I will never forget my very first conversation with an American. He was an employee at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. I was a new arrival, highly exhausted after almost 20 hours of flight.

When this is all you want, and you can’t remember the word for it

Upon landing I found myself overwhelmed by homesickness, and very badly wanted to find a telephone to call my parents. I went up to this man to ask for help, but blanked immediately after opening my mouth.

I did eventually ask for the phone and call my parents, but I was so frustrated by that experience. It was as if I had never learned English before! I was considered to be good at English in China, yet I almost felt the worker at the airport was talking to me in another language.

My mind was blown again when I ate at an American restaurant for the first time. I had no idea that most of the words I had learned for food were about fast food.

It is true that we international students take the TOEFL exam before coming to the U.S., and this exam seems well-balanced in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. But it still doesn’t fully prepare you for what it’s like to be immersed in a language.

Why academics turned out to be the biggest struggle

It was inside the classroom where I really had trouble at first. I could understand lectures for the most part, except for certain accents that I had not been exposed to before. However, participating in classroom discussion was very hard.

What a small, discussion-based class might look like (Creative Commons Photo: Marcos Ojeda)

I was so shocked by my American classmates’ thought-provoking and nicely-phrased comments that I did not even try to speak out – not because of a lack of ideas, but because of a lack of confidence in my English. Since we have many interactive, small-sized classes at my school, not being able to participate in classroom discussions disappointed me very much.

[More about surviving academics in English]

Writing papers was also difficult, which was a problem because as a liberal arts major my life is always occupied with writing—lots and lots of writing. In my first semester, I would always receive comments on my papers like, “Try to be more clear (explicit),” no matter how clear and explicit I thought my papers were.

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Editor’s note: Shree is currently in the process of applying to study in the U.S. for the fall of 2013. He’s agreed to take us with him on that process, recapping each step as he accomplishes it, and filling us in on what he did right and wrong so we can learn from his mistakes.  First up, the TOEFL.

I have always feared standardized tests. In fact, I fear all tests, from college exams to oral exams at the dentist. A fear of something-might-just-go-wrong always makes me nervous. So I was not looking forward to the standardized tests I was told by U.S. Education Foundation advisors would be crucial to my college applications. But, the TOEFL turned out to be different.

Alongside the SAT/ACT, the TOEFL is the standardized test required by most U.S. colleges. Unlike the SAT, however, which sort of measures the intellectual ability of students, the TOEFL is a check of basic skills – Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing (the four sections of the test) – the same things students do during their school years.  In other words, you don’t need to be smart to score high on the TOEFL.

[What is the minimum required TOEFL score?]

But you do need to know the test format in advance.

The TOEFL is strictly formatted in each and every section. For example, the writing section always contains an integrated task (writing an essay based on a given report and a lecture) and an independent task (a topic is given in which we are free to write).

Knowing the format and instructions beforehand helped me a lot during the test. Although they give you time to read the instructions for every section, I found that reading the instructions broke my focus, so I learned them ahead of time and skipped them during the test. Sometimes I would take deep breaths during that time to ease the pressure, because once the sections start they don’t pause.

[How nerves impacted Anna's TOEFL performance]

Photo by Nick Hoang

Knowing the format isn’t everything though.  I practiced.  A lot.  Over and over again. I found the Delta’s Key to the TOEFL Test book to be very useful, as it contained drills on individual question types, and I used the Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL Test book to work on basic skills like note-taking, summarizing and paraphrasing. The fun part about TOEFL, though, was that I didn’t need to actually *practice* to get practice.  There were a lot of ways to fit TOEFL preparations into my normal, everyday life.
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“I have always asked myself why people have made borders. Is it right that because my grandfathers lived in this land, it is mine and no one else has the right to live in it? Why do people want to get away from each other and differentiate themselves from one another? For example people say: “I’m from Afghanistan”, “I’m from Saudi Arabia,” or “I’m from England” and so on. Why they don’t say “we are from this world” Let’s open our minds and think about it as if we didn’t have the word “country” that all these countries were only one, and we wouldn’t suffer from discrimination or racism.”

Jawad says his love of education developed over a lifetime of struggling to stay in school, as his family moved between Iran and Afghanistan to escape war and discrimination, and fought to afford school expenses. “Education is a gift,” he recalls of the times when he was able to attend school regularly as a child.

“In my opinion, education, from which our people were deprived through the three decades of war, is the major problem of our society. Instead, superstitions and wrong beliefs have opened their space among people. Being educated, the parents would know the fact that all humans have the rights for education and what bright future it will bring to the family. They should give their children the right to choose while they should not force them to do hard work. If they are educated, they will know the fact that how worthy education is, therefore they would send their children to school to build their future and the community.”

Jawad says he completed most of his later schooling in night schools, learning computer skills and studying English.

Since 2010, he has been applying to continue his education at a U.S. university. One of his major challenges is the cost. Jawad says he needs full financial aid, and although he was admitted to a university in 2011, he couldn’t accept the offer.

“The college provided me 13,000 USD scholarships each year for four years. The rest I had to pay (About 35000 USD each year) but I had only 3,000 USD in my personal savings account that I had been saved since long time. We have a poor family financial position here, my family couldn’t help me. I tried some foundations and charities as well but it was disappointing. Finally I refused their offer because I couldn’t afford to.”

