Receiving Your Decision and What to Do After

The moment after you knew your acceptance will probably be one of the best days of your life. You now have your acceptance letter, and are on your way to the land of freedom!

Submit your statement of intent and deposit

You can do this through their application portal and fill in some basic information about yourself. After completing everything, you then submit a deposit which ranges around $200-400. If you have done both of this, then you are officially part of the school! Next step is to instruct them on mailing your I-20 to you.

I-20

I-20 is like a document which indicates that the school guarantees your status as a student in the US and that you are in a good state—attending your class, getting sufficient grades, not causing trouble or misdemeanor. This is also one of the most important documents you have to have on yourself the whole time you are in the US or traveling between borders there.

Generally, they will confirm your mailing address with you before sending out your I-20. Usually you will not be in the US around this time, unless you are studying in a college or high school there. Just give them the complete information of your current address and you will receive your I-20 within a week after it was dispatched. After receiving your I-20, you then apply for your F-1 student visa.

Applying for Visa

Required documents: 

1. Acceptance letter from school
2. I-20 or DS-2019
3. DS-160 form (w/ barcode)
4. SEVIS fee receipt
5. Interview appointment confirmation
6. Passport (valid for at least 6 months)
7. Previous passports
8. Photograph (white background, 5cmX5cm, no glasses or any accessories)
9. Financial documents (bank statements or scholarship letter)
10. Recommended* (family card/kartu keluarga and birth certificate/akte lahir)

To-do:

• Fill out visa application and pay the fee

You do the application through this link.

I would recommend doing this early, at least a month before your departure date as the interview has congested appointment and it is a rigorous task to complete all the solicited data.

You can pay with cash through CIMB Niaga Bank or through Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) from any bank that transacts with Bank of America.

In the end of the process, you will obtain your DS-160 form which you will print and bring to the interview.

• Register with SEVIS and pay the SEVIS fee

SEVIS stands for Student and Exchange Visitor Information System which monitors our status while staying in the US. You register and pay the fee through this link. 

Print the receipt and bring it to the interview as well.

• Schedule an interview

The United States of America have embassies in 177 countries in the world and usually they are located in the capital city. In Indonesia, you can schedule for interview either in Jakarta or Surabaya. You can schedule your interview through this link.

In the end of the process, print your interview confirmation and this will be your ticket to enter the embassy.

• Interview

Obviously, be punctual to your appointments and bring all the documents discussed above. The queue is in a first come first served basis so it pays to be early. Some general questions asked are:

1. School name?
2. Address in the US? (Dorm or apartment with exact address if possible)
3. What are you going to study and why?
4. Your source of financing.
5. Any guardian or relatives in the US?
6. Show that you are planning to go back to your country after finishing your study.

Apply for Housing

There are three types of housing: On-campus, off-campus, and homestay

• On-campus

On-campus housing is mostly dorms, however, some campus have pretty cool apartment complexes that you can live in.

Dorms are probably the bleakest for living condition as you are sharing your room and sometimes do not have your own bathroom. However, you will constantly be around your friends, have access to dining rooms, and be very close to your classes. For me, living in dorm was an eye-opening experience. I also made my first bunch of friends in there and the rapport lasts up to this moment. I think that dorm is worth the experience and make you feel grateful of the luxurious lifestyle you have back home.

On-campus apartments are pretty much similar with the off-campus' so I will discuss it below.

• Off-campus

Living in apartment made me feel like an adult. I have my own home, decide my own curfew, able to invite my friends, and many more. But those are all the sweet things; you also have the responsibility for the house chores, food, bills, etc. Generally, apartment is for the people who likes freedom but can manage their life independently. Usually rent for a room would cost you around $800-1000/month in cities like San Francisco or Los Angeles, but it could go down to as low as $500/month in smaller cities or states.

Be familiar when you are trying to sign for an apartment. Check whether the rent includes utility (usually not), whether the room is furnished, how long the contract is, is parking included, and if your unit has a washer and dryer.

• Homestay

People usually go to homestay if they are under 18 because you cannot be involved in a contract before you reach 18, and you are required to always be under a guardian's monitor. Homestay family is like gambling, just like matching with roommates. The best story that I've heard is where one of my friends stayed with an elderly couple who likes to take her to festivals and sports events nearby. Needless to say, she adapted to the American life tactfully and improved her English tremendously.

However, the worst story I heard is where my other friend was fed with canned food everyday because the homestay parents were too lazy to do anything.

Next topic: Arriving in the US and Moving in.

Applying to School (as a Freshman)

Today's topic is about applying, from consulting/applying by yourself, all the way to completing your application with recommendation letters and interviews.

