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Graduate study opportunities in the USA
More than 200,000 international students chose to study at US universities and grad schools last year, with graduate applications beginning to exceed pre-September 11 levels. So why is the USA the most popular study abroad destination for international graduate students?
The structure of a US graduate degree differs from those offered, for instance, in the UK. There are no pure research degrees. Masters degrees and PhD programs will always involve a combination of research and taught courses and the evaluation of performance continuously assessed through classroom participation, examinations and papers. While this may produce a workload that many students often find heavy and highly structured, the US system is also highly flexible. Aisling Conboy, an advisor at the US Education Advisory Service, US-UK Fulbright Commission (EAS), is a graduate of Central Michigan University’s Master’s program in history, says of her experience “By meeting regularly with other students on my course I made good friends and could discuss the coursework and reading, rather than simply discussing class issues with professors alone. This would often motivate me and was also a good resource in terms of finding out about relevant books or articles.”
The US semester
The academic year in the US lasts nine months and is divided into semesters. The number of semesters per year varies depending on which system the university follows. The most common is the semester system, which breaks the academic year into two terms, usually called “Fall” and “Spring” semesters. Universities express their graduate coursework requirements in terms of a specified number of “credits”, “hours” or “units”, instead of having a specific timescale as in many other international education systems. Each individual course is worth a certain number of credits, hours or units.
A realistic full-time course load for a graduate student is likely to be 24 semester hours, which translates to between three and four courses per term.
Graduate admissions and applications
EAS recommends that students interested in pursuing graduate study in the US begin researching 18 months before they plan to enrol. In addition to the application forms, students will be expected to complete essays, obtain recommendations, provide transcripts and take admission tests. Simon Ruben, a student at New York University, says, “How ever hard and long the application process was, I knew that the quality of the degree would be the best thing for my ambitions. It was worth the hard work!” In the first instance, students should begin by identifying courses in their subject area.
It is recommend that students apply to between three and six universities, as applying to one or two can be a risky strategy if an application is rejected or no funding is available. When choosing where to apply, things to consider include location, university size, tuition fees and number of international students. The most important factor for graduate study, particularly for PhD study, is to make sure the department is a good match for your particular area of interest. US universities are keen to get a total picture of each applicant and, while obviously wanting students with the best academic records, will also take into consideration other factors that may affect academic performance.
Most universities in the US will require that an applicant sits at least one standardized test. Depending on the selected field of study, the following standardised tests are generally required:
· The Graduate Record Exam (GRE), the most commonly required, is for applicants to humanities and arts & sciences courses.
· The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is for admission to a business school program.
· The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), for non-native speakers of English, though this may be waived for those non-native speakers who have been educated for three years or more in English.
These tests are generally comprised of several multiple-choice sections and an essay. Each takes three to four hours to complete with strict time limits on each section. The scores are sent directly to the universities applied to and no matter how many applications are submitted, a student need only take the applicable standardized test once. To find out more information on each of these tests please refer to www.ets.org.
