International Students: A Guide to U.S. College Admissions

Webinar Transcription

2024-02-08 – International Students/ A Guide to U.S. College Admissions

Hello, everyone. Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon, wherever in the world you’re joining us from. We’re so excited you’re here. Welcome to CollegeAdvisors webinar on international students, a guide to U. S. college admission. My name is Anna Vande Velde, and I’m your moderator today. To give you a bit of my background, I’m also a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor.

I know the company for about Two and a half years now, in addition to the students I advise, I’m a proud co captain of our essay review team. Um, for undergrad, I studied psychology at Carnegie Mellon, thinking I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. Ended up at Harvard Law School where I graduated with a law degree in 2021.

So in addition to the work that I love doing for CollegeAdvisor, I’m also a non profit attorney in the Pittsburgh area. Enough about me. To orient everyone, uh, to what we’ll be doing here, um, we’re going to start off with a presentation from Aaron, then we’ll answer your questions in a live Q& A. On the sidebar on your screen, you can download the slides you’ll see tonight.

And please start submitting your questions in the Q& A tab. Now and throughout the webinar, we will get to them at the end. Without further ado, I’m going to turn it over to our fantastic panelist tonight, Aaron Brown. Thank you, Anna. And again, let me, um, welcome everyone wherever you are joining us from today.

Um, again, my name is Aaron Brown and, uh, I have been working in the higher ed space for getting close to 20 years, um, which is, uh, kind of crazy to think about. Um, but I worked in admissions, uh, at USC, um, for more than a decade. And, um, There, I essentially ran the application review process, um, then went and did a similar role at UC San Diego, um, and then switched over to the high school side of the desk where I now serve as a college, uh, guidance counselor, um, I’ve done that internationally as well as now back in the United States, um, and when I was at USC and UC San Diego, I, I recruited internationally and, um, In places like Canada, the UK, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, um, so have a wealth of kind of international experience and I’m happy to kind of share with you a bit about what, uh, applying to school in the United States looks like from an international student.

What are some of the exciting things for you? How’s your application reviewed? Um, and what are some of the challenges to consider as well? Awesome. We are so lucky to have you here tonight, Aaron. You are so well equipped to talk about this topic. Uh, before we get started, uh, we just like to get a sense of who’s in the room.

So if you could all please answer this poll, um, if you are a parent or an educator, feel free to select other, but otherwise let us know what grade you’re in. And while folks are doing that, Aaron, if I may put you on the spot, um, I wonder if you’d like to share if you ever studied abroad and, you know, if not, or if you did, what factors you considered?

Yeah, um, when I did my undergraduate, um, work, which was at USC, um, I did a, uh, study abroad program in the UK, um, was there for a summer program at Cambridge and took a couple of courses on, uh, British history, kind of a, you know, British political history, um, and then, uh, kind of Britain and international relations, um, which is a really great experience, uh, to, to have that abroad experience.

And I had my living abroad experience, um, for the last couple of years, uh, when I was living in, in Toronto, um, and, and advising students on applying to college, um, you know, all over the world, um, whether that was Canada, the UK, United States, Australia, et cetera. So, Absolutely. Been a great experience with that.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. And just so you know, Aaron, the audience is overwhelmingly in 11th grade. Perfect. A good time to be here. Yeah, absolutely. So with that, I will turn it over to you.

Okay. So the international student process, you know, absolutely. Is is a challenge, and we understand that. And so that’s part of what I want to do tonight is kind of, you know, demystify some things, um, perhaps debunk a couple of common assumptions, um, and really kind of help you navigate what admittedly is is often a very different process than how you might be applying to university, um, you know, in your home country, uh, can be a bit opaque and confusing, um, but absolutely something that is doable, um, you know, with the right support.

I think commonly there’s this perception that, oh, applying as an international student must be significantly more challenging or competitive than as a domestic student. And my always unhelpful answer with so many things in admissions is it depends. And truly that may not always be the case at institutions and many institutions are thrilled to have you as part of your class, their class and kind of what you will bring to that institution.

Um, and also know that you will be reviewed in the appropriate context. Um, admission offices have folks who are specifically focused on reading international applications, who do international recruitment, who are very familiar with the educational systems, uh, that you come from, um, you’re not judged kind of vis a vis other, you know, domestic students, you’re considered in the pool of international students and kind of with that knowledge.

So know that you’ll be reviewed, um, appropriately. In that way. So as you think about kind of working on your, you know, profile, how, what are things to consider in terms of making an application to the United States a bit stronger, obviously, first and foremost is the academics, right? Um, much like it would be the case in your home country.

Um, the admission officers here in the States want to be sure that you can go and be successful, uh, and, and handle the rigorous course load at their institutions. So, you know, what they’re going to look at. Okay. When it comes to that, is that how have you challenged yourself in the context of your school and what that school offers?

Or, of course, in the context of the particular country from which you’re applying, you know, what’s the kind of national system there or, you know, maybe you’re at a school that offers international baccalaureate or, you know, is an international or American school that has AP, maybe you’re doing French baccalaureate, um, you know, how do you show rigor.

