 Good morning and good evening to our viewers joining us from around the world. My name is Brooke Spellman and I represent EducationUSA and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. Today's Facebook Live is about college admissions and how to apply for study in the United States. We want to give you, the viewers, the best advice on applying to a U.S. college or university. Our hope is that international students like you are able to come to study in the United States. There are 550 EducationUSA advisors in 180 countries and territories around the world offering free advising services to help you. During the program, we will be answering questions from lots of viewers. If you have any questions on the college admissions process, please post them at any time during the program in the comment section below. So I am very excited to introduce our speakers who collectively have a wealth of knowledge in the college admission process. Joining us in the studio is Gayatri Atkin. She is Director of International Mission at Fairleigh Dickinson University. In this role, Gayatri helps students from all over the world understand the academic opportunities that are available in the United States. Welcome. Joining us virtually from Denver, Colorado, is Mary-Margaret Herman and Win Tongvivo. Mary-Margaret is the International Enrollment Operations Manager at the University of Colorado Denver. Mary-Margaret and her team work together to help prospective international students learn about CU Denver programs and assist them through the application process. Mary-Margaret is joined by Win Tongvivo, who is an international student at the Business School at the University of Colorado Denver. Welcome, Mary-Margaret and Tongvivo. Before we get started, I would like to ask our viewers to answer our Facebook poll question. What aspect of studying at a U.S. college or university would you like to learn more about today? The options are A, choosing the right school, B, the application process, C, financial cost, and D, living in the U.S. Again, to our viewers, please tell us what aspect of applying to study in the U.S. you would most like to learn about in today's interactive, and we'll share the results later during the program. Thank you. So, Guy, I want to start our discussion today by talking about admission timelines. So, what should international students keep in mind when applying to a U.S. college or university when they're thinking about timelines? Thank you, Brooke. I suppose the most important aspect of it is going to be the fact that it's never too early to start planning. Many of us international students come from very different education systems, and we have different academic calendars. And planning for how soon we're going to be able to navigate the system, the variety of different application types in the United States, the fact that all universities very often share different types of application systems. All of those are very important factors to consider. We look at international applicants in very different ways, depending on the type of institution we are in the United States, and very often there are lots of questions to navigate in those applications. There are common applications that students can use to access certain schools. There are schools that offer individual applications on their very own websites. And so the application fee is a consideration, how many schools you would like to choose to apply to. All of these are important considerations, and the timeline is the most important because it's never too early to begin that. Aside from the transcripts that you would report to your schools, when you're applying to schools, you're going to be looking at other elements of the application process, which are the letters of reference, for example, a statement of purpose, an essay question, depending on the institution that you're applying to. All of these require good preparation. And we also have academic credentials that go beyond transcripts. Certain institutions would look for credentials that you would need to apply to a university in your own country. Such as, for instance, in, say, for example, in regions like South Africa, you'd have the matriculation exams. And those are towards the end of the calendar year. But the results might not be available at the time that a student would start applying. Many schools consider applications towards the start of November, and the deadlines for applying depend on whether or not scholarships are also involved. So if you need a scholarship, you're going to need to apply well in advance, especially if that's a consideration for whether or not you study in the United States. That's right. Good points. And so as students gather all of these documents together and pull together their application package, can you tell us a little bit about the standardized testing process and what students should expect as they're going through this process and looking at standardized tests and the different choices there? Standardized testing seems, it could seem potentially mysterious to many students from overseas outside of the United States. But it's a way of kind of placing everyone on a slightly standardized scale. That's the idea of the test. Many schools waive tests such as the SAT. Many schools require tests such as the SAT or the ACT. Some schools will require just the TOEFL or IELTS or English proficiency tests such as those. So it really depends on the institution the student chooses to apply to. But standardized testing can take time because again you have to prepare in addition to your existing academic coursework in high school. So that level of preparation also comes into the timeline question from before. So it's a lot of planning that is involved in this process. Standardized testing is one part of the application but there's also non-standard things that are part of the application process such as extracurricular activities. Those are the creative aspects of the application that really tie things together and bring the applicant to a full human being from the perspective of an admissions reviewer or an admissions counselor. And the extracurriculars are important because as admissions reviewers we can then see what kind of interests the student actually has and whether or not our institution is going to be a good fit for them. And things such as your art portfolio supposing you're applying to an art school, your audition and recordings for music schools, performing arts, et cetera, auditions