YABOAFSA – (Yet another blog on application for studying abroad)

(Recursively Defined: YABOAFSA Ain’t-a Blog On Application For Studying Abroad)

With things you won’t see in a regular guide for application for studying abroad

THE THEME FOR THIS BLOG IS SIMPLICITY AND BULLET-POINTS- SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE PROCESS. I
UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF YOUR TIME , AND I REALIZE THAT THE WORDINESS OF OTHER BLOGS HINDERS YOU
FROM READING THEM . HENCE I WON’ T BE WRITING ANY DESCRIPTIONS AT ALL . WHEREVER NEEDED, I’ LL JUST
ADD MORE BULLET POINTS ONLY AS MUCH AS IS NECESSARY .

Summary of steps required for the whole process

 Taking decisions [at least 6 months to a year before]

o Where to apply
o How many places to apply
o What types of places to apply
o What subjects to consider
 Research Phase [at least 6 months to a year before]
o Reviewing university websites
o Listing requirements
o Finding university that matches personal preferences
 Preparation [at least 4 to 6 months before]
o Making a “time-budget”
o Preparing for some pre-requisite exams
 IELTS/TOEFL
 GRE (not always necessary)
 Others (depends on research phase)
o Preparing other useful attributes
 Research Papers
 Try working on subjects that are related to ‘recent’ works of
professors from your target Universities (quoted from Naushad Bhai)
 This will increase your chances ten folds!
 Work Experience
 etc…
o Collecting Documents (Scanning is very useful)
 Experience Certificate
 Preparing your CV
 Transcripts (Sealed and Original)
 Photocopies
 Certificate
  Previous Certificates and Mark sheets
 Own Photographs
o Creating your personal essay
 Statement of Purpose (SOP)
 Letter of Intent
 Letter of Interest
 Statement of Interest
 etc… all the above are one and the same … useful to remember which
University uses what term
 Write about:
 Who you are (briefly)
 Where you see yourself in near and far future (this is a must)
 Your positives
 Your negatives (is a must too!)
 Write about the subject you are applying for
 Write about the University you are applying to
o Why them?
o Write about the specific
 Program
 Supervisor and his work
 Environment
 Interest you have for them
 Show how you are qualified
 Show some works you have that are related
 Write in an interesting tone (with a continuous flow)
 Write very briefly (at most one and a fourth pages [1.25 pages])
 Starting paragraph should summarize the whole essay
 A ‘creative’ starting and ending paragraphs are useful but not really
necessary
 Remember that your reviewers read 1000s of essays, so you can’t afford to
have extraneous sentences and useless descriptions. Be to the point, and
truthful, with just a little ‘spices’!
o Preparing sample Letter of Recommendations (LOR)
 Useful for giving hints to your recommenders
 Contact your recommenders at least a month before
 Give him/her your achievements list and things you did together (e.g.
courses and grades pair)
 Or if you might get the opportunity to actually write it yourself ;) [shhh!]
 Make at least three different
 Take recommendations from people you worked with most, not only people
with high ranks
 Few descriptive comments are more useful than many positive remarks
 Application phase [at least 2 to 3 months before]
o Go for either online application or paper-based application
 Depends on how many you are applying to and if your recommenders prefer
online or paper-based recommendations (believe me, this matter!)
o You might need to have a credit card support from someone (if applying online)
o Make accounts in Universities
o Send IELTS/TOEFL/GRE Scores
o Pay the fees
o Upload all other documents
o Send all printed documents trough regular mail or DHL or FEDEX (depending on time
left) (one per application) [I personally prefer reliability of DHL]
o Some documents might need to be notarized/attested … check websites for this info
o Some Universities might require you to find supervisors or mail them
 They will only reply if you have related works to their recent researches
o You’re done!
o Certain Universities might require you to apply for HOUSING already in this stage
 As the waiting time is the same as application time
 This will be added cost, but it is a risk worth taking for the Universities from
your first or high preferences
 If you do this, then you will get a dorm as soon as the first day
 Else you might have to apply for external housing for the first semester or
two!
o Total cost might get high if applying to North American counties
 10 to 12 Universities, with that many GRE score reports and DHLs will cost
around Tk 100,000 approximately [depends if application fee exists or is
free]
 Be prepared!
 Remember that you might need to keep about 6 times more than the
previous amount for going abroad (After Scholarships/JOBS)
 Including plane fare
 Security money
 Housing fee
 etc…
 So you should save some as well …
 If you don’t get funding, the amount needed might get up to 20 to 30 times
more (or even more) … not practical if you ask me …
o Try to apply to all three types of Universities (quoted from Naushad Bhai)
 Your Level
 I call this being practical (realistic)
 Under your Level
 I call this safety backup
 Above your Level
 I call this Ambitious
 o You should at least apply to 1 ambitious, 2 backups, and 2 to 3 realistic levelled
Universities
 This way, you won’t be sorry
 You will at least be sure you will get one acceptance [through backups]
 You won’t be sad that what if you got better chances [through ambitions]
 If budget allows, go for 3 ambitious, 4 realistic and 3 backups [or more]
 More applications means more chances of getting funding
 At times, you might have to give up better Universities because of
absence of funding
 General Tendency is, backup universities will accept you, but there is only a
small chance of getting funding. Ambitious universities may never accept
you, but if they do, funding is almost guaranteed! Take your pick really :P

 After Acceptance [if you are eventually selected] <Congratulations, by the way!>
o Officially accept
o Research Visa Processing Procedures
o Renew Passport
o Apply for Visa
o Apply for housing
o Apply for leave
o Make list of required materials for life, student-life etc.
o Register for courses
o Pay fees
o Review old materials
 Especially the ones you will TA in
o Buy tickets
o Start packing
o Sayonara!

OK NOW:

I wrote the above guide in a very very quick hurry! … Hence I might have missed a few steps
or given less emphasis on a rather important step or vice versa! I will try to fix them as soon as I can,
if I can. At least the above will give you a holistic picture as to how to go about applying for studying
abroad. Having read the whole summary, you can now refer to other ‘detailed’ blogs that describe
the whole process better, and get a better idea of everything that needs to be done. You might want
to refer to Naushad Bhai’s Blog which is quite informative indeed. The link is this.

All I can say now is … GOOD LUCK!! :D

And pray for me!

NEW ADDED NOTE on GRE:

Know that applying in a country with attractive Scholarship and with “Free” application
means that you will have to compete against 1000s of students.

But North American countries have something around Tk8000 application fee. This limits
most people to 10 University apps.

And since most divide categories into Ambitious, Realistic, and Safe anyway ... there are
chances that a particular University will not have received more than 100 applications!

Hence there are higher chances of getting-in in Northern American universities.

HOWEVER, most of them require GRE.

This used to be a hindering reason for me, because of the VERBAL section. But after TAREM
sir told me that the universities don’t really care much about the verbal ... that’s when I got the
confidence ...

It is TRUE, GRE is not at all important as many claim it is .... it is just a pre-requisite ... if you
get a good grade, you just win the ability to be considered for further review .... but in no way can it
win you selection ....

So don’t spend years learning words for GRE ... just go for a good Math score and you are
done! .... in Math you should get 800 ... or at least more than 750 (score’s are changed in the new
ystem). You will be needing about two weeks only to prepare for GRE MATH.

However, if you want to get in to the BiG GUNS! .... like MIT for example ... then the verbal
matters as most of the students who get in universities like MIT has around 1500 GRE score ...

But if you ask me, it’s overkill .... Just focus more on the other aspects of application (e.g.
SOP, LOR, etc) other than GRE .... some Universities actually don’t consider GRE at all !