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elz

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Everything posted by elz

  1. Dear Stasha, Now you may remember that I told you to exercise caution in listening to these stories. Each department is different and of course each student has a different profile. Some of the basic things about financial aid: According to Open Doors 2007 edition, the majority of international graduate students are funded by the universities where they attend. This generally includes a tuition waiver and a monthly stipend related to research or teaching (usually but there are other forms of financial support). Take it easy with these stories. The students that have a good GPA and that listen to us are usually quite successful in getting what they need to study. Now the amount of money that you need is generally the amount of money that the school does not provide. For example, if the cost of your education for that year is 45,000 USD and the school provides you 43,000 USD, then you will need to prove 2,000 USD before you can be issued an I-20 from the university. Please try to enjoy the stories from your friends, but do not take them to heart because each department is different. Each school is different. The amount of money you will get for library science depends on how you present yourself. Maybe you need to do another graduate group advising seminar to clear out your head Elz
  2. Dear Belladonna, First and foremost, I want to ask you about your decision about your choice of university - are you absolutely sure that they will provide you financial assistance as an international student? Also, are you sure that you do not want to apply to more than one university if you need financial assistance? Have you attended the group advising session with us? I ask this because you never know if you are going to fit the profile that the particular school is looking for, so it is not always good to put all of your eggs in one basket. That said, the application will give you instructions concerning the essay. Sometimes they have a question or topic. At other schools they may provide you with a couple of topics to choose from. It is important that you read all of this information carefully and write the essay that they want you to write. It might be very helpful for you to return to group advising now that you are further along in the process so that you can get a fresh look at the process. Just a suggestion. When do you plan to attend the school? Tell me a bit more and let me see if there is anything else that you might need to know about. Best, Elz
  3. Tinki Binki, He writes in English so that I can answer his questions. Elizabeth
  4. Dear Jovan, Congratulations, well done! Yes, GPA is just a piece of the puzzle, but it is also often tied to the size of financial assistance. You are also correct in that they look at how many classes students take here and it makes a great deal of difference. However, I do want to caution gentle readers that are looking for something like a full financial aid package that it does get more difficult to get a full package without really high GPAs... Well in your decision making there are quite a few factors for you to think about. Is it possible for you to come into our center and look up some of the information in our books about schools? These decisions are tough. You can check the statistics on each school, class size, teacher to student ratio...read what other students have said about the schools. These things all help. It works a bit better than reading the full colored information on the schools since these always say the same thing... Have you checked the cost of living for the two places? Although you have someone to fund you, you might want to take that into account. I know that UT-Austin has been voted as one of the best campuses to live on in the United States. I will have a chance to visit Univeristy of Minn - Twin Cities in May, but that will not help you a great deal now. Have you had an opportunity to participate in any online chats with students at the schools? Sometimes you can ask the school to put you in touch with a current student. Each campus has a heartbeat and soul that is all its own, so it is tough to try to tell someone where they would fit. Also the financial aid package means a great deal. I suggest that you visit our library and start reading up as much as you can...especially Fiske's guide. You might also visit the site...www.collegeconfidential.com and go to the campus visits section and see what visitors have had to say...as well as the place where current students talk about the school. I hope this helps some... Elz
  5. Dear Marko K, As usual Dule is on top of this. Let me add a few thoughts. Here is the recent break down from Open Doors, published by the International Insitution of Education, concerning how most international students pay for their education in the United States: Primary Sources of Funding for Undergraduate International Students 2006 Academic Year: Personal & Family 81.5 % US College or University 11.4 % Home Govt/University 2.2% US Government 0.3% US Private Sponsor 2.1% Foreign Private Sponsor 1.7% International Organization 0.2% Current Employer 0.1% Other Sources 0.6% The first rule of thumb is that prior to applying, be sure that the school is capable of providing the funding that will meet your needs. Some of the very top schools out there do have a need blind policy which means that any student admitted will receive funding, but once again we go back to incredibly competitive programs. According to the New York Times, Harvard rejected over one thousand students that had perfect scores on the SAT II Math exam. Thus, you would probably want to apply to a wide range of schools, including some of those that are strong, but not famous, in order to increase your chances of acceptance. I know that this makes it hard for students because often the "dream school" is not the option due to financial considerations, but with a little research and hard work, students with strong academic records can usually find a school that it is a good fit for them and that is willing to provide the financial assistance that they need. Have you been to group advising yet? If it has been a long time ago, it might be time for a refresher session. On the other hand, if you have not been, it is probably a good idea so that you can get a better picture. Elz
  6. Dear D and D, These are answers that require extensive research and I am not sure that Nikola is in a position - considering the extent of his responsibilities to get so heavily involved, so allow me to give you some guidelines. First of all, have you been to graduate advising at our center. If not, you should call our office to place your name on the list for the next session. There is a great deal of information to help you get the big picture of the process. Next, finding a program that fits your needs requires some research. Our library has the six volume Peterson's Guide series. I believe that the guide is more extensive and informative than the websearch. It describes programs in detail and most likely you will be able to develop a list of departments that specialize in programs that combine the expertise of engineering with that of management. In terms of the view of your diploma, since the American higher education system is highly decentralized, each department will examine the course of your study and determine where you diploma will fit. Bear in mind that most engineering programs in the United States are professional degree programs that take five years to complete. I hope this helps you get started. Graduate group advising is probably your best option to get started. Also the reference material in the library will guide you through the career options available to you. Research is key to learning about all the programs out there and career opportunities. We try to help you learn where to access the best information in the most efficient way possible. Hope this helps.
  7. Dear Nik and One percenter, Here is the best place to get all the information that you will need about the specifics: http://www.ed.gov/students/landing.jhtml It is a good site, there are many booklets and materials that you can download that should give you complete information on this. Also universities that you are looking at will also have assistants who can help you with the process. Best, Elz
  8. elz