for theater, acting school and so on. So it's really an interesting type of process to apply to a very different country for admission to schools that are going to be very different to the education system that you're used to. Exactly. Very insightful. Thank you. So Mary Margaret, over to you. I'd like to talk a little bit about location. So with over 4,700 accredited institutions in the United States to choose from, how do students choose where to go and how does location play into the student experience? Right. We live in a very expansive country and there are so many different cultures within the United States and different topographies and types of climates to choose from, right? That's in addition to the urban, suburban and rural environments that you might want to select from. Maybe you're from a small town and want to try out a big city or you want a more peaceful environment so you want to go live in a more country-like environment and in a rural space or maybe the location where you want to go has access to major sporting events or some dancing, right? It depends on your background and what you want to study, what you'd like to have access to. You want to also make sure that you're selecting a climate that works with your personal experience, right? So you may want to stay in a place where you have 300 days of sunshine like Denver and you have access to four seasons. You may want a warmer climate because I know that's very important to some people. Also taking into account access to airport and public transportation as well as the cost of living to live in a specific location and I know that safety is very, very important as well. So really picking a location where you feel safe and welcome and like you can make a home there. Excellent, thank you. Mary Margaret, another common question that we get obviously from international students are what options are available for them to finance their education? Can you tell us a little bit about this? Right, so financial aid and scholarships, they're not going to always be in one full package. Sometimes you'll be getting funding from different sources or sometimes you'll be paying out of pocket fully. We provide an I-20 amount that is based on what we think you'll actually spend here and the cost can really vary based on the student. And with financial aid, there's so much variation as well. So for example, here at a public institution you wouldn't have access to federal funding here in the US but we do have scholarships up to half-optition for undergraduate students. At the graduate level, you may be relying on graduate assistantships rather than scholarships or there could be specific scholarships for your location or what you're studying. There can be a lot of different options. We also have students like Vee who work on campus. A lot of institutions work on campus for up to 20 hours a week. And then there are different institutions that do have more personal funding sources available to students. Great, excellent, thank you. So Vee, we'd like to turn now to you because I know a lot of viewers would like to get your perspective as an international student. So can you share with us a little bit about why you decided to study in the US and what was your experience with the application process? Okay, so as an international student the application process is not just we just apply for the school but we have to apply for the US visa. And you know, that is an essential step to study in America. You know, at first stage I tried to find a school with relatively high rankings and like suitable with my financial purchase of my family. Also I want to live in somewhere that I can get a job after graduating. And so I chose C.O. Denver where Mary Margaret is working here. Then I applied to C.O. Denver which is the right decisions I have made. The most interesting part in the application process is that when I applied for school since I did all the documents myself without any help of any agents so I found some difficulties in research information about the school on the website. You know, I still remember some days that I had to stay up late to 2 a.m. because of the wrong time in Vietnam and in America. And you know, the most happiest moment that I ever got is when I got an email saying that congratulations, you are accepted to C.O. Denver. I'm so happy, I was so happy at that time. And you know, besides those steps applying for a scholarship is a crucial part since my family budgets cannot cover all the tuition fees. And I also want to share to everybody that some people says there's no way we can get a scholarship because it's too hard, it's too difficult or something, but for me it's totally wrong. If you are trying your best to wear both for me in your current school and involve in extracurricular activities you definitely can't get a scholarship. So just be confident, be yourself and you can get what you want. Excellent. Regarding adjusting to life in the U.S. Oh, go ahead, zombie. Oh yes, thank you. You know, up to now I have been here for two months and it's not long I'm getting used to living and studying here. You know, at first I have like hundreds of concerns about where to live where to eat means of transport like buying a count for chasing text books and especially English since it's my second language and I can't understand 100% what people are talking about. So luckily, like after that with the support from the school, I figured it all out. I found a Vietnamese family here to study to live with them as a home say and I go to school by bus and a light rail, which is quite interesting though it takes sometimes. I feel so excited when I went to the bookstore to get my ID and my bus bus card I have to bring that with me like every time, all the time because if I forgot it at home I could be kicked off the light rail and which is not so fun in this weather Oh, I'm talking about weather in the Colorado nowadays it's beginning with snow and you know, this is my first time in my life seeing snow, which is so great I did take some picture and send to my mom in my hometown Oh, fantastic. Yes. Great, thank you so much for sharing that with SV we're so glad that you're adjusting well and your English sounds fantastic so well done. We viewers, we are now ready to share the results of our Facebook poll thank you for everyone who participated so just as a reminder we asked everyone to tell us about what aspect of studying at US College or University what students wanted information about from