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How to get admission in Foreign Universities

Pursuing education from a foreign university is a dream of every student. Foreign qualification has a high value in professional setups. Apart from that, the foreign universities provide a charming educational environment to groom you into a true intellectual. All students, intending to pursue foreign qualification on self-finance, government-scholarship, or university-scholarship, have to get admission in a foreign university themselves. Sometimes a foreign university announces scholarships for international students to study in their university. Even in such a case, the students have to follow the admission procedure, fulfill all the formalities and prove themselves to the most suitable candidate for admission in their university.

Every year foreign universities and colleges receive thousands of applications for admission from self-funded and government-funded students but a few of them are accepted for admission. The reason is that they are ignorant of the essentials of admission in a foreign university. They ignore a few underlying requirements of the admission procedure. These are a few easy things which ensure your admission in foreign universities such as universities of United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Canada, China, Malaysia and so on.

The guidelines for admission in international universities are as follows:

  1. Selecting a university
  2. Required documents (transcripts and proficiency tests)
  3. Application Process
  4. Date and time considerations for application

   Selecting a foreign university or college

Selection a university depends upon the choice of the student. In some cases where students are awarded a scholarship by the government, the students have no idea where to get admission. In such a case, the student should get proper information about the universities in different countries before deciding for a specific university. You can search and study about the universities online. The international universities are ranked yearly by reliable organizations, who put the ranking details on the internet for students. For instance, you can view ‘QS ranking of world universities’ online. If you are not much concerned about the ranking of the university, you should at least ensure that the university or college is not a fake institution or black-listed institution.

   Documents required for application

You will be required to arrange the following documents for applying for Bachelor, Master or PhD program in a foreign university. Most of the applications are rejected due documents related errors in the application. Read the following instructions carefully to be accepted for admission.

Scanned copies of transcript and degrees: Have clear scanned copies of your all educational transcripts and degrees. Do not upload blurred images or images taken by a mobile phone which are not easily readable by the admission committee. Scan your documents with a scanner with high resolution (i.e. 300 dpi). All your documents will be printed by the university and presented to the admission committee. Images taken by mobile or blurred pictures are not good for print, and for this reason, many applications are rejected.

ID Card and Passport: You will be required to upload scanned copies of your ID card and Passport to your online application. Both of these documents are required for application but if you do not have a passport at the moment, you can provide it later before your final selection. As international student require a visa, they are required to provide their passport to the university before the final decision on their application.

Proficiency Tests (IELTS and GRE): Most of the foreign universities require good score in various proficiency tests. For instance, colleges and universities in the UK require band 5.5 to 7.5 in IELTS for admission into various programs. Similarly, the universities and colleges in the United States require a good score in GRE or TOEFL.

The foreign universities require varying scores in proficiency tests such as IELTS, TOEFL, GRE or other. The required score and required test are clearly mentioned in the eligibility criteria for a program on the website of the college or university. Some universities may not process your application if you do not have a valid score on the required proficiency test at the time of application. Many universities and colleges may also process your application giving you some time to appear in the test.

Statement of Purpose: Most students ignore the importance of this document for admission but it counts a lot for your admission. Most of the applications are rejected due to poorly written statement of purpose. Admission committee reads your SOP to decide on your application.

Statement of Purpose is a one-page description written by the student to explain few things - why is the student interested in this discipline, program, institution and country for study? Never used a copied SOP downloaded from Internet. Better write it yourself. It will take an hour for you to prepare an impressive SOP.

Reference Letters: It is another important document, which is usually ignored. Reference letters are short letters written by teachers from our last attended institution to tell the admission committee that the applicant is capable enough to be given admission. Poorly written reference letter or reference letter having only two to three lines text is another cause of rejection of admission application. Request your teacher to prepare good reference letter for you. Reference letter must not be too short (e.g. three or four lines). It should highlight your good academic qualities. You will be required to provide at least two reference letters.

Research Proposal: Research proposal is only required for research degrees e.g. MPhil, PhD. If you are applying for taught-program of Bachelors and Master, you do not need to make a research proposal.

A research proposal is 4 to 10 pages document which outlines the proposed research of a student. As research program involves research, hence students are required to provide a research proposal for admission. Make a brief research proposal at least having an introduction to the topic, brief literature, objectives, research questions, methodology and references. Get your proposal checked by your teacher to refine it. 

   Application Process

Nowadays, most of the international universities have online application support which has made the admission process very easy for students. At the time of online application you must have the following documents as you will have to upload them to your application:

  • Your personal details e.g. ID card number, passport number.
  • Scanned copies of all academic transcripts and degrees
  • Scanned copy of ID card
  • Scanned copy of Passport (it may be uploaded later, if not available at the moment)
  • Copy of proficiency test report card, e.g. IELTS, GRE etc
  • Scanned copies of reference letters (3 letters)
  • Statement of Purpose
  • Research Proposal (for MPhil/PhD students)

Follow the following steps:

  1. Visit the official website of the University.
  2. Open the ‘Online Application’ portal on the website.
  3. Make an account for applying online.
  4. Use a correct email address for making your account, as the University will use this email address to contact you regarding your application.
  5. Once you make the account, you will be directed to the application page.
  6. Application page consists of many sections, e.g. personal details, educational details, a program intended for admission, reference letters, proficiency test, statement of purpose, research proposal and so on.
  7. Write the credentials in all sections carefully. Ensure that all the details are correctly filled in the application form.
  8. Each section will have a button to upload the relevant document. For instance, while writing your educational details, you will have to upload scanned copy of the relevant transcript and degree.
  9. All of the scanned documents as mentioned above are very much important for your application. You will have to write their details in the relevant sections as well as upload the scanned copy of the document. For instance, applying for a UK university, you will be required to write details of your IELTS test as well as to upload a scanned copy of your IELTS report card.
  10. While moving from one section to another, save the details of the completed section before moving to the new section.
  11. While filling in online application, If you realize that you do not have some required information at the moment, you can save your whole application and resume it later whenever you want.
  12. When you complete your application and submit it, you will receive a confirmation email at your email address.   

   Dates and time considerations for application

Universities and colleges invite applications for admission on varying times in a year. Most of the foreign universities offer admissions twice a year. For each university, there is a specific time to start taught programs of Bachelors and Masters. For instance, some universities in the UK start student intake in September for taught programs in Bachelor and Master. The application period starts 2 or 3 months before the commencement of classes. The applications for taught programs of Bachelor and Master are processed in a month or two to decide them. Hence, students should apply at least two months before the commencement of the program so that their applications are processed in time. If a student applies very late for a program and his application is not processed before the commencement of a program, he will be transferred to next session. The applications for bachelor or masters usually do not take too long to process. Most of these applications are processed even in one month.

Though research programs are also started according to specific schedules of the university but the schedule of the research program is a bit flexible. You can apply anytime in the year but an application for research program (e.g. MPhil or Phd) requires at least three months to process completely and to reach a decision.