1. Consulting to a Resource/Agent.

• Agent

Due to my bitter experience, I am really sensitive when people consult to random agents. I would recommend to go to the best agency or those you can prove their succeed on helping students to top tier schools in the US. Agency is essentially a company, and naturally, companies' main goal is to earn profit. Therefore, I feel that they are more money-oriented than service-minded. I might be wrong.

The easiest way to assess an agency is to contact the students that have used their service before. Additionally, you can check their advertisements & brochures that are available in their office. If they are somewhat dedicated to certain schools, there is a high chance that you will be persuaded into those schools as they will earn a portion of your tuition as commission. I believe that agency is like a nascar racer, who are all sponsored and patched but they have no idea that they are racing in a circle which has no end or anything good in the finish line.

Remember, one of my goal of producing this blog is to minimize students being misguided by irresponsible parties.

• Student Association of Your Country

What's a better place to seek advice than from people who have done it and succeeded? I feel that student associations are very underutilized in the US. All of the committees of student associations that I have met so far are extremely friendly and helpful. Therefore, you should just search for their website or page in Instagram or Facebook, and you can get in touch with one of the students.

For Indonesian students, our student associations generally go with the acronym PERMIAS (Persatuan Mahasiswa Indonesia di Amerika Serikat). However, some of them have unique acronym such as BISA (Berkeley Indonesian Student Association) or ASIS in University of Southern California. Some cities or states have regional associations such as Permias Colorado and Permias SFBA (San Francisco Bay Area). The easiest way to find these organizations is to google "indonesian student association <city name/school name>" or try "permias <city name/school name>."

• Other resources

The more you hear about something, the better information you have. If you are a dedicated and persevered, you can combine all the advices from agency, seniors, student organizations, and others before you make your decision. By doing so, you will know what to do to be accepted to the school that you want.

2. Application Process & Documents

• Visit the school website

Once you know the school that you are interested in, the next step is to visit their website for admission details. After you go to a school's home page, they usually have an admission tab where all the procedures and details are outlined. They usually have complete information for your registration, you can also check their FAQs page. All processes can be view from here and therefore, you do not need an agent or someone else to do all of these for you. Let's learn to be independent? (Key skill to survive in the US).

• Be aware of deadlines!

The most important thing to note down is all the deadlines that you have. There usually are two deadlines: Application deadline, and supplementary material deadline. I usually submit everything a week or two before the deadlines but some people love to live by the edge.

• Consult with their admission staff for questions

The best person to consult to regarding your application is the school's admission staff. They know what they require from you, whether you require any other documents, and what is lacking from your application. You can usually find them from the "Contact Us" button or page of their admission page that you visited from bullet point #1.

• Common App

This is the most common application that you will use to apply for American universities. Hence, Common App. Only a few schools do not use Common App—MIT and University of California—but I am sure there are some others.

Common App usually has two sections: The application and writing supplement.

The application is where you fill in your personal information and educational background. It also includes a default prompt for personal statement. 

Regarding FERPA and recommendations, it is advised that There is a recommendation letter request but not all schools require this and we'll discuss this further below. There are also a College Report and a Secondary School Final Report but these should not be a problem, you can just send them to your high school officials.

• Required documents: Passport

• Personal statements

In my opinion, personal statements should reflect yourself the most and discuss about a point in your life you are proud of. It can be leadership, service, or problem solving. Avoid clichés at all cost, it is not a love letter for your girlfriend. Here is a website from Princeton University that details more on how you should construct your personal statements.

Click here for Princeton Website

Here are some samples from John Hopkins University.

Click here for essay samples

• School transcript

Universities require your school transcripts to be sent directly from your schools to them. For those of you whose school do not offer the service, you can legalize and/or translate your transcript and sealed it in an envelope which you then mail it by yourself. Some schools recommend their translation service but it costs so much more expensive so it is better to do it locally.

• Transmit your TOEFL and/or SAT

You do this through ets.org for TOEFL and collegeboard.org for SAT. You can search for your school's name or use their institution code as the destination for transmission.

• Recommendation letter

It is not really required by schools and I am not sure how relevant this is given that it is written by someone teaching outside the USA. Try to let a teacher or mentor who knows you well to write this for you so the school has better idea of what kind of person you are.

• Bank reference

Intuitively, as long as you can proof you have the enough financial support solicited from their website, you are good to go. However, here are my point of view on bank statement and you are welcomed to disagree.