today's broadcast and the top answers were one, the application process so 41% of responders said the application process which we have talked about today and we can delve in a little bit more later on and then the second top choice was choosing a school 27% of respondents mentioned that so Gayatri and Mary Margaret are two top choices and is this something you hear a lot from students applying to your university's Gayatri, let's start with you Yes, indeed the application process is quite a mysterious one for many reasons primarily because we're usually comfortable with that with which we are familiar and for a student who goes to school in one system to get into the university system is a common it's a commonly tread path so it's easy to ask around and family and friends should be able to help it's a very brave thing to decide to study overseas it's a very courageous step now with the internet there's a lot of information that is available out there, there are lots of advisors and as you said Education USA does a wonderful job providing a lot of information to students who are interested in pursuing studies in the United States institutions in the US too can help all of our schools will have at least one email address to which you can write and inquire about the process if you have any questions a lot of our information is already on our websites information about how to obtain letters of recommendation how to write personal statements those are very specific questions that Education USA can certainly assist with particularly in regions where we aren't familiar with the concept of getting a letter of recommendation because the education system might not require it that's right so those are important questions to address if you have any questions about those students are welcome to email us and contact us to ask thank you Mary Margaret what do you think about those top two choices again is this something you hear from students quite a bit yes it is a question that we hear from students quite a bit and we tried to provide resources for students to use whether it's a short video or a webinar sometimes we're chatting with students all day long on our website on Facebook we have a WeChat and a WhatsApp to connect with students as well and we have four student assistants in our office that are pretty awesome in terms of helping out international students go through the application process and make sure that they feel very clear about each step I think also because the application varies and the requirements vary so much between institutions you can become a little bit lost in that the way we try to simplify that for students is providing credential evaluations in-house so making sure that you don't have to spend the extra money on a credential evaluation report and that is very helpful as well and then you're able to interact with our credential evaluation specialist to talk about whether or not you'll have transfer credits if you're transferring from another institution what do what does your GPA look like in the US and the amount of credits that you've taken and we really try to work really personally with students and make sure that they have an experience where they're feeling taken care of even if they're not working with an agent like the so lots of resources sometimes it takes some digging but what I would always say like Gayatri said is to reach out to us directly we have a phone number we have chat, we have email and I know that a lot of institutions do the exact same so we're always here to help Excellent, great, thank you it's good to know that there's that option of direct contact there so now I think we're ready for some questions from our viewers on Facebook and I'd like to turn to the first question do I need to take a language test like islets, TOEFL or Duolingo to get admitted now let me turn that over to Gayatri since she talked a little bit about testing in the beginning what's the answer to that question? It's complicated so there will be a language requirement mainly to assess where the students English proficiency lies because most of our institutions in the United States are going to conduct classes in English so at some point or the other we have to assess the students or the applicants ability to communicate in English whether or not that specific English test is going to be required depends on the institution some schools might consider an SAT verbal score in lieu of any of those English tests some students schools might require both and it really depends on where the student is coming from as well the different types of education systems sometimes will waive that might qualify the student for a waiver of the English proficiency test so it really depends there are many students who come from countries where English is an official language but not necessarily the only official language and therefore there might be additional requirements and some institutions offer for example intensive English language programs once students get to campus correct indeed we do supplement the students English academic proficiency essentially we provide English placement testing on campus many schools do that I believe just to be sure that the students background is truly going to be suitable to succeeding at the institution and we give them additional coursework to support the academic experience at the school excellent thank you you're welcome thank you for that question so now on to question two what is the difference between undergraduate and graduate programs Mary Margaret can you help us with that yes so undergraduate programs are typically started right after you complete the equivalent of a US school degree what's unique about US institutions is that we have a couple different types and I know we didn't talk about this before but we have a lot of community colleges which offer what we call a study so you could do two years and finish an associates degree at a community college and then those credits could be transferable to another four year institution you can get the bachelors in science or a bachelor of arts degree which is a standard undergraduate degree here in the US we are on the Auraria campus which actually is home to the community college of Denver and metropolitan state University of Colorado and so we have a lot of students that do transfer over from these institutions nearby and we take all of their credits so it's possible to go to a community college and save some money on tuition because sometimes those