But he also says he is having trouble reaching the level of English he needs to gain admission to schools that might give him a full scholarship. His English skills have waxed and waned as he took and abandoned jobs that required him to put those skills to work. His TOEFL results from last year were 483 – not high enough, he says, to meet the standards of many universities.
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I had the great pleasure today to join VOA Learning English for a live video chat about studying in the U.S. A lot of you submitted questions in advance on Facebook, and we took some Skype calls during the chat as well.

It was a great time and we covered a lot of topics, including what it costs, how to get scholarships, what you have to do to get a visa, whether international students are allowed to work, and how to improve your English.

Watch it again here:

UPDATE: The video’s now annotated to help you find the important parts and skip over the rest. Put your cursor over the thin blue lines to see what questions we discussed and navigate directly to what you want to hear.

I had a total “brain fart” (memory loss) on the question of what’s considered a good TOEFL score. We actually discussed that in the blog post “What are Typical Application Deadlines and TOEFL Requirements?,” so go there for the answer.

Did we answer your questions?  What other questions do you have about studying in the U.S.?

There have been more and more free online webinars and college fairs popping up on the internet recently.  We’ve shared a few on the Facebook page, but I want to try out sharing them here as well.

The idea: To post each Friday about the online events we know of coming up the next week.  We’ll collect from all the sources we know of and share webinars and virtual events about topics of interest to prospective international students.

Your end of the bargain? If you go, report back and let us know what you learned!  (Use the comments, the Facebook page or just email me – jstahl@voanews.com)

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In the summer of 2007 I, a high school graduate in Russia, spent hours on the Internet in search of a cheap summer school in the United States. I had been studying English for a couple of years, but I never had a chance to practice it with native speakers. Summer school seemed like a good opportunity, but the average cost was unimaginably high for my family.

I did not find a cheap summer school then, but I discovered something a hundred times more valuable. I learned about an exchange program called Global UGRAD, which offers students the chance to go to a university in the United States for one academic year, pursue an internship, and engage in community service – for free.

Preparing for Halloween at Southern Maine Community College

I applied in my first year of college, and after a few rounds of the competition, I was selected as one of the 20 finalists. I spent my year at Southern Maine Community College, located nicely on the beach.

The Global UGRAD Program also allows its applicants to choose any major, regardless of what they study at their home universities. I took advantage of this policy and picked something I was really passionate about but never had a chance to study – International Affairs.

When I came back to my home university, I knew I wanted to change my major from Marketing to International Affairs. Because of institutional bureaucracy it turned out to be practically impossible. Moreover, this exchange experience made me very sensitive to the differences in Russian and American education systems. I began to notice disadvantages of education in Russia that I didn’t notice before.

So I started to think about continuing my studies in the U.S.  But despite my academic experiences there, I still had very little knowledge about applying to American universities. I did not even know at that point in time that transferring from a university in Russia to a university in the United States was possible. I started my research from literally nothing.

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In this video, by a student in San Diego, international students talk about their biggest struggles when they first arrived in the U.S. For most, it was keeping up with English.

If you like “kelzosaurus”‘s video, she has another on making friends, and one on culture as well.

Our friend Homayoon has told us in the past that he hopes to study in the U.S. but worries “my dream to study in U.S will never, ever become true.” But, far from giving up, Homayoon was in touch recently to ask a few questions, which are worth sharing because they’re probably fairly common. Our bloggers have some thorough answers for him, which we’ll post over the course of this week, and we’ll finish by sharing Homayoon’s own story about his quest to study in America.

Homayoon asked:

I plan to get MBA. I have taken TOEFL couple of years ago but I got only 510 which was not enough than I was expected. I want to take it again, in coming October. Is the only obstacle to study in US is TOEFL?

Our bloggers responded:

Tara Cheng

The biggest obstacle for me is how to “market” myself in the required essays, like personal statement. You gotta be sort of aggressive in the writing because you need to get attention from the admission officer, but you can not be over-aggressive or brag. The balance is a little bit difficult. Plus you do not know what type of persons they would like to get. As to TOEFL, if your score is a little bit lower than school’s requirement, do not worry, school will evaluate your application in an holistic way. Also, they may give you opportunities to take ESL (English as Second Language) classes before your official enrollment.

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Sometimes you guys ask really useful questions on our Facebook page.  I wanted to share this one, because I think a lot of you may want to know the answer…

1. When does the academic year begin in the United States, especially Graduate programs, when can an international student apply, how long before the academic year begin?

2. How much is the minimum requirement for the TOEFL score in a highlyaccredited and prestigious university in US? (For MBA program)

The academic year typically begins in August or September (for schools on a semester schedule, which is most schools), and applications are likely to be due in January.

Some schools may also have an early admissions process, for which you would send your application in the fall (usually in October) and be notified about your admissions decision in December.

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China Geeks translates an article from Southern Weekend about the “substitute test takers” industry in China.  Apparently, there is a sizable market for students who want to pay someone to take their TOEFL, IELTS or other standardized exams for them.

Is anyone from China aware of this and able to tell us about their experiences?  Does this exist in other countries as well?

Global Campus has put together a brief guide to the standardized tests you need to know about if you’re planning to study in the U.S.

In a previous post, we shared a guide to the TOEFL, written by its parent company, the ETS.

The basics of the TOEFL, the test many schools will require as verification of your language ability, as written by the ETS (the organization that runs it).