Even after many sleepless nights to score significantly high in your academics and in standardised tests like SAT, you could still have a hard time getting admission into the top universities abroad. In recent times, universities have been paying great attention to the overall student profile to grant admission, unlike the past years when scores used to play a crucial role. Does it mean you need not focus on scoring well? Not at all! We just mean that good scores alone can’t help you grab a spot in your dream university. Along with academic excellence, some extra work has to be done in the form of Profile Building Which is going to play a crucial role in UG abroad admissions in 2023 and the years to come.
If you really want to study in top universities abroad, ask yourself one question. When there are thousands of applicants with almost similar knowledge and eligibility as you, why should universities prefer you over your competitors? Keep this question in your mind, and meanwhile, finish reading this blog, and you might end up finding the answer to this question!
What is Profile Building?
Simply put, it’s a way of showcasing who you are and what you are passionate about without verbally expressing any details so that whoever processes your application at universities abroad will understand your credibility because of the profile you have built over a period of time. Profile Building for Students includes various steps starting from having a great academic background to building a strong personal brand on social media, along with participating in extracurricular activities that prove your social skills, etc. But, you need not get overwhelmed by any of these profile-building activities as we are going to discuss each of them in absolute detail in this blog.
Importance Of Having An Impressive Academic Record
If you want admission to foreign universities, please be aware that your first impression largely depends on the numbers on your certificates. Make sure to work hard to score well in your board exams so that you don’t fall behind your peers, who are very likely to score 90% or higher. The harsh fact is that an impressive academic record may not guarantee you a seat in your dream university. But, poor performance in your academics can significantly reduce your chances. So, good scores are neither unimportant nor enough to get the work done.
Go Beyond Academics in Your Subject of Interest
Every student attends the board exams and gives their best simply because it’s mandatory to continue their higher studies. But, if you invest your time in something that is not mandatory, that’s what makes you stand out from the crowd. Let’s look at different activities that you can do as part of profile building for college admission.
Online Courses & Certifications
In the ocean of the internet, there are some mind-blowing courses that you can enrol in and learn from world-class experts. Profile Building for high school students becomes really easy with these online courses as there is an ample amount of time available during the school days, which students can use to pursue detailed courses. You can use platforms like Coursera to find out courses that align with your interests.
Internships
Internships are by far the best ways to learn and gain hands-on experience without paying a single penny. If you are offered an unpaid internship, don’t look at it as unpaid work; instead, perceive it as free education. Internships will definitely add great value to your profile that helps you in realising your dream of studying abroad.
Research Work
You might think publishing research papers is a strenuous process. Yes, it is! But that effort is worth it as it is going to help a lot in boosting your profile. It is very unlikely that all the applicants will take the time to be involved in a research process, and that is when you should make use of the opportunity and surpass your competitors and impress the interviewer.
Personal Projects
Let’s suppose you are in your eleventh grade and working on profile building for undergraduate programs to get admission into a foreign university for your UG. If you take up some personal projects/ freelancing gigs, these will benefit you in two ways. First, your hands-on experience will catch the attention of the interviewers and increase your chances of getting admission. Second, you can use the experience gained from your personal projects to make some pocket money while you continue your studies abroad.
Personal Branding | Leverage the Power of Social Media
In 2023, personal branding is trending everywhere. Even the most busy entrepreneurs are also taking the time to create content on social media because of the significant benefits it has to offer. You, as a student, can use the internet to share your learnings with the world using various channels and can build a strong profile to study abroad.
Let’s have a look at different ways to build a personal brand on the Internet that enhances your profile and increases your chances of studying in top universities abroad.
Blogging
Right from the school itself, consider documenting your learnings in the form of blogs and long-form articles and publish them on the internet. Use platforms like blogger.com, Quora, Reddit, Medium.com, etc. and share valuable content related to the course you want to pursue abroad. This is one of the most popular profile-building activities using the internet, which acts as proof of your knowledge and experience.
