Sarah Stearns, Academic Adviser, EducationUSA Program
By Marc Amat
Studying an undergraduate degree in the United States, doing a postgraduate or master’s degree, enrolling in English courses or pursuing a doctorate. More and more Catalan students see going to study in the United States as a great opportunity to enrich their academic CV and live a unique life experience. It’s possible to make it happen, but it’s necessary to plan ahead and understand all the requirements.
To make this easier, for the past few years, students from Catalan schools who aspire to further expand their academic pursuits in the United States have available the support of the EducationUSA program. This is a service organized by the U.S. State Department that offers free academic counseling: they provide detailed, updated and comprehensive information on the U.S. university system and personalized guidance so that international students can have the opportunity to undertake U.S. studies.
Currently, EducationUSA has more than 425 advising centers in more than 175 countries around the world. In Barcelona, as of this past year, the service is provided through the Institut d’Estudis Nord-americans. This month, to learn more about the service and various aspects affecting student mobility between Catalonia and the United States, we spoke with Sarah Stearns, academic adviser for the EducationUSA program in Barcelona.
The United States is welcoming more and more Catalan students. Why?
Yes, in fact, Spain is one of the main countries of origin for international students coming to U.S. universities where these students encounter a world-renowned university system, with many resources and accomplished professors. However, among the main reasons for deciding to study in the U.S. are improving English language skills, meeting people from around the world, and experiencing the famous university life of the American residential campuses. Another benefit is that the U.S. university system offers great flexibility to students: programs are flexible and it is often not necessary to choose a specific major until the second or third year of studies.
Is it easy to study in the United States?
It’s not as complicated as it seems, but you have to have a good grasp on the steps you need to follow. The U.S. university system is organized quite differently from the Catalan one, and this means that students here often have many doubts. In order to address these concerns and accompany students throughout the process, the State Department promotes academic advising centers such as the one in Barcelona, where we provide free guidance to those who want to study higher education in the U.S.
What is the profile of a typical student who you serve?
We get secondary school students who have already decided that they want to study a university degree in the United States and need support in the process, but we also serve people who have not yet made up their minds and want to know more about what this experience could offer them. We also advise people who want to do postgraduate, masters or doctoral programs, for example.
What do you have to take into account to study a degree in the United States?
First of all, we always say that it’s very important to start early, because it’s a process that can take a long time. Ideally students come to us by the second semester of the first year of their baccalaureate studies (the last two years of secondary school in Spain, or 11th grade in the U.S. system). This way, we can help the student right from the beginning. That way we get to know them and their interests and help them to identify universities that are a good fit. This is the first step in a process that, for simplicity’s sake, we summarize in five phases: identifying universities that fit the student’s profile, funding your education, the application, the student visa and providing practical information that will help the student adapt to daily life in the United States.
Let’s get down to it. Let’s start with the university search. What strategy do you advise students to follow?
Many times, people who visit us already have the most well-known universities on their lists, such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT… These universities are an option, but we must bear in mind that they usually accept a very small number of applicants: less than 20% of the applications they receive. We remind students that, in the United States, there is a wide variety of higher education on offer, with more than 4,000 universities. If the student’s objective is to study in the United States, we recommend that they diversify their list by including two or three universities that are more accessible, but that still meet their interests. We also ask students to choose two or three universities that accept more than 75% of the applications or where the student’s profile is stronger than the typical admitted student. This ensures that you have more options to end up studying in the United States.
Once you have chosen the universities, you need to address the issue of funding.
Exactly. To begin with, it’s important to emphasize that the price of the degrees that appears on the websites of the universities does not necessarily coincide with what you will have to pay later, which may be lower. In the United States, there are no external scholarships that make it easier for international students to do a degree. In the case of master’s, postgraduate and doctoral programs, there are some grants sponsored by private foundations and the Fulbright program, funded by the Spanish and U.S. governments. When it comes to undergraduate studies, scholarships come from the universities themselves. Each center has a budget for scholarships for foreign students. To begin to think about funding, we ask families to calculate what kind of investment they can take on and also to look at how much money each university grants on average, data that is usually public. Some give no scholarships, others give few, and others give many. Each university is different. The amount of money that universities can give international students can vary according to their income, but also according to the profile of the student and the interest that the center has in having him or her join its student body. If students do a lot of research, studying in the United States can be more affordable than it may seem at first.
Then it’s time to do the official application. What documentation do we need to have ready?
This is the longest part of the process. You have to take the official exams, the SAT or the ACT, which are common across all the universities that require them. In Spain there are few dates and test centers for this, so it’s important to reserve your spot in advance. It’s not an eliminatory test, but a good score can add to the student’s profile. You’ll also need to pass an English language test, submit a secondary school transcript, a personal essay, several letters of recommendation from your teachers, a list of extracurricular activities and interests, and some universities will ask for additional documents, such as a portfolio in the case of art majors. We accompany the student throughout the process and work to ensure that he or she has a strong application. For American universities there is no cut-off mark: the student’s profile and the school’s interest in attracting him or her can be decisive factors.
The process doesn’t end when the university accepts the student.
That is correct. Then it’s time to apply for the student visa. To do this, you need to present the documentation provided by the university to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid and go there for an interview. Once the student has gotten their visa, we begin the fifth phase: we give students useful information for when they land in the United States: how to open a bank account, how to get to the university by public transportation, how to obtain health insurance… When they settle in at the university, we keep in touch with them in case they need anything, but there are services at the university that can solve many issues.
What do you think is the benefit of having studied in the United States?
Receiving an international education has many benefits. You will improve your language skills, you’ll have a unique life experience and it will open a lot of professional doors for you, with the possibility of doing internships, being part of research groups, taking on projects…. Every year we’re sending a lot of students to study in the United States and they’re doing very well. We’re very pleased.