institutions have more have lower tuition costs and then transfer into one of the four year institutions at the graduate level you know you're really picking your specialization and kind of digging in a little bit more some of the undergraduate degrees can be more generalized we a liberal arts education is very popular in the US and that really involves creating a well rounded student who knows a lot about different subjects the graduate level is really where you're going to hone in on that specific topic that is your passion and you're going to be going to school probably for a shorter amount of time unless you decide to continue with PHD so at that point in time some institutions offer all three right so the University of Colorado is a large public research university and a doctoral university so we offer degrees all the way from undergraduate to a PHD some undergraduate institutions are just undergraduate only and there really is such a variety so what I find is that if you don't know what your path is that's okay because a lot of schools have great advising built in to help you figure out what path you want to go Thank you so that clarifies the different levels a little bit. Next question am I allowed to work while studying in the United States? Gayatri what's our answer to that? Definitely, you're allowed to work on a student visa up to 20 hours per week and many schools have several departments that would love to hire international students to work on campus. The primary objective of course is to study and so always make sure that it fits in with the academic schedule but yes indeed students are allowed to work on campus. It's a good opportunity to get experience with time management as well to kind of balance your school work with career work and also a good experience of the workforce and the work environment in the United States as well. That's right. Can you tell us a little bit about what studies the OPT program or optional practical training? A little bit so there are two types. One is CPT curricular practical training which is just before you graduate and the other is OPT optional practical training after you graduate. We at our school at Fairleigh Dickinson University we advocate for curricular practical training because that allows you to get work experience while you're still in school and it's a good introduction again into the real world as we call it outside of the university and you can get academic credit for it as well. OPT is after you graduate you finished your degree program, you're allowed to work for up to 12 months in most programs you could potentially get an extension on that if you're in certain subjects that are permitted by the Department of Homeland Security and it's a very worthwhile experience because it allows you to get practical insight using the education that you've just procured at the institution. That's right, putting it to use. Exactly, thank you. You're welcome. Great. Next question I have an international baccalaureate, IB diploma with two years of courses in English Do I have to take a TOEFL? So Gayatri back to you the eternal testing question. Yes, and it is a puzzling question because it always baffles students because it makes sense to them that there shouldn't be a test of English required. Fairly Dickinson University has a very broad English proficiency policy and it's a very forgiving policy I would say and what we do is we shift the focus onto the placement test that the student would take upon arriving on campus. So in most cases we would waive the test of English for a student who has studied in an English speaking environment. Depending on the country and we've listed all the countries that qualify for that. But that's to say our school would accept that and waive a TOEFL but doesn't mean that every other school in the US would. So it's a challenge because like we discussed over 4,000 universities in the US. Exactly. So it is a challenge. Right, right. It's a challenge to find that out but it's important because that could affect choices Absolutely, especially the timeline. Right. Because you have to plan. That's right. Back to the timeline. Exactly. Yes, thank you. So we've got a question from Nepal. Is it okay to be undecided about a major? And how does that affect the college selection process? What do you think Mary Margaret? Yes, so as I said before, that is perfectly acceptable and we have our center for undergraduate exploration and advising here. So that's very long fancy name for advising team but they really do assessments with students to figure out what their personality type is, how they work, what their passions are, where they want to be located, really what work that makes them come alive and they work with students to really help them hone in on what subject areas they can be studying in. And often times, students may pick more than one major. We also have opportunities to combine and create your own major which if that's the type of personality that you are, more power to you because you really can create a plan that really you are inspired by and you feel excited by. I myself had two majors and then I went on to study something else in my graduate studies and speaking of graduate studies you can always specialize in a particular area as well. So there really are a lot of options but we do have the resources in place to help you really make a decision and not be wasting your time and money while you're at school. We make sure that you do get on a good path and really get going with your studies. Good to know. So Mary Margaret, our next question I'm going to ask you to answer as well and it touches on something you mentioned earlier when we talked about the difference between undergraduate programs but one of our viewers wants to know a little bit more about the difference between community colleges and universities and can you tell us a little bit more about that? Okay, so we have community colleges that have general areas built similar to a university except that you're going usually for a shorter amount of time so the standard degree is called an associate's degree it's very well recognized here in the US the level of education is pretty much the same and it's recognized by the larger four-year institutions and doctoral institutions you can also do a technical degree as well and these institutions are usually publicly funded and so they're able to get state funding to keep the costs low you'll find you'll get a great connection to the community that you're in a