Uh, and so they want to see, you know, what, if you’re taking A levels or, you know, IGCSEs, what is the breakdown of your exams? How many exams are you taking? Right? Those kinds of things. So it’s important, just like it is in the domestic system and your home country, to do well. Unlike, um, many systems around the world, and I’ll talk about this a bit in depth later, the United States is not just looking at Your academic profile, which I’m sure you probably know by now.

Um, but that’s for a number of reasons. Um, but, you know, I think one of the main ones is just the level. The application volume is so significant that if they were to just use academic metrics alone, it truly would be impossible. Um, there was not enough space in the class at some of those really highly selective, highly sought after institutions to take every student.

even with a perfect, you know, 4. 0 GPA on a U. S. scale or a perfect 1600 SAT, um, you know, you could fill Harvard probably multiple times over with the number of 4. 0s in their applicant pool. So they have to look at all those other factors, qualitative pieces, extracurriculars, writing letters of recommendation to help them make their decisions.

Um, and they also want to have a really clear sense of who’s joining their community, um, because these are, you know, Residential communities where you’ll be living and learning for four years, and they want to know who you are. What are your interests? What are you going to bring to that space? Um, how will that space help you?

Right? And so that’s kind of things they want to understand. So extracurricular activities and the things that you’re doing outside of the classroom are really also quite important in this process. And so they’re looking for you to show kind of meaningful engagement with things that matter to you. Both in and out of school.

And so kind of thinking about what are the things that you do, they don’t really have a preference is that you found things that you enjoy doing. You’ve made an impact in, and you can then turn around and reflect about how those things have made an impact on you.

Obviously, exams, uh, are something that kind of can be a bit fraught, uh, in terms of kind of producing some anxiety and whatnot in the process, which I understand, um, there’s a lot of questions around kind of English proficiency and, and is that necessary to be demonstrated? And, uh, again, as I said, a couple of slides ago, my favorite and least helpful admissions answer, it depends.

Um, Some schools, even if you’ve been in English language curriculum, uh, high school, you know, so say you’re in China, but you are, um, you know, at Beijing, uh, or the international school of Beijing, um, In an English curriculum, many schools will still require that you demonstrate English proficiency, which can be done in a number of ways.

Some schools, uh, like the UCs, for example, if you’ve been in an English language curriculum, um, for high school, you don’t need to demonstrate English proficiency necessarily. So unfortunately it involves asking questions, checking websites, et cetera. Um, but generally they will want to see results from a number of different exams, TOEFL.

Um, increasingly Duolingo is accepted by many institutions. Um, many places might also, um, kind of suggest that you’ve met their, um, kind of basic proficiency requirement. If you achieve a certain score on the English sections or the evidence based reading and writing section of the SAT. Or the ACT, um, they might also have specific placement exams you take specific to that institution if you’re admitted.

So, um, again, it depends, but often that’s the kind of thing you’ll need to prepare to be ready for. Um, obviously the SAT and ACT remain factors in many processes. Uh, although of course with perhaps some diminished weight Post COVID. Um, so there’s a variety of different kind of ways that you have, or kind of different, um, you know, ways that that scores are considered in the landscape right now.

Uh, so you have institutions like the University of California system that are test free where they don’t. Look at tests at all, even if you submit them, they won’t be considered if you write about it in your application, they tell the readers to ignore it. It is not part of their decision. And then the other side of the spectrum, you have institutions like MIT, uh, Georgetown, Dartmouth announced over the weekend that they’re returning to requiring tests, um, and that they really value them in the process.

And then there’s a whole lot of test optional in the middle where, you know, if you submit an exam, testing can help you. Um, I will say that for many institutions, and especially many of the highly selective institutions, I don’t want to say it’s an expectation that international students take exams like the SAT or the ACT, but most of them, most competitive applicants.

Will tend to have done that so definitely encourage you to to work on on at least presenting a score with the sat or act If you really feel it’s not representative of your abilities then, you know at test optional schools. You have the option of not submitting it Um, but I would encourage you all to at least take it and see where you score and then consider whether or not you wish To submit and that’s a conversation you can have with a number of stakeholders about if that makes sense

So thinking about the type of institution that you might want to attend, there are literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States, though, of course, international students, not to mention my students now in L. A. Think about the same 15, maybe 25, um, and often those are the ones that everyone’s heard about.

They’re the ones at the top of, you know, uh, US news rankings. Um, but, you know, I’m here to say, don’t just look at rankings, right? Ask yourself, well, why do I care? Um, does precision of itself matter to me? Is it really kind of adding value to you? Um, what are your reasons for studying in the United States, right?

Like, look a bit more broadly than just what are the top 10 schools in a list of rankings. Ask questions. How are these rankings developed? How might schools manipulate or take advantage of these right? Like there was a whole scandal about Columbia in the US News Rankings a few years ago. They can be a guide to maybe help focus your search, but I don’t want you to have them think that that somehow really is saying that the school that’s number, you know, 12 is vastly different from the school that’s number 17.

