I want to study abroad. What should I do?

I have never heard about this university!!

International students and their families sometimes wrongly assume that if they haven't heard about a college or university, it must be a bad university. That is like saying if you have not heard about a city somewhere in the world, it must be a terrible city. The United States has close to 3500 colleges and universities. Even people born and brought up in the US often don't know or have not heard about all the 3500 institutions. It doesn't mean they are bad or not worth getting to know. It simply means YOU have not heard about it. 

 

London, Paris, New York and a few other cities in this league are like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT. Everyone (almost everyone) has heard about these cities and these institutions. But there are many great places in the world (that is why travel magazines sell so well!) that no one has heard about and yet are great treasures. This is true for universities as well.

Advice: Don't disregard a university because you have not heard about it. Research it and then decide what you want to do! The most important lesson for those interested in study abroad is to keep an open mind!

Dr. Uma Gupta is the President of USAsiaEdu. She blogs about study abroad and international students.

Why study in the US? Eight Good Reasons!

Many students are excited about the prospect of studying abroad. "I want to study somewhere else in the world other than my home country!" is commonly heard around the world. Today there are many interesting study abroad destinations - US, UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore - to name a few. While several countries offer great programs at great universities, the US continues to attract record numbers (yes, I am biased!)

So what makes the US the most favored destination in the world:

1. US colleges and universities offer hundreds and hundreds of programs in every imaginable subject and even in those fields that you never imagined existed! If you are looking variety, look no further.
2. The US has a range of universities from the very best in the world to average ones and some even below par. Select the right university for the right reasons.
3. US education is recognized world over.
4. US education encourages creative thinking and problem-solving (not in all cases, but in many cases!) Case studies, class presentations, group projects, research papers, and essay exams all test the abilities of the learner in different ways and caters to different learners as well.
5. If you want to pursue higher studies, it is easy to move from undergraduate to graduate to post-graduate in the US. There are many gates that open readily for the student who wants to continue to study.
6. You will meet people from all over the world! Guaranteed!
7. A meaningful degree from a good university will lead to a good job. You have to compete with the best, but if you are good, you will land in a good place.
8. Most faculty genuinely care about international students and will work closely with them. They are bright, dedicated, and creative (not all faculty, but most are!0
   

I am sure there are other good reasons as well including making lots of friends, being free to do what you like, and achieving great things.

Dr. Uma G.Gupta is CEO of USAsiaEdu (http://www.USAsiaEdu.com), a New York company that helps international students with study abroad decisions.

I want to study in the US!

For many international students, studying in the US is a life-long dream. A great education, great career prospects, and a great nation that values freedom and diversity is an exciting landing place for any student! Unfortunately the process of selecting the right university for the right reasons is not an easy choice for many international students. They are overwhelmed with questions:

1. What should I study?
2. How do I find the right university?
3. What kind of a job will I get once I graduate?
4. What is the time line for applying?
   
5. Will I get admission?
6. Will I get a scholarship?
7. What tests should I take?
8. What scores should I make on these tests?
9. What should my essay say about me?

These and many other questions make it difficult, very difficult, for international students to take the next step forward.

While there are many websites, combined, they tend to confuse the student more than offer clear counsel. What should a student do? Where should a student begin to learn about this process? When is it a good time to start researching your university and your career? These and other similar questions will be addressed in this blog.
In the meantime, if you have any questions you can write to me at exec@USAsiaEdu.com

Dr. Uma G. Gupta is the CEO of USAsiaEdu, a New York company, that helps international students interested in studying in the US.

Five Tips for International Students Studying in the USA

Contributed by Maya Richard, content writer, primarily writing about comcast deals

The university system is the United States provides an extensive research network that allows international students to work with world-renowned scholars. While these opportunities are great, so are the guidelines and restrictions that apply to students coming from abroad to study in America. We consulted with some leading international education experts to gain insight into the top tips to help students seeking to study in the USA:

 • Select Your College Institution Carefully During the Admissions Process Although you may be tempted to apply to the most highly rated academic programs overall, there are a number of important factors that will determine the success of your international study program. In particular, inquire into the specific international student cultural and academic programs to help you get acquainted on a new campus. Once you feel comfortable with the accommodations, then look into the specific courses of study and the academic resources (including professors), especially if you're considering graduate study.

