Applying for Admission

Each U.S. college or university sets its own admission standards and decides which applicants meet those standards. You must apply separately to each college or university.

Even if you have selected one school where you are sure you want to study, you should still apply to other schools—it is possible that your “first choice” school may not accept you. At least one or two of your choices should be schools where you and your advisor are fairly certain you will be admitted. Remember that you are competing with students from all over the world, for a limited number of spaces.

Life in the U.S.A. will probably be different from what you expect. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that the images from films and television programs are not always true. That is, Americans come in a variety of sizes, colors and shapes. Americans in general are very friendly and will be interested in learning about you and your country.

Most U.S. schools encourage international students to contact them at least one year before they plan to enter that school.

Follow these steps as you apply to U.S. colleges and universities:

Write to several schools. After you have selected the schools you want to attend, contact them for more information and an application form. Go to the “Request Information” link on our website to complete an online request form. You may link directly to the admissions office by clicking the “Apply Now” button on the school’s page at StudyUSA.com.

For graduate (postgraduate) school admissions you must apply directly to the graduate school for which you are qualified, such as the Physics or History Department. Contact either the Admissions Office of the graduate school or the chairperson of the department. You should be in good academic standing if you expect to be admitted to a graduate program. If you contact schools through email or letter, please mention that you learned about the school from Study in the USA.

Send application forms. U.S. colleges and universities usually base their admissions decisions on a student’s academic record and applicable test scores, such as TOEFL or the SAT. If you are applying for graduate schools, additional exam scores, such as the GRE or GMAT, will be required.

The Admissions Office or graduate school department will send you information about their academic programs and an application form. (You might be able to obtain a specific school’s application form online or at your local educational advising center.) The fee for each application is between U.S. $35 and $75. This money pays for processing your application and is non-refundable, even if you don’t aren’t admitted to the school.

The Admissions office will look at your marks during the last four years of secondary school and on the national secondary school examinations in your country. If you are applying to graduate school, your marks from college or university will be looked at. Ask the school you are now attending, or the school you have attended most recently, to mail a certified copy of your academic record or “transcript” to the schools where you are applying. Prior to taking your admissions tests, you should arrange for official score reports to be sent to the colleges or universities that interest you.

Most applications will request the following information:

Personal information—Include your name, age, address, family background, birthplace, citizenship, and so on.

Activities—Make a list of club memberships, awards earned, team sports experience, or leadership roles you have held.

Education plan—Write a short essay explaining why you want to attend this school, what course of study you want to pursue, your career goals, and research plans.

Essay—Some schools require a personal essay on a topic of your choosing.

Letters of recommendation—The application form will include several blank pages on which to provide letters of recommendation. Ask several of your teachers to compose and mail these letters directly to the Admissions Office of each school you choose.

Be sure to send your application to each college or university well before the application deadline.

Register for admissions tests.

Students applying to U.S. colleges and universities must take examinations that measure aptitude and achievement. International students must also take a test that measures English proficiency. These tests are given at test centers around the world. They are “standardized,” so that students take the same test at every test center. Your scores give the Admissions Office a uniform international standard for measuring your ability in comparison with other students.

Take the admissions tests. Your test scores are sent directly to the colleges and universities to which you are applying. You will be asked to indicate the names of these schools when you register to take certain tests, such as the SAT, or, in the case of computer-based tests, you will designate them at the exam site. The testing agencies will mail your scores directly to these schools. There will be a fee for scores that you request at a later date.

Receive acceptance letters. After the application deadline, you will begin receiving letters from the schools to which you have applied. Some schools inform candidates of their acceptance soon after their documents have arrived in the Admission’s Office. This is called “rolling admissions.” Other schools, however, wait several months and inform all candidates at one time.

Pay your deposit. Most schools require students to pay a deposit by a certain deadline if they want to reserve a space in the entering class. For international students, this deposit can be as high as a semester’s or a full year’s tuition

You should send your deposit immediately if you are applying for financial aid or if you plan to live in university housing. Because many schools do not have enough campus housing for all the students, you will have a better chance of getting a room on campus if you send your housing application and room deposit fee as quickly as possible.