It’s not the case. Use EducationUSA. That’s a great resource. It’s funded by the State Department. Um, so kind of, you know, the foreign ministry in essence of the United States. All about studying in the U. S. So they have great resources on their website. There is an EducationUSA kind of officer in nearly every country in the world that you can ask questions of.

Um, there, you know, are obviously also U. S. colleges recruiting all over the world. Um, and so maybe even if it isn’t as a school that your dad said I’m going to, if you find out that a U. S. college is coming to your high school or going to be at a local university fair, Maybe you go just to ask questions about what’s it like to study in the United States and how does the process work and you might learn something kind of about it that way.

Talk to your counselors if your school has university guidance counselors. Um, and really spend a lot of time on U. S. university websites. You can learn so much that way. Um, most schools have really kind of expanded their virtual visit COVID world. Um, When there wasn’t an option for a few years for students to visit campus and especially for international students, they know that’s an expensive and long trek.

Um, so take a look at, you know, virtual tour options and things like that.

What are like certain key factors to consider when you’re looking at universities, right? Um, kind of, as I mentioned a little bit before, well, why are you applying to the U. S.? What’s kind of your intentionality? What do you want to gain from this experience? Are you going because there’s a unique program that maybe isn’t or perhaps is known for being really strong at certain schools in the United States.

Is it about a student life opportunity? Um, you know, kind of what is it that’s drawing you to the Opportunity to study abroad. Um, where are the United States? Do you want to be? Um, you know, if you look at the numbers, most, um, international students historically have ended up in places like California, New York, Texas, which also happened to be some of the most populous U.

S. States. Um, what are the admissions requirements? Do I meet the requirements? Am I competitive, um, for these types of places? What are the outcomes for students post graduation? Specifically, hopefully for international students, and you know, can you find the information for these institutions on their website?

Um, where you can understand? Well, how many go on to graduate school or get employment? Do they stay in the United States? Do they go back to their home country? Etcetera, um, alumni networks and the access that you would have there. How many international students? attended institution? What’s the support network for international students like?

You know, these are important questions to consider. And again, my favorite answer, it depends. Um, do you want to go to a place like when I worked at UCSD that had a very large international student population? Um, maybe you want to be around students who speak your language or from, you know, your country.

Maybe you’re coming because you really want to completely immerse yourself in American culture and not be surrounded by students from, uh, your country. So you want to go to a place that doesn’t have as many international students or is looking to maybe grow their international student population, but then maybe they may not have as many support mechanisms in place.

So it’s kind of about balancing that, you know, again, what do you want? What’s important to you?

And now we have another poll. Thank you, Aaron. I’m going to launch this poll. We’d love to hear from you where you are in the application process. So if you haven’t started yet, you’re researching schools, working on your essays, getting the materials together, wherever you are. You could respond and let us know.

And while you’re doing that, Aaron, I have another question for you. If you’re up for it. Um, I show you, I’m looking for some inspiration for my dinner, but I like asking folks because it’s CollegeAdvisor, meet people from all over. Um, if they have a favorite local food. Um, and so I was wondering, you know, South Southern California, any, any favorites?

Uh, I mean, I would say living in LA, you know, Mexican food obviously is, is so prevalent and, uh, amazing here. So there’s some really great. taco stands, uh, pretty close to me, um, that I definitely enjoy hitting up for, uh, an al pastor taco. That’s amazing. Um, and just so you know, and this makes sense cause we have mostly juniors in the room.

Um, but folks are pretty evenly split between not having started yet and researching schools. I handed it back to you. Awesome. So another thing

to consider that was quite important in this process as an international student, of course, is, is funding. Um, yeah. Which can definitely be, you know, a challenge for this process and that at many U. S. institutions, um, aid is often not available to international students, meaning you might have to pay, you know, the full kind of sticker price, as it were, of, um, you know, uh, the tuition plus room and board and all of that without any sort of scholarships or financial aid.

So it’s, I think, important then if your family doesn’t have the resources to fully fund a U. S. education, which also can be admittedly quite expensive. Um, you know, it kind of, Many private institutions, you’re looking at often, you know, 70 plus thousand dollars us a year, um, with public schools, often not that far away, you know, maybe the 60, 65 range, um, and, um.

So, you know, consider other sources potentially for merit scholarships. Does your home country have scholarships, um, that they offer for students to study abroad? Uh, you know, I know again when I was working at USC that there was scholarships that, um, we had a lot of students from the Middle East who received government funded scholarships.

Of course, you know, they were perhaps only eligible for certain majors, um, and then, of course, with the intention that you come back afterwards to bring what you’ve learned back to your home country, but those are things to consider, uh, you know, looking at private options, um, there’s a great scholarship search tool.

It’s fastweb. com. You can kind of filter based on what you’ve learned. Are any of these open to international students, um, check for university specific merit scholarships? Uh, you know, when I worked USC as an example, uh, international students were eligible for merit based scholarships. Of course, they were very, very competitive.

So I don’t want to insinuate that it was guaranteed by any means, but they were considered. Whereas for instance, at UC San Diego, No, they weren’t so kind of do some research there on the websites to see, might those kind of funding opportunities be available. It again also can be admittedly a bit complicated, um, you know, understanding some of the terminology in this process and how that might even impact how your application is reviewed.

