This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 22, Get Accepted at a University in the United States.
Three tips.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.
Now here are your hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Boston and New York City, USA.
Hey.
Are you applying to college or graduate school in the United States or an English-speaking country?
Today, Lindsay and Michelle will give you three things that you must pay attention to to make sure you get into the university of your choice.
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What's going on, Michelle?
How are you?
Hey, Lindsay.
I'm good.
I'm good.
How are you?
Awesome.
Today, we're talking about getting into a university in the US.
I know a lot of our listeners.
They may already be studying in the US or they want to study in the US or another English-speaking country like Canada.
Canada, a lot of people want to go to now, right?
Australia, right, Michelle?
Uh-huh.
Right.
Oh my gosh, Australia.
Oh, I would love to go there.
Yeah.
Let's talk about our personal stories real quick.
Michelle, where did you go to college?
I went to the University of Maryland.
Nice.
And that was a big school, right?
Yes.
It's a very big school.
Yeah.
It's like you're a very typical college campus.
Lindsay, what about you?
Oh, yeah.
We had opposite college experiences, Michelle.
I went to a small school same region though in Virginia in Fredericksburg, Virginia called University of Mary Washington.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
It was only about five, six thousand students.
Oh, wow.
It was tiny.
But I was actually looking at even smaller colleges than that in New England.
Oh, my goodness.
I'm glad I didn't go to something that small.
But it was beautiful.
The campus, it sold me when I went to visit.
Just gorgeous Jeffersonian architecture.
I had a blast.
I mean, college is great.
Right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Oh, my gosh, it's a time.
It's a very special time.
I still look back at it fine fondly.
And yeah, there's, you know, it's just kind of like a rite of passage, a rite of passage for sure.
Then today we're here to give you guys three tips of three things you can do to make sure you get in right, because we got to get in before we can go.
So what is our first tip to our listeners to prepare yourself to apply?
This is even before you submit any applications, right?
All right.
Yeah.
Well, here's the first tip.
This is very important.
The first one is clean up your social media accounts.
Oh, my gosh.
We have this stat that says that 30 of American admissions counselors check applicants out online, and maybe even higher than that.
We don't know.
But we know now whether you're applying for a job or college.
Yeah, we do this, don't we?
We search.
Right.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah, you don't want to have anything up there that could kind of make somebody question you.
So you know, just just take a look through and make sure, and you know, better safe than sorry.
If you're not sure, just take it down and then or, or you know, put it back up.
You know, once you're in college, whatever.
Yeah.
I mean, think of yourself as a brand.
I think later in the next few episodes, later in this podcast, we do interview someone about building a brand of you, branding yourself.
But think of yourself as a brand.
Even at the age of 17, 18, you're thinking about college.
You are kind of a brand in a way and you need to present yourself to this college.
That also means, I think, getting on LinkedIn.
Michelle, what do you think?
LinkedIn is huge.
LinkedIn is very important.
I feel like everybody has to have at least something on LinkedIn.
Yeah.
And a lot of our listeners on this show are professionals and they definitely use LinkedIn.
We'll talk about LinkedIn more on All Ears English, but it's never too early to start.
By 17, you've probably had a couple of jobs, a couple of internships.
You want to go ahead and make sure you have a LinkedIn profile, maximize it, optimize it, get quotes from people, get recommendations right, Michelle?
Do all of that stuff.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
So should we move on to the next tip?
Oh my gosh, it's so true.
You have, you know, in some cases you might have to take the SAT, the TOEFL, the IELTS.
And by the way, Michelle, if they're taking IELTS, where do they need to go right now?
Oh, the IELTS Energy podcast.
Go over and listen to Jessica and Aubrey.
Yes, exactly.
Our team has an IELTS podcast and we have 14 years of examiner experience there.
But there's also other things like college essays, applications, letters of recommendation.
So how would you handle this, Michelle?
How would you handle building a calendar for yourself?
Oh, deadlines yeah oh well how would i handle it i mean i would just have tons and tons of lists or like maybe like a chalkboard yeah um you know or a dry erase board where i had everything listed i also like to do alarms in my phone on certain dates so um i i would maybe you would color code something i don't know there are a lot of options i think it's very personal to everybody Yeah, I think the bottom line here is make this your business, right?
Make it your business to get accepted to a college that you love.
That means you got to have files, folders, Google Drive, spreadsheets.
Go for it, guys.
Get organized.
Because the number one skill that obviously you need to have to succeed in life is organizational skills.
And if you can't even get into college because you're not organized, things are not starting off well.
Right, right, right.
Yes.
You have to show that you're organized, that you don't miss those deadlines.
Exactly.
And then the last one is a little more intangible.
Michelle, what is this?
All right.
Well, this one is find the right fit.
And this is also so important.
I mean, guys, like maybe it sounds like a great school.
Maybe you know the name and it sounds perfect and everything, but it might just not be the right fit for you.
You have to think about what is going to suit you.
Like, do you want a big school?
Do you want a small school?
What's your major?
Yeah.
What's kind of the culture at the school?
Do you want a typical college experience on a big college campus?
Or do you want to be in a city?
So many things to think about.
Oh my gosh.
It's so true because there's so many different schools in the US and the world that could have such different experiences.
Like for me, in my case, I thought I didn't really want the Greek live.
I didn't want the big school.
Although now that I think about it I kind of wish I sort of had had that, the big football games, that all the excitement that a big college brings.
Do you feel like you made the you had the right fit in your college, Michelle?
Yeah, I think overall like there are some things like maybe in my major that like could have been maybe a little bit different.
But overall, like I'm happy where I went to school.
I liked I liked having like that typical college.
Yeah.
You know, experience.
So I didn't do Greek life or anything like that.
But, you know, it was fun to have the games.
And in freshman and sophomore year, I lived right across from the stadium to hear the songs.
So definitely I'm happy where I went to school.
I did like my experience.
So fun.
So fun.
What is Greek life, by the way, for our listeners?
Before we finish up, I want to make sure they know that term that we just said.
Greek life.
What does that mean?
Are we talking about Greece going to Greece?
It's fraternities and sororities.
So these are like, you know, you have to kind of Or whatever you call it or apply to get into them.
It's basically like groups of friends and they call each other their brothers and sisters.
And it's like a club and people really love them.
There's also a lot of problems that they can sometimes.
Yes, hazing, for example, right?
The initiation process of applying.
Sometimes people are forced to do crazy things.
Yeah, there's a lot of controversy right now in the news about that too.
But I think campuses are cracking down on initiations.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So yeah, the good thing about Greek life.
I guess I've never really been involved, but I guess you do have a close club and for networking for later in life it may connect you to professional opportunities.
Right.
Yes, there are a lot of benefits to it.
So I didn't do it, but I know people who did it and I loved it.
Absolutely.
So check that out, guys.
But follow these three tips to make sure you are applying to the right place and that you're doing it in the right way.
We're so excited to hear about your success.
Right, Michelle?
That's right.
That's right.
All right, Lindsay.
Well, this has been fun.
Guys, listen to us four days a week.
Follow All Ears English and we will see you on the next one.
We'll be back soon for more.
All right, Michelle.
Have a good day.
Bye.
All right.
Bye.
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