Applying to US Universities

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Many US Universities like MIT have 2 long semesters, Fall and Spring and one shorter semester in Summer. In these Universities most courses are offered in the two long semesters. Students typically do research or take paid internship on a full-time basis during the Summer semester. Legally international students have to take a minimum of 3 courses per long semester so that the US Govt. is assured that you are really spending your time in full time studies.

Many other Universities, specially in California have 4 semesters of 3 months each, known as quarters. One of the 4 quarters is summer, the other three semesters are known as Fall, Winter, and Spring. Even in the quarter system, enrolment rules are relaxed for international students and very few courses are offered in Summer.

The Summer semester in either system is comparable. But the key difference is that in Semester system you have 2 long semester spanning four and a half months. In the quarter system you have three main semesters (excluding summer) of two and a half months, discounting 15 days for exams, break, etc. As a student, it impacts your schedule and the pressure under which you operate. Even a 4.5 month semester is very fast paced, but in a quarter system the semester is over as soon as it starts! Professors teach at a fast pace and deadlines for assignments are closer. As a student you have no room to relax, waste time or miss any class or assignment.

You should apply to those US Universities which you otherwise would irrespective of the semester or quarter system. After you get many admission offers, and two of your offers are very close, you can use this information as a tie breaker.

Example Calendars for either system:
Fall, Spring and Summer schedule at MIT (2007-08)
Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer at UCLA (2007-08)

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In the mid nineteenth century there was a lot of gold to be found in California. You are little late for that. But still there are many reasons to apply to Universities in California!

No U.S. state can match California in the quality and number of top Universities. Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Cal Tech, Hastings College of Law are one of the top Universities. The number of Nobel Laureates in these Universities exceeds those in many countries of the world.

California has a robust and diverse economy with lots of activities in the Computers, Biotech, Healthcare and Engineering. Even when US economy is not doing too good, the California economy is strong due to the innovations that are pioneered in California. Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Disneyland are in California. California is home to some of the world’s biggest computer and software companies.

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Most of the top business schools tend to conduct a phone interview for the short-listed candidates. The interview is not to test the applicant’s knowledge but a general discussion aimed to understand the candidate better and to determine if the applicant is really interested in that business school.

Some of the commonly asked questions in the interview:

Tell us something about yourself. Speak for about two minutes highlighting your key strengths. There is no need to tell your academics or GMAT score. They have it

What diversity do you bring to our program? If you are a Indian male techie, this is very crucial because they presume you do not bring any diversity to a applicant pool already filled with your type. Think about all your achievements and skills far from IT and Computers and make a strong case.

What are your long-term goals? Be yourself. Make sure you do not contradict your essays.

Why our program? Your answer should reflect that you have really read their webpage and understood the main strengths of that B-school. Also project as if this is your top choice and you are very excited about the possibility of studying there.

If you do not understand a question request the interviewer to repeat it. In the end thank the interviewer for her time. Now the most important piece of advice if you are an international applicant - most people have a tough time understanding the English accent of people from other countries specially on phone. So in a phone interview you need to speak clearly and very very slowly with lots of punctuations.

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170 students will be awarded scholarships of $1000 and $5000. Application deadline is 15th May 2008. Winners will be declared by July of 2008.
The Tylenol Scholarship program is now in its sixteenth year. This year, up to $350,000 in scholarships will be awarded to future doctors, nurses and other health professionals.
Link to the application:
www.tylenol.com/page.jhtml?id=tylenol/news/subptyschol.inc

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“I am very much interested in pursuing graduate studies at your university because your University has world class research facilities” sounds impressive? Not to the admission committee. This sentence can be written by any applicant for any University. Consider this, “My research interest is in the area of Computer Graphics. I want to pursue my MS in Computer Science at the University of North Carolina, Chappell Hill because of the pioneering research being done in the area of graphics.” If other qualifications are similar, the second applicant with a clear specific statement is more likely to be selected over the first one.

Although Statement of Purpose has a similar requirement at most MS and PhD programs, some do have specific expectations, questions or word limits. After you have written your statement of purpose, rewrite it for each target University. Be sure to write the name of your target University at least once in your statement like in the above example. Also check if your research interest is an area of focus for that particular department; else mention your other interests which match the work at that particular University.

Do not write names of Professors in your statement of purpose because you do not want to narrow your sources of funding. Be very careful against errors in copy pasting. Double check you are not praising the artificial intelligence research of University of Texas in your statement of purpose for UCLA.

Your statement of purpose is one of the most important aspects of your Application to US Universities. If you are diligent and follow the advice outlined in this post, you will significantly increase your chances of admission. Got a question? Ask the question on our forum at www.app2us.com - all guidance is free of cost.

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University Language Services organized an essay contest and they found that the Students Who Attend Schools in More Than One Country See Benefits of Both.Following is a direct quote from the Press Relese.
Nervous about studying in America?
Don’t be.
Foreign schools are more rigorous than their American counterparts, say students who have studied in the United States and abroad.