Um, so it’s something to kind of consider. One of the things that you’ll probably run into quite a bit is the term need blind or need aware. What those mean in terms of the admissions process. If a school is need blind, it means that when they’re reading your application in the admissions office, they don’t know or care if you’ve applied for need based financial aid, how much money your family has, or whether or not you can afford the institution.

They are reading your application and considering your candidacy based solely on your fit as a student and the quality of your application. And that’s it. Need aware means that unfortunately they just don’t have the financial resources to do that. It’s not because they want to be mean and see a funding issue.

And so they do have to understand, okay, well, we don’t have financial aid to give to international students in the way that we might hope. And so if we admit a student who needs money, we want to be sure that we can fund them. And so they kind of then, therefore, when reading your application, especially when it comes to like, the end of the process when their aid budget is almost full and their spots are almost full, they might be like, well, this student needs a lot of money to come.

We don’t have a lot of money left. This student doesn’t need any money. We’re going to take this student, right? So a need aware school means you may still be admitted and funded if they do that. But it also means that they unfortunately have to consider whether or not your family can pay the full price, and if not, you know, how much.

Then there’s also a term about like, meeting full need. And you want to think about, uh, you know, ideally the holy grail for an international student is a school that is both need blind, And then also means full need, meaning that they will fully fund the kind of gap that might exist between how much your family can afford and how much that institution costs.

Um, you know, it’s great if they’re need blind and they admit you, but then. If you can’t afford it, it doesn’t really help you anyway, right? So, um, you know, the kind of the full need for international students, that’s a piece to consider. Another thing is that, um, you know, some schools may have different processes for international student aid based on the passport that you hold.

There’s a number of schools in the US, um, where if you have a Mexican or Canadian passport, you might be considered differently than if you have a passport outside of that, right? Um, so there are schools like, say, the University of Pennsylvania. Vanya, um, University of Rochester, where, you know, I remember Canadians specifically could get aid in a way similar to domestic students.

That wasn’t an opportunity for students from other countries. So somebody to kind of keep in mind. And often the only kind of money that you may be eligible for as an international student is coming from the institution directly from their their own dollars and their financial aid budget. Um, you kind of institutional grant aid, um.

Obviously domestic students are eligible to receive aid from the federal government or from various state programs depending upon the state. As you might imagine, those, those programs are funded by taxpayers, right? So they’re not going to give them to, uh, you know, students, uh, or parents who are, who are not paying taxes in that country or state.

So then often again, it is dependent upon aid from the institution, which then means that. Schools that really admit international students without considering their ability to pay tend to be those that are some of the kind of wealthiest schools in the country who have the funds to do that.

There is sometimes an option available for kind of private financing through various U. S. banks. Um, however, that often requires a U. S. citizen or permanent resident to co sign the loan with you. So if you have a family member. Um, who’s here in the U. S. or a close family friend who’s, who’s willing to, in essence, take on that debt alongside of you.

Um, and oftentimes they don’t have great interest rates. So while they exist, don’t always encourage students to pursue that route. But if it’s like just meeting the last 10, 000 that you need in order to come, sure, you can consider that. But I would not. Suggest doing that for, you know, the full price of a U.

S. education. So what are those schools that kind of meet that Holy grail again, of being both. Need blind, so your status to pay your ability to pay does not matter in the admission decision, but also if you are admitted as an international student have committed to meeting all of your financial need.

And it’s, as I said, some of the kind of wealthiest, oldest, most prestigious schools in the country. So Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth. MIT, Amherst College, and Bowdoin College, two great liberal arts colleges. Um, so it’s great if you get into one of those places, you don’t have to worry about paying, but these are all places with great opportunities.

Essentially single digit admit rates. Um, so unfortunately that can be a bit of a challenge.

So kind of back to the application process. Um, and what is it that you need to do? And how might it be different or similar from domestic students broadly? The admissions process in terms of the components and how your application is reviewed, it’s going to be roughly the same for international and domestic students.

So you don’t need to worry that like, Oh, I have all these extra things I need to do as an international student. Not really. You’re doing the same kind of stuff that domestic students are doing. Uh, so what is it that they’re looking at? Again, as we talked about, you know, right at the beginning, the academic profile piece is probably of, the most importance.

Um, so your transcripts, international exams, uh, you know, again, based on the context of your school and the system from which you’re applying, testing either, you know, secondary school exams that exist in your country or SAT, ACT, as well as English proficiency essays. Um, you’re going to have to write quite a bit in this process.

Um, if you’re applying through the common application, which is a platform where many U. S. schools. Have their application, um, you’re gonna have to fill out a personal statement or complete a personal statement. 650 words, um, you know, talking a bit about who you are, your interests, um, you know, what you’ve done, what you want to do, what, what you value, what matters to you, et cetera, those kinds of topics.

Um, And then many schools will have what’s called a supplement, meaning you will need to, um, complete additional questions specific to that institution, usually some variation of like, why XYZ school or what do you want to study and why or tell us about a community that you’re a part of and what, you know, that really means to you, that kind of a thing.

