Jason Smikle Managing Director at fNograph 312-835-9450 jason@fnograph.com

22 INSIGHTS How International Students Choose Universities in the States Quotes from video based interviews of international students studying in the US

So, I think that was a really important point in probably me almost choosing a smaller school, like Fletcher, over somewhere like Columbia where obviously ten thousand people apply and that’s just not the capability to make it as personal.But once I’ve been here, I have found the advices especially academic advices, it’s just a start and takes personal interest much more so than I thought. It would be the case.

All my research was based on online comments, on ratings, from different organizations, I don’t remember which ones.But basically ratings and comments and then like talking to people that have done the similar programs. I came with the fellowship by which 40 Spaniards are sent to the US every year, so it’s kind of easy to access these people and then ask them about feedback for the schools.

Columbia, there was none. It was very impersonal.The rest, as I said, I got a call from John Hopkins, Georgetown and Tufts by current students. Tufts was really good, I was really close to going there. It was not my first option in the beginning, but then it was amazing. It was really personal, the way they approach people, how they (inaudible) all around the world. I really tell that they really care about their students, whereas Columbia was being impersonal.

I remember receiving my letter of acceptance and then a few weeks after that I got a letter from the International Student Association… They used to recruit students to write letters as part of their “Come attend this college”. I guess it’s recruitment drive. I don’t think that had a big influence on my decision to go. No, I don’t think that made a difference at all. I don’t remember interacting much with administrators on the college site.”

Really, it was just you would write up a letter, say I’m interested, and then they would send you their application package and that was it. I do remember interacting more with my high school guidance counselor. Coz she was American, I wanted to come to an American school and so she provided us with guidance, “Apply for USAT at this time, you must do the TOEFL”, things like that but I feel like the decision was mostly just mine. Yeah, it was just me.

The application process? I think this would be a point for the Fletcher which is a smaller school, but it was very personal, the people would reply with not just “Dear student”, but “Dear Cliency, we are really interested in your application. This is what our school offers,

John Hopkins was also like that. It certainly carries weight when those advices can go above just generic “Dear student” or “Dear potential student, thanks for the application and all the best”.

In terms of selecting a college, most of my family is in Texas, so they all tried to encourage me to go to one of the universities there. I was not interested in going to a university near any of my family, so I found one of those big college guide books “Barron’s” or whatever they are called and I went through them and I didn’t find some that looked and sounded ok.

And then we had a guidance counselor at school and she told me where some of the others who have graduated ahead of me had gone and what schools gave the most funding.So when I looked at which school provide the funding and that they were not in Texas, I decided that’s where I’m going to apply.

I wrote off to them, they sent me their brochures and they all looked very like typical American college experiences, beautiful campuses…So I applied and I ended up going to the one that gave me the most money.

It was also the one that had the most international students compared to the others.Finances and just the make make up the school, the fact that it was not close to family were priorities… I applied to three; the College of Wooster in Ohio, Macalester College in Minnesota, Brunel College in Iowa, and I can’t remember the others. I probably applied to about five but those are the three that I remember.

So an advice I was given by an uncle before I started my college search was I was looking at large state universities and he told me you don’t want to go to a large university.I can’t remember his phrase but he said something like “You’ll just be a pebble in this gigantic pathway, you don’t want to be that anonymous”. So priority was a small college. I wasn’t sure what small would actually look like, but most of the colleges I applied to were about 2000.

I also wanted a college with a large body of international students and the one that would give me funding. So those were the three key qualities. I probably thought a bit about what courses they had. But then the system of education here is very different from what I was used to. So I don’t think whatever I researched would have been helpful anyway.

When I came here I thought I was going to be an Economics major. And almost all schools provided had an Economics program. So it’s not like my major drove what I selected.

The top three that I applied for? No, there were several.The other ones I looked close to was the John Hopkins school in DC. And also, that was a double degree. The first year would had been in Italy, they’re one of the campuses there. And then here, and then the other one called the Fletcher School in Boston which is one of the top universities, so they were the ones that stood out for me, and they’re not probably the top three-ranked schools but the programs for me sounded exactly what I was looking for in terms of flexibility and also yeah, still the name but necessarily the total focus on theory and academic brilliance.

I was not interested in the Ivy League schools. Usually, when you have Africans, this is sort of a general statement, moving to America to school here, people are familiar with the Harvard’s, the Yale’s, everybody wants their child to go there because it’s prestigious.

The University of Michigan because of sports, I’m interested in sports and just the level of education that I would get in that kind of institution.And of course the money made me come to the University of Michigan.

I didn’t talk to current students.I talked to alumni basically. All the people I talked to had graduated already. I had a couple of calls. John Hopkins called me, and Tufts called me to convince me to go there. I only talked to students I guess who were working for these universities, because they took the initiative. I wouldn’t have contacted them otherwise.

A couple of really close friends who went to Oxford and there’s one guy in particular who went through the whole process of deciding where to go and could have gone anyways...Basically, he gave me a lot of good tips on the pros and cons of American universities versus English and… We’re looking at it in terms of the whole experience, not just the curriculum… Yeah, so I did speak to some, but not a heap. You know, probably 3 or 4, all up… Yeah, a couple of emails, or through friends of friends, I didn’t find them all that helpful, I mean everyone seems decided they… Well, I believe that it is what you make it. Some people said “Oh, it’s disappointing, it’s a bit underwhelming”. But then it’s probably the same people who would say that about their jobs and whatever, so… Yeah, the people said they’re having a great time. I spoke to a few people like that. In the end, I probably didn’t need to speak to many as I did. I mean you just go with your gut instinct.

No, actually, I did not speak to any specific student.I think the only time that I had interaction with students of the school was when I went off-campus to do the orientation. So for me, it was more of reading the brochure, and actually, I didn’t live too far from the University of Michigan.

My father’s apartment was about ten minutes from the school, so even before I started going in there, I used to walk around the campus.It was a beautiful campus. It has lots of restaurants, has lots of character… So it was more like returning back home, if that makes sense. So I did not really talk to any students. I knew the reputation of the University of Michigan so it was based on that I would say versus speaking to anybody there.

I talked to one person who had graduated from that college and he recommended it more on very practical terms -- it’s nice, it’s safe, they give you money, you meet people, it’s a good education… Those sorts of very practical things.

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For more information about this project: Jason Smikle Managing Director, fNograph 312-835-9450 Jason@fnograph.com http://www.fnograph.com

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