Study aboard, particularly in the United States of America (USA) is easy. It only needs five stages and tough willingness to pursue study overseas.
In a workshop on ‘How to Write a Personal Statement’ organized by American Corner (Amcor) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) on Friday (27/10) at Building of K.H. Ibrahim E7 floor 5, Muhammad Iqbal from Education USA explain five steps to study aboard.
The five stages are selecting a university and program, preparing fund or applying for scholarship, complying with university requirements, applying for visa, and preparing for departure. “Many universities provide online application to ease applicants,” told Iqbal.
To study in the USA, applicants should look for information of universities where they will apply. “There are more than 4,500 universities in the USA. You can make a list based on three categories, namely ‘reach schools’ referring to excellent universities, ‘realistic schools’ referring to good universities, and ‘safety schools’ referring to average universities,” explained Iqbal.
He inserted that another essential aspect to study overseas is dealing with literacy in terms of reading and writing. Indeed, universities in the USA seek to excellent people. “The higher their literacy awareness, the greater they are accepted at universities in the USA,” maintained Iqbal.
Indeed, the literacy awareness will assist applicants when writing a personal statement, statement of purpose, and motivation letter. “The personal statement tells who you are, statement of purpose explains your objectives of studying at the university, and motivation letter usually shows both who you are and your purposes of your study,” presented Iqbal.
In the workshop, the participants was invited to write a personal statement and statement of purpose and their writings were immediately assessed by Iqbal. “Make your personal statement and statement of purpose as interesting as possible. Make them differently but do not be over, particularly the first paragraph, so that the reader will be interested in reading all your writing,” suggested Iqbal.