Your activities. Uh, so those extracurriculars that I mentioned earlier, right? They want to get a summary of those. So in the common app, you have space for 10 different activities. Um, and so what have you been doing with your time when you’re not in class and you’re not studying, whether those are activities through your school, uh, things you do on your own, your kind of your own interests, you know, things in your community, in your religious community, whatever it is that you’re doing.

And then most schools in the States, um, Especially private schools will require recommendation letters from either a teacher, uh, or a kind of guidance counselor of some kind. Um, many schools were required 2 or 3. some schools require 1, um, many public schools, like, say, the, you see, for instance. Don’t require any.

Another fun, it depends, answer, um, but you know, check websites and things like that to verify. But that’s something you definitely want to start thinking about now. So for those of you that mentioned that you’re in 11th grade, start thinking about, well, who are the teachers that you’re interacting with this year who know you well?

Um, who can really kind of speak to your ability to study, uh, at university, um, you know, where you interact with them quite closely. Um, you want to start thinking about asking those teachers probably in the next couple of months, right? So that they have time perhaps over the summer, um, you know, here, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, um, you know, to write on working those.

Uh, writing those letters, right? It’s also, as I kind of mentioned a little bit earlier, the way that universities kind of admit their class here in the United States, their goals, The way that they’ve designed their admission process is different than admittedly many systems around the world, right? In so many countries, there’s maybe one exam, right?

You study to take the Gaokao in China, um, or you study for A level or Indian board exams that you complete at the end of your secondary school experience in other countries. Um, and then your performance on those exams, alone almost, dictates how Where you go, um, and that really just is not the way that the process works in the United States, um, where it is much more holistic as a word that you probably have heard already or will hear many times where they’re looking at the whole student, right?

Um, who are you? What is your background? What are your interests? Um, how will you come and contribute to the goals that that institution has with They’re entering first year class. And how will you kind of add to that? How will you be a part of that community? Um, you know, they’re looking to admit students who have a wide range of interests and backgrounds and talents, uh, and abilities.

Um, and so, You can’t necessarily predict from year to year that, you know, this school was looking for this and you happen to fit that that year. And that’s great. And they admit you because they want you to be there. Maybe the next year. It isn’t, um, it’s just a very different kind of way of doing admissions and not to say that one is better or worse.

It’s just different. And that’s the way that the process works here. And so something to consider. Um, I know that kind of having worked with a lot of international students. Also, especially their parents, uh, in the past, that there’s kind of this sense of like, well, I have these great numbers on a test, like, why wouldn’t I be admitted?

It’s like, that’s just not how it works. Like, and also plenty of other students have that same great score on a test. And so it’s looking at a whole lot more than that in making their admission decision.

You might have the opportunity next fall, um, to do an admission interview. Often those are with alumni of a particular institution. You also may do an interview as part of the kind of like English proficiency process. So there are a number of different, um, kind of English interview platforms and things like Initial View or Veracant, um, to kind of help demonstrate English proficiency.

If you are being interviewed by an institution in particular, here’s some advice. Um, don’t memorize a script. Absolutely. Speaking from personal experience, you can kind of tell when that’s happening. And then you try and ask a question that maybe is not on the script to trip them up and see, um, yeah, they’re not trying to trick you, but also they do want to get a sense of like, well, how do you kind of think on your feet versus how do you just, you know, present a memorized script, right?

Um, you want to be sure that you have answers prepared, again, not memorized, but that you’ve thought about and that you’re able to then speak kind of, you know, um, with depth to very common questions. So things like, well, why that particular institution? Why do you wish to study in the United States? What major do you wish to study and why?

What are some of your favorite extracurricular activities that you’ve been involved in? Uh, what might you want to get involved in in college? Um, and I know that kind of in some ways like this presentation, you know, it often will be done virtually, which can be kind of hard to, like, read a space and interact through a square on your computer screen, but try and engage with the interviewer too.

You know, ask them questions, show that you’ve put some thought and effort into this process, you care about their experience and the fact that they’re taking time out of their lives to do this, um, on behalf of that institution. And also, if they went to the school, they’re a great resource to ask about their experience, right?

So, definitely do plenty of research beforehand about the school, um, so that when they ask you, why Northwestern? You have a great answer ready to go, uh, instead of saying, uh, I like purple and Chicago’s cool, you know, right? You, that, you don’t want that to be you.

Of course, if you then go through all of that whole process and you’re admitted, um, there’s some additional steps to consider and write things just to kind of begin to start thinking about on the horizon, uh, for you. A little over a year from now, right? For those of you that are in 11th grade now. So, of course, to enter the United States as a student, you have to often get a student visa.

Most undergraduate students who come to study in the United States will need to apply for what’s called the F 1 visa, which is kind of the student visitor visa. Canadians do not. need to do that. They’re the only country where they have that exception. There may also be, you know, other situations where if your parents is working in the United States already on a different work visa, like an H or a B visa, um, you know, maybe that can kind of continue for you that there’s some exceptions, but generally most students will be on the F1 student visa.

