Fall 2024 Undergraduate Application Guidebook for International Students | Scholarships & Timeline!

alright guys welcome back to a brand new video and this one is ultimately a really really special video because we officially begin like videos about the fall 2024 intake you guys have been waiting for this for such a long time and I promise that I would give you guys a guide so before we jump into this one I want to make things clear this video is only for undergraduate students that are applying for the fall 2024 intake in the US and it's going to focus on International students there will be another video coming out for my masters and PhD students a separate video for you guys for the fall 2024 intake so without any further delays let's begin now the big thing that I want to kind of address in this video is divide everything and look at what we're actually going to look at because it is a lot so essentially we're going to go over the process what does the admission process look like what are the things that you need as an international student if you're looking to get admission into the US so if you're maybe in high school you're a gap year student and you want to come to the US for your undergraduate degree what do you need what tests do you need to write what are the documents you need from your school what do you need to ask your teachers to do what type of essays do you need to write what are the tips that go along with those and more importantly towards the end I'm going to give you guys an entire timeline when should you start working on each of these things so that you don't rush last minute and towards the end of this entire video I'm going to give you guys a free checklist as well so stay tuned for that the first thing is just researching colleges and I feel like this isn't talked as much as it should because students I've kind of seen like two spectrum of students okay I've seen one where they just want to apply to Ivy Leagues and Elite colleges and they're like oh yeah my list consists of all of the eight Ivy Leagues and UCS and Stanford and MIT which is great it's good but it's really not the smartest way to apply to such colleges if those colleges that have a less than three percent or five percent acceptance rate are the only places you're applying to what you need to do is bucket your universities into three categories a dream category Within Reach and a safety category so a good number to be between is anywhere between 10 to 20 colleges depending on what your budget is how many colleges you want to apply for and divide the total number of colleges equally into these three categories how do you do research and find which college you should apply for the best thing is online resources now literally if you go onto Google um and go into maybe like the US World uh World us report you can find colleges and see what they're famous for or if you just type in maybe you're interested in computer science go on to Google and type in like the top 100 colleges for computer science in the US you get a full list after that don't just blindly believe the website but basically do your own research and see what each college is known for maybe uh one college has a good artificial intelligence program whereas another college is really into software engineering or another colleges into Hardware engineering so see what you want to do and then shortlist the universities accordingly the next thing is attend college fairs and I know that this may be a little bit of a shock to International students but every the entire world is progressing right and colleges understand that majority of international students want to come to the US so they do conduct College fairs webinars info sessions there are they conduct them online and they also conduct them in person alumni Outreach now this is another important thing once you have maybe like a rough list of colleges in mind talk to some alumni you can find them on LinkedIn uh let them know that you're a prospective student who's planning to uh consider this college for XYZ degree like what are their thoughts um someone who's done their degree can obviously you know give you a few words of feedback and that's always something that you should be welcoming to and lastly if you guys need help with preparing your own College list feel free to check out the college list through Incognito blueprints this has helped so many students and basically streamline the entire process so uh that Incognito blueprints team can actually help you guys prepare your unique College list basically through all of these things that I just said so moving on the next thing we're going to talk about is standardized tests more specifically a lot of colleges have gone into test optional which means that some say that you really don't need to give the test but then others in their reports uh mentioned that even though it's optional they still consider it if you give it so where do students kind of stand in this and it can be really confusing you know now the best way to kind of Judge this is one take a practice exam now if you are applying for an undergraduate degree there are two types of standardized tests that you'll be taking number one is your TOEFL TOEFL or IELTS basically some sort of English proficiency test the second one is you'll either be considering the SAT or the act any one of these and these are like aptitude tests that have like Mass English science sections so let's talk about the SAT and ACT first take some practice tests they're available online for free I'll leave some links in the description below but see how you do are you able to score like more than 60 70 like what's your aptitude like and then consider if you were to study for this test for maybe a month or two months how much you think you can improve your score on if you are a good test taker and you can get a good score my suggestion would be that give the exam and add it to your profile even though it's optional now like I said a lot of colleges even though they've said that it's optional if you get a good score it's only going to add value to your profile it's not going to bring it down in any way now conditions or situations where I would suggest students to stay away from this is one if you're doing last minute prep and you don't have enough time maybe don't get into this it's for the best that it's optional you can work on some other things right second if you're a horrible test taker and you've kind of repeatedly done these exams and you're just like failing and there's no scope for improvement Let It Go focus on other things right now these are some of the books that I personally recommend for TOEFL the visual ETS guide and the Satan ACT guide I'll leave Amazon links to these books in the description below for you guys