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