How do you get that? Well, so if you’re admitted, The school to which you ultimately commit and send your money to say, I’ve deposited, I plan to enroll at UCLA, um, they will send you what’s called an I 20 form after you’ve accepted that offer. And basically that says, so the government, you have in fact been admitted to this institution.

You or the school have agreed to fund you and your studies, so you’re not going to show up here and then be incapable of, you know, paying rent and buying meals and things like that. Um, and in essence, they’re kind of vouching for you to, um, to the government. So then you need to register through this online program called Sevis and interview for your student visa at a U.

S. embassy or consulate. Um. You can check wait times for how, you know, when can I get a visa interview, uh, on the U. S. State Department website. Um, and that is something you should really schedule your interview as soon as you get that I 20 form. Um, because sometimes it can be quite a wait. Um, so you might maybe need to travel to a different consulate within your country.

Um, something like that, right? I was just looking the other day and, you know, the wait time in Shanghai was different than the wait time in Beijing. Um, so. Do that kind of research and do not delay, uh, because you would hate to, like, miss the start of school because you didn’t have your visa figured out in time.

Um, so then you apply for that visa time online and attend the interview. Basically, they’re asking you about kind of your intentions and studying in the United States. And, you know, did you in fact get admitted and what are you studying and all that? Um, And then they grant that visa and then you can enter the country.

So once you get here, are there support services available to you? And yes, um, because there are so many international students studying in the United States, uh, from all over the world, um, with, you know, significant growth in that population in the last, you know, really two decades. Schools have Done a good job of kind of increasing their support services for you so that, you know, you can go to the institution and know that you can be successful because really they don’t want to bring you there and not have you graduate and I’ll have you do well.

That’s not fair to you. Um, and it doesn’t make them look good either. So they want to be sure that you have the support that you need. So. Pretty much most universities now, especially if they’re admitting international students, uh, will have specific support offices like an international student support office, um, just for you.

So, maybe they’ll have a special orientation program for you in the summer, right before you enroll. You know, have sessions about learning about life in the US, um, customs and laws and holidays and setting up a bank account or stuff like that, right? Um, they’ll help you in terms of, well, what are your opportunities to work legally while you’re here?

Um, if you’re asking about, you know, pathways for an immigrant visa versus non immigrant visa, like a student visa after graduation, how do you work with that? Um, are there specific kind of Issues that you have, you know, you’re like, Oh, like, where’s my I 20 or I had a challenge with my F one interview time.

They can help you with that, or maybe kind of navigating, um, just an unfamiliar environment in terms of kind of university and government bureaucracy in a different country, um, that can be hard and their job is simply there to help you. So, so know that pretty much again, most schools that have significant international student populations.

They also have committed the resources to ensure that you get the support.

So as we get kind of close to wrapping up, um, lastly, just want to be sure that, you know, you’re thinking really clearly about this process, right? Um, is this the right option for you? Understanding? Of course, that it, it is a lot of extra work. Oftentimes, um, you know, vis a vis applying to institutions in your home country.

Um, it’s a challenge being in a different country and away from friends and family. And even you go to the grocery store and it looks. Very different than what you’re used to. How and where should you seek guidance? You know, there are plenty of unscrupulous actors in this space who look to capitalize off of fear or the lack of information or kind of the, the, You know, lack of clarity around this process and are happy to tell you that they have all the answers for the right amount of money, um, which may not be the case.

And so kind of do your research on the type of people you’re interacting with. Um, we’re helping you out in this process. And then ultimately, when do you start and I’m so glad that so many of you are in 11th grade now, because this is absolutely the perfect time to start. Right. Um, to, to thinking about, um, the different gathering, the different components necessary for the application to start with that, you know, really kind of in July, August to then start applying, uh, by, uh, you know, October, November, December of next year.

Thank you so much, Aaron. That was full of so many. Helpful gems and pieces of advice. Um, so everyone knows that is the end of our formal presentation part of the webinar. I hope you found this all really helpful. And remember that you can download all the slides you just saw, um, from the link in the handouts tab on your screen.

We’re now going to transition to the live question and answer section. So I’ll read through the questions you submitted. I’ll share them in the public chat so you can see them, and I’ll read them out loud, um, and then we’ll give Aaron a chance to answer. Please know that you can keep those questions coming in, even as You know, we’re reading other questions and Aaron’s answering them.

Um, we still have about 20 minutes, so submit anything you’re wondering about. If your Q& A tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link sent to you via email and not from the webinar landing page. Okay, I got the logistics out of the way.

Time to dive into some questions, Aaron. So the first one is, Would an international student who is attending a U. S. high school Be counted in the international student pool or the U. S. Student pool.

Um, again, it depends on a little bit of both. So, so in essence, you’re kind of you’re reviewed in the context of your high school. So you’re at a U. S. High school, right? So, uh, you know, say you’re a student, you know, from the U. K. But you’re attending a school, uh, you know, is in Connecticut. Um. You’re going to be reviewed in the context of what’s offered at that school, right?

So academically, how have you challenged yourself at that school? And so even though you might have a British passport, they’re not going to expect that you’re taking A levels or kind of lump you in with that group of students. It’s like, well, okay, in this high school, in this community, how are you performing?

