School Choice
The first challenge in the application process is to select the colleges to which you would like to apply. You should consider what type of educational environment is the best fit for you. Will you be more successful at a smaller school that offers more personal attention? Or is it more important to you to attend a larger school that may have more students from your home country? Is one of your goals to learn English and to meet more Westerners? Are you interested in being near a city? Do you want to attend a school that is in a more rural area? Is weather a concern for you or are you open to experience a new climate? In addition, colleges and universities often value the extracurricular talents of their applicants, so you will want to consider your interest outside of school, and whether a particular institution offers that activity.
A challenge for any student is to realistically assess one’s chances for admission. Admissions are ever increasingly more holistic and subjective. While you may find average test scores and grade point averages for various universities, these averages may or may not correlate with your own chances of admission. Secondary school performance and examinations are important, of course. But many intangible factors may play a role in whether or not you are admitted, including your activities outside of school. For example, are you involved in sports? Music? Service to your community? Have you been employed? Are you the first in your family to attend university? All of these factors, and many more, can and will enter into the decision whether to admit you or not. This is why so many international students seek guidance from experts: a realistic assessment of one’s chances is very, very difficult, given the complexity of the admissions process.
A challenge for any student is to realistically assess one’s chances for admission. Admissions are ever increasingly more holistic and subjective. While you may find average test scores and grade point averages for various universities, these averages may or may not correlate with your own chances of admission. Secondary school performance and examinations are important, of course. But many intangible factors may play a role in whether or not you are admitted, including your activities outside of school. For example, are you involved in sports? Music? Service to your community? Have you been employed? Are you the first in your family to attend university? All of these factors, and many more, can and will enter into the decision whether to admit you or not. This is why so many international students seek guidance from experts: a realistic assessment of one’s chances is very, very difficult, given the complexity of the admissions process.