to check out as well so moving on the next thing we're going to talk about is everyone's favorite essays now my suggestion here would be that if you're applying to colleges in the US as an undergrad student there is no way that you're applying and only writing one essay let's break this down you'll be writing one common app essay which is about a page and a half and then you'll be writing multiple smaller essays that are called supplemental essays which are like half a page each the biggest thing is each one of your essays needs to be written independently I've seen students write one big essay and then they'll take out parts from that essay and like just put it as like a piece of a puzzle in their supplemental essays worst thing that you can do this is like a this is a recipe for a direct reject okay so don't do that and your answer should be structured in such a way that if the college wanted to replace their name with another college name they wouldn't be able to because you've been so specific with your answer now here are some things that you should keep in mind you want to be authentic so don't look get a bunch of YouTube videos not talking about me but other YouTube videos where people kind of like read out their essays and try to copy what they've written that's not going to help you the point is to bring out your personality and your voice through your essay and that can only be done if you are original unique and authentic the second one is show don't tell now what this means is obviously you know through your essay you want to show skills like leadership or teamwork or the fact that you are driven and passionate so in your essay don't write these words like if your essay has these words I'm a team player or I have leadership skills that that that's a horrible essay if you want to demonstrate leadership skills show that in by with an example of a situation where after the reader reads that specific part they can conclude that you were a leader like for example you can talk about a project that you did where you organized meetings so then everyone would stay on schedule and ultimately make small progresses towards your goal this shows the reader that okay this person came out as a leader and took initiative I don't have to mention that in my essay it's already understood you want to be concise all the essays that you're going to write have word limits don't use filler stories filler words um there's no time for that and you're not going to you know provide any value in your application by doing that lastly proofread have your friends your family check for grammatical errors make sure that your punctuations are right ask them feedback on how you can make your essay better the more you revise your essay the better it is ultimately going to be get feedback again from as many people as you can now moving on we're going to talk about the activities and honors another section another cool section that students like now for those of you guys that don't know in the Common App which is the platform that you'll be using to apply to colleges um there are spaces to add 10 activities and 10 honors and achievements so basically you have 10 of these and then five of this right and all of these are optional which means that you can choose to just skip them and just not write anything at all but obviously you want to get into a good college number one recommendation try to fill out all ten and five spots basically try to fill out all 15 spots now how do you know what is an activity and what is a hobby you don't want to write Hobbies right you don't want to write the fact that you like playing video games or um in your free time you're like listening to music so something that's a little bit more proactive right but this like one two three four five six seven eight types of activities that you see here on the screen these are your categories that you should follow and try to hit out of all of these eight now obviously I wouldn't say try to do all eight because like for example in my case I wasn't really a cultural person okay I didn't like to get into Performing Arts but I was a huge Sports person so I did that I was really good with academics um great leadership skills I did a little bit of like volunteering in community so I'd say I did Community more because in India it was hard to do uh I didn't volunteering more less Community because it was hard to find like places where I could do that and then I did some environmental and some passion projects so as you can see like I did two four six out of these eight so a good number is if you can hit at least five to six of these categories then you're good the more categories that you're able to aim at the better your activity list will be but basically the point is to give you like a rough idea that not all of your activities and honors should be in one category like don't show all academic activities or don't show all sports related activities like um through this activity list you want the person who's reading this to get to know what kind of a person you are what are your likes what are your dislikes outside of the classroom teacher support now this is another big part that kind of plays into your whole application process and it's not talked about as often you as a student you'll be making your application on Common App and you fill out everything that you need to do and you'll run into one section where you have to ask for recommendation letters and you have to add a counselor counselor's name now the way that it works here in the US is when students add those names that's it they don't have to do anything they come counselors and their teachers handle all that lately what I have noticed is that especially with International students because teachers and one most schools don't have counselors secondly because teachers are unfamiliar with the U.S admissions process they make students do it or they make the students and parents just do it for them so what do you do in this particular case now the first thing that the school has to do is basically write a counselor report if you don't have a counselor you can use or ask your principal or your class teacher to do this for you as long as it's someone who knows you well who you have a good working relationship with and is a school official they'll do the second one is loss now typically you will need one to two teachers for this preferably like a math or science if you're applying in a stem-based degree or English teacher is also good a school report is something that again the counselor can write and a character essay is something that a counselor writes now all of these things are different documents for the counselor report this is basically an essay yes teachers have to write essays too can you believe it it's not