by Eda Yıldırımer
Hello!
I got quite excited when Yasemin Hocam asked me if I would like to share my experiences regarding my journey of being an MA student at two different universities located on two different continents and my teaching assistantship, and of course, I would lovee to!!
I hope to make this entry as enjoyable and as clear as possible. I will try to highlight the crucial parts that I think are the most important, but I hope you read the whole thing and ask me any questions you might have through my e-mail, which I will be providing at the end 🙂
Who am I?
I would say many people might not be able to say ‘Ah, that’s me’ right at the beginning, but it does get interesting (I think) as we go along! I got into Hacettepe University in 2018, and although it was a great university, I aimed for METU. I kept my GPA high and transferred to my dream school in 2019. As if starting from scratch wasn’t enough, we had COVID-19 (unlucky me). However, during that time, I also started my minor in Sociology. In the end, I graduated from FLE and Sociology in 2022.
Right after I graduated, I thought I wanted to do something related to literature and hence applied to the universities in the USA for a Ph.D. in literature and got accepted to NONE! (Which I think was a blessing now). Having also applied for an MA at METU ELT, I got started with my master’s program and also started working at a private university in Turkey. It was my first official job, so I learned a lot.
Quite spontaneously, one night, I decided to try my luck once again regarding applying to universities in the USA, partly because I simply wanted to go back to where I spent a year of my childhood. Hence, here I am now, an MA student at METU ELT and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign MATESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), working also as a teaching assistant teaching academic writing skills.
How did I start the process all over again?
Though I thought I was a good student, I won’t deny that I was demotivated by all the rejections that I got from all the universities in the USA. However, I thought I had a better chance of getting accepted this time around since I was gaining work experience and was already doing an MA. I also knew what I wanted to do this time, which I think reflected in my applications. From the bottom of my heart, I believe that knowing what I was aiming for was one of the biggest reasons why I got accepted.
Many of my friends and even my family told me that my decision was impulsive and that it had no rationale behind it since I was already an MA student. Further, life had other surprises for me: I got accepted to Gazi University as a Research Assistant in ELT, and letting that go would be a foolish decision for me, according to everyone. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life since I hadn’t gotten into university yet at that time. Here, I would say what helped me the most was transparency. I did not hide my application to the USA from Gazi University. I also wrote an e-mail explaining my situation to the universities that I applied to and asked for an early interview and decision. Out of three universities, only one university decided to hold an early interview with me and told me that I got accepted before the official letters came in, which was UIUC.
I would also like to talk about some of the mistakes that I did:
First and foremost, PLEASE start looking into where you would like to go early. I was REALLY late (I had one week to apply to the universities), and the process was A LOT more stressful.
Start your application process and whatever you need for the application as soon as you make up your mind. I almost gave up on my applications solely because I did not have the documents ready and only had one week to get them while also working 24 hours a week and doing MA at METU. Getting the reference letters can also be challenging.
The Universities
Since I had very limited time, I decided to apply to the universities where I knew I could get tuition and TAship: Alabama University, West Virginia University, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I consider myself incredibly lucky since I had guidance from one of my friends, but I HIGHLY encourage you not to do what I did and really take your time.
As far as I know, while some universities give you a TAship, others don’t, and the stipend changes. If you need to be economically dependent on yourself, I would suggest applying to universities that give you TA or RAship by looking at students’ lives, how expensive the city would be, etc. The responsibilities of these positions change according to the universities; however, in my case, I have my own class, and I teach academic writing skills. You can also have additional responsibilities to boost your payment (like me). However, international students can do 50% and can not work more than that (20 hours).
UIUC
After getting the unofficial letter, I decided to go to UIUC and arranged everything accordingly. However, normally, for UIUC, interviews take place around February, and it takes a few months for you to get the official letter stating whether you got accepted or not. Here, each MA student also works as a TA (most of the time, I have yet to hear anyone with a different case.)
Once you get accepted, there are some documents that you need to get ready. You need patience here 🙂 It can be frustrating:
Proof of funding: You need around 10-12.000 thousand dollars in your bank account. Or whoever is your sponsor. Many people borrow and give the money back because you do not need that much here!
Transcript: You can upload unofficial ones at first, but once you get accepted, you must submit or bring the official ones.
English score: You need 103 from TOEFL to be a TA. Your speaking score is really important. You can still get accepted if you do not meet the TOEFL score requirement and take EPT here. (However, I think it is unlikely because UIUC is in the top 100 universities and it’s competitive.) You can also take other accepted tests, but I do not know their criteria.
Vaccinations: This was the hardest one for me. They ask you to complete a page where they ask for a bunch of vaccination dates, dose numbers, etc.
Writing Sample: They ask for 10-20 pages, but you can upload more. It should be a paper that shows your writing skills.
Academic Statement of Purpose
Personal Statement
Passport
Resume
There might be things that I am missing out on!! These are the ones that I remember.
It is important to save money or have money before coming because you will need money for housing, plane tickets, etc. Also, I pay fees each semester, which is around 500$.
Overall, even though I had a really nice opportunity in Turkey, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and really chase my dreams. I am so grateful for how things turned out, and I wish the same for you!
My e-mail address: eda4@illinois.edu
Learning to Teach English 