• Look into All of Your Financial Options Today's student loan market is much more competitive than it was a few years ago, so tuition and living costs should be a primary factor to consider before deciding upon a college. Inquire with the prospective college's financial aid department to determine the merit scholarships or work-study programs that might help you to finance your education.

 • Find Options to Continue to Develop Language and Cultural Skills For many students, coming to the US for studies can be an extensive transition from their home country. Even if you speak fluent English, there are a number of colloquialisms and regional dialects that will take some time getting adjusted to – check if the college offers programs for students who speak English as a second language, along with cultural groups, to help you get acquainted to American culture.

• Make Sure You Apply Early for your Student Visa Often times, you can work with the University you intend to enroll with to get all of your student visa paperwork figured out. (see Student Visas.) Take the lead on the process by ensuring that you have a passport from your out-bound country, as well as an visa, along with demonstration that you have the necessary funds to pay for your course of study. If you're coming into the country with a domestic sponsor, fill out your I-134 affidavit form in advance. For students who intend to remain in the US for the long-run, begin to look into the citizenship acquisition process.

• Once You Decide Upon a College, Make Contact with the University Early After you go through the decision process, take extra care to cover all the bases in the enrollment process as well as reaching out to University representatives early on to facilitate the transition process.

Plenty of jobs in a land where education is valued - India!

It is raining jobs in India amid global crisis

By    siliconindia news bureau

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

 

Bangalore: Even as the deteriorating economic conditions are rendering thousands jobless worldwide, India seems to be bucking the trend. In just one week, companies have unveiled plans for massive hiring.

The IT outsourcing sector now has huge hiring plans, despite being vulnerable to the global slowdown. The top five IT companies are set to recruit over 80,000 people this year even after revising earlier hiring targets. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys Technologies - both have adopted a strategy of staggered recruitments - did not so far have scaled back its hiring targets announced earlier this year. TCS, in fact, is set to hire around 48,000 people - just a few thousand short of the number its top customer Citigroup announced it plans to shed in the coming months.

Life insurance companies, the Indian units of foreign drugmakers and the outsourcing sector are clearly on a hiring mode. MetLife, Max New York Life, Tata AIG, Bharti AXA and Aviva are some insurance companies that are in a ramp-up mode as the sector looks forward to boost its staffing levels by around 50 percent over the next few months.

While MetLife India is looking to recruit about 2,000 managers and a whopping 30,000 advisors in the coming months, global management consultancy firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is planning to hire 3,500 employees in the country, aiming to take the total headcount in the country to 12,000 in the next three years.

The industry could hire up to 300,000 financial planning advisors and some 30,000 managers by the end of this financial year to end-March 2009, as it girds up to tap a virgin market, industry officials say.

"Insurance products are perceived as long-term investment tools and people will continue to buy irrespective of the financial crisis. We plan to expand our operations and spruce up recruitment in the next few months," said Max New York Life Insurance director & head of agency distribution, Rajender Sud. The company has around 61,000 agent advisors and 15,227 employees, of which around 21,000 agents and 8,000 managers were hired in the last six months. It plans to add 70,000 agents and 10,000 employees by the end of 2009.

The sector was long dominated by state owned LIC. The companies expect a good financial performance by the sector to justify their hiring spree. Private players have recorded a growth rate of around 42 percent in first-time premium collections for the first half of the current financial year, indicate data available with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

Source: The Economic Times & Business Standard

Top schools in the US - wrong!

Ask any international student anywhere in the world and they probably can name the top one, or two, or three, or may be even five colleges and universities in the US. Of course, the favorite ones all over the world are Harvard, Princeton, Berkely, MIT, and Yale. But this is like saying the only good shirt in the world is a Polo shirt or the only good watch in the world is a Rolex. In fact, there are many outstanding colleges and universities in the US that many international students have never even heard about and hence won't consider even applying! Finding a good college is a dance that involves two partners: the student and the college or university trying to recruit the student! Both have to be in harmony if it is to be a great dance!

As an international student, look beyond the four or five colleges that your friends and family can name. Think about what your study of interest and identify all the colleges and universities that offer such a program. Look into the qualifications of the faculty who teach in the program; examine their career placement and assistance; look at the Advisory Board; see if the faculty have published in leading journals; examine the kind of courses and electives the school offers. Don't be biased against a college or university because you have never heard about it!