From my experience, people usually provide a bank statement of $400-500k+ for private universities. On the contrary, they usually show a just right amount—around $300k for public universities. I have heard people sent proof for fund as much as $1,000,000 for their enrollment but it is a rumor for me.

After you have sent this to your school, it is wise to keep this for your records because you might need to show financial documents when you apply for your visa.

• Resume

Schools like University of Pennsylvania allows you to submit your resume in case you want to. Resume is also optional. Here is an example of my resume.

3. Scholarships

A. From outside parties

By outside parties, I mean scholarships that is not from the school itself. The only sources I can think of are local government or companies.

• Local government

I do not know about other countries, so I will only discuss about Indonesia. The most popular scholarships for studying abroad is LPDP (Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan). However, I will discuss this further on its own post.

• Companies

Some companies offer sponsorships for students with achievement; such as Chevron and PTPN (PT Perkebunan Nusantara). However, I am not sure about how they work and I will do research on this and discuss this in further post with the government scholarship.

B. From the school itself 

Generally, schools do not offer scholarships for international students because if you are from abroad, you are in the US to study and have proven that you can afford it. Nevertheless, you can get your hands on some partial scholarships. Usually, students with high GPA will receive some grants from the schools, around $4000-$5000 per semester for tuition.

Additionally, I believe that the less popular the school is, the more scholarship they give out in order to attract diversity to the community.

Again, you can always reach me via email at gjwilson@usc.edu for questions and feedback.
Best,
Giovanni James W

Next Topic: After you are admitted

Before You Apply for Schools

The first topic of the blog: Pre-registration.
Before applying to universities in USA, I would recommend doing three things: Know your school, know your major, and prepare for the admission requirements.

1. Know Your School

America has a sum of 2618 accredited universities and colleges in the country, according to Voanews.com. Before applying, it is important to do research on schools; finding out their acceptance rate, entry requirements, etc. Some schools have ridiculously competitive admissions while others may have have acceptance rate as high as 30-40%. I will categorize the universities and colleges into 4 categories: The impossibles, the "1st" tier, the 2nd tier, and community colleges & pathways.

• The Impossibles

This category encompasses schools like Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, University of Chicago, et cetera. In my opinion, schools in this tier will give a "wow" impression to people when they hear them, and even people who have never been to US know their names too. I hate to tell you this, but if you are reading this to know how to study in the US, chances are these schools are unrealistic for you to aim for. Unless you choose a less popular major, have special connections, or possess crazy amount of wealth, your chance to enter these schools is close to 0. People who want to attend these schools will have prepared for their admissions at least three years before they apply—while you are reading this probably a year or less before application deadline.

I do not really know much about these schools as I am not qualified for them either, but I will give my guess on your chance. A strong applicant to these schools should have at least 2000-2100+ SAT, 105+ TOEFL or 7.5 IELTS, and graduated or transferred from a high school or junior college that was recognized by the destination university. Usually, the realistic way to get admitted is as a freshman applicant, or transferring from the "1st" tier schools. However, you can always try your luck and apply to the schools, I heard one or two students from community colleges got in every now and then!

• The "1st" Tier

Schools in this tier are arguable and might intersect with the above or bottom category. You do not have to agree with me, and you can make your own classification. I believe that schools ranked from 10-100 can be included into this category—New York University, University of Washington, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Colorado School of Mines, Purdue University, and the list goes on. I feel that being in these schools give you an illusion that you are in the "best" school in the US but I still think that best should describe only one school, that is the first ranked—usually Harvard or MIT.

The schools that I included in this tier offer the same standard of curriculum as The Impossibles, but this tier has a higher admission rate. Therefore, I can guarantee that you will find yourself a way into one of these schools if you follow this guide.

Freshman admission for this school can sometimes be as competitive as The Impossibles, that is why I said the two tiers might intersect. A strong freshman candidate should have 2000+ SAT, 100+ TOEFL or 7.5 IELTS, and a solid personal statement/essay. Nevertheless, you can also apply as a transfer applicant. My best advice is to research the highest transfer traffic to the university and discuss in forums such as College Confidential. I will discuss further on transfer because it has its own topics in the upcoming post.

• The 2nd Tier

Schools in this tier have 30%+ admission rate, which makes them easy to get in. Sometimes, your agency might have some collaboration (read: sponsor) with them and will urge you or talk you into attending these schools. Some examples, in my opinion, are Colorado State University, Oregon State University, Arizona State University, and University of Massachusetts Boston. Again, I might be wrong and the classification can interchange, so feel free to make your own.