    SAT I TOEFL help

    Dear Mirijana, Have you contacted the advising center in Cyprus? They will most likely have books/and or courses to help you prepare. Here is their information from EducationUSA.state.gov: CYPRUS FULBRIGHT COMMISSION -NICOSIA Mailing Address: CYPRUS FULBRIGHT COMMISSION 2 EGYPT ANENUE NICOSIA CYPRUS 1097 Walk Up Address: Fulbright Commission 2 Egypt Avenue Nicosia CYPRUS 1097 tel: (357) 22669757 (EXT. 26) e-mail: cfc@fulbright.org.cy or CYPRUS FULBRIGHT BRANCH OFFICE - Mailing Address: c/o Commission for EducationUSA-Cyprus 2 Egypt Avenue PO Box 24051 CYPRUS Cyprus Walk Up Address: 5A Server Somuncuoglu St. Koskluciftlik Nicosia CYPRUS - tel: (357) 22-664295 e-mail: fulbright@superonline.com website: www.fulbright.org.cy You might mention that you have been in touch with the advising center in your home country and that we suggested that you be in contact with them for the duration of your stay in Cyprus. Hope this helps. Elz
  9. Happy Birthday ! ! ! ! I hope you have the time of your life. Party Party Party..but not too much..... Elz
  10. Dear Slobodan, Well actually it is not so hard to head into graduate studies from here. We have had many, many students get full finanicial aid packages for graduate schools. As Aleksa and I keep emphasizing, the transfer with money included can be tough. There are really two sides to preparing for graduate studies from overseas or at a US School. The hardest part of working from over here concerns the critical reading and essay portion of the GRE. This is my opinion of course. On the other hand, often your course of study and the diversity of the program you are getting in BiH, makes you a highly attractive candidate. As I said, we have pretty good luck with graduate students and funding. I suggest that you visit the website at the University of Maine and start to download the degree sheets and begin to informally compare what you have with what they will require of you. I fear that you will find that you need a great deal of undergraduate course work that is outside the area of your major. (I consider these core requirements one of the strongest point of the American system, because it is a once in a lifetime opportunity for this kind of intellectual engagement.) See if you can locate the degree sheet and see where you stand. Another thing that you might do is engage our alum, Dule, at Green Mountain Environmental College in Vermont. Now this small liberal arts school focuses specifically on environmental issues. Even if Dule cannot direct you, he might know where you can look to get very specific and helpful advice. He is an outstanding students and has good contact with professors, so he could certainly look into the matter for you and he is a real stand up guy who would most likely do so. Aleksa, do you have anything to add on this? What do you feel are the pros vs. cons of transferring in terms of preparing for graduate school? Also, Slobodan, since you are going to be comparing your coursework with that of American universities, I would really be interested to see your conclusions. Everytime that a student researches a specific area, I learn something But, hey, it makes me a better advisor. I am delighted that you contacted the overseas educational advising center in Sarajevo. They will soon have an advisor in place. I was at a conference last week with some of the team there. They are really ready and willing to help students in BiH. The centers in this region have good cooperation and this greatly benefits the students. We work together on projects and support one another. Hang in there, they will an advisor in there soon, but until then, we are more than happy to assist you. Have you had a chance to visit over there and speak with Sanja? She is a really super person. I think that they may also have some information sheets as well. If you have time, be sure and ask her what resources in terms of hand-outs or information sheets that she might have available while we await the arrival of the new advisor. Best regards, Elz
  11. Dear Kat, Practicing law in the United States is quite different than it is here - namely the educational background of American lawyers is a bit more extensive. For example, in the United States, a student will take a Bachelors Degree in another field, although some students do get a Bachelors degree in a Pre-Law program. The next step upon graduation is to take the LSAT exam and submit those scores to prospective law schools. Law schools are basically post-diplomska programs. To complicate matters, each of the 50 states sets their own policies concerning recognition of foreign diplomas. The good news is that the American Bar Association Website has a well organized chart that you can exam: http://www.abanet.org/legaled/publications...005/chart10.pdf