Pre Admission

• When to start?
  The Simple rule is: "The earlier the better!." Most college application deadlines for Fall semesters are between January and March (for students also applying for financial aid). If you are not seeking financial aid, the deadlines may be as late as June; however any application after April will be risky. Considering these deadlines, the best time to start collecting documents and plan for admission is May or June of the previous year. 

• How to start?
  Admission is a very complex and tiresome procedure. It requires lots of research, studying and decision making while you are occupied studying for the senior year classes in high school or college. The first thing is to determine where you are (or will be standing) among the other applicants. This is the major issue that will lead you through out the whole application procedure. To determine this you need to study the required standardized tests like TOEFL, GRE and/or GMAT. There are exam preparation courses in many countries that you may prefer to attend if you think you lack discipline to study yourself. If you'll study by yourself, first buy preparation and sample test books for these tests. When you decide that you study enough, start solving sample tests. The scores will give you a clear idea where you stand, whether you need to study more to increase your chances for the colleges you want to get admission. Solve as many sample tests as you can until you believe you reached a sufficient point. Then check with colleges to find out which ones you may qualify since you need to code couple colleges in your test application form. If you are not satisfied with the matching colleges, you need to study more and harder. 

• Selecting colleges to apply?
  Although everybody wants to attend to top universities, these may not the "best" for every individual. There are many things to be considered including both academic performance and personal preferences before application and acceptance. There is only one person to make that decision: YOU ! Your acceptance depends on the qualifications of all other applicants too. A TOEFL score of 250 may be sufficient for one year when the average TOEFL score of all other applicants are lower than 250, but the following year even 275 may not be sufficient even being considered if all other applicants have very high scores. Academic performance includes but not limited to: 

  1. The colleges' acceptance ratio: if this ratio is low, it is very competitive to get accepted at the first place. Such colleges usually have high first year retention ratio since they accept limited number of students and give the best for those whereas some accept more but retain some of those. The higher the retention ratio the better the chances to graduate.

      

  2. GPA, Aggregate and Rank: This is a standard to measure applicants' academic success. You may think you deserve better GPA then you have. If this is the case, you still have chance to fix this by studying hard for GRE/GMAT and scoring high scores to overcome the weakness of your GPA. Another option may be mentioning the reasons for low GPA briefly in your SOP

     Many countries have many different grading strategies; some grades students on a scale of 100, some 10, some with letters (scale may vary). Do not put so much emphasis on this. You may explain the grading strategy of your high school or college in one small paragraph in your SOP, if you think it needs to be explained. You may also want to mention about your rank in your graduating class like among top 5%, 10% or 20%. Even if your GPA seems low, if you are in top 10 of your graduating class, your achievement is till significant. AchieversPoint suggest you include a copy of your college's grading strategy (from school catalog or web site) and a letter from your department or college stating your rank in the graduating class.

      

  3. GRE/GMAT: Do not panic if you get lower scores than you expect, you can always re-take these exams. Do NOT forget that these exams are strategy exams (as well as scoring your academic skills) and you can improve your score by solving lots of sample tests.

      

  4. Achievements: If you have any outstanding achievement, do NOT forget to mention this in your application and/or SOP. Such achievements may include but not limited to regional, national or international competitions or exams, graduation/senior year projects, technical papers, etc. It shows your ambition, leadership skills and determination.

   

  You may not think many of these as an issue but personal preferences may affect your success and make a difference. These became important when you get acceptance from more than one college that ranks VERY close and include but not limited to:

   

  • Setting of the college: Rural, suburban, metropolitan, etc. If you grow up in a major city, a rural college town may not really be for you. Or vice versa, if you are a farm boy/girl, getting used to a big city is a big deal by itself in addition to new culture and college environment.

  • Climate: Similar to setting of the college, you may struggle with cold or hot climate.

  • Cost of living: This is very important to apply and accept admission. The cost of living through out the United States varies about 40%. What does this mean to you? Your $1,000 scholarship in one state is equivalent to $600 in another state. Your grocery shopping, your car cost, your rent will all be affected. If you are financing your own education, it may cost you 40% more in an expensive state like California and cities like Boston, New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

  AchieversPoint expert panel strongly suggests to apply to a couple of back-up college with lower standards just in case.