Some people apply to these schools for safety to anticipate if they are unable to get admitted to the above schools. Honestly, these schools are not that bad too. They have great facilities, curriculum is essentially the same with the schools above, the only difference is the people and network you make. Advantages of attending these kind of schools include cheaper tuition, a more comprehensive submersion with the locals, and distinct experience with the top tier schools. Usually schools in these tiers have less competitive culture and thus, you can create strong friendship and sense of belonging to the campus.

Freshman admission might waive SAT and a 70+ TOEFL would suffice for admission. The myth is that you can transfer from here to another university, but as you can read from my experience in the previous post, it is quite hard to do; or I might be an unlucky one.

• Community Colleges & Pathways

Finally, it is the community colleges & pathways. Just as a note, when I mention "college," I usually mean community colleges. In my opinion, community college is still the best option by far for those of you who are clueless. College is cheaper, lets you assimilate slowly to the American culture and life, and allows you to transfer to a variety of schools out there. Community colleges & pathways are everything that you can usually complete in 1 or 2 years. Although I know a few people who did 3 years for their community colleges. *wink*

Again, the best way to choose a college is to review their transfer rate to the school you want. For example, Diablo Valley College has a ridiculously high transfer rate to UC Berkeley but not De Anza College or Pasadena Community College. Some colleges have honors program which usually distinct yourself as a transfer candidate from other applicants. Usually, the closer a community college is to the university, the higher the transfer rate they have. Once you are enrolled in the right college, you have had 50% of you journey done right!

Some colleges offer honors program, which I recommend to do in order to transfer to the "1st" tier schools.

A few community colleges that I recommend are: Diablo Valley College, Mt. San Antonio College, Rockland Community College

"By knowing where you want to attend, you can then prepare accordingly for your admission."

2. Know Your Major

You should decide where to go from your major and not from the ranks of schools. However, some schools might not offer the program that you want. For example, not all schools offer actuarial degree, or fashion design program. Another case is UCLA's undergraduate business major is a business economics program offered by their College of Letters & Science instead of their business school and it is a bachelor of arts instead of science. Therefore, please do great research so you will not be shocked when you attend the school.

Again, I would recommend to look at your school from their program that interests you rather than their overall rank because the rank does not represent well.

Sometimes, a less competitive major can also ease your way to a better university such as taking economics major instead of business at a competitive school.

3. Necessary Preparations for Admission

• TOEFL/IELTS

My advice for language exam is to finish it at least 3 months before you plan to apply. Moreover, please retake as many times as you like because the schools do not care how many attempts you made and they do not have access to it.

For example, you can take TOEFL and score 50 for the first time. However, just retake it again and again until you score in the range of 80-100! That's why I suggested you to take TOEFL early and prepare well. If you are to take it only once and it is 3 months before applying, imagine what state you will be in if you did not meet the required scores?

• SAT/ACT

SAT is more challenging than TOEFL, and thus, is required for admission in the top tier school. The best way to prepare for SAT is to take SAT preparation classes for ~3 years before your last year of high school. This depends on your confidence and ability. Some people prepared for only a year or did not at all but are able to score 1900+ in their first attempt.

Nonetheless, just like TOEFL, I suggest you to take it as many times as you want.

• National Exam/IB/AP/A level

National exam is not that important, in my perspective, as the US universities have no idea about what was tested and how the standard of the test is.

On the other hand, IB, AP, and A level test can grant you some school credits if you score highly. These examinations also set you apart if you pass with flying colors.

• Club involvement/ competition

Unless you win an olympiad; I don't think it is much considered because those activities have no credibility. However, try to give as much details of your involvement or activities as well as responsibilities so the school has a picture of what type of a person you are.

Next Topic: How to Apply

Writer's Credibility

Hey guys, what's good?

It's Giovanni James Wilson here.

It's been a long time since I last produced a blog. Was it like 3 years ago?

Whatever. I am back with another blog: (How To) Study in USA: The Complete Guide

I wrote this blog to help you achieve your dream in studying in the United States.

To save your time, here is an outline of the topics that I will cover in this blog. I plan to do a topic for every post to avoid my posts being dull.

My vision is for you to not go through what I did, I dreamed of studying in a prestigious university in the US but had no idea about the US education system.

I have intended to write this blog ever since I was struggling to transfer out from Colorado State University but has since been postponing. Gomen!

This blog will be written as effective and efficient as possible to save your time (reading) and mine (typing). Lol.

I will also present it in a fun way as well as attaching pictures and examples of anything I can to make it interesting and bring credibility to the content.

Firstly, I would like to establish my credibility regarding studying in USA. Why should you listen to me? What have I accomplished?

