hey all i'm Apurva and welcome back to WeDesified as a part of our study in the USA series we
are going to talk about how to choose your university for your higher education abroad
this topic is going to be in two parts in the first video we will talk about how to
shortlist the universities you want to apply to and the kind of research you should do for it
in the second video we will talk about how to decide which university you should go to when
you get multiple admits so let's get started but before that please subscribe to our channel
and also click the bell icon so that you will be notified every time we upload a new video
when you want to study abroad there are many countries like usa canada uk australia germany etc
but for the scope of this video i will be only talking about university selection in the united
states if you want us to make a video about our reasons for studying in the united states
over other countries then let us know in the comments box below we will make a video on that
there are so many world rank universities in the usa across the 50 states and so most of us
have gone through or will be going through this question which colleges should i apply to but
this is a very complex question which no one can decide for you better than yourself because the
list of the colleges you should apply to will be very personal to your interest and profile
in this video we will talk about how to make your own list and the pointers you should keep in mind
while shortlisting those universities to help you with that research if you are a phd student
then the process is different we have discussed it in detail in these two videos
so please make sure to watch them if you haven't already in a nutshell you have to list down all
the colleges that match your profile and offer your field of study after you have your list you
can then approach the professors with your profile along with all the work you have done so far based
on the professor's response you can then decide whether you should apply to that college or not
this step is important because phd is all about research and if you don't have at least
one professor in that college who is ready to work with you then it could be very difficult
for you to complete your phd there also the financials and assistantships would matter
but we will talk about them in our next video now coming to the masters and the bachelor students
you will have to shortlist the universities based on your profile and the major component
in your profile is the gre scores for masters and the sat or act scores for the bachelors
the other key component like gpa toefl work experience sop and loss also help you to make or
break your chances of admission but the selection of colleges is mainly based on your test scores
and that is the reason why this process should happen along with your gre preparation
so that you know how much you should score or what colleges to target for
you can watch our video about gre preparation here
then you know your estimated or final test scores search for colleges in the range of plus or minus
six marks and put them in three categories safe moderate and ambitious some good work
experience in your field of study and strong sop or loss can get you that ambitious admit
but low gpa or backlogs can make your research difficult too so that is why it is important to
apply to colleges with a good mix of safe moderate and ambitious options so that you will have more
options to choose from when it comes to which college you finally want to go with to select
college is based on your test scores you could ask your counselor if you have one and get the
list or talk to your friends and family who are already studying abroad or search online and make
your own list although taking advice is fine but you should do your own research and make your list
because like i said earlier it should be your personalized list based on your best interests
your kit is one such resource that can make your life easy to do this research it is an online
student-driven community that guides students planning to move abroad for higher studies and
simplifies their process like a social network of study abroad aspirants and it is completely free
you can visit yourkid.in and sign up for free they have tools like grad school finder for masters
and undergrad college finder for bachelors wherein you can fill in your information in detail and get
suggestions that match your profile you can also look up colleges by country or by course
when you click and open any university you can find information like their acceptance rate
average tuition fee average gre quant score and many other details to help you with your research
they also have premium subscription options if you like their services
and want to try one-to-one counselling also make sure to check multiple resources and
gather as much information as possible before you shortlist your universities
once you list down all the possible colleges you can then categorize them as safe moderate
and ambitious based on your chances of admission and the profiles of already admitted students
you can finally pick around six to eight colleges to send your applications
people usually do two to three colleges in each category to be on the safer side which is a good
approach another common question is what makes your sop and lor strong even though we like to
load them with heavy gre words the language is certainly not the one that makes them strong
for sop it is your personal journey it depends on how you narrated to make it relevant to your field
of study and your experiences in between for loss it is mainly about the recommender's credentials
and how relevant the work you did together to the program you're applying to so keep these
things in mind while writing your sop and loss to help you get that ambitious segment
while shortlisting the universities you should mainly focus on two things
first is the course structure or the curriculum of the program it is important to understand
how the curriculum is designed since you will be pursuing it for the next two to four years
you can visit the college website and find out the courses they are offering
whether they have a research based approach or an industry-oriented approach to the program
and if it matches with your interest or not second is the cost of attendance in most cases
if you get an on-campus job it would take care of your living expenses at least if not then
you will have to calculate them along with the tuition fee health insurance and other expenses
if it is way out of your budget then there is no point in applying there nobody wants to have
a degree that leaves you with a huge financial burden over the years we have seen some students
who work round the clock during and after their graduation to pay back that education loan
and it has surely impacted their academics as well as their social life so please don't do that
the location and ranking of the university are secondary factors that you should be mindful of
as long as there is no drastic difference these factors should not be of much concern at this
stage we will discuss about them in detail in the second part so that is all we have
for today hope this is helpful we will come up with the next part soon please let us know all
your questions in the comments box below we will reply or make videos answering all your questions
please like share and subscribe to our channel until next time keep learning bye