Bank Balance for F1 Visa ( Updated )

I got few more comments and questions on how much liquid cash to show as proof for visa. Refer to your I-20, you can also read the sample I-20 fees breakdown and find what is the total fee for 1 year from section 7. I will list the best case and worst case options for showing bank balance. Best case being, your chances of getting visa is more, and worst case Read more

Letter of Recommendation : Do and Dont’s

College admission requires atleast 2 Letter of Recommendation (LOR ). Graduate Schools Admission committee evaluates the candidates credentials and reference letter plays an important role in that about what recommendation providers have said about you.

Some college requires LOR to be submitted online and I have seen graduate schools, requiring LOR to be sent via email directly to the graduate school or to specific department. Some graduate school have their own form (template) that has to be completed, instead of traditional LOR in letter form. Here what to include in LOR, and the right way to get the LOR for graduate school admission application.

The process is very simple, but it might be time consuming.

1. Identify the person who is going to give recommendation letter
2. Ask them to include details on your research skills, problem solving skills, team work, communication ( written and oral ), analytical ability, leadership, social skills, ..
3. Get the LOR in the Referring Personal letter head, make sure you get it signed and if possible seal ( or Stamp )
4. Put the LOR inside a cover ( envelop ) paste it and get sign on the Envelop joint. So, it will ensure, its not tampered.

Now, your recommendation letter is ready, here list of top 8 skills to include in reference letters. I have collected sample recommendaition letter from current students in U.S. I will be posting in few days time. If you like to be notified by email, subscribe to email updates.

Bank Statement Verification by Universities

Do Universities really verify and validate the balance before issuing I-20 for graduate school admission? Its really a trick question to answer and I will try my best to give the exact answer. As far I know, universities Read more

Statement of Purpose (College Essays) : Be Original

College Essay ( Statement of Purpose ) and Recommendation letters for graduate schools play very important role in getting your application noticed and that leads to acceptance into college. Today I had few emails from students who are applying for Fall semester, asking for Sample copies of recommendation letter and college essay, statement of purpose.

Most of students college essay and recommendation letters are replica of their friends or from online resources. Sometimes essays are written by combining different sample essays obtained from various online sources.

College essays play an important role in getting you accepted into the graduate school you desired to study. Usually, students who apply for top schools write essays tailored to specific college degree program and also specific to graduate school.

It’s usually not that difficult to find the college essays that were not originally written. Some essays will not have the continuation and it doesn’t take long time to figure out if its copied from online resources.

If the essays submitted can be searched online and within seconds it will say the percentage and occurrence of the contents. So, It’s generally not recommended to copy the exact copy and send to the universities.

I’m not saying you cannot look ate sample college essays. There are so many college essay writing services and there you can find sample templates and essays. Those sample college essays can be used for reference.

But, explaining the inner self reason every student have to select specific college and course will not look like copied essay. Even if you pen down the outline of your contents and then get some professional help to develop the contents will be much better then copying entire college essay for graduate school admission.

Travelling to US on F1 Student Visa – List of Documents to Carry

• Carry all the documents in your hand ( carry on baggage )
• Leave copies of your documents at home ( passport, us visa, I-20, transcripts, passport size photos,..)
• I-20
• BE ( transcripts, degree certificate, course completion certificate)
• Also, other I20;s from different school, in case you are planing to get transfer
• Extra copies of recommendation letter, university transcripts
• Any other documents, like certifications, paper presentation reports, ..