lot of community colleges have a nice range of students all the way from a traditional student starting right out of high school to some lifelong learners who may be a little bit older than you and have different backgrounds so there's really just a great opportunity to expand your community and really get to know who is there in the city of Denver or wherever you choose to study. Fantastic, excellent, thank you so we've got a lot of viewers asking us about one other aspect that I'm going to ask Gayatri to help us out with and that is the main components of a college application so how do admissions officers actually review applications I'm sure it differs by institution but what's most important is it grades essays or is it experience extracurricular activities? Yeah, this is going to be a long answer It's really interesting how different schools weigh the different components and a lot of it has to do with the selectivity of the institution the competitiveness of the applicant and the type of program that they're applying to a number of different things so supposing and I hate to generalize but I would have to because I work for one institution and there are several in the United States and this is a very general question that is important to many people supposing I was applying to a highly selective institution and my application say I have a 3.9 GPA and I have very high SAT scores and the criteria are listed carefully on the application itself the school has made it very clear this is what I need to apply and yet letters of recommendation the essays are all mandatory in that kind of a situation that letter of recommendation that essay those could push you above the competition and get into that institution supposing a different institution looking to find a good fit between the applicant and a program a very specialized program say for example hospitality management they're looking for something within the students essay or the statement of purpose that indicates that they understand what the program is and that they are interested in that particular field so that information comes across through those supplemental items the GPA alone might be spectacular but they may not understand that hospitality management is different to hospital administration for example so things like that that come out during those little other components that we don't think about so it really is the whole package and it does depend on the institution so the more you know about that institution probably the better you can tailor that the nice part about it is we are all accessible we can contact us and ask us because we're very willing to help students navigate that process we understand how difficult it is for international students to understand how difficult this process is for them for being so far away we're here to help welcome so a viewer from Cameroon has asked a specific question for Mary Margaret how long does it take to receive an admissions decision for those universities? well that depends on the application cycle for specific institutions so some have specific dates that they're going to tell you you're going to receive a decision during this time and those are usually the very highly selective universities that have a specific process for our institution it really varies per student because some students have it takes longer to get their credentials in so their transcripts getting them sent to us and then undergraduate students it takes a little bit less time to make a decision because there are less transcripts to look at and evaluate we have a rolling admissions process so really it can take 30 days up to a couple of months depending on those transcripts I think that's really the part that makes it take the longest but we try to get decisions to students as quickly as possible because we know that you want to prepare for your visa interviews and to get here and get acclimated and try and move that process along so our office we make decisions every Tuesdays and Thursdays we have our committee and we chat and then we make our decisions and send them out so we try to do that very quickly for students excellent that's very helpful thank you so Cherub asks how can we apply to colleges that aren't listed in the common application so for Gayatri or Mary Margaret perhaps you could first explain what the common application is and then answer the question if you don't mind just as it sounds it's a common application for a select number of schools that have signed up for it schools that want to receive applications from students who choose that very big comprehensive common application that means you submit the one large app you choose the name of the institution that you're applying to as long as it's available on the common app and you can apply to a number of different institutions using the same application the question is what if the institution you want to apply to is not on the common app and the answer is simple if you know the institution find them on the website and find them on the international the worldwide web find their information for international students and either email them and ask them what the process is or you should actually see it once you get to the international web page many institutions have been very careful about providing information to international students it should be clear excellent thank you so students from Nepal and Bangladesh have asked if they take a gap year will they still be competitive to apply to study in the US Mary Margaret what do you think yes of course that is extremely popular here in the US even Malia Obama did a gap year so we think that is a great opportunity for a student to if they have the if they have the resources to to really learn about themselves and prepare for the college environment because it is a lot you are taking on basically a full time job and if you are going to work you have got more to do and more to manage so I think it is great when a student chooses to do a gap year and I think they perform just as well as students who are not doing a gap year and there are opportunities to come to campus early for summer camps and summer programs to take your time and getting acclimated to your new environment and community and I think that is really important to take that time and come early and give yourself the space to really feel prepared for the beginning of your studies that is right would you agree Gayatri yes, yes I do and partly also because sometimes it is necessary depending