EducationUSA's Your Five Steps to U.S. Study

To my colleagues at U.S. institutions, a quick question: What is the most common answer you give to prospective international students when trying to explain how admissions decisions are made at colleges in the States? It depends. 


Certainly, our EducationUSA Advisers around the world use those same words with students in their centers, much to the chagrin of all involved. But what other way can you explain the admission process at 4900+ accredited institutions of all shapes, sizes, locations that don't have a centralized ministry of education to oversee their work?

To begin to answer these questions for international students looking at the United States for their higher education needs, we set out at EducationUSA, much like we try to do with our social media presence, to present the various steps to U.S. study in manageable, bite-size chunks of information. We also recognized the need to broaden the reach of the great work our advisers do in their centers and on their outreach efforts in-country to a platform with a global audience.

To that end we launched this month a revamped student section to our EducationUSA website. We start by asking the first question: What do you want to study? With possible answers being: Undergraduate, Graduate, English Language, & Short-term Programs.

Once within their selected module, we clearly break down the process for students into Five Steps:

1. Research Your Options
2. Complete Your Application
3. Finance Your Studies
4. Apply for Your Student Visa
5. Prepare for Your Departure

For U.S. international admissions representatives, these may seem like obvious steps, but the reality is for most students and families abroad, there is simply too much information and too many differences for most to get their heads around the complexity of the process. Within each step, we provide students the opportunity to see the recommended timeline for how far in advance of the start of their studies they should be. 

As student progress through the steps, we provide Glossary, a Did You Know? FAQ section, related Links, and a Documents section to help supplement what they are viewing on screen. 

But perhaps the most significant new tool we've launched as part of this initiative is our Define Your Priorities self-assessment.

This comprehensive tool (a different version for each of the four main categories: undergrad, grad, English language & short-term programs) is designed to help students put pen to paper, so to speak, as to what is important to them in their decision to study in the U.S. We want students (and parents) to really think through these questions BEFORE jumping to their search for colleges and universities.  These questions we ask will help prepare students throughout the research phase but even in preparation for their eventual visa interview at the U.S. consulate or embassy.

Anyone who has recruited internationally for more than a minute knows that the tendency for students and parents is to start with schools they know, then the "ranked" institutions, and then maybe a broader starting point of possible options. While those factors will remain important, to really help students find the college or university that is the "right fit" we needed to develop a tool that at least asks the questions that can truly help refine a student's criteria for choosing a school before they jump in to using the various college search engines and other available resources.

We encourage you to share this new site with your prospective students, and to include EducationUSA as part of your overall international recruitment plans.