Content Creation On YouTube/ Instagram
This might be a little difficult compared to the traditional form of blogging. But it’s completely optional, and you can give it a try if you have the necessary skillset for video production and have valuable information to share with the world using a storytelling approach. It can potentially boost your profile, and as discussed earlier, it’s completely optional.
LinkedIn | A Must-Use Platform For Students
This professional Networking platform is a goldmine for both students and working professionals. If you are a student planning to study abroad, have a look at some of the amazing benefits that LinkedIn can offer for your success and try to relate it to how you can use it in your profile building.
- Connect with like-minded people.
- Connect with alumni of top universities.
- Connect with professors & research scholars from top universities.
This way, you can leverage this wonderful platform and use it to build a strong profile to study abroad.
Public Speaking
Public Speaking is considered to be the most important skill to succeed in any aspect of life. Be it in college, a job or Entrepreneurship, if you fail to express yourself, nobody cares how much knowledge you have acquired with years of hard work. If you have some kind of proof on your profile that showcases your public speaking skill, that’s going to be a great addon as it could potentially impress the university admission board.
Endorsements
People perceive your personal brand with respect to some other person. And most importantly, if your work gets endorsed by an expert in your domain, it’s going to be a big boost to your profile-building efforts. But how to get your work endorsed by such experts? Simply show up on social media and share your knowledge with as many people as possible. Use platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to connect with subject matter experts, and at the right moment, you can request an endorsement. Profile Building for college admission can be made easy by leveraging the immense benefits of social media and other channels available on the internet.
Extracurricular Activities For A Strong Profile To Study Abroad
Universities won’t just make a decision about your admission just by looking at your academic record. Profile building for studying abroad needs an extensive approach to impress the interviewer and win a chance to study at your dream university. If you have actively participated in extracurricular activities during your school days, you should definitely use that to level up your profile.
Volunteering
If you are the kind of person who invests their time just for the sake of well being of society, without expecting any monetary benefit, you definitely deserve to be respected wherever you go. This shows your unconditional nature to help others and can also greatly help in profile building to study abroad.
Organising Events
Having great leadership qualities is of utmost importance, either to work in a corporate atmosphere or to build a startup from scratch. You can’t organise an event successfully unless you are a great leader. For example, if you can present a case study of how you organised a TEDx event in your school, it will help others understand how diligent you are in managing multiple things at a time, and this can contribute a lot to your efforts of profile building activities to significantly increase your chances of getting admission into your dream university abroad.
Conclusion
A strong profile plays a very crucial role in increasing your chances of admission into your dream university in a foreign country. Along with an impressive academic record, it’s of paramount importance to show up on social media and build a personal brand for yourself, which acts as social proof of your knowledge and expertise. Proving your leadership qualities by organising events and leading a voluntary movement can also act as a great add-on to building your profile to study abroad. We hope you understand how a strong profile can give you a great competitive advantage and help you realise your dream of getting admission into your dream university.
If you are someone who needs assistance with profile-building services, feel free to reach out to us and get valuable suggestions from our expert career counsellors, who will help you with the step-by-step process to build a strong and impressive profile to study abroad. Contact us for more details.
FAQs
You can take up an online course/ Internship whose duration is less than six months and give your hundred per cent in every act you take up. Six months is good enough time to implement various profile-building activities that we have discussed in the above blog, and it’s up to you to customise them to the time constraints you are facing because of starting late.
Profile building to study abroad is just one of the many activities that an applicant has to work on. What we have to understand here is that it’s neither mandatory nor unimportant to have an insanely super strong profile. So, instead of searching for alternatives, better work building a strong profile to get a seat in your dream university abroad.
If you are working on profile building for undergraduate programs, you better start working on day one itself on your eleventh standard. Two years is pretty long and help you build a robust profile.
Yes and No! It highly depends on the competition for the spot you are aiming for. It depends on the factors like the university and the course you are applying to.
If you are facing time constraints, you better start off with online courses and share your learnings on social channels like LinkedIn. Later on, you can try other complex profile-building activities like publishing research papers, organising events etc.