What’s kind of that context like within your community? If you are ultimately admitted, then yes, you are kind of counted once there as an international student because of the passport that you hold. Um, so even though you’re coming from a domestic high school, you’re in essence an international student because you have a non U.

S. passport. Um, so in some ways that can be a challenge. Benefit to you because you’re already here. You’re familiar with life in the United States. Um, you know, perhaps you’re even more serious about applying to U. S. universities versus going to universities back home. So there are some benefits there, um, at both institutions I’ve attended, right?

There can be kind of like a sense of like, oh, well, as soon as it was already here, perhaps knows a bit more about. their interests in the U. S., I mean, kind of staying here, um, than a student who’s just applying for the first time from outside of the country. Um, so, you know, I would say, again, it’s not necessarily all it helps or it hurts, um, but you’re kind of considered in the context of your U.

S. high school, but ultimately counted as an international student.

That makes sense. Thank you. Um, also, side note, lawyers answer to everything is it depends. So every time you say that I will laugh and I empathize with that. Yeah, the next question is, should I prioritize need blind policy? And my college list, if I need full or a high percent of financial aid.

Um, broadly, I would say yes. Um, you know, if you have kind of limited time to consider or to kind of work on the applications. Um, again, you know, at schools that are need aware, that doesn’t mean that you won’t get aid or that they won’t admit students, but they will get It just means it is often more competitive, right?

I had a conversation with Duke a couple of years ago as an example, and they were quite honest. They were like, you know, if we have two international student applications in front of us and one has said no aid and one has said aid, it becomes significantly more competitive for the student who’s asking for aid.

Um, just the nature of how it is. So to me, it does tend to make sense to prioritize places that aren’t considering that. But again, those places are so few and so highly selective already. Yeah, sure. Like it’d be great if Harvard admits you and, and, you know, you don’t have to worry about paying for it, but, um, you have to be admitted to Harvard.

So,

absolutely. Um, I’m going to generalize the next question a little bit. Um, they’re asking if it’s important to get a specific score on the TOEFL. Uh, I’m going to generalize it by saying, is, is there, are there cutoff scores with any of the language exams? And like what range should students be really aiming for?

Yet again, it depends. Each school tends to set their own kind of threshold when it comes to English proficiency exams, um, often done in conjunction with their faculty or kind of looking at, um, you know, historic student success, right? You know, we admitted students at this level, uh, on the TOEFL and they either succeeded and persisted or, or they didn’t.

And kind of looking at those longitudinal studies to assess, okay, well, where should we draw our bar? Admittedly, there’s some anecdotal evidence in there too, like a faculty member is like, Oh, this person, you know, whatever, um, you know, at USC, that score was a 100 on the TOEFL. Right. Um, and. They were looking at different subsection scores and, you know, they didn’t want to see sub scores, you know, much below 25, et cetera.

Um, and obviously the higher that you were, the better. You know, I would say when I was there, the average TOEFL from a student that was admitted was closer to like a 110, um, out of 120. So. Pretty high. Um, you know, at the UCs, um, as an example, um, you know, it was a bit different, uh, you know, you’re looking for a TOEFL there, um, of ultimately, you know, they wanted it to be, like, more in the, like, 80 ish and above kind of range.

Um, so, you know, it’s, It’s a bit different, you know, there when it comes to, to that. So basically just, you need to do the work and I’m looking at kind of like each school, um, and how ultimately, you know, they choose to accept, but there are thresholds and, and pretty much it’s, if you see, you want some 80 and you have a 79.

They’re going to deny you really good to know, um, another interesting question. The student is wondering, is it possible they could be accepted at a US college and then have their student visa rejected? And if that happens, what next? What will the next step be? Yeah, that’s a good question. Um, yes, it is possible.

It’s super rare, um, you know, so I think you would have to say something that would really kind of concern the, the, um, you know, consular officer at the State Department. Um, because usually if you have all the necessary documentation, which you would by getting admitted and having your I 20 form and all of that, it shouldn’t be a problem, but it does sometimes happen.

Um, often your Um, the school to which you’ve, you know, committed would help you kind of navigate that process. You know, what are the next steps like, um, can you reapply, uh, you know, for the visa? Uh, do we wait and you, you come the next term, uh, they defer your admission, uh, you know, they’re not going to leave you hanging.

Uh, I know that at USC we definitely had, you know, sometimes where students had issues entering the country and our international support team would like go to LAX and like help try and figure out what’s going on with the students like there and not get again. So, um, Yes, it can happen. It is absolutely rare.

Um, but the school would work with you in kind of figuring out what makes sense to try and get you here in some capacity.

I hope overall comforting to know. Um, I’m going to pause us for a bit here just so I can talk quickly about CollegeAdvisor. Um, so for those in the room who are not already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be. Adding the international component only adds to those overwhelming feelings.

So we are here and we are ready to help you. At this point we have over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts ready to work with you and your family on a one on one basis to help you through this process. We’ve helped over 6, 000 clients and their college journeys and that number keeps climbing.