I will try to elaborate this chronologically. So, hang on, and grab yourself some popcorn or coffee. You're gonna peek into three years of my life!

Currently, I am going to transfer as a Junior into University of Southern California (USC) this Fall, majoring in Business Administration. I was also admitted to University of California Los Angeles, University of Massachusetts--Amherst, New York University, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and University of San Francisco. But I chose to attend USC.

My story began in 2013, my last year of high school. While everyone was planning and had an idea of where they wanted to go and what to do. I just knew that I wanted to study in the US but knew nothing about it.

Ideally, one should have prepared their SAT and TOEFL before their last year of high school for freshman admissions. My friends who attended University of Washington and UC Berkeley did that. However, I knew nothing about those and only took my TOEFL on September 2013 which was three months before the December 2013 deadline. I scored around mid 90s which sufficed for entry requirement as most schools only need 80+ for international admission. However, I did not prepare and take SAT which made me ineligible for freshman admission. My only choice was community college.

Note: Most admission deadlines ended in the end of the year before admission (November - December). I had yet applied by that time and I was unaware. You can call me ignorant, it's okay.

Fast forward to March 2014. The ignorant me just checked to apply to the universities but I was agonized when I saw all admission deadline had passed. The news panicked my parents too and we visited an education agency the same week.

The agent seemed professional and resourceful at first. Suggesting me not to worry and told me that community college is the right way to go.

*On this point forward, when I say college, it means community college.

They were doing all their sugary marketing talks to me, and I ended up going with their suggestion of joining a pathway program. The program was INTO pathway for Colorado State University (CSU). Honestly, I fell for this program because the agent showed me a previous enrollee who successfully transferred to Babson College from the program. He also ensured me that I can transfer anywhere and that pathway just works the same as attending a college.

And so, I am a Colorado State University student. I will not talk about my life in Colorado since it is irrelevant to my transfer situation progress but it was definitely one of, if not the best years in my life.

Spot me in the middle XD

During my second semester, which is Spring 2015, I applied for a first-year transfer to these schools:

• ·       University of Chicago
• ·       University of Pennsylvania
• ·       University of Washington
• ·       University of Southern California
• ·       New York University
• ·       Columbia University
• ·       University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
• ·       University of Massachusetts--Amherst

For the record, I had a 4.0 GPA, I took all the required classes for transfer as well as a 1950 in SAT. In my opinion, you need to score 2000 in SAT to have a good chance of admission to other schools but I had no chance to retake it.

Of all those schools, I was only admitted to University of Massachusetts Amherst. I was flabbergasted. I was hoping to land at least two or three applications but the result disappointed me profoundly. On the other hand, I did not receive any assistance from my agency during this transfer nor anything. I was doing everything by myself.

With that, I consulted some seniors who attended the top schools that I knew. I took their advice to move into a community college of the same state as the university that I wanted to attend.

Therefore, I transferred out to Diablo Valley College (DVC) of California on Spring 2016. By then, I have spent three semesters in CSU and earned 40-50 credits.

In DVC, I took the electives that I need to transfer—Anthropology, Calculus, English, Film, etc. I felt that DVC's advisors provided better advices than my agency. However, everything has happened and it was my own fault for not doing my research.

Persatuan Amatir Gold Indonesia -- Indonesian Students Golfer Club

After two semesters in DVC, I reapplied for second-year transfer to these schools:

• ·       University of Chicago
• ·       University of California Berkeley
• ·       University of California Los Angeles
• ·       University of San Francisco
• ·       University of Pennsylvania
• ·       University of Southern California
• ·       New York University
• ·       Columbia University
• ·       University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
• ·       University of Massachusetts--Amherst

My first choice among those schools was Columbia, followed by USC and Penn.

I maintained my 4.0 GPA, did not retake SAT, and received 109 for my TOEFL as my old TOEFL score has expired.

I was accepted to University of California Los Angeles, University of Massachusetts—Amherst, New York University, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and University of San Francisco.

As you can see, most of the schools are in California and I just missed Berkeley out of all I applied to.

My conclusion? My senior was right. Just by attending a community college and being in the same state as my university, I got admitted to the school I wanted. That pretty much sums up my adventure to fulfill my dream of attending a prestigious university in the US. I hope that this blog can teach you more and I hope nobody have to go through what I have been through again.

All in all, I wanted to replicate what my senior taught me to the people who have desire to study in the US. I plan to finish the application guidance by end of this October 2017 so you can read and apply in time for Fall 2018 admission. If you have any question, please reach me at gjwilson@usc.edu.

I hope you enjoy this blog,

Giovanni James Wilson