   

• What about tests?
  As mentioned above, TOEFL, GRE and GMAT tests are all strategy exams as well as scoring your academic skills. Just think, how much more new stuff you can learn until you take the test? Probably the answer is not too much. Then sharpen your exam taking skills by working on as many sample tests as you can until you, YOURSELF is satisfied with the result. Such practice will help you to understand the methodology and foresee possible questions while reading essays and saves you significant amount of time for going back to the essay for the second or third time to find the answer of the questions. If you are not as much dedicated to study by yourselves from the exam materials then we suggest you to enroll courses which will not teach you a lot but give you the test taking strategies. But if you have enough dedication, self-study materials will be enough. Also keep in mind that you can take these tests more than once. As long as you are improving your score or don't decrease significantly (roughly more than 10% of your previous score), it will not have negative affect on your application. How many times? Good question... We believe 3 is the threshold. 275 and above considered decent for TOEFL score, 2000 and above for GRE and 700 and above for GMAT. Going beyond these scores will increase your chances significantly for getting admission to the colleges you want. You may get detailed information about these tests and check test dates at:

   

  • Official TOEFL Site

  • Official GMAT Site

  • Official GRE Site

• What is critical in application forms?
  Most application forms are similar, in fact we can say "same". All contains questions about your personal and academic information. Provide all the information asked. The most critical section of application form is SOP also called as personal statement which plays important role in your acceptance (once your other standardized qualifications places you in the list).

   

• Personal Statement/Statement of purpose
  An SOP is an essay where you have full control in the application package. You are expected to tell admission officers who you are, what you want to do and why you are applying to that particular college. That is the only place in your application package that you are communicating directly to admission officers, kind of one-to-one, face-to-face. That is the only place you can tell about you, yourself.

   

  • You can make up your negative points like low GPA or test scores here. You may have some financial or family crisis that you could not concentrate on your school and got low grades for your classes some particular year... Don't be shy mentioning things briefly that will explain your down sides...

     

  • You should explain why you want that why you choose to apply to that particular college and department. Do some research about the college, the department and the professors in the department that you are applying and include some statements about significant points of them. This shows your sincerity and desire to attend that college.

     

  • You should explain why you are applying that particular department. As mentioned above, do some research and tell them why your interests match with that department. Polish your paragraph with technical terms but don't be too technical because admissions officers are not that technical. Give some examples that the department doing research on them and link it to your interests. The purpose of this is to convince the department that you are "qualified" for their department since your application will be sent to the department after admission office verifies your qualifications. Being somewhat technical in this aspect will also help you to be considered for financial aid by the department.

     

  • You should mention about your knowledge about some special area (of course the area that you'll be potentially doing your graduate studies on) because they'll prefer to get someone in with some knowledge already gained rather that a student fresh starting to specialize in. As mentioned in Money Matters section, you'll be working on a portion of the project as your MS (or PhD) which the department will probably be paid to do.

     

  • You should mention why you outstand among the other applicants. Tell all your achievements which may include but not limited to your rank in your graduating class (a letter from your department or college will help), internships you've done in the past, your graduating project, any part or full time jobs that's related to your major, any social activities and achievements... Colleges in the States also want you to have some life and achievement besides academic life. Your leadership character will ignite their interest. Do not forget, your success is their marketing material after your graduation.

     

  • Do NOT forget to mention that you need financial aid if you do but don't be so pushy.

  For most international students, the essay could be their first major article in foreign language, as the case may be. The idea of an essay is not only to test your grammar and spelling of the language of instruction but to give the admission officers an effective tool where they will be able to determine your ability to express your thoughts, communication skills, unique personal traits and the quality and diversity you will be able to bring to their campuses. International students, by default bring diversity to any campus and you have this fact working for you always. Some of your qualifications may have positive affect in your application evaluation even if you think they are minor. Admission officers want to hear about that, all about you. Therefore, spend a good amount of time in outlining what you want to include in the essay. You could also request the advice of your instructors, particularly with grammar and syntax. The final product should always be your original work. Admission officers may realize copy-paste SOP's.

   

• Affect of work experience on admission
  Some work experience is almost an advantage for admission although it does not have direct influence. However some business schools and some management programs either require or favors work experience. If you look at the business schools at graduate level, most of their "student population" have one to three years work experience. Many applicants have dilemma whether to work for a year or two to have work experience before applying to graduate school in the US. Whether it is worth or not, it all depends on applicant. However AchieversPoint Expert Panel Members favors coming to US and spending extra effort to get a good summer internship which may secure a job after graduation.

   

• How to indicate financial aid need?
  Although some application form has a section to checkmark whether you need financial aid or not, SOP is the best place to mention about the financial aid need, as mentioned above. Keep in mind that almost everyone is seeking financial aid, so you need to show them that you deserve financial aid with your desire, dedication, hard work... You must believe in yourself on everything

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