Qimmah
Helping Arabs Get to the Top
Why Apply To Top Schools
Some of you might wonder while viewing the site “why should I even go through all the trouble of applying to these top schools?” Well, other than the name/prestige, there is a lot about these top institutions that most students may not know. On this page, we’ll try to list a few of the many reasons why attending a top tier college in the U.S. is worth all the hassle and trouble of applying.
Internships
If you’re more into business and industry, a core element of your undergraduate career will be getting summer internships. Now, other than the benefits that come with having a top school on your resume while applying, just being at a top school is important because of the environment it gives. Going to these top institutions, you will be surrounded with people who know much more than you about a lot more topics than you do. And from that you’ll gain a lot of practical knowledge on a lot of things, most importantly of which are internships. Going to these top schools, you will learn where the best internships are and how to get in. Your upperclassmen friends, who recently have just finished a summer internship at McKinsey, Goldman Sachs or even Google will most likely tell you about their summer and will help you when applying. Also, the undergraduate career services at these places will just smother you with information about fully utilizing your work experience.
Research
If you’re in one of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields, you will probably need and want to do research during your undergraduate career. Getting research positions at lower ranked schools in the US is not only difficult, but rather unfruitful as well. At schools such as MIT, Berkeley, Columbia and others; you will have the opportunity to work with leading professors in your field who have been doing ground breaking research for years. Working with a Nobel Prize winning researcher on a project that could revolutionize human life is not a far possibility if you attend a prestigious American university.
Educational Resources
Once you’re in a top institution, it is sometimes hard to standout academically; however, top colleges provide you with a wide range of resources to ensure that you can thrive and succeed. These resources range from, but are not limited to, personal tutors, extra review sessions, and office hours offered by professors. In addition, professors at these schools are phenomenal. You may attend a history class taught by a Noble prizewinner economist, email him and have dinner with him within a week. Or you could wake up one day in your dorm and walk to a lecture being given by a former US President or an internationally acclaimed writer. The point is that the educational atmosphere will enable you to learn significantly more than you ever
thought possible.
At Yale you’ll find America’s number one debate team, and at UPenn, you’ll have a
chance to join the country’s best MUN association, and so on.
Extracurricular Activities
These top schools know only performing well academically is not a good formula for success. That’s why most top colleges invest heavily in their extracurricular scene. Top schools expect you to be a well-rounded student. At the beginning of the year when you start signing up, you will have a plethora of clubs and organizations to join, and if you don’t like any, you can start one up yourself and get funded by the university. Almost all of these schools have at least one or two activities in which they are considered the best in the country.
Also, many of these schools’ organizations sponsor events and trips for students. For example, some
organize trips to India or Brazil for spring break, and some will get notable world figures and heads of
state to give lectures and talks on campus.