Students often complain that finding a "good" school is hard work. Amen - it is true. But if you don't invest the time and effort upfront, you may get an education that is not worth much or you may have paid too much for your education!

What is your degree worth?

Today in many parts of the world, a college degree is necessary to find a job and launch a career. For those looking for an exciting and profitable career, the first step is to earn a degree from a good college. So many parents in India invest hard-earned money so that their children can get a college education and earn a degree. Unfortunately sometimes this degree has no value. In fact, some employers openly say that the degree is not worth the paper it is written on! So what should a student or parent do to make sure that the degree has value?

What did I learn? If the degree is easy to earn, watch out. If after you graduate, you still don’t know much about your field, watch out. A degree is a way of guaranteeing employers and others that a student has acquired fundamental knowledge. If that does not happen in some colleges and universities, then employers will not be interested in hiring such students. So even if the college is not strict or rigorous, make sure that you learn discipline-specific knowledge. Apply yourself. Learn about your field as much as you can. Otherwise, your degree is not worth much to you or to anyone else.

Can I read and write? English is widely spoken in India today and employers expect their employees to speak in English. If you can’t read or write well in English, then employers will hesitate to hire you. On the other hand, if you can read and write well in English, your value goes up with employers. This is true not only in your first job, but also when it comes to future opportunities and promotions. So pay attention to your language skills. Learn English. Speak English even with your friends. Listen to English news and programs. Read the newspaper. Write a letter in English. View English as an opportunity to advance your career.

Specialize: Think about your future employer even before you graduate. Who is your ideal employer and why? How can you learn more about the hiring needs of this employer? One way is to visit the Career Section on their website. Study the skill sets that they are looking for and start to prepare yourself for such jobs.

Study Abroad: Not everyone has the financial power to do this, but if you can it is a wonderful learning experience. Today in the US, many colleges and universities provide excellent study abroad programs whereby a student will study in a university in another country for a short period of time. The US is looking for Indian colleges and universities that can host American students and vice versa, looking for Indian students to attend its colleges. 

Tips to Cope on Foreign Campuses

This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick,who writes on the subject of an online degree in classical studies. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com.

Tips to Cope on Foreign Campuses: The ardent desire to pursue quality education pushes youngsters to leave behind all they know and love and fly to foreign shores in search of their dreams – this fact is never truer than in the relationship between Indian students and US universities. To lend more credence to this statement, we only have to take a look at the annual report from the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Open Doors 2006, which states that students of Indian origin outnumbered those from other countries in universities and colleges across the United States of America. They work really hard to secure admission to the school of their choice and are gung-ho when selected, but the moment they board the plane for shores unknown, they are beset by doubts and uncertainties of the next few lonely years in an alien country surrounded by strangers. Here are a few pointers for Indians who are about to embark on this journey and looking for more information on how to cope:

• Familiarize yourself with facts and information of the college you’re planning to attend. Check the school’s website and read its local newspaper to keep up to date with the happenings on campus.

• While you’re at it, read up on life in America and what you can expect once you get there, especially in the place your university is located. The Internet is a great source of information if you know where to look.

• Brush up on your English skills; learn how to talk fluently in the language and how to use American terms and spellings for common words like highway (freeway or expressway in the US) and flat (apartment).

• If you’re finicky about food, make sure you go prepared to do your own cooking with condiments and spices from home. However, living on campus does not allow you to do this, so remain open to the idea of adapting to new foods.

• Indian students are not used to visiting their student counselors and advisors or stopping by their professors’ offices to say hello and introduce themselves or clarify doubts, a practice taken for granted by their American counterparts. They must take advantage of the guidance offered and use it to their benefit.

• Stay in touch with family and friends using online chat software and webcams to reduce the homesickness you feel. It’s true that you’re there to study, but it’s important to get involved in a few social activities as well to reduce the yearning for things and people back home.

• Go with an unbiased mind and be open to try new experiences and make new friends, irrespective of their religion, culture and nationalities.

If we’re to go by another report, this one from the Council of Graduate Studies, nearly half of  US graduate schools are not averse to the idea of accepting foreign students with only three years of undergraduate education in their home countries as opposed to the current norm of four. This move, if implemented, will only see a surge in the number of students queuing up to grab a place in a prestigious university in the US of A.