The school that you select may also require a statement indicating how much money you will have available during the years you will be in school. If your government or company is sponsoring you, you will need to send details of your award.

THE SAT:What you need to know

Most colleges and universities in the United States require applicants to submit scores from a standardized admission test. The SAT is the most widely used college admission test in the U.S.A. It is also the best-known program of the College Board, a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success. The SAT is a mostly-multiple-choice test that assesses students’ critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, based on the knowledge they have developed through their school coursework. SAT scores help colleges and universities make informed admissions decisions by providing one indicator of a student’s academic readiness to do university-level work. SAT scores also help students determine the colleges where they are most likely to be successful.

What does the SAT test?

The SAT consists of three sections: critical reading, mathematics, and writing. Each section is scored on a scale of 200-800.

THE CRITICAL READING SECTION, formerly called the verbal section, tests your ability to understand college-level passages written in English. The questions in this section will ask you to complete sentences with the appropriate word or words, or to answer questions that show your comprehension of short and long reading passages.

THE MATH SECTION assesses how well you analyze and solve problems—skills you learned in school that you’ll need in college. It includes questions that ask you to work with algebraic formulas, linear functions, exponential growth and manipulations with exponents, properties of tangent lines, absolute value, functional notation, geometric figures, probability, and to analyze data. Some of the questions are multiple-choice, while others will require you to fill in your own answer.

THE WRITING SECTION includes multiple-choice questions to test how well you use standard written English. You also will be required to write a brief essay. The multiple-choice questions assess your ability to identify sentence errors, improve sentences, and improve paragraphs. The essay question asks you to take a position on an issue and use examples to support your position. The readers who score your essay will know that the essay was written in a short amount of time and is a first draft. They will not expect a polished piece of writing.

They will read your essay to see how well you organize and express your point of view and develop and support your main idea.

How does the Writing section affect students for whom English is a foreign language (EFL)?

EFL students perform just as well or better on writing assessments than they do on other verbal measures. Essay topics are selected to be accessible to the general test-taking population, including EFL students. The essay is scored holistically, that is, based on the overall quality of the essay and your demonstration of writing competence. Even with some errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar, you can still get a top score on the essay. And remember that colleges and universities use the SAT as just one factor among others when making admissions decisions.

How should students prepare?

The best way to prepare for the SAT is to participate actively in your own education. Choose challenging classes, read as much as you can in and out of school and practice your writing. Students whose first language is not English will want to become as familiar with standard written English as they can. It is also a good idea for students to familiarize themselves with the SAT so they know what to expect on test day. You should be familiar with the different kinds of questions on the SAT and the directions for each kind of question. Sample SAT questions and a full-length practice test are available for free in the SAT Preparation Center� (www.collegeboard.com/satprep). A full-length practice test is also in the free SAT Preparation Booklet, available in many high school (secondary school) guidance offices or at an advising center in your country.

If you want more preparation, you can also pay to take full-length practice SATs in The Official SAT Online Course�, or purchase a copy of the College Board’s book The Official SAT Study Guide: For the New SAT�. The Online Course offers 18 interactive lessons that prepare students for all the question types in the three sections of the SAT, including the essay. The book features similar lessons and a different set of practice tests in a printed format. It is available for sale online and in bookstores in most countries.

SAT Subject Tests

SAT Subject Tests are one-hour tests designed to measure how much students know about a particular academic subject and how well they can apply that knowledge. There are 20 subject tests in areas such as French, Chemistry, and World History. Check with the universities where you may apply to learn their requirements or recommendations for SAT Subject Tests.

Test Taking Strategies

When preparing for any of the tests discussed in this article, students should keep in mind that good English language instruction is an essential foundation. Language proficiency can be achieved only after continued study and practice.