just like a certification of validation where the teacher is saying yeah I taught this student but it's more about what does this teacher think of this student like what does the teacher think of the personality of the student so it is an essay that they have to write about you as like a third person um now the last thing that I would mention is they also need to submit your transcript so a lot of the academic things that you fill in your common app they will also be asked the same questions it is very very important that those answers match um a good example of this is let's say that in your common app you need to fill out your grades self-reported grades for grade 9 10 11 12 and a cumulative GPA um these same questions are asked by The Counselor as well and their answers need to match your answers for obvious reasons so if they have you know any sort of hesitation make sure that you cross check with them make sure that both of you guys are using the same transcripts and the same method of calculating uh because this can also lead to red flags Right Moving on now this is an interesting part the deadline so this officially completes like the application side of things I I think I covered almost everything that was in that is included in the application process itself um when it comes to decisions for undergrad students there are three types of decisions the first one is an early decision second one is an early action and a regular decision now the early decision the big big thing is this is the most important decision you can only apply to one college why one college that's the rules that's kind of like the game that we're playing here you're only allowed to apply to one college and when you apply for an early decision to that college that college knows that you've chosen them as your Ed basically one college right second point that I want to mention is if you get accepted into your Ed College you have to accept the offer it is a binding kind of decision that you are willingly saying yes to so what this shows to the college is that hey the student chose us as their Ed so we know that if we were to give this student an offer letter they are going to say yes it is a guarantee so it kind of puts that confidence in the college itself as well now big thing you don't have to apply for Ed you can choose just not to apply for it and you can only apply to the early action and regular decision deadlines just to avoid all the hassle maybe you don't want to like have a binding decision at all it's fine it's an optional thing but the biggest advantage of Ed is one because not a lot of students apply for it your chances and showing your commitment to a specific college is extremely high and two it has an earliest the Ed deadlines at the earliest deadlines they usually fall between November and October and November which means that you will get your results the earliest too like before Feb you'll probably get your results on whether you got in or not and if not you can you know continue applying to more colleges and if you did get in that's another like huge stress relief you don't have to stress for the next few months you already have your college you know where you're going you're all set now the other two decisions in our categories are the early action and regular decision the big difference friends about this is this just has like the early action just has like an earlier deadline you'll see deadlines are usually between like October and December regular decision deadlines are usually like after the new year so January to march in fact some colleges even have applications open right now for the 23 intake but anyway this is for the 24 intake so my suggestion would be that if you know ahead of time like if you're watching this video right now and you know you're applying to colleges in the US for the fall 2024 cycle prepare for the early action deadlines it's the safest it's the least stressful because you will get to know your decisions sooner than later and if you're not happy you have a backup plan to fall upon which is your regular decisions um so I hope that all made sense it was a lot uh but moving on let's talk about everyone's favorite scholarships and financial aid now typically there are two types there are scholarships which are typically merit-based you don't have to fill any separate applications um if you're a good student basically you have a good academic score or you're good at some sort of activity like sport or cultural you the college will give you a merit-based scholarship and this is usually mentioned in the offer letter directly on the other hand we have need based now need base is not dependent on the student a little bit but more dependent on your parents how much money did they earn what is the size of your household how many siblings do you have what are their expenses like how much property do they own all of that is considered and then a need based financial aid as it says is given um this is not automatic you have to fill out the CSS profile and yes CSS profiles also have deadlines they're separate to college applications um you need to look for the deadlines and make sure that for each College you fill out the CSS before their deadlines and apply for them now a big thing to remember is if you asked for if you ask this is optional right but if you ask for need-based financial aid there is a chance that you may be wait listed or rejected because you're asking for Aid so colleges consider the fact that hey this student is asking for Aid they cannot afford the entire tuition fee so maybe we don't give them the offer letter at all so be very careful and deciding like talk to your parents and then decide which colleges you should ask for Aid and whether you should be asking for aid for all of the colleges it should be a family decision not just yours right next um let's break some common myths now the biggest thing is let's say you don't have a counselor like I said before who do you approach um a class teacher or a principal is a good enough School official anyone who you have a close relationship with just know that these counselor reports do take time it's not a one-time thing like the like teachers just sign off on them they do have to put in some amount of effort so make sure that you know who you're asking right um a gap year is it good or bad now if you take a gap year just to apply for colleges and that's your only goal that's not going to cut it what this is showing colleges is that you needed a whole year just to apply for colleges and you weren't able to do that with your like high school grade 12 because everyone does that right um you're technically not special but if your goal is along with these uh along with the applying to colleges you also want to do an internship or work in