Discovering RIT

Back in 2007, the second and last year of my studies in USA I was a Junior at Edgemont High School I was preparing like the rest of my classmates for college. After few discussions RIT came up as one of the better options for me. That summer while traveling around US I convinced my parents that when returning from Niagara falls we should make a stop at Rochester and check out RIT. We arranged a visit and after a brief session about the school we toured the campus. It didn't took long until the entire family fell in love with the campus. My parents wanted to go to college again and I knew where I wanted to go after graduation.

Follow up:

Early decision

About a year later I was already sitting on the RIT website and watching carefully what was going on. With my graduation scheduled (due to Czech system) for 2010 there was little else I could do, but when the early decision option opened in late 2009 I immediately signed in and started getting all my things together, this included my CV, recommendation letters and my grades from USA and the last two years from ECP (English College in Prague - school I was attending in Czech).

At that time school was reminding us to look for universities and to come to them for help with all the stuff that had to be done. But when I came there was really nothing that they could help me with, except recommendation letters and reports (where there was a problem with some USA specific things). First of all I had everything sorted out, secondly they were concentrating mainly on Czech and UK universities so this was a bit of unknown for them.

TIP 1: Register in early and apply for the Early decision plan, if your university offers it (you can register only for one university though, so be careful which you choose). You get quiet early info if you are accepter or not. If not you can still try regular admission. If you are accepted you have to worry only about meeting the criteria the school gave you.

TIP 2: If you are International student be prepared that school might not help you much with the paper work and other stuff regarding university in US (or if you go anywhere else where students from your school usually don't go). On the other hand every school provides events that should help you choose your future university and concentration, even if you have already chosen where you want to go, you still should go to these events as there is always something to learn. Keep a list of what needs to be done (you should get this from university) and be watchful of deadlines.

TIP 3: I think what helped me the most were not my grades, but my activities mostly outside of school (organizing big events) and keeping up with the topic I'm interested in studying. I believe that most American universities will be looking for people who are active in their community, so if you are don't forget to mention it, it might be the deciding factor on your application.

When everything was send I could only wait, but I didn't had time to despair as the time was filled with IB (International Baccalaureate®) work and looking for second choice universities.

Luckily I got a late Christmas present and got accepted (only had to pass all my current courses)! So the first part was over. Second part was to get housing and other things sorted out, but now in January that still had a plenty of time.

To be continued...