Applying to Graduate School from Abroad

[jmb728]

Just to give you some background, I am a 2009 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (BA in Political Science & History). For the majority of my undergraduate career, I didn't think of graduate school as something I would do in the near future. That changed a few months ago, when I suddenly signed up for a GRE course and decided that I wanted to make preparation for graduate school a goal for this summer.

What complicates my situation is the fact that I will be teaching English in Hungary from September 2009-June 2010. I am extremely exciting about this upcoming experience and have been looking forward to it for months. Still, I would like to enter graduate school in the fall of 2010, meaning that I will have to apply when I am abroad. I have some concerns about being able to get through the application process from abroad, in addition to concerns about the opportunity costs of my applying in terms of missed travel opportunities, experiences, etc.

Does anyone have any experience with this or thoughts on my situation? Much appreciated.

[MaximKat]

Thinking of thousands of international applicants that go through this every year, I guess it is doable

[frankdux]

2 years ago i applied from abroad.

before i left i made sure to ask my LOR writers in person if they could write letters for me. then, i just emailed them the forms and addresses while i was abroad when it was time to apply.

i also had to fax a lot of stuff. signatures to schools for releasing transcripts and some other stuff. it was fine.

however, one school offered a phone interview to me instead of inviting me to their open house. (i guess they offered a travel stipend for invitees, but not for me, either because it would have been too expensive or they assumed it would have been too difficult for me.) it was my dream school and i ended up not doing very well with the phone interview and was consequently waitlisted and eventually rejected. that was painful. (thankfully i got a fully funded offer to a great school this year, and even if it's not my dream school i'm still really excited.)

applying from overseas is definitely possible. but i'd put aside some money to fly back home for interviews if the opportunity presents itself.

[purplepepper]

I did everything abroad in a non-English speak country, and got into my top choice. I didn't have any interviews though, but I did contact profs through email ahead of time to introduce myself. Never visited campuses ahead of time either. The only real difference is, is that there is less help to put your application together than if you were still a student. The GRE is less convenient cause there will probably be only a handful of cities where you can take it, so if you want to take it twice, you have to factor in travel expenses.

Also sent lots of faxes, and postal fees were higher (I sent everything with tracking numbers).

There was no library I could work at to polish my writing sample, but just in time Google Books saved my life..definitely make use of that.

And for the SOP, email works wonders. Just send it to your profs/friends/etc.

As for LORs, I made a point of calling profs during their office hours (sometimes at 4am..ick) and following up wiht emails. Had only one major problem with someone who pulled an MIA, but found another prof to write instead.

Lots of people do it with great success. It shouldn't even be the first concern from where you are applying!

[fuzzylogician]

Be sure to get as much organized in advance as possible, and you should be just fine.

# Ask for LoRs early and make sure your writers respond to emails(!). If you can, give your writers an info package with everything they need to have in order to write your letter before you leave. If not, at least meet up with them to make sure they remember who you are and are committed to writing your letter.

# Order transcripts in advance - right now, if you can.

# Consider doing campus tours and perhaps meeting potential advisers before you leave. It'd be cheaper and will give you an idea of which places you like better.

# Look up the next available GRE dates in cities near where you'll live in Hungary. Get an estimate of how long you'd have to wait for a date.

# Be prepared to spend

It's inconvenient applying from abroad, but it won't be what keeps you out of grad school. Go to Hungary and have fun.

Good luck!

[belowthree]

Just get your applications mostly done before you leave in September. Pretend as if that was the deadline. You have the time and then you won't have to worry about it during the rush anyways. Faculty members are probably going to be more available and have less letters to write... and that way you won't have to stress about it when you're trying to figure out a new country.

[BrandNewName]

i'm an american, graduated from BC in 2007, and have been living and studying in germany since then.

i feel the pain of applying from abroad - an additional problem being the different semesters here. applications are due about 6 weeks into my third semester (semesters here begin in october and april)...it's not a huge deal, but on top of completing my applications, it means that i have to bump up writing my thesis if i want to use a chapter from it as my writing sample and if want to be able to accurately describe it in my applications. it's a worry because i know how things transform as you work on them and it'd be terrible to present my MA thesis as one thing in all of my applications and in the end have it turn out as something completely different

also, grade translation issues...don't even get me started. so many universities do a one-to-one conversion (1,0 = A, 2,0 = . but, quite frankly, it's much easier to get an A in the states than it is to get a 1,0/1,3/1,7 in germany. i had a professor tell me this past semester that if she gives a 1,0 or 1,3 it means that you are on the same level as her (this coming from a world famous narratologist). you have to be really careful and make sure that the conversions being used reflect the actual nature of the grade...having looked into it, i think opting for the more expensive international transcript evaluation services is sometimes better than trusting your university's foreign office to do it for you.

[purplepepper]

you have to be really careful and make sure that the conversions being used reflect the actual nature of the grade...having looked into it, i think opting for the more expensive international transcript evaluation services is sometimes better than trusting your university's foreign office to do it for you.

While I agree about the whole grade conversion (i.e. "grades" are relative to the university and even to the prof. especially those from foreign institutions) I think more credit is due to American universities' capabilities of translating/converting foreign GPAs. I really don't believe that an international transcript evaluation is necessary, as there didn't seem to be a problem with my foreign GPA. I too, was in a situation where my university graded a bit differently/more strictly from the rest of the country.

Plus there is really no way of knowing how each university converts foreign GPAs, which I'm sure is institution specific anyway, so a transcript evaluation might not even be looked at. I do get the impression though, that admissions offices are quite versed in not only different American institutions' grading scales, but also the grading scales of individual institutions abroad.

[rising_star]

it's not a huge deal, but on top of completing my applications, it means that i have to bump up writing my thesis if i want to use a chapter from it as my writing sample and if want to be able to accurately describe it in my applications. it's a worry because i know how things transform as you work on them and it'd be terrible to present my MA thesis as one thing in all of my applications and in the end have it turn out as something completely different

Why would this be so terrible? It shows that your research evolves, which is what people expect. FWIW, I applied in the third semester of my master's to PhD programs and gave a brief description of my MA thesis. When I was visiting schools that accepted me in Feb and March, I ended up telling them something a bit different than what was in my SOP because I'd actually written the whole thing by that point. No one said "Oh my god" and tried to rescind their offer. People asked if I planned on publishing my findings because they're interesting and contribute to a gap in the scholarship but I haven't and may never actually publish part of it (there are extenuating circumstances).

Moral: Don't stress about churning out a perfect thesis chapter or thesis description.

[portugabel]

I am an international student from Western Europe and applied obviously from abroad, while working as a consultant (a lot you can imagine) and still managed to get into a PhD... I managed to send my applications well on time and surprise, most applications are done online which can be done from the US, Europe or even from a small island with internet. Another thing, I come from a system with no gpa or such and different grading system where the highest score is only perfection and can be achieved by professors... but again surprise, they convert it and are used to do it....

morale: do not worry, there is no difference in applying from abroad or from the US, apart for the interviews but there again you can take a few weeks and visit the universities as the interviews happen more or less at the same period...

nevertheless, good luck for your application process !