For Nepali Students Applying to the States!

The author studies in a reputed undergraduate school in the US. 

Along with political turmoil comes an unprecedented rise in emigration. People want to go to safe places where their present, and future will remain secure. The recent rise in the number of Nepali students going to the US is, to some extent, reflective of the problems in Nepal. However, there is more to why students choose US. It has some of the best universities in the world, world-class faculty (in many colleges), a teaching style that students in a country like Nepal want to experience first hand, and then a culture of freedom that many wish to explore. Though not a major factor for many, but the liberal arts education is also an attracting feature of most American colleges and universities.

If you believe in numbers, here are some numbers for you that speak of the numbers of Nepali students going abroad for their studies!

Data originally published by Yogesh Katiwada for Kantipur Koseli in Nepali (on 6th September) and translated by The Nepali Times

In the last couple of years the number of Nepali students studying abroad has increased rapidly. While studying in Canada is difficult for Nepali students, the number of students going to the US and Australia is increasing yearly. According to the Institute for International Education in New York, the number of Nepali students studying in the US increased by 27.9 per cent between 2006 and 2007, bringing the total number of enrolled Nepalis i n the US to 7,754. Nepal now ranks 13th by number of students studying in the US, compared to 23rd in 2004.

The number of students going to the UK has decreased from 704 in 2000 to 292 in 2005. But according to Australia Education International, 2,884 Nepali students went to Australia in 2007 alone. Nepal now ranks 11th among countries sending students to Australia. An estimated 200 students apply for visas every day at the US embassy. With the visa fee of Rs 9,000, the embassy earns more than Rs 50 million just from visa fees every month.

From 1997-2000, Nepalis spent an estimated Rs 54 billion studying abroad. Between 1990 and 2005, the number of students going abroad doubled, which means Nepali students are spending more that Rs 30 billion annually to study in countries other than India.

Many have America as their dream country. In Nepal, among the majority of prospective students, few are sure of which college they want to go to. Most go to consultancies in the hope that the right college for them will be fed to them. That seems to have been working for some, but for most, that’s simply not the case. There are a lot of colleges, that you can apply to yourself, without the need of a consultancy, if you correspond to the college, and then search for some tips online. I don’t want to blame consultancies; in fact, they’ve been doing a really awesome work by sending students, who would not themselves know how to search for college, and bring everything together. Some are just lazy. A further point is that though they can’t guarantee a good college, they can guarantee a college.

However, there are also students who apply on their own and get into the best universities and colleges in the USA. Budhanilkantha School, which was established by the British, was the school that started sending students in Britain, and then USA. It was a significant move in that almost all of the graduates, who completed A-Levels from the school, would go abroad with good scholarships. St. Xavier’s School, through it was +2, also had a good reputation for sending students abroad. Then came Rato Bangla that has sent quite a many students to the best universities in the USA. St. Xavier's College at Maitighar has also been sending some students to top-notch universities. There’s also Lincoln School - which sends students to the Ivys - but it’s not usually counted because most students, I suppose, who study there are not Nepalis. Only a handful of Nepalese, I guess, from what I’ve heard.

So, now after reading this brief introduction about the current Nepali scenario, if you want to find more about US Universities application process, you gotta continue reading! The information here usually concerns with undergrads, but might also be helpful for applicants to graduate schools.

The hardest question one has to face is - What School do I apply to? There are limitations on the number of colleges you can apply to - sometimes the limititations are school-made, sometimes it’s because of the time, and resources one can chip in. Bottom line - You’ve got to be selective in choosing the schools you want to apply. Also, there isn’t any real increase in your chances of getting in at a lot of colleges if you just apply to more similar colleges. Again, the solution - you’ve got to be selective.

There are these concepts of Reach Schools (Again classified into High Reach, Reach and Low Reach), Match Schools and then Safety Schools(again divided like the reach schools). Let’s take all of them one on one.

Reach Schools - These are the colleges/universities in which you don’t have a high chance of getting admitted. You look at the average SAT scores, they’re higher than what you’ve got. Then the average GPA of incoming freshmen - it’s higher than yours. You know, by then, your chances of getting in doesn’t look that bright. But, you love that college. Also, people with stats lower than your’s have been admitted there. So, what do you do? Would you take a chance and apply, or become afraid and leave? I would suggest you to be fearless (like the brave Gurkhas) and then apply to a few reach schools. Two-three-Four. You decide. But, if you only apply to reach schools, you’ll be damned. Your probability of getting in even at only one place would be extremely low.

