Operation “Soaring Eagle” : An Introduction

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I’ve decided to start this new series of posts to help out other students, particularly international students (Indian students to be specific), gain admission into the top US colleges, with emphasis on engineering institutes.

I’m writing this post because now that I’m on the other side of the fence, I feel I should take a bit of time out to help others. Basically, since I got through Georgia Tech Early Admission, a lot of people have been contacting me for advice, and I feel that rather than spew out the entire story again and again, I can just direct them here.

Also, I intend this series to be an unofficial counselling series, for those who do not wish to, or do not have the means to, shell out an exorbitant amount of money to see an external admissions counsellor. This is so because not all schools have an admission counsellor in the true sense of the word. My school doesn’t, and all of the stuff in this series is completely my research, observations and inferences.

CLARIFICATION
Operation Soaring Eagle beards no relation with Russ Cargill (depicted below)

To begin with, I am going to assume that you have done absolutely no research at all regarding foreign applications. In short, you are a complete rookie with regards to the task at hand. Here are some things you need to be dead certain about before you can go ahead and begin the applications process.

In addition, I understand that beginning this series in November makes no sense, because unless you’ve met some of the prerequisites to be listed in further posts, you really can’t even apply now. However, this will be useful to those who have met these requirements and to those applying in subsequent years.

Let me introduce the topic with a simple question:

Should I apply for foreign admissions?

Before you embark on this long and arduous journey, you need to get yourself in the right frame of mind. Firstly why should you even bother to apply abroad? There’s a simple answer to this – the universities there are simply better. Better in what sense? The infrastructure, the quality of teaching, the opportunities that you will encounter – the list is endless. Point is, there are several reasons why you should apply abroad.

Then how come everybody doesn’t doesn’t apply?

It’s because not everyone is aware of all this. I’ve met loads of people, who I know have the calibre, talent and accomplishments to get them into a good foreign university, but they simply didn’t know about them. Either they were too engaged in the preparation for Indian engineering entrances, which is completely alright, or they simply didn’t bother to even try and find out.

Should I apply?

That’s a very subjective question. Basically, what you’ll need to do is step away from your life in the past 4 years and look at it from a vantage point. Then you need to ask yourself a couple of questions:

• Have I been performing consistently well in my academics since 9th grade?
• Have I participated in a variety of extra-curricular activities over the past 4 years?
• Am I able to communicate with others in English reasonably well?

If your answer was Yes to some (or all) of the above questions, then you stand a good chance of clearing the admission process for a good US university.

Then, you need to pose certain questions to yourself and your family:

• Is everyone OK with me going to another country to pursue my undergraduate studies?
• Do we have the money to make this happen?

Again, a Yes to the above questions means you might be all set to apply abroad.

Now, I am aware that the second question is usually the biggest stumbling block for several households. I’ll be honest, the amount you’ll have to shell out can range from a few lakhs to upward of 80 lakhs. It all depends on which colleges your applying to, what sort of financial aid and scholarships you receive and what your parents are willing to spend. Don’t worry, the next post will be completely devoted to financials.

Hey! I heard that X was planning to apply abroad, but didn’t.

One of the primary reasons why many people don’t apply, is because of one or many of the following reasons:

• They’re feel they’re too late – This is one of the most common reasons. If you don’t give certain standardised tests, such as the SAT (which I’ll discuss in later posts), you simply can’t apply. However, even if you begin your application process in October, there’s still a very good chance you can get in.

I apologise for not releasing this series of posts earlier, but to be honest, I was too busy myself.

• They feel intimidated by the admission process – Another common reason why people shy away. The Indian admission scene is somewhat simple – register for your admission test, with some copies of your basic qualifications like class X marksheet, study very hard for the test, give the test and wait for the results to come out. The foreign app is much more complicated. There are ECAs, LORs, transcripts, counsellor forms, standardised tests and a whole lot of baloney. But not to worry, all of these things can be easily collected with some patience.

Don’t worry if you didn’t understand most of the terms used in the last sentence. I’ll make sure I cover each and every one of them in this series.

• They don’t have the money – This is again very common. Parents often are apprehensive about spending a large amount of money on expensive international institutions. While this is perfectly reasonable in every way, it is not reasonable to rob their children of the opportunity to apply to universities with strong financial aid systems. If he/she gets financial aid, it can mean a whole new future for him/her.

I’ll be covering financials in the next post.

Well, this sums up the first post in what might turn out to be a pretty extensive series of blog posts. Till next time, goodbye.

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