!
Third step, write your essay!
All university will typically require at least 1 essay for the undergraduate student. The topic can be vary from How to describe yourself? What’s your strength and weakness? What is your biggest achievement? Why do you choose this program? And many more. Remember that there is a deadline for this, so do not procrastinate.
Fourth step, submit your application.
Once you finished your essay, and submit your TOEFL and SAT result; you are almost done. There are some documents that the university will require you to submit such as a copy of passport, school transcript, graduation diploma, and other legal documents. After all of those are collected, you can submit your application. Most school have an online application platform, so no paper hassle, just click upload documents and submit.
Fifth step, you got accepted!
Congratulations, by this point you are almost an undergraduate student of a university in USA. But, there are things that you need to have before flying to USA. So, let’s continue preparing yourself.
Sixth step, Visa and I-20!
After receiving your acceptance letter, the university will asked you to make your student visa (usually F-1) and they will send you an I-20 (immigration form). Then you need to make an appointment with the US Embassy in your home country for an interview. There are certain documents that they need to grant you visa, such as financial support (how you will pay your school bill, and who will pay?), passport, acceptance letter, and many more. Each country has different requirement so check it before you make an appointment. During the interview, answer to their question just like a normal conversation, don’t panic and you will be fine.
Seventh step, you got your visa! Yeah!
Now you can say that you are officially an upcoming undergraduate student! Congratulations again! Now its time to pack up and book the flight to USA! Remember, US have 4 seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) so prepare some winter clothing. Although not every states will have a heavy snowy winter, almost all states will have a quite cold winter with temperature below 10 Celsius or 50 Fahrenheit. You can check flight tickets from KAYAK, PRICELINE, MOMONDO.
Last step, counting days to your new adventure in USA! Let’s have some fun facts about USA:
- Consist of 50 states and not only California and New York.
- Boston is not only consist of Harvard and MIT, there are many other great schools too.
- Americans are friendly, they smile a lot, and very helpful even to strangers.
- USA Independence Day is on July 4th!
- USA use miles instead of kilometers, and inch instead of centimeters. For weights USA use pounds instead of kilograms.
Have fun searching around for universities, and hope that this guide will help anyone who would like to study in the USA.