Are you aspiring to study abroad? Be it for an undergraduate program or a postgraduate or a fellowship/doctorate program. It takes a time-testing ability to build the profile. Rome was not built in a day similarly the profile cannot be built overnight. It is a meticulous task to build the profile over a period of time. When you want to plan a travel for a holiday, the preparation starts much more in advance.
Every personality is unique and the behavior pattern depicts the personality of an individual. Often people make perceptions based on this. Being subjective and having broader aspect may not help in making a clear-cut perception of oneself. If an individual is not able to make a good perception then it may be detrimental to the further admission process. The profile statement backed by data doubles as a fact sheet for an individual. Through the data pointers, one’s perception can be made accurately up to a larger extent. The profile serves as a portfolio of one’s achievements be it curricular as well as co-curricular activities. Apart from this the proven track record in the interests shown and what an individual is doing to hone these skills further, practicing these skill sets, improvising on the skill sets, and eventually how these acquired and improved skill sets is making a difference to the society at large.
Are these acquired skill sets in line with your professional career development? Most of universities look at the holistic perspective while shortlisting the candidates. Are you building any community service, team building activity, or excelling in co-curricular activity apart from academics? These are some of the questions that should keep you pondering while building the profile over a period of time.
So, when do we start building the profile? It is never too late to start building the profile. The earlier the better. It should help the evaluator to find our motivation factor to pursue certain academic courses. Building a profile should be able to give one’s pictorial image to the person who is going through the profile. Students who are desirous to apply for the undergraduate program should start working on their profile not later than grade VII. While students who are applying for post-graduate programs should start building their profile during the higher secondary. However, the criteria to look for post-graduate programs and undergraduate programs are different. Based on the curriculum/course you are applying for the activities has to be aligned with it. For example: if you are applying for computer science program then participating in various Codathon, Organizing Coding event, Core member of innovation club, representing at national level shall help in scoring above others. While if you are applying for the literature-based courses then literary events, elocution, student council, virtual UN for kids, etc, shall help in building the profile. This starts at school level itself.
The profile story needs to be backed by facts. The data that is backed by proof of documents gets a great thumbs up. You have to keep your academic grade sheets, transcripts, academic cocurricular activities and societal cocurricular activities record along with respective certificates / awards earned, various online certifications, assessments, entrance exam score card, etc. needs to be in order along with an updated resume, statement of purpose and letter of recommendations.
Any achievements in terms of sports, cultural exchange event, any internship program, etc. will serve an additional pointer to improve your profile shortlisting.
How to build a profile for studying abroad? Focus on your strength and weakness. List down what do you feel about yourself and jot the strong and the weaker points. Next list it out with your parents and close friends. This will give you the clear picture on what you think you are and what others think who you are. Getting admission is like putting forward your differentiating factor and your unique proposition for your selection. Say, there are many mobiles in the market but why you choose a particular brand? Similarly, why the university should select you? Your academic strength should complement your extracurricular activities. The universities are looking at diversified profile and includes students from multiple ethnicity and multidimensional personality. Give an opportunity to yourself to present yourself as an individual who is eager to take on global role and be an asset to the university. No university would like to select an individual that will bring demerit to them. While building the profile stick to the facts and do not camouflage the personality with fictional achievements. There is a difference between good to have and what you have, so go with the later one and build upon it to improve. Be truthful to yourself as it will help in the long run. If you are keen to apply for the top universities and understand the profiles those are studying in these universities. Today’s world is a digital world and so the information is available right at the click of a button. Various social media platforms will have information about the spokes person so try to get in touch with them, write to alumni and attend various overseas education fares to understand more about your targeted universities.
Some word of caution needs to be exercised and followed in principle. Build your strong social media presence and keep the online profile clean as well. Remember one thing the internet never forgets you. Beware about the fake websites that will pretend to help you. Always verify the authenticity of the information and if necessary, seek professional help from a reliable and authorized channel only. Lastly do not believe on hearsay and do not practice herd mentality. Every individual is a unique identity, so go ahead and create your own.
Happy Learning!!!
Sachin Dhakate
