Speaker 1: Hello guys, welcome to another video Interestingly about 65% of individuals who plan to study abroad actually wonder where to start from I get it going through the application process could be stressful Intimidating and confusing especially with a lot of information out there. I got you covered I've been there from the application process till you get admission. Now in this video I present to you four easy steps that you have to follow if you are starting afresh studies if you want to if you intend to study abroad and you don't you wonder where you have to start from or you don't know actually where to begin. As usual, this is the Fred effect. New to this channel, my name is Frederick. I'm currently pursuing my master's degree in public administration at the University of Kentucky. I had my first master's from Ohio University in Ohio. If you are interested in education abroad, scholarship opportunities, visa interview tips and generally life abroad, then start by joining this channel, click on the subscribe button, hit on the notification bell so that anytime I upload a new video you'll be the first to be notified. I will also be glad if you tell someone about the thread effect. Now if you don't know how to go about something it may seem complicated to you but I believe an overview of the entire process would be very helpful especially if I break it down into four steps. If you are ready I'm ready let's get into it. So the first process if you intend to study abroad is to prepare your documents. To study abroad you should have some document to your earlier academic qualifications. These documents may differ depending on which level you intend to study, either being bachelor's, master's or PhD. If you intend to study at a bachelor's degree level, it means that at least you should have a high school qualification. Now if you're ready, let's go through the major documents you need if you intend to apply to the undergraduate level. So the first thing you need is your high school transcript. If you have a diploma, that is absolutely fine. You also need a personal statement, your test scores, that is if you have SAT or ACT. This is not a compulsory requirement, which means that ACT or SAT may not be required. Some schools will also require you to have an English proficiency, that is if you are applying from a non-English speaking country, so either ETOFEL or IELTS is absolutely fine. Also, it is good that you have an international passport to prove that you are an international student. While some universities will require that you upload a proof of identity, that is maybe a copy of your passport or any national identification document to prove that you are an international student, some universities would only ask for that when you gain admission. Sometimes you'll be required to provide a financial document. Now this is not compulsory for all universities, so it highly depends on the university you are applying to. So basically these are the requirements for undergraduate application. For a master's degree or a PhD, that is the postgraduate level, you will be required to upload one, your transcript, of course the statement of purpose, recommendation letters. Some universities will require either two or three depending on which university you are applying to. A passport is mostly a requirement. Now you will also have to upload a certificate to prove that you have an undergraduate qualification. English proficiency could be a TOEFL or IELTS. Sometimes if you are from an English-speaking country, then you'll be asked to upload a one page document indicating that you did all your undergrad in English and so you can speak and write English proficiently. Also you need to upload a resume or in some countries they call it a CV or curriculum vitae. If your program requires that you write a GMAT or GRE then you would also have to upload that. Not all universities or programs require this and sometimes you would have to upload a financial document when you're applying. Some universities will also take that after you've gained admission. It highly depends on which university or program you intend to apply to. So generally, these are the requirements or the documents you will need if you want to begin an application. It is important to note that these documents are not absolute. What it means is that it may differ from program to program or specifically institution to institution. So the University A may require some documents that University B will not require even though you are applying to the same program or from the same country. Kindly let me know in the comment section which document you were required when you were applying to your university or program. Once these documents are ready, the next thing to do is to scan them into a PDF format and not a picture format. Kindly take note. Now to make it very vivid, I would highly recommend that you use an actual scanner and not a phone. Some phones like the iPhones could do a very good job, however using a scanner is the best. Recommendation letters. Most universities doing the application process or in the application portal will require that you put in the email addresses of your recommenders. They would intend to send an email to them and they will submit their recommendation letters online. However, if you have a scanned copy or a PDF format of your recommendation letters, most universities will also require that you can upload your recommendation. I would highly recommend that you join the Fred family. If you like the video, please click on the subscribe button, hit on the notification bell so that anytime I upload a video, you'll be the first to be notified. While some colleges and universities will require that you upload your transcript during the application process most of them would require that you know you input in the university you attended earlier that is if you're applying to the master's degree level or the phd level so that your previous institution would directly send your transcript to the university you intend to apply to now so some application portals will require what we call transcript evaluation by a third party now this transcript evaluation may cost you so take note your personal statement or your Statement of Purpose is very crucial, so you have to make sure that you pay attention to that. Go according to the requirement of the program you intend to apply to. Some universities will just require a page of Statement of Purpose, others will require three or four pages. Kindly read the requirement on the university's website to know how you are supposed to write your Statement of Purpose or SOP. Now even if you're a professor and you write an essay, you would want somebody to proofread for you. It is better that you get a third party to go through your statement of purpose before you submit it into the application portal. These days you can use websites like SOP to better your statement of purpose or statement of intent. Sometimes if you're lucky you could have a lot of samples from the internet to go through before you write one for yourself. I will highly recommend that you do not plagiarize any of these statement of papers. This should be written to suit your program and personal intent. Naming your document is very important, right? A document on your, on your, on the desktop of your laptop, without opening the document, I should have an idea what document it is. So you should properly name your document. There are several proper ways of naming documents but I will highly suggest that you go by your first name followed by your second name