How to enter a US university for full funding: personal experience - ForumDaily
The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.
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Bu məqalə Google Translate servisi vasitəsi ilə avtomatik olaraq rus dilindən azərbaycan dilinə tərcümə olunmuşdur. Bundan sonra mətn redaktə edilməmişdir.

How to enter a US university with full funding: personal experience

I was born and raised in a very small town in Russia. After graduating from school, she entered the Ural University of Economics (USUE) with a degree in world economics, from which she graduated with honors. During my studies, I managed to visit the USA 2 times as a J1 student under the Work and Travel program. It was an invaluable experience of living in a completely different country. I even managed to work at New York Fashion Week (it happened quite by accident). Although now I understand that accidents are not accidental.

Photo: Shutterstock

At the time of the decision to enter and choose a university, I had been living and working in Shanghai (China) for 3 years. In April 2020, the coronavirus covered the whole world, and it became clear that the pandemic would not end in the near future. Previously, I was interested in the topic of further education in the United States, but this idea was constantly put off “for later”. During the lockdown in Shanghai, I had enough time to think about this issue again.

Selecting a program

I have always been interested in working with clothes. As a child, I was constantly sewing and making things. In China, I began to help bridal salon owners to buy wedding dresses directly from factories, as well as placing orders, but it was just a hobby. I didn't know how to organize everything more professionally.

In April, I began compiling a list of universities that offer master's programs in this area. I was only interested in those universities that can provide full funding. Typically, in exchange for free tuition, students get jobs on campus. This may be helping a professor conduct research, organizing lectures and seminars, working on a specific project, or teaching.

So my final list included 3 universities: the University of Delaware, Colorado State University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

About exams

Of course, it was difficult to prepare for two exams at the same time and work. Sometimes I wanted to close my textbooks and forget about the idea of ​​entering the USA.

US universities generally require TOEFL / IELTS and GRE / GMAT scores when applying for graduate programs. I had to pass TOEFL and GRE for my program. I had only 6 months to prepare. In China, places for tests are booked very early and, when booking places in May, the next available dates for TOEFL in Shanghai remained only for December. On GRE, the next available date and location were in Suzhou.

On the subject: Work is guaranteed: an immigrant from Uzbekistan shared his experience on how to choose a profession in the USA

There were also stressful situations. Before starting the TOEFL exam, you need to check the operation of the headphones and microphone. For some reason, my microphone did not recognize my voice, and I turned to an assistant for help. Instead of changing the microphone, the assistant simply turned off the computer. Of course, the test had already begun and all my collected thoughts dissipated. I was assigned another computer, and I started the exam much later than the others. After the first two parts, there was a break, and the audience became very noisy that it was impossible to focus and recognize the audio. As expected, I lost the most points in the audition, and after the exam was over, I was already thinking of abandoning the idea of ​​entering the USA. But in the end, I decided to send the documents with the result that I had - as it turned out, not in vain.

Documents

A complete package of documents for the US Master's degree application includes:

  • statement of purpose / personal statement;
  • summary;
  • 3 letters of recommendation;
  • a sample of an academic article in English;
  • exam results (in my case TOEFL and GRE);
  • transcript of the diploma.

To qualify for funding, I had to submit all documents by February 1st. In addition, when applying, you must pay an application fee. As a rule, it is $50-80. Sometimes the university can meet halfway and provide an application fee waiver on an individual basis. So it was in my case with the University of Delaware. By the way, due to the pandemic, they also made an exception for the GRE exam, but in the end my application was rejected.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York

Results

The first success response came from Colorado State University in mid-February. I received the following response on March 8 (as a gift) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The letters included congratulations but no funding information. In April, the final decisions came. Colorado State University has offered a teaching assistantship with a living allowance + an additional motivational scholarship (fellowship), which will be paid after the successful completion of the first and second semesters. After conducting an additional zoom-interview, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was offered to join as a research assistantship in one of the social projects that received a grant from the US government.

Свой финальный выбор я сделала в пользу Colorado State University. Это был нелегкий путь, но результат всех усилий того стоил! На данный момент я собираю документы на открытие студенческой визы в США, чтобы осенью начать обучение по программе Design and Merchandising Master of Science. Я создала канал в Telegram, чтобы помогать будущим абитуриентам с поступлением в США — подписаться можно at this link... Dream, act and everything will work out!

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Miscellanea American universities loudspeakers US universities personal experience
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