Now for New York, here is the blurb: New York Applicant must complete period of law study equivalent in duration to that specified in New York rules in law school recognized by competent accrediting agency of the government of such foreign country. All applicants must have their transcripts evaluated by the Board of Law Examiners to determine if further study, in the form of 20 credits at an approved law school in the U.S., including basic courses in American law, is required. This will help you determine what your next step will be. Some states are more liberal and their acceptance than others, so you find that you most likely will want to "pick a state" to live and work in. I recommend that you contact the New York Chapter of the American Bar Association to determine who the diploma from Belgrade will be viewed. I am not clear on the sentence above that discusses the period of law study equivalent in duration. I really suggest that you contact them directly. Whenever we get into these professional licensing issues, since each of the 50 states sets their own regulations, well, it is always a case by case basis. Elz
  12. Well, yes it is much better to complete the program there rather than transfer. We have worked with several students in environmental/Ecology programs. First I would suggest that you come to the graduate advising seminar. This is where you will learn how to begin to organize yourself for a full financial aid package. Also, during the course of that session, you will learn exactly when it is appropriate to contact a professor in a department that you are interested. We always encourage our students to follow Ashers Law: Thou shalt not visit, telephone, or write to any professor without having read at least one of the research papers. These papers are generally available on the website. The way that we work with students on these issues often insures that you have a real advocate when you application goes before the committee. Also, since so many schools are providing extensive information on their websites, one of the rules that we go through again and again are that students should be quite certain that they do not write to a professor asking for information that is already included on the website. One thing that can be rather difficult for international students is that the American schools often have a rather sophisticated admissions process. It is important that you have thoroughly backgrounded yourself prior to writing. Another important fact is that often some schools even provide you contact information for other graduate students in your field. Should you decide to write to a graduate student, bear in mind that there is a strong possibility that this e-mail will shared with a professor in the department, perhaps someone that would be a suitable mentor for your studies - so keep that in mind as you write. One more tip, do not go into great detail in the e-mail, but it is good if you can include your GPA (Serbian, of course) and if you have taken the GRE, include those scores - this makes you a serious candidate. If you have won any honors, it is a good chance to briefly mention those and perhaps state (see attached CV). However, what is most critical -especially if you are after the funding - is that your communication reflect the fact that you have thoroughly researched that department and read work from that professor. It is important that the first contact show that you are a good fit for that program. I would really encourage you to arrange to attend a group advising session for graduate students. You may call our office at 334 5227 and find out when the next available session is and place your name on the list. It is a very thorough session and provides a very good overview of the entire process. Also have you checked the scholarship area on this forum? I believe that there are quite a few offers for Ecology. We have a pretty good reference library and can help you find several schools that will be quite good for you. It really does require quite a bit of research to find schools that are the right fit. As I recall Maine has a very good Marine Biology program. We will need to do some research about the Ecology, but I would guess that may be quite strong too. Since you will be visiting the US this summer, it is important that you start the research and we can assist you in doing a swing tour of several grad schools. Best regards, Elizabeth