Match Schools - These are the colleges/universities in which you have a better chance of getting into. It seems that you and the college have so many things similar to each other. You fit in almost every stat the college publishes. You know that you have a better chance of getting into this type of college. You need to apply to a maximum number of colleges of this type. Five-Ten. You decide. Also, be sure to choose one best-fit school. A best fit college for you and you seem to have been made for each other. It’s the most likely college that might admit you. You’re also most likely to go there (except in cases when you get into your reach schools). However, just applying to reach and match schools would not be sufficient. What if you don’t get into both your reaches and matches. There’s another thing that you need to know.

Safety Schools - These are the colleges/universities that have lower average stats than yours. You are almost sure to get admitted into this school, if you just apply. They are usually the ones at the bottom of the rankings for most people, but if you’re real good, then a reach for someone might be a safety for you. Everything is relative. Safety schools are also tricky. Some of them have a record of not admitting students, who they think have a higher chance of getting into a better university, and who they know is just applying to their college as a safety. SO, you need to be on your toes. Two-Five. You decide how many safety schools to apply. JUST be sure to apply to some of them. Do not leave a chance to regret later.

Resources for Students Applying to the US

1). The first of these kinds of sites is USNEWS. This site ranks almost everything there is in the United States, and the rankings of colleges and universities is one of its chief business. It ranks universities and colleges differently. There's a slight difference between universities and colleges there - Universites are those that are large, and have Phd programs and lots of resource facilities in almost every field, whereas colleges, referred to here for liberal arts colleges, usually provide only undergraduate degree, have a small class size, and you get lots of personal attention.

US News Best College Rankings 2009
US News Best University Rankings 2009

There are also a lot of other rankings for colleges, if you can't find the right kind of college for you in the above two lists.

Though USNews rankings give you a general idea, it's not a good idea to get obsessed with the rankings. The rankings are flawed to a certain extent for they assume that all students can be fit into one category for the kind of college they want to join, and also incorporates a lot of things such as alumni giving, peer reviewing and others, which is not what we Nepalese students are looking for. So, a number of colleges have refrained from taking part in the rankings because of which USNews has had to face cases of haphazard filling up of the data of the schools that didn't submit their official data.

2). Princeton Review is also a good way to go out for the colleges you're looking for. By the way, this organization is not, in any way, related to Princeton University. The rankings of Princeton Review are based upon student surveys, and they rank colleges and universities together, and not in a-fit-for-all style like US News. They have ranking such as Best Academics, Best Professors, Party Colleges, and others.

3). College Board is the organization that administers exams such as the SAT, TOEFL (it's ETS, but they're the same), GMAT, and GRE. This site also has college lists, where you can search colleges and get quick facts about them.

4). College Confidential is a site that provides exclusive application and counseling services to those who pay for their services. However, they also have a forum, which is the most popular forum for students applying to colleges in the US. The site has tons of resources, postings from college administrators, and American students and international students, who ask and answer questions and help each other. There are also categories for colleges and universities, through which you can go to the page of the school you like and post questions, which will likely be answered by the current students of that college or other prospective students who've researched a lot. The Nepali thread for the Class of 2013 is also featured at the front page of International Students Page and the author believes that this demonstrates how much Nepali students want to go to the states.

5). College Prowler also grades colleges on a number of stuffs such as academics, parties, greek life, wiredness, etc.

6). USEF Nepal is also a good resource center. Located at Gyaneshowor, between Gyaneshwor Chowk and Kamal Pokhari Chowk, it houses prospectus of different colleges arranged according to the states they're located in, and also has books (such as the US News book of rankings) that would help you on your college search. 

There will be a few things you need to be extremely cautious with. DEADLINES. Try not to miss a single one of them. You might get away a few times if you use excuses like - international mail is not trustworthy, or my application package got lost, or my teachers forgot to post it. However, that won’t always work. There were a lot of people, who had similar excuses like that. By now, I think colleges know what’s the truth. But, they might not take it seriously unless they have to.

The usual dates that one should be familiar with are - November 1/15, January 1/15, and February 1/15. These dates are related to the way you will be applying to the college such as Early Application or Regular Application. You'll also need to write a lot of essays if you apply to colleges like this (top 100 in US News Rankings) so start writing from now! Besides there are also a lot of colleges that accept international students in the spring or at March, so consider that as well.