This is EducationUSA Iran….
EducationUSA Iran: Hi, we have an Educational Adviser with us today and would like her some questions about admissions and how you can start to apply. We can start with how an undergraduate student can start to look for programs in the U.S.:
Adviser: Thank you, I am very pleased to be here and talking to EducationUSA Iran. In terms of undergraduate students applying for U.S. study, they will first want to look at themselves. They have a lot of choices in U.S. study, there are over 4,000 accredited institutions and almost all of them have undergraduate programs in different fields, so probably the most important thing is what you want to study or what different things you might want to study. You can locate universities that have these fields. A good website for undergraduate studies is the College Board website—www.collegeboard.com.
They have a program called Matchmaker [http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/adv_typeofschool.jsp]
that will pull out first of all universities in whatever fields of study you specify and then you can search on different things that are important to you, like do you want to study in a city or in the country or are you interested in for instance, an all-women’s school. You can also find out qualifications, do they accept only the top 10 percent of the class; you have to consider whether you’ll fit in. There are lots of choices so you want to start early.
EducationUSA Iran: Do undergraduate students need to have a diploma?
Adviser: They should start even before they get their diploma. The U.S. does have a lot of flexibility, so if you start late you can apply for a later year even after you’ve graduated. Ideally they want to start 12 months to 18 months before they want to enter the U.S. program, which would mean the beginning of the year before they graduate and then they would submit the grades and their final test scores as they have those.
EducationUSA Iran: How long does it take to find out if they have been admitted or not?
Adviser: Deadlines usually fall somewhere between the end of October and the first of January. If you are applying for financial aid you might have to apply earlier; there might be a separate financial aid deadline. And you find out in the spring if you have been accepted, around early April. Then again it depends on the school and the information on that can be found on the school’s website.
EducationUSA Iran: Is the TOEFL necessary for applying in the US?
Adviser: Yes, you have to show you have good English proficiency and the TOEFL is the most commonly accepted test at U.S. universities right now. There are other tests such as the IELTS, which is more of a British test, and most universities accept that as another option.
EducationUSA Iran: If you have already started university in Iran and have not yet completed the program, but would like to apply in the United States, is there a chance? Can you apply?
Yes, you can apply as transfer student or if you have completed a year or less of studies, you can apply as a first-year student. Depending on the university there may be more financial aid for first-year students. The university will evaluate the courses that you have taken, and if the courses taken are similar to U.S. program requirements, they will count as credits toward your degree so that you would not have to start the degree over for the undergraduate level. For graduate programs you would often have to start over, but you can still definitely apply for U.S. programs and your application will be considered. You would have an advantage over others because you already have some study in the field—assuming that you’re getting good grades and so on.
EducationUSA Iran: What else would you like to tell our Iranian students about application, admission, and preparation for the process?
Adviser: Just to start early. It’s challenging because of the many institutions out there, and the testing that is required. If you have problems obtaining some tests, especially those other than TOEFL, such as SAT, GRE, or GMAT, because they are not offered in Iran right now—often universities, when you explain that, they may be willing to waive the requirement. U.S. universities tend to look at the whole application package so they are more willing to make exceptions to the rules than those in some other countries. They tend to be flexible; can’t guarantee it, depends on the institution, but it tends to be true.
EducationUSA Iran: And we do have links, more information….
Adviser: Yes, oh yes, the EducationUSA Iran site. I’m sure I was talking a little fast so you may not have caught the Web addresses I was giving. But go to EducationUSA Iran, www.educationusairan.com, and there are links there. Just go to the subject you are interested in and in every subject there is a list of links including the ones I was talking about along with other ones that will be helpful to you.
Thank you and good luck to everyone in pursuing U.S. study.
EducationUSA Iran: Good luck and thank you.
This has been a production of EducationUSA Iran.
From the EducationUSA Iran.com studio…Welcome.
EducationUSA Iran: Welcome, this is the continuation of the previous podcast. In the previous podcast we tried to cover some of your questions about undergraduate studies in the U.S. Now we will try to cover some of the questions about graduate programs. Welcome to our podcast.