on the calendar year of the country in which you are studying it might not align with the US calendar or the academic calendar and therefore you would need to take some time in order to prepare for your application to come study in the United States it might be also wise if you had a very rigorous curriculum during your high school years to take time to prepare for your standardized tests get all the documents that you need a prepared application is usually better for both sides both for the university as well as for the student and their family because it allows you also the time to prepare for funding and the relocation there is so much that is involved in studying abroad more preparation is always good right, good, good thank you so several students have asked if they have a poor or low grade point average GPA in high school will they still be able to study in the US although I think that answer probably depends again on institutions what do you think about that I'm sure you've seen that case in several applications in the past if the answer was that they couldn't study in the US I wouldn't be here because I consider myself to have had a poor GPA when I was in school in high school because that wasn't my fit that was not comfortable in Sri Lanka in education system I grew up in Sri Lanka for most of my life and I decided to come to the United States after watching television excellent and I was excited about the system because I felt it was a very kind education system and I didn't realize that the idea of a GPA is a very complex thing because in our country we think that the standard of achievement is so much higher than what it translates to in the United States so it's very difficult to answer that question because first you have to figure out what is my GPA and then assess whether the school considers that to be your GPA then what is the school's admission criteria that's a simple answer additional information will also supplement an application so in other words if a student has other skills that the university could benefit from that the university could help the student cultivate towards professional success like artistic ability athletic ability so many other things that's where the finding the good fit is the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity in the United States it's one of the few countries in the world that offers that ability to start over and build from almost nothing there are several institutions that consider forgiving a student for a poor high school GPA assuming it's poor by our standards as well right, right, right so it definitely is one indicator but there's more to again to the whole package and to the whole application that students are submitting indeed, there's actually one more piece to that financial ability the financial resources that are available to you will shift if you have academic or other skills that the university can benefit from you will still be allowed to qualify for a scholarship if however you're coming in and you need a second chance to begin and start your academic history again to rewrite your own history you might need to pay more money in order to get your education so to be cognizant of that that's the sad part of it but it's the truth so good to keep in mind right, excellent, thank you you're welcome so Tong V some viewers are asking how the campus and classroom experience in the United States is different from your home country and you shared a little bit in the beginning but can you tell us a little bit more about that and what you've experienced yes, of course this is a very interesting questions because in my home country based on the mindset of Asian people we rarely raise our hands or raise our voice in our class but when I moved to the university in America everything is different every people is so active and they can raise their hands every time during the lectures our professors they listen to us and answer our questions very well besides that I really like my professors because she is so kind she's so kind and she's so dedicated that helped me a lot although my illness is not very good she will try to support me everything I ask and help me get along with every people here besides that I have a lot of friends which is a very good very great experience here because I'm a social person I make a lot of friends from all over the world from India from China, from Mexico Peru and so on a lot of places in the world and I think the difference between US and some countries university in some countries is that extracurricular activities a lot of extracurricular activities and specific for international students as well as for students in general and for specific school as well as business school or liberal arts or some specific major we offer for international students as well as for students specific events for us to attend excellent now can you tell us a little bit our next question is about letters of recommendation and I'll ask Gayatri to jump in after you but what did you do for your letters of recommendation and how many did you have and were they in English? yes of course actually in Vietnam I was in a university that is an international school of business so everything there was taught in English I have my professor he is American too so I asked him for a letter of recommendation but I think the most important thing here is that you have to prove yourself as a very good student that you have your own achievement and the person who will recommend you to the school just like a person who just evaluated and prove it at school just to make sure like the point is that yourself you have to make efforts yourself that's right so you have to choose those people that write your letters carefully so that they are able to really present you in a positive light and they know you in your strengths exactly now Gayatri I know it depends on the institution but what would be the average number of letters of recommendation if required and obviously they do need to be in English correct yes at least in English translation if it's not in English and we would also be able to get translations depending on the country but we ask the student to provide a sort of a rough idea typically at the high school level we ask for two but it depends on the institution really depends on the selectivity of the school and how difficult it is and as long as the person recommending the student knows them well that's the most important yeah yeah exactly yeah good so um Sergeant from Nepal