Choosing your profession isn’t easy, especially when you’re looking at a program internationally. It’s an investment, so you want to ensure you choose the right program for you. There are many factors to consider—from courses and institution to location and cost. You’re likely to spend hours on Google wondering what to do, where to go, and if your chosen school will be a good fit.
No one can really give you the right answer, but it’s possible to narrow down your options and reduce the overwhelming feeling you may experience throughout your search. Though it may not seem like it, this is a very exciting part of your student life! You’re about to embark on a completely new journey, and perhaps open the door to a career you’ll be in for a long time.
To help make your decision a little easier, we’ve put together preliminary steps, along with ApplyBoard’s step-by-step guide to using our platform!
Preliminary Steps
1. What interests you? What do you like to do? Why do you want to do this? What do you want to get out of your education? These are some questions to help jumpstart your thinking process. You need to have a clear idea of what your goals are. This will help you narrow down your search. If you’re truly unsure, the worst thing to do is rush into your post-secondary education. Be sure to properly evaluate your wants and needs.
2. Where do you want to pursue your international education? Surely there are certain countries you’d prefer to study in over others. Are you looking for an English speaking country? Would you like to practice your French language? Looking into school locations is an important part of your search, and again, will narrow your search.
3. How do you plan to pay for your education? Do you need to look into financial aids such as scholarships? What is your budget? Cost is an important factor in selecting your school and program of choice. There are hundreds of scholarships available to students. However, you must look for them and see which apply to you.
ApplyBoard’s Step-by-Step Guide
1. Check your eligibility
The first step will help determine what schools you are eligible to apply to. Here, you must choose your country of nationality, submit your most recent grades, provide your highest level of education, share your associated grading scheme and the education institution used, and finally, enter the grade average received at your highest level of education. The ApplyBoard Platform will automatically convert your grade average to the North American GPA equivalent.
In addition to submitting the above information, you’ll have to enter your completed English proficiency test score (TOEFL or IELTS). The final step to complete your eligibility is to pick the disciplines you’re most interested in.
2. Find your desired program
All the schools and programs you are eligible for will be displayed in this next step. Here is your chance to look through your options and see what meets your wants and needs. You’ll have access to the tuition cost, application fee, length of study, admission requirements and more!
3. Find your desired school
At this time you can review all schools presented to you in Step 2 in greater depth. Here is where you discover information about the school’s location, features, most popular disciplines, history and more.
4. Narrow down program and school results by applying filters
To narrow down your options even more, you can apply various filters, such as schools in “Canada”, “USA,” or other countries. You can even get as specific as displaying schools in specific provinces or states. Perhaps you have a certain price range for tuition; you’re able to adjust the price range to focus on programs and schools that fit within your budget.
5. When you’re ready, apply and review your applications
Once you’ve selected your desired school and program, go ahead and apply.
6. Complete your profile
Ensure all details in your ApplyBoard profile are filled including your general information, education history, emergency contact, test scores and background information.
7. Pay the application fees and submit your application
Pay your application fee through one of four methods: credit card, PayPal, bank transfer, or MoneyGram.
Note: Steps five to seven apply to you when you have chosen your dream school and are ready to apply.
Remember, the decision you make isn’t permanent. If it happens to be a bad fit, or you discover a program of better interest to you, you can change! You must always put yourself first, and select something you will enjoy.
Have more questions about applying to study abroad? Reach out to the ApplyBoard team. We’re here to help!
