10. APPLICATIONS
Did you know?
•Most colleges and universities will answer questions about their applications and even walk you through filling out their application at their welcome center or at their admissions office. Don’t be afraid to go to the school and get help! Filling out the application is the most important step to getting in. Without a complete and correct application, you can’t get in! Therefore, do it with enough time and do it right!
First, be aware that some schools will have their own unique applications that you must fill out. These could be on paper, but most schools have moved to digital submissions. For digital submissions, you will need to create an account on the school’s application website. Sometimes, you will need to wait twenty-four to forty-eight business hours for a “welcome email” before you can access the application. Therefore, if the deadline is on a Friday at 17:00, make sure you create an account well before Wednesday. If you create that account late on Thursday, you might not even get access to the application until Monday. For schools that require these unique applications, there might be specific questions that other schools never ask you as well as special document requirements.
Next, know that many schools might use a shared application program through which you can apply to many schools. Common App is a non-profit service used by almost 900 United States colleges and universities, both domestically and with international campuses in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. You fill out one online application, and you can use that application to apply to any of these participating schools around the world. In 2019, Common App teamed up with former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher college access initiative in order to promote applying to college as something easy, fun, and important to do.
If you go to the Common App website, you can create a free “practice account” by choosing the “Parent or other adult” option. This is especially worth doing if you will apply to many schools that use the Common App. Try filling out the practice application without any risk of accidentally submitting a bad application. You can even convert your practice account into a real account once you’re ready to submit, meaning that you won’t have to retype all of your information into the system again. Simply e-mail The Common Application’s Solution Center (appsupport@commonapp.net) with your full name, date of birth, and a statemen that you want to change your practice account into an applicant account. Applying to college takes a lot of time, so find any ways like this that save you time and effort.
There are two types of applications I will discuss below: undergraduate and graduate school.
Undergraduate School
Typically, a complete undergraduate application will include the application form itself plus the submission of proof of completing high school or its equivalent. International students will also have to submit documents such as a copy of their passport, a proof of funding form, a proof of English language proficiency form, certified English translations of their high school diploma documents, a copy of their F-1 visa form and all prior I-20 forms, and others. You will need to ask your school’s visa coordinator or center for international students for specific answers.
At some schools, international students don’t need to prove their English language skills if they:
•Come from countries where English is a first or official language.
•Have a diploma from a United States high school.
•Graduated with an International Baccalaureate (IB).
•Received a C grade or higher from a college level English class at an accredited college or university in the United States.
However, you should ask the academic advising staff at your school about its specific requirements.
College and university applications evaluate you on many different things. Here are some of the most basic yet important things to focus on for your application:
•Submit it before the deadline. This is the first and most essential aspect evaluated of you as a student: time management and responsibility. Submit a complete application before the deadline.
•Submit it correctly and completely. This is another important aspect of being a good college student: reading carefully, preparing everything you need, and submitting what is asked of you.
•Submit it without errors. Good college students should also be detail-oriented and careful. Proofread your application. This doesn’t mean “use spell-check.” I mean read every word aloud to yourself. Spell-check will catch simple errors, but if you use correct English words in the wrong place, it won’t catch them. Read it aloud.
•Submit enough. If essay response sections have word counts or character counts, stick to them. Show the admissions staff that you can pay attention and meet requirements.
•Submit what they want. If essay response sections have specific prompts, answer the questions they ask or write on the topic they request. Show the admissions staff, again, that you can pay attention and meet requirements. Here are some common essay questions, remixed from the open textbook A Different Road to College, pp. 113:
∘Explain your career aspirations and your educational plan to meet these goals. Be specific.
∘Explain how you’ve helped your family or made your community a better place to live. Provide specific examples.
∘Describe a personal accomplishment and the strengths and skills you used to achieve it.
∘Describe a significant change or experience that has occurred in your life. How did you respond and what did you learn about yourself?
Your answers to any of these questions do not need to be “world-saving.” Instead, just try to show your personality and best qualities. Tell small, specific stories to maximize the word count limit you’re given.
•Familiarize yourself with the school. If the application asks you why you want to attend that school, then show that you know something about it. What majors are popular at the school? What programs are particularly strong? What about the campus community attracts you?
