While an undergraduate student at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, Egyptian national Catherine Masoud spent a semester at Virginia Tech. She says the experience, organized through the nonprofit International Student Exchange Programs, helped her decide to go to graduate school in the U.S. She’s now a doctoral student in chemical engineering at the University of Texas–Austin.
Prospective international students not yet ready to pursue graduate studies in the U.S. can take baby steps toward that goal.
“Study abroad, exchange and summer school provide the ideal environment for international students to test the realities of living and studying abroad while developing their readiness for a graduate studies application,” says Benjamin Mack, associate vice president of international recruiting and marketing for IES Abroad, a nonprofit study abroad organization.
Here’s what prospective international students should know about these three options to test out U.S. graduate schools. In addition to researching these options, experts says students should check with their universities or study abroad organization for visa requirements.
[See tips for international students applying to popular U.S. grad programs.]
1. Exchange programs: Prospective international students can experience a different style of education through exchange programs that allow students from one university to study abroad at a partner institution.
For instance, the University of Central Florida has Reciprocal Student Exchange programs, in which the school hosts students from partner institutions in exchange for them hosting UCF students for one or two semesters.
Kevin S. Konecny, director of UCF Abroad, a department of the university’s Division of Teaching and Learning, says UCF had 160 in-bound exchange students during the 2017-2018 academic year. He says the university has 50 RSE agreements with international partner universities abroad.
“The benefit to the international students is that they are meeting American faculty, fellow students and staff at the university in addition to citizens in the local community. All of this is of benefit to the students as they engage a different cultural context,” Konecny says.
Masoud, who went to Virginia Tech as a chemical engineering undergrad, says she took two chemical engineering classes and courses in philosophy, sociology and economics while at the school. She says she was impressed by the academic culture at the university and was always surrounded by students eager to learn and who shared a curiosity about concepts beyond the basic course material.
“The professors would also relate course topics to current research trends or pose open-ended questions, which easily inspires curiosity in any science-loving student,” Masoud says. Plus, meeting and befriending grad students who easily balanced school work with their active social lives made her want to consider grad school in the U.S. even more, she says.
[Learn about four challenges international grad students may face.]
2. Summer sessions: These programs usually occur between May and August and can include field trips, internships and other opportunities for hands-on learning.
California State University–Los Angeles, for example, offers five-week or 10-week summer sessions through its Study in LA program for international students.
“Students are able to experience the American style of higher education — this can be quite different than the style used in the country of origin. The American style of higher education requires the student to actively engage in the learning process,” says Becky Bishop, international program developer at Cal State–Los Angeles’ College of Professional and Global Education.
During her junior year at the National Institute of Technology in Tiruchirappalli, India, Soundarya Balasubramani, an Indian national, spent 10 summer weeks in an internship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
“I was working on a new software called General Algebraic Modeling System. It was the first time I wrote code in mixed integer linear programming,” says Balasubramani, who participated in the program through a scholarship from the nonprofit Indo-US Science and Technology Forum.
She says while the summer program confirmed her interest in graduate studies in the U.S., her experience working alongside Ph.D. scholars made her reconsider pursuing doctoral studies in chemical engineering.
“After seeing the day-to-day life of a Ph.D. candidate, I was sure that I had to switch my stream and go into something at the intersection of technology and management,” says Balasubramani, who is now pursuing an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering at Columbia University.
[Find out about on-campus jobs for international grad students.]
3. Study abroad: Beyond exchange programs, prospective international students also have the option of studying abroad at another university, which offers an opportunity to experience a side of their major not seen at home.
“Being at another university exposes the international student to the different perspectives American faculty will have as they approach the various topics international students will study while in the USA,” Konecny says.
Mack of IES Abroad says one of the most frequently cited benefits for study abroad students aspiring to graduate studies “is the opportunity for students to develop personal relationships with professors and academics in their field of study.” He says students often seek to develop mentor relationships to guide them in their academic and career pursuits.
Mack says a study abroad program also benefits students outside the classroom.
“Students receive a sampling of culture that can reduce the surprises of first time arrival at a graduate level. These range from factors of time and place, to city, climate and culture,” Mack says.
At Virginia Tech, Masoud says she was fortunate to live in graduate dormitories with master’s and doctoral students. She says her social life with grad students gave her insight into how her life as a graduate student in the U.S. might be.
“They were all hardworking people but they also knew how to have fun,” Masoud says. “And, I thought to myself that if they could do it, I could definitely give it a shot as well.”
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3 Ways International Students Can Sample U.S. Graduate Schools originally appeared on usnews.com