It’s very exciting. We recently analyzed our data going back to 2021 and found that our students are more likely to get into some of the colleges Erin mentioned and others like Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Harvard. So, increase your odds, take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up.

To learn more, I suggest scanning the QR code on your screen, which again is available in the slides that you can download. Um, that will take you to a page where you can sign up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session. An admission specialist on our team. During that meeting we’ll look at your extracurricular list, application strategy, talk about how it aligns with your college list, and then outline the tools we think you need to stand out in a competitive admissions world.

So check it out. And now we can get back into some more questions and answers. That QR code is going to stay on the screen. Um, the next question, Aaron said, I think, I think they’re asking, it’s possible to get 100 percent financial aid coverage by combining maybe scholarships from other sources and the college’s own financial aid to the student who submitted this question.

If I’m misunderstanding what you mean, please just. Submit another question and we’ll address it. That can totally be possible. Um, so in essence, if you have scholarships from outside sources, uh, you know, organizations, government of your own country, you know, alongside. Aid from the school. Absolutely.

Awesome. A student’s asking about extracurriculars. Um, do you have advice on are there the best extracurriculars they can choose to give them an edge in the admissions process? It really is about finding things that you enjoy and that you’re passionate about because that really comes through in an application and that kind of like genuine, authentic excitement and engagement.

It’s kind of hard to fake, um, as someone who’s read literally thousands of applications. Um, and so schools don’t really care what that is. You know, if that’s athletics, if that’s music, if that’s service, if it’s, um, you know, various debate, MUN, but also it could be having a part time job. It could be helping out your grandmother who lives with you because your parents both work and, you know, she’s sick.

I mean, it’s, they want to understand again, when you’re not, you’re not in school or studying, what are you doing with your time? Um, and what are the things that you care about? Because those, the things that you do reflect on, you know, your interests, your values, etc. Um, and so, you know, even if a school got up and said, oh, you need to do this, I don’t know if I really believe that in the sense that like they’re trying to admit a diverse class, right?

So they don’t want everyone who just did community service or everyone who was student body president or valedictorian because then you have a class of 3, 000 student body presidents. And you know, my sister in law was the student body president, but like, you don’t want all of them to be that. Like you want different.

Activities and interests and profiles. So find what you like doing and do it and communicate how excited you are about that and show the impact that you’ve made and the things that you’ve done. And that excitement really comes through in an application. I promise.

Completely agree. Love that answer. Do you have any tips on ways international students might be able to reduce application costs?

Um, I mean, I guess with the exams, Duolingo is cheaper than TOEFL and IELTS, and also you can do it at home, so you might have to travel to a test center. Um, so as schools accept that more and more, that’s an option. Um, You know, some schools might allow you to request a fee waiver, um, for the application fee, though if you use a fee waiver and then say you’re not applying for financial aid to try and then not be in the process, they kind of raise their eyebrow about that.

Um, but if it’s a school that, you know, does meet need and all of that meets, you know, has aid for international students, then, then yes, you can oftentimes request a fee waiver. In common app when you’re applying it just says, you know, paying this fee would be a hardship for my family So so those things kind of Come to mind.

Great. Thank you. I think we have time for one more question. Um, it’s about COVID, um, and how, you know, the lockdowns impacted the students grades. What’s your advice on how students can address, you know, gaps in their extracurriculars or dropping grades, whether due to the pandemic or whatever? Something else.

Absolutely. Um, so there’s a couple of different places to do that. Um, so in the common app, there’s a space called additional information, and it’s just a blank text box. So you can fill with. Quite a lot of words, if you need to, although you don’t have to just fill it because it’s there. Um, if there are special circumstances that you want the person reading your application to consider.

Um, so yeah, you graduated. Semester early and took a gap, you know, semester. Um, you know, your grades went down because lockdowns and just zoom learning was not for you. Um, you know, someone in your family was sick, or you was, you were sick. You know, you’re the extracurricular activity that you work so hard for that.

You’re going to lead the TEDx talk on campus and then COVID shut it down. Right. So, um. There is absolutely space to put that there. If you want to provide kind of context, um, you know, really kind of contextualize anything that you think needs to be contextualized. That’s a great place to do it. Um, another space is in your, um.

letters of recommendation. So when you’re talking with the person asking them to write it for you, obviously you don’t want to dictate the content necessarily, but oftentimes in your counselor letter, um, you can say, Oh, Hey, like, remember how, you know, this happened. They can kind of help provide that context in their letter to say, Hey, this student was really impacted by this thing and you can see it on their grades, but now they’ve turned it around.

And, and so there’s a couple of different places where you can do that either in your words or in someone else’s.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Aaron. I’m grateful you were here tonight or whatever time it is for folks to go through all this really important information. This is the end of our webinar. Before people sign out, I want to point out we have a bunch of webinars this month and really, I think helpful and interesting topics, uh, such as planning out your high school coursework, creating an application that stands out, the whole test optional SAT, ACT conversation that Aaron referenced earlier.

So check them out. You can sign up for them online. Um, and remember to download the slides so you have room for your records. And sign up for a free session with us to learn more. Thank you everyone for your time. And I hope you have a great night.