  13. Dear Lost in Space, Yes, indeed you are getting good information. Now a bit about the work experience that has not been mentioned yet. In our center we have a few pretty good books about MBA programs. I recommend that you visit us and look these over. One of the books even helps you find a list of schools that are not so interested in work experience. Also the financial statements, that is just a part of the process, as Aleksandra pointed out. However, one reason for this really fast and upfront request concerns the visa factor. Ultimately, until the school sees the report, new regulations - is it a DHS thing Aleksandra or do you know? I have seen some serious scrambling in International Student Offices lately on some new DHS issues - mean that the school cannot sign off on the papers that you will need to obtain your student visa at the embassy until you can prove support. (I-20 usually) just as Aleksandra pointed out. However, should you get some financial assistance from the school, that will be added into the equation. I mean when they see your bank statement, if it looks anything like mine, they will immediately realize that you are anticipating either finanicial assistance or a lotto win. Also, there is a new trend for some MBA programs to be a bit more generous with their funding. It seems that many programs have wised up to realize that to get broad diversity into their programs, they are going to have to assist some international students. I had this discussion with a gentleman from the Fisher School of Business (check the rankings on that school and btw, he and I also discussed that fact that the rankings were "over ranked") and we both agreed that the transitional economies in Eastern Europe, in fact the whole economic experience in this part of the world is a source of fascination for any MBA group and that without substantial funding, many outstanding students from these countries are not able to participate in MBA programs and share this experience with colleagues who have deeper pockets. For example, Jaroslav on our alumni forum is in an MBA program - he could speak with you about his financial aid package. I believe that with careful research and some serious digging around that you can find a program that will be a good fit and offer some assistance if you can showcase yourself as a student with a great deal to contribute. Well the test center list for 2006 is 2006....Let's see what happens in 2007! The old fox has been at work on this situation! Best, Elz
  14. Well GRE test takers, I would like to add some information on the new GRE. I was fortunate enough to be at an EducationUSA conference where ETS actually gave a presentation on the new GRE. In many wpreays, I do not believe that the new GRE is going to be harder for international students. For example, the reading passages appear to be much shorter, which will provide more time for students to "dig around" in the passages. Previously the passages were so long that it was difficult for international students to get through the passages. Next, there will be some new types of questions, however, I have examined that material and I have found some material that was previously used in other types of tests - these are compatible to what will be presented on the new GRE and we have been incorporating these questions into our GRE seminars. I have not had an opportunity to exam the math section in detail yet, but we did provide our GRE group with a practice test based on the new Math, so I will soon be able to get some feedback on the math perceptions. We will be following these developments closely. Also if you visit the official GRE website (www.gre.org), you will be able to view some sample questions and get an idea of what you challenges you face. I hope that everyone visiting this forum has attended a graduate group advising. If you have not attended a seminar, I would encourage to call our office at 334 5227, and place your name on the list to attend. It provides a very good overview the entire admissions process. It takes about 2 hours and I do not think that it is the most exciting event, however, it really does seem to help. Often as students get closer to the admissions process, filling out the applications, writing up personal statements, they attend again, because their focus is different. My instincts are that the math sectioin is not going to as challenging as the reading section and the essay section. In the past, it was possible for students to approach the essay questions using template formulas. Now however, the new exam is going to require that students have a rather strong background in American-style academic writing skills. The reading, although the analogies and antonyms will be gone (AMEN!), is going to require some rather complex knowledge, that I am sure most grad school candidates have, but translating that into English will be a challenge. The really good news is that if you are planning to take the new GRE - it looks as if there will not have to be trip to Zagreb....it looks as if we will be able to offer it at our center and we are thrilled with this possibility, but remember, we are talking about the new exam only.
  15. elz

