Are you looking for opportunities to develop your professional knowledge and skills? Do you need a master’s degree to get a promotion at work or vice versa, do you want a change in your field of activity? Masters programs in colleges and universities in the United States will help you achieve your desired goal.
There are more than 1,100 accredited higher education institutions in the United States that offer a wide variety of master’s programs. Most masters programs at American colleges and universities are designed for students with previous work experience or research. Thus, the programs are highly specialized or provide students with the opportunity to choose their specialization from the specified list. The focus of the programs is formed on the basis of the expertise of the professors and the subjects of their research, so American postgraduate education is considered the best in the world.
You need to start preparing for admission to a master’s program in the USA by defining your own goals. What knowledge and experience do you need to get while studying at the magistracy? Where would you like to work after the end of the program? Do you plan to develop as a practitioner or researcher in your field? Based on these issues, identify your priorities.
In the future, start searching for programs that will meet your goals. Using search sites, identify all the programs in your area of expertise. On university sites, learn directly about the specialization of these programs, admission requirements, and about the career of graduates. Read the research work of the teachers of the program to make sure that they are interesting to you.
When entering a magistracy, the key factor is precisely the compliance of a particular program with your priorities, because even entering a well-known institution of higher education will not help your professional development if the goals of the program diverge from yours.
Additional program requirements may include:
- Accommodation in a region with a developed industry that you plan to study. For example, energy specialists are more likely to study in Texas or Oklahoma, while international relations specialists will have access to many resources in New York or Washington.
- The learning environment is also important, because programs can include various class sizes, student experience, and extracurricular activities.
- Of course, if you need financial help, consider the possibility of universities and programs to provide it to a foreign student.
After selecting the programs, it is worth starting to prepare the application package of documents:
- Start by compiling standardized tests, as preparing for them can take quite some time. To apply for a master’s degree in the United States, you must provide a TOEFL or IELTS certificate to confirm knowledge of English. Additionally, programs may require GRE or GMAT general test competency test results.
- Also prepare transcripts from all the higher education institutions that you previously visited.
- Agree on 2-3 letters of recommendation, depending on the requirements of your programs.
- Write a motivational essay and resume.
All of these documents are submitted online through the university’s website, but programs may also require additional documents. For example, to enter creative specialties, you often need to provide a portfolio, and research-oriented graduate schools may require an example of your previous academic work.
Therefore, it is never too early to start wasting time preparing for graduate studies in the USA, and EducationUSA advisers in Kazakhstan can help find answers to all your questions about master’s programs. Sign up for a free consultation or apply for a group training program from EducationUSA – your official source of information about higher education in the United States.