EducationUSA Iran: The other question would be about graduate students when they are looking for a university here…
Adviser: For the graduate student the field of study and specialization is the most important thing and I would start by looking for faculty members who are very active in that field and whose research interests match your own. You can do this by looking at professional associations, at who’s speaking at their conferences, who’s publishing in the field, that kind of thing. One of the most important things will be finding a match and someone who can mentor you in that field. There are also considerations considering that you are going to be living in this place—you want to make sure it’s an environment that suits you. There are some different options for graduate students: you may find in an association in your field of study that has a list of programs or even a search engine that will allow you to choose some factors. Or some broad ones that are good are:
http://www.petersons.com/GradChannel/code/search.asp?sponsor=1
http://www.gradschools.com/
Or I think http://www.phds.org/ is also pretty good. They do some rankings and the numbers are old so don’t look too much at it as a ranking. With 4,000 institutions rankings aren’t too important anyway. It’s not the same as someplace with a few institutions; there are a lot of good institutions. But their search engine is pretty good for finding some of these factors.
EducationUSA Iran: Is the TOEFL necessary for applying in the US?
Adviser: Yes, you have to show you have good English proficiency and the TOEFL is the most commonly accepted test at U.S. universities right now. There are other tests such as the IELTS, which is more of a British test, and most universities accept that as another option.
EducationUSA Iran: Can someone with a B.A. apply for a Ph.D. program, or do they have to apply to continue at the master’s level?
Programs in the U.S tend to be either research-based or professional. Research-based programs are designed to prepare you for academic research, working in a university or being a consultant, doing laboratory research, or something like that. And that is usually what the doctoral degree prepares you for. Some doctoral programs, yes, you can enter directly from the bachelor’s degree level. You would start and probably get a master’s degree along the way, and, if you get good enough grades, you can go on to the Ph.D. Professional programs often may end at the master’s level, though there are increasingly some practice-based doctoral programs as well. But those you would usually go to a master’s—for instance, the M.B.A. in business, where you are working in the field more than academic research.
EducationUSA Iran: If you are in a graduate program in Iran and haven’t finished your studies, can you apply to U.S.?
Adviser: Yes, if you are applying in the middle of your degree and wanted to go to the U.S. before you finish your degree in Iran, if you needed to do that for some reason, unfortunately you would probably need to start the degree level over because you are at the graduate level and, unlike the undergraduate level, most universities don’t accept to transfer your credits. However, you can definitely apply and you will have somewhat of an advantage if you are getting good grades in that you have already done some work in the field and are probably able to specify what you are interested in pretty well. And of course again you will start applying for the next degree—if, say, you were going to finish your master’s degree program and go on to your doctoral level in the United States, it is a good idea to start early if you wanted to enter the program the year after you graduated with your master’s, you would start applying before you graduate.
EducationUSA Iran: What else would you like to tell our Iranian students about application, admission, and preparation for the process?
Adviser: Just to start early. It’s challenging because of the many institutions out there, and the testing that is required. If you have problems obtaining some tests, especially those other than TOEFL, such as SAT, GRE, or GMAT, because they are not offered in Iran right now—often universities, when you explain that, they may be willing to waive the requirement. U.S. universities tend to look at the whole application package so they are more willing to make exceptions to the rules than those in some other countries. They tend to be flexible; can’t guarantee it, depends on the institution, but it tends to be true.
EducationUSA Iran: And we do have links, more information….
Adviser: Yes, oh yes, the EducationUSA Iran site. I’m sure I was talking a little fast so you may not have caught the Web addresses I was giving. But go to EducationUSA Iran, www.educationusairan.com, and there are links there. Just go to the subject you are interested in and in every subject there is a list of links including the ones I was talking about along with other ones that will be helpful to you.
Thank you and good luck to everyone in pursuing U.S. study.
EducationUSA Iran: Good luck and thank you.
This has been a production of EducationUSA Iran.
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