    SAT I TOEFL help

    Dear Marijana, I am not sure if you are aware of this or not, perhaps you are not close to the Belgrade area. However, IAC offers SAT preparation courses. To be quite honest, courses and personal statement/admission seminars are the only services for pay that we have to sustain our operations so we encourage students to participate. I think that if you visited one of the groups, you would find that there is a great deal of support and also it is a great opportunity to use our reference library. In addition to the regular weekly courses, every Saturday an SAT practice is given, so that by the time the course is completed, you will have taken 12 practice SAT exams. Furthermore, students who have enrolled in the courses receive a great deal of mentoring and advising throughout the process, so you might want to consider this. We always allow students to arrange a visit to one of the classes so they can see what it looks like and then decide if they feel that the course will be beneficial to them. Best, Elz
  16. Dear Kragujevac, The college/university that you are applying to is interested in your GPA from the high school and will want to see those transcripts. Now as far as the Microsoft Certifications, those are just awards, courses, and work "above and beyond the call of duty", so to speak. In order for your family to "prove" that there is enough money to finance your education, your family will need to show bank statements, a statement signed by the employer of each of your parents as to how much is earned and so on. One thing is not real clear to me, probably because my reading of Serbian is not always good - rather child like in nature - Have you already decided on a school? If your family has some money to contribute towards your educational costs, you may be able to get some kind of partial funding from the schools you apply to in order to offset your costs. Most students that can throw a few thousand at the school can often get partial scholarships. It is a bit more challenging to get a full ride, so if you have some funding to put towards your education, your chances for say, 50% or so, really increase. Have you been to our undergraduate advising? Do we have any paperwork on you? I would encourage you to make the trip to an undergraduate advising session. It would give a chance to meet you, get some information on your situation, and see exactly where you are in the process. Best, Elz
  17. elz

    Aleksandra Nesic

    Wow Aleksandra - it is great to have you on board. I was at a conference in Portugal for the last week and of course I heard that "some girl you met at NAFSA is on the forum really knocking out the questions". I immediately realized it was you. Thanks a great deal - your signing up as alumni could not have been more timely. Now I am going to spin around the forum a bit and see what you have been up to. It is great to see you here. Are you going to be at NAFSA again this year? I would love to see you again. In fact, there is some tour offered in Florida and I may ask if I can do that one simply so that I can see you. Have you met my dear one - Anna Carrol yet? She is also working on a Masters at SIT. I will write you an e-mail later today with a bit of blah blah - but I did want to throw out a public recognition of your great work here on the forum and reinforce your credentials. Once again, thanks much - great to have you here. Elz
  18. elz

    Questions

    Dear Marijana, These are questions that are covered in the graduate advising seminars. The next seminar is March 29 @ 1600. Please call our center and place your name on the sign up list. For example, when up speak of funding. have you already been accepted in school with funding or are you going to need to have a strategy to work on that? Most of that we can cover in the Grad Advising...It takes about an hour and a half - then there is a question and answer session. Best, Elz
  19. elz