underscore the document in question so for example if your name is the Fred effect which means that your first name is there your middle name is the Fred and then your last name is effect then you have to write it this way the Fred effect underscore maybe transcript right so that is the one of the best ways of naming your document if you have suggestions on how to properly name a document kindly share that with with me in in the YouTube comment section. The next step after you've gotten your document is the program search or university search. Now on this channel, I have already shared 14 different websites where you could start from by searching for scholarships. If you've not checked that video out, kindly check it out on the channel. I'll share the link in the YouTube video description. Please check it out after you watch this one. Apart from that, there are websites that list all the universities in any country around the world. Now the quick and easiest way to start from is Google. So you can Google the university you want to go to and the program you intend to apply to and that is a quick and easier way to start. I'll be sharing some of the websites that list most of the universities around the world in their specific countries in the YouTube video description. You can simply search which university in what country offers the specific program you are interested in. It is important to note that not all programs are offered in every university. This website here gives a comprehensive list of about 1,765 U.S. higher educational institutions and their respective programs that they offer. I'll share that link in the YouTube video description. Before we move on to the third step, let me give you a brief information about the U.S. educational system. This may be a good guide for you. So if you're applying to any university in the US or Canada, remember that they are public funded universities, they are private universities, and there is also a private non-profit. It is very advisable, especially if you are aiming at higher scholarship, to aim at the public funded universities. Remember there are also community colleges, there are colleges, and then there are universities. The colleges are more or less like a smaller version of the research-based universities, community colleges usually offer two-year programs. Let's move on to step three. Now talking about three, it will actually take you three steps to be part of the Fred family. By clicking on the subscribe button one, clicking on the notification bell two, and giving this video a thumbs up three. Done that? Thank you. The third step is to communicate. Now it is highly recommended that you do not submit an application to any university without communicating to a faculty member or the director of the program in the university you intend to apply to. Some people might have been lucky to skip this step and yet gain admission and scholarship. However, it is not the best way. Your conviction to apply or not may highly depend on the response you have from the faculty member or the director of the program you intend to apply to. More often than not, funding or scholarship opportunities in Canada and mostly the colleges and universities in US are given by the department you intend to apply to. So having a prior communication with the director of the program is the best way to go. The best way to reach or communicate with the director of the program is through an email. Now most of these emails are found on the department website in the specific university you want to apply to. This is a sample of an email that you can rephrase to suit your preference. Before you send an email to the director of the program, it is important to read on the department website so that you wouldn't ask questions that have already been answered on the website. Now I have a lot of colleagues who even though on the website of the university the deadline for application was over they still emailed or communicated with the director of the program and he gave them the go-ahead to apply who still had admission and funding. So you see communication is very important. Now don't forget that you have to have a very catchy subject to the email. So an example is admission enquiries. That's a great one to use. Now remember that your decision to apply to a specific program may highly depend on the response you have from the director. So some directors could tell you that okay go ahead and apply we can give you admission but there's no scholarship available at the department. Also some people will let you know that okay we can offer you 70% or 50% scholarship so if you think that you can take care of the rest it means that you can go ahead and apply. However if you are looking forward to a full scholarship then you might want to have a response like okay we can give you admission and there's also scholarship of competitive scholarship opportunities available with stipends and all that then that is a higher chance than you stand a higher chance of getting admission with full funding if you should apply to such programs. Remember to always attach a copy of your transcript, if you can, your CV to the email you are sending to the director. Very important. Shoutouts to my brother Kingsford Onyina. He has already shared a video on how to contact professors. I will share that in the YouTube video description. Talking about communication, it is also important to know that you can communicate to me via the comment section, also on other social media platforms, it's just a thread effect. Let's get interactive. The final step, that is step four, is to apply for the scholarship or admission. Applications are mostly submitted online. That is, you go online, you create a profile in the application portal, and you begin to fill in the information required of you. So mostly, it starts with your profile, your name, which country you're coming from, date of birth and all that. Other applications may also require that you print out the application form and then you hand write it, scan it and submit it via email or traditional mailing. A lot of universities around the world have only one admission cycle that is the full admission. However, there are a couple of universities out there that has a rolling admission at any point in time you can apply. You would also have to take note that either a spring admission or summer admission may be required. You may have to check with a specific university or department you intend to apply to, to know the admission cycle before you apply. Admission fees are required, but if you've not, kindly check on this video that I made on how to get an application fee waiver to any university. I'll share the link in the YouTube video description. So if you're able to get a fee waiver, it means that you could apply to the university for free. After submitting your application, you have to constantly be checking your email for admission decisions. If it takes longer than required, you may email the admissions office or the department in which you applied to for your admission decision. Based on experience, most universities in Canada and US comes with a funding decision. Now, if it doesn't happen like that, there may be an opportunity for you to separately apply for the funding as well. I'll be very happy to hear from you. If you're a current international student in any country, share with me in the comments section how you went by application process. I hope that these four steps could get you into your dream university or program. As always, thank you for staying around. This has been the Fred Effect.