asked does applying early mean a better chance of getting a scholarship Mary Meade what do you think about that I'm sorry Mary Margaret okay apologies well you know I mean applying early means that you're on it you're on top of your stuff and you're getting it in and that's really great but also there are requirements to get into the university so you have to meet the GPA level and English language proficiency requirements so these things may take more time I would say that you really want to focus on the quality of your application and be in touch with us I think that applying early isn't necessarily the most important thing is very important but also your communication with us I know some students will start an application on their own and get it done and we don't hear from them at all and that's amazing but we also have a lot of students who are feeling us and calling us and we love to hear from you and help you out and I think that gives us a better understanding of you know your story the story of your transcript your financial background and really what your needs are as a student and that is important to us in the Office of International Admissions at the University of Colorado Denver and I think that we're able to give those students who reach out and communicate with us a bit more care so that they really get what they need so I don't necessarily think that applying early is like the main thing that will help you get into university and like I said reach out, communicate with us we want to hear what's going on right now I just want to ask a related question about the specific time of year to apply for US universities and you mentioned your rolling application process but usually that's in the fall correct? Yes so our main start and the main start for most academic institutions in the US is in the fall which is in the month of August generally, late mid to late August and that depends on the institution we have three starts so we have students who will start in the fall and that's when the largest group starts and that's also when there are a lot more activities that are planned but we also have students who are ready to go and they want to start in the spring which starts in mid to late January and then we have students who are ready to come and start with us in the summer so that start is usually in June so generally because we have a rolling application as long as students are admitted and ready to go at least 30 to 45 days out from the start date of the semester we allow them to come and start during that time but I would say that you really want to get your application into a school like ours probably about three months out maybe more to give yourself enough time to prepare to come here is that a similar case for you all Gayatri? Yes at Fairleigh Dickinson we have two semesters fall and spring it's about the same timeline that Mary Margaret mentioned which is end of August is the start of the fall so we allow applications all the way through to August 1st so students who are living overseas and have to get visas and come and relocate and change destination basically they're living circumstances but if they're in the United States and if they wanted to transfer in then it's a different story they're already within the school system in the U.S. and so it's a lot quicker so even before the start of school we would consider an application and outside of the school system and completing the application well before Thanksgiving because of holidays and trying to apply for a visa that would be kind of a little bit tricky but like I said because of the different calendars the academic calendars that's inevitable that students would apply to spring once they've got all the academic credentials so there's no specific time that applies to all the schools unfortunately but as I said the sooner you begin the better for you No time like the present That's right So Pato from Argentina would like to know what the process for identifying university programs for student athletes are now that's an interesting question and again I think various institutions have specific programs for students Mary Margaret can you give us a sampling of what's available at your institution and what you've heard is available at other institutions Yeah so we're a bit unique because we have a lot of what is called a club sport so students they decide that they want to have a particular sport we've got we have flag football league soccer, cheerleading we've got some ultimate frisbee right and so the students have that interest they start the club they get funding together to have the club and then those they sometimes play against different institutions right then there are the large universities that have their huge football teams and stadiums and they are active and the NCAA which is our athletic association and there are different tiers of sports that are offered so right the division one is your really high level sport institution that is going to offer scholarships to attend all the way down to division three which is still a very competitive school and they sometimes do offer funding for schools and each institution has different types of sports lacrosse, field hockey you name it there are 4700 institutions in the US so they all have different specialties and I just was at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia and they said speaking of sports that they used to have a requirement that a student needed to pass a swimming test in order to get into a university so sports are very valued activities are very valued and it does differ based on the institution that you're going to be attending Excellent and Gayatri please I wanted to quickly add that Fairleigh Dickinson has two campuses in New Jersey and one is division three and one is division one so division one campus has athletes that receive athletic funding so it's a very important source of funding when it comes to studying overseas and being at an institution in the United States yes you will be playing part of a very very competitive team we have sports that range from track and field, soccer, tennis golf, fencing, volleyball it's a wonderful opportunity and the division three campus is also in northern New Jersey and we have sports teams there that compete it's amazing how competitive the NCAA is Fantastic, excellent good so lots of opportunities for athletes out there now our last question I'm going to ask Tongvi and Gayatri to answer for us but Tongvi could you tell us a little bit about