Applying to U.S. Universities

The U.S. university application process is broken down into 8 pieces

8 pieces

• 1. Application form
• 2. Academic documents (transcript)
• 3. Test scores (SATs)
• 4. Essay

8 pieces (cont'd)

• 5. Letter of recommendation
• 6. School forms
• 7. Activities list
• 8. Other (dependent on university criteria: could be interview, portfolio, audition)

There are 2 questions that universities are looking to answer about each applicant

2 questions

• 1. Will the student be academically successful?
• 2. Is the student a good fit for our university?

Evaluation process

• Highly selective schools (e.g. Stanford) are more focused on Q2 (best fit for the university)
• Less selective and larger schools have room for more students, so are more focused on Q1 (academic suitability)

'Holistic' process – takes into account personality, activities and academic record, along with test scores

Universities also consider 'institutional priorities' – e.g. choosing students that play a certain sport or instrument

Thanks for reading!

• Information taken from Applying to U.S. Universities, University of Pennsylvania, Coursera, 2015.
• Further reading: http://www.fulbright.org.uk/study-in-the-usa/undergraduate-study/applying