Spotlight on: Postgraduate Study in the USA

The USA has long been the world’s most popular study abroad destination – and it’s not hard to see why! With over 1,700 American universities offering postgraduate degrees, the USA has plenty to offer international Masters and PhD students. In this blog post, we’ll provide a whistle-stop tour of the key things you need to know before you pack your bags.

Choosing where to study in the USA

Whatever your preferences, you’ll find somewhere to call home across the USA’s 50 states, six time zones and (almost) 10 million square kilometres.

New York is the USA’s most populous city and a hotspot for international students. It is home to some of the country’s most prestigious institutions such as Cornell University and Columbia University. You’ll also find over 100 museums and a packed programme of musical and theatrical attractions!

You could head straight to the heart of the entertainment industry and home of Hollywood, Los Angeles. Enjoy a Mediterranean climate, thriving nightlife and sandy beaches, and choose from several top-ranked universities.

For easy access to some of the USA’s most impressive natural landscapes, you could choose to study in Phoenix. Relax in year-round sunshine and visit the nearby Grand Canyon or Arizona’s many mountain ranges and national parks.

Postgraduate courses in the USA

First off, let’s sort out some confusing terminology!

The word ‘graduate’ is used in the USA in place of ‘postgraduate’. The words ‘college’ and ‘university’ are often used interchangeably, but technically the word ‘college’ refers to an institution that only offers undergraduate courses.

So, if you’re planning to do a Masters or PhD, you’ll be studying for a graduate degree, and you’ll be doing it at a university.

Masters courses in the USA tend to be longer and less specialised than in other countries. They usually take two years of full-time study. Rather than focusing on a specific topic, you’ll receive a comprehensive overview of your discipline at an advanced level. Your programme will probably be quite structured, and you’ll undergo regular assessments and training tasks.

Somewhat unusually, American PhD programmes are rarely pure research degrees. In fact, they’re more like a Masters and a PhD rolled into one. You’ll spend the first stage of your PhD attending classes and submitting coursework, before you get down to researching and writing your thesis in the second stage.

Applying for a postgraduate programme in the USA

American universities tend to have a more thorough application process than you might encounter elsewhere. Be prepared to start your application in plenty of time!

Applications for Masters programmes are made straight to the university. You can apply to as many institutions as you like – but the process is likely to be time consuming (and you may have to pay a fee), so it’s better to be selective.

You’ll usually have to submit the following:

• A personal statement (or ‘statement of academic purpose’)
• Academic transcripts
• Bachelors certificate
• Between one and three references
• Proof of English language proficiency (if applicable)

Some more competitive programmes may require you to take a graduate entry test, most commonly the GRE or the GMAT.

Applying for a PhD in the USA isn’t quite the same as in the UK and most other European countries. Because the pure research stage of your doctorate is usually preceded by 1-4 years of taught material, universities usually won’t expect you to have nailed down the specifics of your project before you apply.

This means you may not have to submit a research proposal at all. If you do, it will usually just be an outline of your interests and some topics you might like to pursue (often called a ‘research statement’).

Don’t think this means you’ll get off lightly though – PhD applicants will still need to provide a personal statement, academic transcripts, references, writing samples and a CV. And they will almost always need to sit a graduate entry test!

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