    TFAS

    Dear Red, Just to let you know, I have put in a request to see if we can find out about such a program. So far, we have not heard anything - it will take some time because it could have come out of other departments. Have you heard anything else on this? Could it have been a USAID program? Try to determine who spoke about this at the school and that could really help us track this down. Elz
  20. Hey Nik, I answered this for you under another part of the forum today. Sorry it took me so long, I have not gotten the kinks out of the new forum drill. I am afraid that Mr. Stojkovic had to draw me a picture of how to use the technology to view the most recent posts. I seem to have caught on at last, however. Elz
  21. May I begin by saying "Yuck, this is an icky question." The good news is that it can be done. Just as you have stated, you will apply to the other program and there will be an extension of your status. Question 1: Yes, you are reading it right - sort of - you will not have to leave the country and apply for another visa, but you will have to adjust your status. Have you been accepted in Indiana? The easiest thing would be to ask the International Student Office over at Indiana about the steps. The only hitch that I can foresee is that the I-20 that you get from Berkeley is going to have a date for study to end earlier than the start date for Indiana, so it will not be the same as a transfer from one degree program to another. The best is to get in touch with the school in Indiana via e-mail and ask them what you will need to do. I know that this can be done. However, since the documentation that makes it happen will ultimately be issued by the school in Indiana, it is best that you get in touch with them. If they are baffled, we can get out the rules and regs, but I think that the school in Indiana could probably do this in their sleep, so why not just ask them first? Students need student visas. It not only runs counter to the spirit of the law, but since the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and the SEVIS program, it runs counter to the letter. Be very careful on this because anyone holding a ten year tourist visa has been operating under a different set of regulations and so it is really easy to slip up. In some ways there are shared characteristics in the two visas and then in other ways they are different - it is hard. I have had the same thing here actually. I confused tourist visas and business visas here - so it can happen to anyone, anywhere. Students have to report in. Tourists are allowed to freely roam about. Now this brings up another question - are you sure that you are going to be issued an F-1 Visa and not a J-1 Visa? You need to be certain of this since you are planning to change schools. It is not a big deal, but you want to know what visa you will actually be holding when you decide to head over to Indiana. I am under the impression that you are a graduate student, but whatever the case, in general to obtain an F-1 visa, you will need to be considered enrolled fulltime at a school. Does the amount of time you will be attending classes during the summer meet the fulltime enrollment criteria? Otherwise you are proably looking at a J-1 visa. You need to be certain that you will be holding an F-1 Visa for summer school and then once you know what visa you will be holding, and once you have been accepted in Indiana, you may contact the International Student Office in Indiana and ask them about the procedure. They may have some special time line that they want to follow on this, so once they have admitted you, it would be appropriate to contact them. In fact, if you are admitted, they are probably preparing an I-20 for you and would most likely like to know this. If you will recall, your application for admission asked you about your visa status...precisely for that reason. They want to know about this, so you can freely contact them.
  22. First Dule, Great job...Now I would just add a few things. Just as there is a great deal of difference between undergraduate admissions and graduate admissions, so there is a great deal of difference between the two interviews. However, hopefully you have a copy of everything that you sent to the university in either case. That should be with you when you have the interview. Now some many undergraduate interviews are conducted by alumni from that school, so if you are interviewing with an alumni, you can also ask the alumni about their experience at the school and what they feel that their education there did for them. This is a very good opportunity for you to get a picture of what life is like at that school, which is very important for an international student. Next if the interview is with an admissions official, this is also a good time for you to ask about what it is like for international students there, if there are any international students from your area, what sort of orientation you can expect, just questions to show that you are truly interested and have prepared for the interview. Take care not to ask about information that is already on the school website. That shows that you are poorly informed and have not put out much effort. (Also this is an old advisor trick: the only way you can make sure that you do not ask such a question is by doing thorough research of the site, and that in turn should heighten your curiousity about the school and raise some questions.) Graduate students should be very prepared to discuss their academic accomplishments and statement of purpose. Remember if you have made it this far, you are a serious contender in their books, so this is the time to really start to review the department that you are interested in and to re-read some of the professor's work. Keep up with what projects the department is working and prepare yourself accordingly. However, the graduate student interview is a bit more formal than the undergraduate interview, and my guess is that for that one, they will never say..."What's up?" unless Dule or I start doing these interviews, ha ha. However, Dule is correct in that humor definitely can have its place and that is true for both situations. Also if there was anything in your application package such as a bad academic year..be prepared to discuss it if they ask. Think of an interview as an opportunity. Most students that we have worked with have told us that they had a really great experience with their phone interview, it put them even more at ease. I hope this helps.
  23. elz

