For international students who are planning to apply overseas universities for international education, they are most concerned about how COVID 19 impacts the application for universities. The truth is that the COVID-19 outbreak and its effects have no impact on how unis evaluate applicants to the University. Every application will receive full consideration as normal years before. Nevertheless, COVID-19 make it harder for students to get themselves to satisfy the entry criteria, to prepare for the application material, and to complete the international application process.
Yes, harder. It is true that international students applying for overseas unis are impacted by COVID-19 epidemic. Although universities accept student applications as normal years, students are barriered a lot from getting admitted.
For students who have not yet begun the application
Students need to meet the entry requirements of the uni so as to be eligible for the application, To stand out among the application candidates, students would struggle to improve their English scores and academic scores, to have quality internship, and to take part in academic competitions or projects. All of those things are important factors considered by the admission officers. However, now, impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic, the social-distancing rules and isolation case make it hard for applicants to do those things. The epidemic abruptly interrupted student’s plan well plotted before.
For instance, the IELTS/TOFEL exam schedule has been canceled in recent months. School staff working from home, you may find it difficult to get academic transcripts. Interns may be told not to go to the office before assuring personal health status, and most collective activities cannot be held as normal, either.
Under such case, it is hard for students to take part in the IELTS/TOFEL exams and get the transcripts, to find the student-affair managers to print school results, and to engage in internship so as to advance themselves in knowledge understanding and practice. All of those are essential factors impacting whether you will be admitted or not.
For applicants received admission offers
For applicants received admission offers, another difficulty is to get student visa. Many counties have adopted travel restriction. It is hard for students to make appointment for visa application and to get inbound permission. I have heard many cases of parents accompanying with their children managed to go abroad, inbound the destination country via a third-country entry. To successfully enter the country, they spent large amount of fee. Their airline tickets purchased and canceled repetitively, they had to stay at the third-country hotel for over two weeks. Such an awkward experience!
Apart from visa and inbound, aren’t you worried about your personal safety once going outbound? It is a fact that now the epidemic has hit all over the world.
For students who have already submitted application to university and received the admissions offers, there is a growing worry that the epidemic will affect the enrollment.
Even if you managed to get your admission offer and enrolled to the program, it is most likely that you need to have online classes, rather than living in the campus and going to classroom for face-to-face classes. Is it worth spending so much tuition and living fees only on online classes? Studying from home, you have no orientation day, you don’t know your new classmate, you have fewer opportunities to exchange with excellent professors and you have less changes to expose yourself to the foreign culture and international atmosphere.
Be prepared for a variety of scenarios
The uncertain nature of the rapidly developing epidemic means that all students and educational institutions should prepare for a variety of scenarios, but it is likely that it will have little to no impact on this admission process. Despite these unprecedented circumstances, it is expected the future of college admissions to return to normal once the pandemic is contained.
Since it quite improper to study abroad in such an eventful year, some students tried to delay the uni study by asking for their uni to retain their uni places to the next year. Remember to contact the school, managing to defer offer for deferred admission. Try to let the school retain your admission qualifications (in most cases, at the expense of paying a deposit), please clearly understand the school’s deferred offer policy!
Considering present circumstance, many students choose to defer overseas study plan. Nevertheless, deferring does not mean giving up. You can now make preparations for your international education, such as improving your academic English ability, trying to hunt an excellent internship, seeing which uni and discipline is suit for you, etc. When the true time comes, apply it quickly and smoothly!