a research facility or do a job that is fine you're getting some work experience and then on the side you're applying to colleges so that's how you should kind of take and judge a gap year on um do I submit the CSS after getting accepted no no no no no no any financial aid that has to be asked needs to be asked before you submit your application there is a question in common app that says do you need financial aid or do you want to be considered for financial aid that needs to be clicked yes if you hit no you will not be uh considered for financial it and you cannot ask for financial aid after you get accepted that is a huge thing to remember now the biggest question is I am just starting my grade 12 when do I start preparing and applying so this brings us to our timeline now I kind of broke down everything that you needed to know and and told you guys everything that there is about you know applying what are the documents that you need um who else do you need uh you know in terms of principal counselor school teacher but when should you actually start doing all this so this is our ultimate timeline I put this together for you guys and it is like literally if some if a student follows this there's going to be minimal stress and you are just going to fly Breeze through now researching universities is the first thing we spoke about that should be done right now start right now you don't have to wait for applications to open applications will open this August so August 2023 applications will open went for fall 2024 yes applications open one year early than the actual intake this is not something in surprising that's how it is colleges give you one year like not holy but so much time to apply which means that they expect you to utilize that time so right now start researching the university shortlisting them and then decide where you want to go second your standardized tests if you plan on taking them should be done before the summer basically this is something that you need to get off of your plate before the application is even open because once the application is open you're gonna have enough to do and stressing and studying for more exams along with your grade 12 exams is not something that you want lastly essays once you have like this number one done you can start researching what these colleges ask in terms of essays for their supplementals because it doesn't change every year it's something that's pretty constant and even if there are changes they're very minor so you can start working on your essays you can start working on your common app and say you can find what the prompts are start doing that early biggest thing is one two and three these three steps need to be done before the applications open in August that is how you become well prepared next number four is preparing your documents as soon as applications open like I said August to September um fill out Common App start filling it out start seeing what documents you need whatever you need someone else's help so your Lors your Council report um getting your transcript together start doing that in August and September because you want to give teachers enough time to work on these documents too and not pressurize them in the last moment lastly the college application itself so I would say like number four and number five should be done kind of like together hand in hand lastly RQ four five and six again hand in hand right you can see around August to October is when you do this and the last part is applying for financial aid which again um you can do between August and October uh that kind of needs to be submitted I would say submit the CSS profile if you are planning to around the same time that you're filling out and submitting your college applications just so you know it's one thing that just digging to the deadlines and it's easier to get done and that's pretty much about it now I know that it's a little tricky to um cover everything in one video and while I tried to make this as extensive as possible there is a possibility that I still may not have been able to answer some questions and things got left out the biggest thing with that is everything cannot fit in one video the application process for the US is extensive and they look at so many other things in just your school transcripts right so with that said I need multiple videos and obviously that's a little difficult to do on the YouTube channel because you know we get we have breaks and it's it can't be like in sequence which is why we launched the ivy league 101 course on Incognito blueprints last year our first cohort of students which was like over a hundred students uh joined the course and they had acceptances from Cornell Duke MIT uh Colombia Carnegie Mellon so many UCS Purdue University Arizona State Northwestern Boston University so many and you can like view all of the offer letters on the Incognito blueprints website but my point here is they got so much value out of the ivy league 101 course that we have officially decided to open up pre-enrollment very soon for cohort number two so students who want to apply for the fall 2024 intake will have access to a fresh new ivy league 101 course that's going to have all of the modules and the whole point of the course is you are going to have a complete self-paced guide on how to go about applying to colleges you can sign up on the wait list because there is going to be an early bird pricing the enrollment date of when enrollment opens will be announced soon and you guys can take advantage of the early bird pricing because that does go away pretty quickly so this is going to be a very affordable self-paced course and I will personally have two live sessions group Live sessions to help answer any doubts and get you guys started so feel free to check that out at Incognito blueprints.com and um like this video if you're watching till this point it is an extremely long video but I told you guys that I would give you guys like a fall 2024 guide and this is it um there is a lot to do and if you are someone who's serious about studying in the US I my number one recommendation would be start right now don't wait for applications to open use this application timeline to basically judge when and what you should do things and I'll also leave a link to the application checklist in the description below uh just so you have that you know um handy just something to refer to and uh I think that's pretty much about it like the video subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you guys in the next one take care bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you

Channel: Crazy Medusa

Views: 103,109

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Id: b_X9DiOJXkI

Length: 26min 42sec (1602 seconds)

Published: Mon May 08 2023