∘If it’s possible, visit the campus before you apply. Speak with the welcome center staff, and ask them to direct you to key places on campus where you can learn about the school’s history and culture. Talk to as many students and staff on site as possible. You can use these stories later in a narrative for your application essay.
∘If you can’t visit the campus, immerse yourself in the institution’s website and social media accounts. Learn as much as you can about how the school views itself and how it is viewed from the outside (in newspapers, on blogs, or in videos).
∘Find out if you know any alumni members. Maybe someone in your family went to the school. Maybe one of your family member’s friends went. Look up your local governmental representative (city councilperson or mayor) and see if they went to that school. If so, see if you can meet and speak with any of these people to learn about their experiences.
Graduate School
Typically, a graduate school application will include the application itself plus the submission of proof of completing an undergraduate degree. International students will also have to submit documents such as a copy of their passport, a proof of funding form, a proof of English language proficiency form, a copy of their F-1 visa form and all prior I-20 forms, and others. You will need to ask your school’s visa coordinator or center for international students for specific answers.
At some schools, international students don’t need to prove their English language skills if they:
•Come from countries where English is a first or official language.
•Have a diploma from a United States high school.
•Graduated with an International Baccalaureate (IB).
•Received a C grade or higher from a college level English class at an accredited college or university in the United States.
However, you should ask the academic advising staff at your school about their specific requirements.
Graduate school applications evaluate you on many different things. Here are some of the most basic yet important things to focus on for your application:
•Submit it before the deadline. This is the first and most essential aspect evaluated of you as a student: time management and responsibility. Submit a complete application before the deadline.
•If you have to submit letters of recommendation as part of your application, make sure that you request letters from your professors far in advance. I recommend asking at least three weeks in advance. Make sure that your professors know when the letters are due. Incomplete applications due to missing letters of recommendation can be rejected. Therefore, plan!
∘Some institutions will allow faculty recommenders to send their letters in a simple email. Others will require that you request a letter from that faculty recommender using a secured web service. As soon as that school’s application portal is open, figure out what is required and how to get those things submitted. Confusion about submitting these required items can be disastrous for your application.
•Submit it correctly and completely. This is another important aspect of being a good graduate student: reading carefully, preparing everything you need, and submitting what is asked of you.
∘If you have to submit official transcripts as part of your application, request them from your school well in advance. They can sometimes take multiple days to be processed and sent. Some universities will ask that they arrive directly from your undergraduate institution. This request and delivery process can take more time than you think. Plan!
•Submit it without errors. Good graduate students should also be detail-oriented and careful. Proofread your application. This doesn’t mean “use spell-check.” Read every word aloud to yourself. Spell-check will catch simple errors, but if you use correct English words in the wrong place, it won’t catch them. Read it aloud.
•Submit enough. If essay response sections have word counts or character counts, stick to them. Show the admissions staff that you can pay attention and meet requirements.
•In your statement of purpose essay, you should be specific about what area you would like to focus on, but not so specific that you sound like you only want to study one very particular thing. For example, it would be safe enough to say you wanted to study “twentieth century American literature” if you were applying for a doctoral program in English. If your statement only said you wanted to study “American literature,” it would sound too broad, unfocused, and almost insincere about wanting to go to graduate school. If your statement said “twentieth century novellas written by Texan women about prohibition,” it sounds like you definitely know what you want to do, but it might be so specific that you won’t find many faculty members with which to study the subject.
•In your statement of purpose essay, you should mention which faculty members you want to work with in the program you’re applying to and why. Show that you know who teaches in the program, what courses they teach, and what research they have done in the field that interests you.
∘In the humanities, you do not need to contact a professor in advance to ask if they will take you as a graduate student. This is not a common agreement/situation at United States universities. In fact, this might bother some professors or make the evaluation process of your application uncomfortable. Instead, simply do your research on who is teaching graduate-level courses at that university, and mention that you’d like to study with them in your application. This is enough.
∘In the sciences, many prospective students do contact a professor in advance to ask if they can take on new graduate students. These professors might be running labs using grant money that only has a certain amount allocated to pay for graduate assistant stipends. Therefore, you should do your research on who is teaching graduate-level courses at that university, but you should also contact that professor with a statement of interest and a query about their availability. If that professor writes you back and explains they cannot take new graduate students, it will save you the time and disappointment of applying and being rejected.