Essential English For Foreign Students Free Download
Janoc Florez
Packing for your trip to the United States is exciting. After all of the work you have done to get accepted at a U.S. university, it is finally time to prepare for the trip. In your excitement, it would be easy to forget some of the essential documents you will need at your point of entry or during your time in school. This travel documents checklist for international students will ensure you have all your academic and required travel documents in one place.
1. Passport At the top of the list of travel documents for international students is, of course, your passport. Keep your passport near you at all times. You will need it to board your plane and get through customs in the United States. Once you have arrived, you will use your passport to prove your age and identity.
2. Flight Documents You will need your airline tickets to get through security checkpoints and board the plane. Keep a paper copy of your flight itinerary as well. Do not rely solely on your mobile phone to store these important documents in case the battery drains during a long flight.
8. Prescriptions This might be one of those travel documents for international students that you might not think of. And you would not be alone is forgetting your paper prescription. If you take any prescription medication, you should bring a copy of the prescription to show customs officials. A prescription proves that the medicine belongs to you and that it was lawfully prescribed.
9. Academic Documents Pack copies of transcripts, class schedules and other academic documents. Although your university should have these documents available, you will save time by bringing your own copies.
10. Contact List This list should include contacts in the U.S. and your home country who can help you if travel plans change or if you encounter an emergency. Include contact information for the international office at your college as well as your counselor, your family and anyone you know in the United States.
Your travel documents are the most important items you will pack for your trip to the United States. Remember, you can buy many of the things you need when you arrive, but you must have original copies of these documents to enter the country and start your first year of college.
According to Lewis M. Siegel, the dean of Duke's Graduate School, who served on the committee that developed the report, there has been a great decline in U.S. citizens pursuing degrees in the science and engineering fields. "It is clear that for more than a decade since the early Nineties, the actual number of U.S. citizens getting Ph.D.s in science and engineering has been declining," Siegel says. "They're neither applying, enrolling, nor graduating. We're dependent on innovation. And in the research universities, this gap has been more than filled by international students."
The report, "Policy Implications: International Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars in the United States," warns that attracting international students will become increasingly difficult as countries like China strengthen their own research training infrastructure, thereby competing for top-level students. It also notes that international students may be deterred by the U.S.'s unwieldy visa process for students. For example, Siegel says, these students have, among other things, been required to certify that they do not plan to remain in the U.S. "The visa period is relatively short," he adds, "and there are problems with re-entry if an international student needs to leave the country for family reasons or to participate in a conference."
At Duke, the percentage of Ph.D. students from foreign countries rose from 25 percent to 35 percent between 1996 and 2005. In some science and engineering departments, the rise was even more noticeable. Neurobiology went from 3 percent to 46 percent; cell and molecular biology, 3 percent to 17; biomedical engineering, 16 to 25. In other science fields, the percentages of foreign students remained constant or even fell.
Last year showed a decrease in new foreign enrollees. Foreign students made up 32 percent of the Ph.D. class that entered Duke in 1995. That percentage climbed steadily to 54 percent for the class that entered in 2003. In 2004, it dropped to 44 percent.
According to Siegel, one issue of particular concern is a recent Bush administration security proposal to restrict international students' access to research equipment that is subject to export controls. It would require universities to obtain "deemed export" licenses for international researchers to work with a long list of equipment as commonplace as lasers or oscilloscopes. "To try to figure out everything that you have on your campus that's on these lists would cost millions of dollars," Siegel says.
In June, President Richard H. Brodhead sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce opposing that proposal. A preliminary assessment of the policy's potential impact on Duke indicated it would require a separate office with two to four full-time staff members simply to work through the individual cases, wrote Brodhead. In the meantime, he said, research would suffer.
"In cases such as this, while U.S. citizens and permanent residents could freely use the technology required to conduct fundamental research at Duke, their fellow researchers (students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty) would be prohibited, pending the results of a license review process. This prohibition would delay, and could even deny, researchers access to the resources they need," Brodhead wrote.
The changes "would have a significant chilling effect on our efforts to recruit and retain the most talented foreign scientists and engineers," wrote Brodhead. The result would be a loss of academic freedom, and "we would be signaling to our students that the American university had become a very different place."
Brodhead noted that the changes would undermine recent moves by the Department of Homeland Security to relax visa restrictions, and he questioned their effectiveness. The solution to managing access to sensitive equipment should lie in the screening process that prevents researchers who present a security risk from obtaining visas and coming to the U.S. in the first place, he wrote.
Allied Health Program admission is a multiple step process. Students are accepted into the Associate in Arts Health Tech track initially, but this does not guarantee acceptance into our highly competitive health programs. Allied Health programs have specific requirements outlined in the MAR (Minimum Admissions Requirements) packet, which are essential for admission.
F-1 Visa students are eligible to receive a Social Security number if they will be paid for on- or off-campus employment with appropriate authorization. Once the student has secured an offer for employment, the offer should be presented to the International Advisor who will prepare a Social Security letter for the student. This letter will be required when the student applies for the Social Security number.
Employment opportunities are available to F-1 Visa students on a part-time basis not to exceed 20 hours per week when school is in session. Additional hours may be available when school is not in session.
A change-of-status applicant must provide a copy of his or her entry visa, passport entry stamp, I-94 and I-797 approval notice, if applicable. A transfer applicant must provide a copy of all previous I-20s, latest I-94, latest passport entry stamp, entry visa, I-797 approval notice, if applicable, and employment authorization card, if applicable.
Provide complete official academic records from secondary (equivalent to high school education in the U.S.) or/and post-secondary schools with certified translations. The academic records should include your transcripts with courses taken, grades received, grading scales, completion certificates for secondary education, examination results from the Examination Council and/or degrees awarded.
Forsyth Tech is authorized to admit international students who hold F-1 visas. The application materials listed below are only for students wishing to study under an F-1 visa. All other international student admission inquiries should be directed to the Forsyth Tech Admissions Office.
F1 students are not eligible to apply for Federal Financial Aid. There are often outside organizations such as the Rotary Club that can have scholarships available. F1 students pay out-of-state tuition unless sponsored by a NC Non-Profit Organization. A letter on letterhead from the Non-Profit is required to verify sponsorship for the student.
We accept the TOEFL and the IELTS test. Students can also take the English placement test at Forsyth Tech and must score a 70 or higher. If a student has taken college level English at a U.S. college with a C or higher, that will be sufficient to replace the test. In addition, if a student has completed a full curriculum ESL program and can submit documentation that can also replace the test. If a student is from a country where English is an official language, the proof of English proficiency is not required.
Yes, if a student is being provided with room and board, transportation, and personal living expenses by a friend or family member and will only have the expenses of tuition/fees/books then that can be documented on the financial support form. In that situation, the amount of money required in the bank would only need to cover tuition, fees, and books.
If the school is outside the U.S. then the student will need to have the transcripts evaluated by an outside agency (see suggestions in the admissions checklist). Once that evaluation is received, it will be reviewed by the Records office for transfer credit. If the school is in the U.S., an official transcript must be received for the Records office to evaluate for transfer credit.
Enrollment in a health insurance plan for International Students is highly recommended. For information about insurance companies that offer plans for international students, please email internation...@forsythtech.edu
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