3 Things to Know Before Applying to Study Abroad (Podcast Highlights)

Updated 2026/10/16

This article is an edited version of a podcast transcript. Click 👉🏻 to listen to the full episode (in Chinese).

If you like it, please give my podcast a five-star rating on your platform 🌟 (transcripts take a lot of work 🥹)!

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Hi, and welcome to Jason’s Career Folder. I’m your host, Jason. I’ve been sharing content about careers and studying abroad for a long time. Here you can “open” the folder and explore the stories, and you can also “edit” it with me: build up your experience, pick up insights, and learn new things!

Today I want to talk about three things you need to know before applying to study abroad:

1. Self-reflection before you apply
2. Whether studying abroad “suits” you, and whether you “need” to study abroad
3. How schools evaluate applicants: how do they decide whether to admit a student, and how much do grades really matter?

Most students run into these questions when they apply. If you search online, you’ll see plenty of feel-good posts encouraging everyone to leave their comfort zone without thinking about their own situation. Basically, everyone recommends that you go study abroad.

Today I want to share my own view, which may not be what you usually find online. If you’re curious, read on.

What is self-reflection, and why do it?

Let’s start with self-reflection. If you follow my Instagram, you’ll know I bring up self-reflection quite often. Many people overlook it when they apply to study abroad.

That’s partly because study-abroad agencies, consultants, and online articles rarely talk about it. It’s homework you have to do yourself: working out your own goals before you apply.

So today I want to explain it. Self-reflection covers a lot of ground, including your career plans, reflecting on your past experiences, and even uncovering your own traits.

We need self-reflection to connect everything we’ve done, every experience, into one line, and then connect that line to the future, whether that’s a career plan or a life plan. This matters a lot for study-abroad applications and even for job hunting.

For example, say I started a business in my second year of college and my goal was to work in the startup world. So in my senior year I decided to intern at a venture capital firm, moving from the startup side to the other side of the table to learn how investors evaluate startups.

A second, more common example: a student takes a class, joins an activity, or attends a talk in college and becomes interested in a field, say cloud computing. They then do internships related to cloud computing to confirm their passion. During those internships they may find they’re missing something, whether knowledge, industry insight, or hands-on experience, and that’s where the idea of filling the gap with a graduate degree comes from.

Self-reflection means taking the many scattered little stories from your past and stringing them into one line. Connect your past experiences to your future, find the core passion, goals, and interests (your internal drive) in that line, and figure out what actually drove you to make those decisions!

Why does self-reflection matter so much for study-abroad applications?

When preparing application materials, most people do their résumé first, then the SOP, and then prepare for interviews if there are any. That process can mislead or confuse you. Because you start with the résumé, you list each experience separately: what I did in my first year, my second year, my third and fourth years, and after graduating. But beyond listing everything, you should find your most important highlights and the core values the school cares about, then dig into those for your bullet points, so the résumé keeps only what’s essential.

Then, when you write your SOP, Personal Statement, or essays, you pick the most relevant parts of your résumé, connect those points into one line, and link it to your future plans. That is what matters most in a study-abroad application.

Take the example from earlier: I did certain things in college, found during an internship that I really was interested in the field, but also found what I was missing. So I need a graduate program, its resources or courses, to fill that gap quickly, so I can enter the industry I care about right after graduating.

If you can connect your past experiences into a line like this, and even put the school and your future plans on the same line, then when the school or the admissions officer reads your essay, they’ll see that you’ve thought deeply, planned your direction, and understand why you did what you did in college and before.

I’ve mentioned career planning and reflecting on past experiences. On reflecting on your past, one more point: if you’re not sure how to do it, write out your résumé and you’ll probably see several experiences. A practical approach is to look at your résumé and ask: after my first internship, why did I go to a second one? And after the second, why did I go to yet another company for a third?

If you think through the “cause and effect” of each experience, including:

• First: why did you do this?
• Second: after it ended, why did you move to another company?

After some simple thinking about these, it’s easier to string them into a story and to uncover why you made those choices in the first place.

Next is uncovering your own traits, which is probably the hardest part. To write good application essays, you really have to know yourself! The easier way is to write out your story. Once you’ve connected your past experiences, the school, and your future plans into one line, look at what you did in those experiences and whether they have anything in common.

For example, maybe you love leading a small team, or you love bringing about change. What role do you play in a team? What are your interests in your free time?

From small things like these, you can gradually discover your traits. A trait doesn’t have to be a single adjective; it can be a sentence. That makes it easier to think about what kind of person you are, what you might be good at, and what you like to do at work to influence others.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll understand yourself better: what role you play in a team, and what role you could play in the workplace or even in class at school.

US graduate programs in particular love asking odd questions, which in effect test whether you’ve done your self-reflection: whether you understand your traits and what your values are.

How do you know whether studying abroad suits you?

The second point is how to know whether studying abroad suits you, which is a very big question. I touched on it briefly when the podcast Da Xue Wen interviewed me. Today I want to go into it properly.

The key word in this question is “suits.” You first need to separate whether it suits you, whether you want it, and whether you need it.

Even if studying abroad doesn’t “suit” you right now, if you really “want” it or “need” it, you can try to fix the parts that don’t fit. Looking only at whether it suits you, I think there are three things to consider.

First, whether your goal is clear: do you understand why you want to study abroad? If you don’t, you won’t have the motivation to apply, or to study once you’re there and put your energy into the experience, and you’ll waste both money and time.

Second, language ability. Your language skills can improve while you’re abroad, but if you can close the gap before you go, your experience will definitely be better. Daily life, studying, and talking with classmates and professors from other countries will all go better. You’ll also take more in, and language barriers won’t limit how much you absorb, how well you communicate, or how much you grow.

