There is an extensive support system available in the country for those who chose to pursue studies abroad. We extensively did a lot of research ourselves but also validated and took advise from a group of these institutions which helped in making decisions at various stages.
One of the very first thing we did was to attend the events organized by IDP in various places in the city. They are good because they give a chance to meet with the university representatives (not necessarily the ones we chose to apply - but still it gives a general idea of what to expect). IDP is also one of the institutes authorized to conduct IELTS in India (the other being the British council) and so they help out on the preparations for IELTS as well as in understanding the admission requirements etc of the universities.
The other entity we relied on was USIEF. They organize fairs and have tons of material to understand the application and admission process. They have a center in the US embassy in Chennai and they engage heavily through social media as well.
Once we finalized the universities, started following the university social media handles as well - this is needed as a lot of reminders on the dates and other important updates are posted consistently. All the universities that we were checking on had a very active social media presence. Some, like Memorial University in Canada, send their admission officers independently to India and unless you follow them in Twitter, you may never get to know of this.
Overall, I found the entire application process to be very stressful. Even with all the preparations, the requirements for each university was different - some wanted the transcripts notorized, some to upload, some to send a copy by mail, some to get it evaluated with a third party educational consultant (which costs a bomb!) - all these within the 12 unis we chose to apply. Teacher recommendation letters had similar combinations as well. Added to this, sending the original 10th mark sheets (later, 11th and 12th as well) by mail to IERF for evaluation and and getting it back by mail without losing it, adds to shatter whatever fragile peace of mind that is left.
I should thank the entire teaching staff of AMM School and the principal Mrs. Mahalakshmi - for their continuous support during the entire process to provide the recommendation letters on paper or typing that in the system for some applications and all in between. Their patience to take in every request and process them within the short time frame every time is not something that every school administration does.
And BYU had an additional requirement to have an interview done with the LDS Church officials followed by a phone interview with the Bishop in Salt Lake city as well. The entire leadership team at the LDS church in Chennai - especially the president, Prince Jayakaran, were very helpful in completing the recommendations (after much challenges in the system) and also in the days afterward in terms of connecting us with the other students in the university. The whole process would've fallen to pieces without their timely assistance.
All this was approximately from October - December 15, 2018 when most of the application deadlines were. While we tried to keep Sibi's involvement minimal, it was not possible as he has to write the essays, following on recommendation letters at school and be generally involved.
However, it was a relief to have submitted the application for all the universities that we wanted to apply. BYU had one extension to December 18 for submission and we submitted on December 18 evening (thanks to some last minute push by J).
After that, it is time to wait for the results and at times, additional requests for information on submitted documents. These requests came in from almost all the universities for us and we kept responding to be on time.
If the application process for stressful, waiting for the decisions to come in was super stressful. Iowa State was the first one to send the acceptance (they have a mandate to accept everyone, so its not a great secret!).
Then came the acceptance from Memorial University - our first choice in Canada. That kept the backup plan on a strong place and so we were pretty certain that some more are going to come through. By January, we had acceptance from Iowa State, Memorial, Calgary, Saskatchewan, BYU - Idaho and an admittance to the PSA program in TAMU. TAMU was a disappointment as we were expecting a direct admittance and not through PSA.
SUNY applications were rejected as they were not 'complete' with supporting documentation - we never really found out what was missing as the common application system hands over the control to the universities at some point and they just update the status and getting a clear understanding of what went wrong was not possible (for us at least!).
Finally the acceptance letter from BYU came through on Feb 16, 2019. At that point, we know that the process is complete for us.
One of the very first thing we did was to attend the events organized by IDP in various places in the city. They are good because they give a chance to meet with the university representatives (not necessarily the ones we chose to apply - but still it gives a general idea of what to expect). IDP is also one of the institutes authorized to conduct IELTS in India (the other being the British council) and so they help out on the preparations for IELTS as well as in understanding the admission requirements etc of the universities.
The other entity we relied on was USIEF. They organize fairs and have tons of material to understand the application and admission process. They have a center in the US embassy in Chennai and they engage heavily through social media as well.
Once we finalized the universities, started following the university social media handles as well - this is needed as a lot of reminders on the dates and other important updates are posted consistently. All the universities that we were checking on had a very active social media presence. Some, like Memorial University in Canada, send their admission officers independently to India and unless you follow them in Twitter, you may never get to know of this.
Overall, I found the entire application process to be very stressful. Even with all the preparations, the requirements for each university was different - some wanted the transcripts notorized, some to upload, some to send a copy by mail, some to get it evaluated with a third party educational consultant (which costs a bomb!) - all these within the 12 unis we chose to apply. Teacher recommendation letters had similar combinations as well. Added to this, sending the original 10th mark sheets (later, 11th and 12th as well) by mail to IERF for evaluation and and getting it back by mail without losing it, adds to shatter whatever fragile peace of mind that is left.
I should thank the entire teaching staff of AMM School and the principal Mrs. Mahalakshmi - for their continuous support during the entire process to provide the recommendation letters on paper or typing that in the system for some applications and all in between. Their patience to take in every request and process them within the short time frame every time is not something that every school administration does.
And BYU had an additional requirement to have an interview done with the LDS Church officials followed by a phone interview with the Bishop in Salt Lake city as well. The entire leadership team at the LDS church in Chennai - especially the president, Prince Jayakaran, were very helpful in completing the recommendations (after much challenges in the system) and also in the days afterward in terms of connecting us with the other students in the university. The whole process would've fallen to pieces without their timely assistance.
All this was approximately from October - December 15, 2018 when most of the application deadlines were. While we tried to keep Sibi's involvement minimal, it was not possible as he has to write the essays, following on recommendation letters at school and be generally involved.
However, it was a relief to have submitted the application for all the universities that we wanted to apply. BYU had one extension to December 18 for submission and we submitted on December 18 evening (thanks to some last minute push by J).
After that, it is time to wait for the results and at times, additional requests for information on submitted documents. These requests came in from almost all the universities for us and we kept responding to be on time.
If the application process for stressful, waiting for the decisions to come in was super stressful. Iowa State was the first one to send the acceptance (they have a mandate to accept everyone, so its not a great secret!).
Then came the acceptance from Memorial University - our first choice in Canada. That kept the backup plan on a strong place and so we were pretty certain that some more are going to come through. By January, we had acceptance from Iowa State, Memorial, Calgary, Saskatchewan, BYU - Idaho and an admittance to the PSA program in TAMU. TAMU was a disappointment as we were expecting a direct admittance and not through PSA.
SUNY applications were rejected as they were not 'complete' with supporting documentation - we never really found out what was missing as the common application system hands over the control to the universities at some point and they just update the status and getting a clear understanding of what went wrong was not possible (for us at least!).
No comments:
Post a Comment