    TFAS

    Dear Red, This is not a question...this is a MISSION ! ! ! The US Embassy in Belgrade has many many programs for students. Let me make some phone calls and see if I can hunt this one down. Now is a good time for think about exactly what they told you and for you to send me any clues to help me get started in the hunt. Best,
  24. Dear Marko, First about the GRE changes. A new GRE exam will be introduced in the Fall. Let me provide you with some background on what the introduction of a new exam looks like. Generally this is done in increments. For example, the first new style exams are introduced in the USA and often Canada. Then there will be a couple of international sites where the exam is administered. (I think it was France and Germany with the iBT). So these changes are generally gradual and certainly nothing to plan strategy around, rather this is something to keep an eye on. In general, the test preparation courses are more rigorous than the research process. In other words, you should begin the test preparation process as soon as possible. Also you cannot always count on the formation of a test prep group during the months of June, July, and August. I think that you would find that Serbian students who are studying in the USA give a great deal more priority to the GRE early on. The students that we met during the winter holidays have already begun to create a foundation for their GRE studies. GRE is the hardest of all the exams in the admissions process. For example, after test prep seminars in iBT, SAT, and GMAT the majority of international students are ready to go out and take the exams...however, with the GRE, after the preparation seminar, students are ready to do a couple more months of self preparation. The exam is truly a challenge for international students and for social sciences students need to have a really strong performance in the "verbal areas". (Depending on where students apply...one of our students that was accepted into Yale,had very impressive math scores as well as verbal) For the "others" (math, engineering, science folk) a respectable showing is important. As far as setting priorities, most graduate school time lines recommend that the GRE exam be prepared for and taken prior to starting the final year of undergraduate studies. Bear in mind that these are timelines for students already studying in the USA. This is first on the "summer before final year" timeline. Second on the list is to begin to plan key parts of the personal statement, and last on the summer before list, is to decide on programs. I think that part of the reason that students here try to work "backwards" or in reverse is because of going to an unknown place. However, the exams are the hardest part...a good score will not get you in, but a dismal score can certainly keep you out. And it can really separate you from the money. Now the TOEFL in June...actually the sooner that the TOEFL is taken and removed the list of things to do, the better. If you can do well on the TOEFL and your English indicates that you most likely could, I would say take the TOEFL as soon as possible and get it off of your back. One less thing to worry about and after you get the scores, you can mention it to any program heads during your correspondence. For example, "I have an iBT score of 115" pretty much states that you can handle a teaching assistantship. TOEFL is such a tiny piece of the picture for grad school. I hope this helps you with your priorities. Best, Elz Now the GRE is basically undergoing the same type of changes that the SAT underwent. The analogies are going on and the antonym section will be removed. These same sections were removed from the SAT, but the sentence completions remain and students are still struggling with the vocabulary.
  25. Dear Marko, As I am not in my office today, I cannot go to all of our books and look up Fairleigh. However, I was able to locate a few facts about Farleigh Dickinson University through the internet. This should help somewhat: First of all, Farliegh Dickinson University has two different campuses and the academic life at both of these campuses are very different. For example, the Florham location emphasizes the traditional American education in the Liberal Arts, while the Teaneck location is more focused on Professional Degree Programs (engineering for example) Once place I found where you can go and read in detail about the university to get a general feel for the school is good ol' wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairleigh_Dickinson_University. This is a good way to see how the school is viewed in broad and general terms. A few things in this blurb stimulated some interest on my part. You might want to read this article and also begin to further explore some of the topics in the article. Other factors are very much tied to which campus you are looking at attending. For example, Sports lovers will find that one campus is Division III and the other Division I. So which campus is a very big issue for student athletes or those who enjoy attending sports events. In Serbian terms, Teaneck Division I soccer is nationally ranked and going to those games is going to be a very different experience than on the Florham campus. Another factor to consider would be the United Nations Pathways Program: http://view.fdu.edu/default.aspx?id=290 (on the FDU website). The student faculty ratio is about 17:1 with the average class size 2-9 students (Princeton Review website) Both campuses by the way. There are over 4000 schools in the USA to choose from. I never really know what to say when faced with the question, "Is it a good school?" Are you looking for an undergraduate experience? In that case the question would need to be, "Is it a good school for me?" My initial reaction is that I find this UN relationship intriguing. Next, if you are considering graduate studies, then you need to look at the Department that you are planning to join. One area of interest for me is that they do have a ranking listed in US News and World Report. However, I always advise students to exercise caution in using these rankings. My rule of thumb is that a goog ranking is generally a plus, but lack of that ranking should not earn a school a giant black mark by its name, but rather a deeper exploration. However, in terms of best engineering programs where a Bachelor's or Masters is the highest degree, it is ranked 61. Campus life? Excellent question Marko! Location can be very important, especially for students. In this case, you what could be the greatest possible defense against boredom. New York City is just a hop, skip, and a jump from New Jersey. Once again Teaneck is 6 miles, while Florham is 35 miles. (http://www.studyusa.com/factshts/fdu.asp) I recommend that you start clicking on these links that I have included in the list. Each one that I have visited have gotten me more and excited about this school. Quite honestly, I would love it there...but I cannot really speak for you. Then your question about transferring - yes you can transfer to other schools. Transfer is always an option, but it is definitely a non-linear process in most cases. You probably should visit the forum topic about transfers and read that to get a grip on how the whole process works, so you can plan your education along those lines if you are going to transfer. Hope this helps, Elz
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