This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick,who writes on the subject of an online degree in classical studies. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com.

Cort Johnson responded to my previous post and wrote:

Great entry! I think it is so true for students to first understand the importance of finding a school that is a good fit for them before worrying about for example: "How am I going to get my visa to study in that country?" Do you have any thoughts on how to change the mentality of the prospective international student to understand the importance of doing their homework on finding the right institution for them before worrying about immigration issues? Posted by: Cort Johnson | September 30, 2008 at 10:32 AM

His question as to how to change the mentality of international students is important and relevant. Unfortunately, the answer is complex!

Before we can change the mentality of our international students so that they reflect on who they are before they think about what college or university they wish to attend, we must first teach them to be wise and prudent customers in the higher education market. They must look beyond the marketing blitz. Every college and university in the US and around the world that is eager to recruit international students wants students to believe that their campus is the ideal place that will lead to the fulfillment of all dreams, particularly financial dreams. But we know that this is simply not true. International students must first know how to dig deep for meaningful answers for themselves, be willing to ask probing questions, and be prepared to walk away from colleges and universities that have little more to offer than glossy brochures.

Unfortunately, many students, particularly international students, are often flattered when they get admission in a US university. If it is US, it is got to be good is a wide-spread belief, particularly in developing countries. But for those of us who work and teach in the US, we know that this is simply not true!

In fact, there are signs that this mindset is slowly changing. Students in India and around the world are eager to gain admission to good colleges and universities in the US, not just any college or university. They are looking more closely at the brand and image of schools and colleges and asking more questions about their success of alumni. All of this is a good starting point! The bottom line is before you worry about your visa, you must first be confident about your vision for yourself, for you are, and what you want to accomplish in life!

Dr. Uma Gupta is the President of USAsiaEdu.com, a global consulting company that assists US colleges and universities expand their markets in Asia.

.

 

It is all too confusing for international students!

Selecting a college or university is a challenging task for many students and parents. Information overload about US colleges and universities is tremendous and comes at parents and domestic and international students from all directions and in recent times, from all over the world. Today recruiting international students is the goal of many colleges and universities all over the world, and not just the

US 

as it used to be until just a few years ago. This is because colleges and universities understand the power of creating a “mini world” within their campuses, but more important, Presidents of educational institutions know that recruiting international students is lucrative to the bottom line! 

Unfortunately, it is difficult to sift the “truth” from “media messages” in one of the most important and life-changing decisions that parents and students will make in their lifetime. The challenge of college selection is exponentially greater for international students and their families and this is the case in spite of technology (or may be because of technology?). International students often struggle to find an ideal school at an affordable price that will deliver the goods and eventually result in a dynamic career. There are no short cuts and if you are committed to getting the best education for the best price, you must do your homework!

 

In my previous post, I wrote about the importance of being careful and thoughtful in how you select a college or university. I emphasized the importance of closely studying facts about the institutions and examining how it fits with your educational needs. In this post, I want to share with you the importance of the statement: Know Thyself!

 

Before you select a college or university, you must have a clear idea as to what you are looking for in a college or university. You may not know exactly what you wish to study or your career goals and that is okay. I will discuss five simple things you must consider even before you browse through the web pages of colleges and universities and I will cover these five issues in my future posts also:

1. Urban or rural? If you are an urban bird, don’t select a school in an isolated rural environment or vice versa.
2. Small or large? If you like a small intimate setting, selecting a university with 52,000 students  is likely to cause pain!
3. Career-focused or life-focused? Some colleges and universities are interested in preparing you to deal with life – they believe a career will follow. Others focus on a career – and don’t pay attention to your all-round development. True, no school will admit this! Of course, some are focused on both. If you can find such a college, go for it!
4. Does anyone look like me? If it is important for you to find students from your cultural, ethnic, or economic background – if you don’t wish to stand out like a sore thumb on a campus and if that is important to you – look at a school with diversity.
5. Residential or non-residential? Is living on campus important to you or do you want to live on your own? Some colleges have strict residential requirements and hence you should pay attention to this.

Dr. Uma G. Gupta is the President of USAsiaEdu.com, a global consulting company that advices educational leaders on campus internationalization issues.