the resources that you used as an international student to get adjusted to living in the United States Resource Hi so I think there are like thousands of resources for international students to get involved in our school and our event everything for example there's one like valuable resource in my school in Sierra Denver is that the learning resource center is that where we can go there and we can have some advice and mentor for our specific courses that we need somebody to help us besides that there's some writing center this is this is really great yeah like we have thousands of assignments in writing and this writing center can help us like correct it in the academic way and help us have a very fancy assignment to submit to our professor besides that there is an advising office where we can go there and to ask about our future career because sometimes we are confusing about what we can do in our future and what our office can help us answer every questions of us and like give us some advice and very good advice based on our ability based on our achievement what we can do what we can have in our future based on our interest it's very good and a lot of resources besides that for international students because we are very new here we are brand new so we can get involved to some of that office about international affairs to ask about the upcoming then to get involved to the environment and exposed to a lot of US cultures here I think it's very great good so you're taking full advantage that's great to hear yes and I think like we just need to be proactive be active and we can get involved as much as we want Excellent very good and so Gayatri what sorts of resources are at FDU? So certainly at FDU we have an international student services office that dedicates itself to helping students acclimate to the culture to the education system and we do orientation just upon arrival we also advocate students to contact Education USA in their home region so that they can do a pre-departure orientation as well yeah just for students who don't know our Education USA advisors around the world do offer orientation sessions for students heading to the United States and you can get a lot of good information about what to prepare for and how to just get ready for the big move and for your big transition to the United States and we connect with our students through WhatsApp, Facebook WeChat and email especially and students are very vocal about questions so that's wonderful such a mystery that's right excellent great well thank you to everybody unfortunately we're almost out of time but before we end up I'd like to ask each of our speakers to just give us one piece of advice that they would give to prospective students as they're thinking about the college application process so Tongvi let's start with you what would be one thing you would tell some of your friends that were hoping to do the same thing that you're doing study in the United States okay I think like at first we have a lot of difficulties when applying for a very strange country that we need to go to study abroad but I think the only thing we need to remember is that we are on the way to make our dream come true so just be persistent and be enthusiastic be proactive and take advantage of everything you can't and you can get your dream you can make your dream come true excellent thank you it's very inspiring so Mary Margaret what about you so I would say that you really just make a connection with the people who are in the office of admissions whether it's the student workers or the staff you know I think that's really important because V is a great example of this so she met one of our vice chancellor of the office of international affairs at an event in Vietnam and then she reached out to us and she emailed us and then as soon as she got on campus she came to our office and she came to say hello and now she's working in our office so you know make that connection do you feel like there's someone that really is taking an interest in you that's a really good indicator that when you get to campus you're going to have people who care about you and who are going to help you to be as successful as possible so when you get that good feeling that this person really cares I think that's your institution and that might be the place that you need to go very good point thank you and Gayatri I know there's lots of advice that we can pass on to students but what would be one thing you would leave people with today something seems really difficult ask someone who knows rather than making assumptions or listening to someone who might not necessarily know that's right, that's right clarify and ask we're here to help and we welcome questions excellent, great well thank you to all of you for your excellent comments and insights and advice we're here today and we'd like to also especially thank all of our viewers and we have some special viewing groups around the world that we would like to give a shout out to we have our Education USA Gabroni in Botswana Education USA Center at the Binational Center in Colombo Americano in Bogota, Colombia our American Space Bouchie in Nigeria Education USA Abuja our Lahore Center in Pakistan also dialed in today as well as our U.S. Embassy Kiev in Ukraine the American Corner, Pristina in Kosovo the American Corner Jedeta in Burundi the American Corner Welvis Bay in Namibia and Education USA Managua in Nicaragua thank you to everyone for watching today we're really excited about your participation, about your questions and we're excited about the information that we're able to share today so for more information about studying in the United States as you all know well you can visit our website educationusa.state.gov and you can find information about the five steps to study in the United States as well as where you can find the Education USA Center closest to you in your country and as a reminder we have close to 435 centers around the world and our advisors can help connect you with universities help you through the application process we also have a lot of information on social media and we participate in fairs and forums around the world we have information on financial aid opportunities and much much more so thank you again for joining us and please think about joining us for future Education USA events you can find out all about those events and we'll have more interactive web chats coming very soon so that's it from us thank you to everyone and goodbye from Washington