Thinking of studying at a college or university abroad? Read on to discover some pointers for making the process as smooth as possible.
- Do your homework. Knowledge is power, and being armed with all the information will certainly speed up the process. This may be information that you have gleaned from your school’s guidance counsellor, or information you have read on the internet, either generally about tertiary education in a particular country or from a specific university website. These days, there are numerous websites out there providing information for internationals students and so you should have no problem finding the answers to most of your questions.
- Ensure you know the academic expectations of the institutions in mind and that your abilities match these. Higher education admissions do consider many other things other than ability, but you should meet basic requirements. When considering a list of colleges/universities, you should aim for some which you know you can easily achieve (safety), some which are ones that you have a good chance of achieving and which are most likely your ideal (target) and lastly those which you have only a small chance of achieving (aspirational).
- Make sure that your academic qualifications are accepted by the institution in mind, especially if studying in a different system to the one you’re applying to. Most countries have a process to convert between the qualifications of different school systems, but if in doubt, contact the university/college admissions to have your academic transcript verified early on so that you do not waste time.
- Make sure you are aware of any language requirements, if the language of your country of application is not your first language. For example, in many English-speaking countries, you may be asked to prove your English proficiency through some sort of standardised testing, such as IELTS (International English Language Testing System) or TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Both these tests assess your proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and are widely used across the world. However, some places will look to see if you have been studying in an English medium school for a certain number of years and accept this as demonstrating your language proficiency.
- You should also consider how you are going to finance your studies. As part of your university/college application as well as any student visa application, you will be required to provide evidence of financial security. You will not be able to access any financial support through the government of the country you are applying to if it’s not your home country; however, individual universities may have scholarship programs you can apply for. In addition, your home country may provide some financial support for studying abroad and so it is worth exploring this with your own government. If you are thinking of working to pay for your tuition, be aware that in most cases, your ability to work as a student will be limited by your visa.
- Finally, if time permits, it is a good idea to visit the institutions you are interested in. What looks good on paper or on a website does not necessarily ring true in reality. Getting a ‘feel’ for a place is important especially if you have never been to that country or area. You’re going to be spending the next three or four years there, so you want to be happy.