Third, personality. If you’ve decided to study abroad, try stepping out of your comfort zone in different ways (at the very least, be open-minded), make friends from different countries and cultures, and experience the local culture. Even the ability to enjoy being alone, or to be independent, is something you can really experience and learn while studying abroad.

We’ve talked about whether it “suits” you; now let’s talk about whether you “need” it. Very few people will raise this with you. A study-abroad agency, for example, has no interest in discussing it, because it wants you to sign a contract and send you abroad (otherwise it doesn’t make money).

What I want to discuss is whether you actually need to study abroad. To decide whether something is a necessity, you ask whether you really must have it. To decide whether studying abroad is a necessity in your life or career plan, the test might be: how will studying abroad help you reach your long-term goals, or at least reach your life or career goals faster?

For example, your goal might be an international career. You may not want to work only in Taiwan; you might want to work elsewhere in Greater China or even move to Europe or the US. Can studying abroad help you find a job in another country? Say you earn a graduate degree from a school that’s widely recognized around the world. Have that school’s alumni managed to open doors in international workplaces in various countries, making it easier for you to find work abroad? That may be one reason some people apply to study abroad.

A common reason to study abroad: the pivot

Next I want to talk about a concept people in the MBA community bring up a lot: the pivot. People usually say there are three kinds of pivot when you apply for an MBA:

• A change in job function
• A change in location (for example, from working in Taiwan to working in the US)
• A change in industry (for example, starting in consulting and pivoting to tech through an MBA or master’s)

A pivot is a central point or axis, and the axis is the most important part of the idea. When you want to make a change in your career or life, think of it as a pivot: keep one foot planted as the axis and step the other foot into a new field! Use the foundation and experience you built in your original field to give yourself an advantage when you pivot into the new one. (As opposed to jumping with both feet without considering what your past experience gives you.)

That’s why MBA alumni often say one pivot is doable or relatively easy. For example, changing location while keeping the same function and industry is probably easier. Two pivots can be very challenging, so you need to prepare early and deal with the likely obstacles in advance. If you pivot all three, you’re seriously impressive! Changing your function, your job content, your industry, and your work location all at once through studying abroad is something only superstars pull off.

I bring up the pivot because it helps you judge whether you need to study abroad. These three pivots are why most MBA applicants apply. The last idea I want to stress is that you must first understand your goal, why you want to study abroad, and then evaluate what kind of help studying abroad, or a particular school, can give you.

For example: what resources and courses the school offers, its alumni network, any special programs, what resources its professors provide, and so on. These are all things you can use. Doing it the other way round, deciding to study abroad first and then thinking about what goals it could help you reach, puts the cart before the horse. You need to understand your goal first and then decide on studying abroad. Studying abroad is only a “means” to that end.

A high GPA or lots of activities: which do schools abroad care about more?

The last point is how schools might evaluate applications. How do they choose students, and does GPA really matter?

When admissions officers review applications, they’re looking for reasons to admit you, not reasons to reject you. So in your SOP or PS, start from your goal. Explain why you need this school, what you did before applying, and what you’ve done to prepare for your goal, so that the only step left is studying at this school. Studying there will get you to your long-term goal faster.

If you write this clearly, the school will think: OK, if you come here, we really can help you!

Now, how do admissions officers or professors actually choose students? Many people ask whether GPA matters. I think GPA is still a fairly important factor. It’s objective, quantifiable data, so when a school receives one or two thousand applications, it can use objective data (the applicant’s school and GPA) to quickly gauge academic ability. For example, they might set a cutoff, set aside anyone below 2.0, look at those above 2.0 first, or even sort by GPA from high to low.

US graduate programs, for example, also put more weight on the whole student. Among applicants in the same pool with a GPA of, say, 3.5 or higher, they might look at how well each person’s PS and SOP are written, whether they have internships, and whether those internships helped them understand their career goals better. Besides internships there may be class projects, research, or teaching assistant experience. All of these help an application!

They want well-rounded, diverse students, not people who are only good at studying. US schools also place particular weight on DE&I (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). They want to understand your values, what you care about beyond school and work: whether you give back to society, which issues matter to you, whether you pay attention to the situation of minority groups, and so on.

Next: if you do badly on one part, do you have no chance at all? I completely disagree! It isn’t like Taiwan’s college entrance exam, where you add up your scores across a few subjects and that basically decides everything. Schools look at a lot of things. Otherwise, why would the application ask for so many materials? If your GPA isn’t great, you can find other ways to show academic ability. For example, take the GMAT or GRE to show it indirectly, write an Optional Essay explaining any legitimate reasons, or point out that your grades improved over time.

This brings me back to what I said at the start: admissions officers are looking for reasons to admit you, not to reject you. So play up your strengths and play down your weaknesses. Find your highlights, use them as your selling points, and write those up well. Don’t keep dwelling on your weak spots and trying to explain or justify them. If you keep reminding the admissions officer that your GPA is low, bringing it up in the Optional Essay or your essays, you’re poking at your own sore spot, and you don’t need to. Find your selling points quickly, write about your highlights, and give them a reason to admit you!

Summary

Today I shared three things you need to know before applying to study abroad. It covered a lot, so here’s a quick summary:

Self-reflection before you apply

Reflection covers career planning, reflecting on past experiences, uncovering your traits, and so on. It’s easier said than done, so when you do it, pull out your résumé, list your experiences, and think carefully about each one: why you did it in the first place, and what you learned or took away from it. Then gradually connect them, link them to the school, and then to your future career or life plans.

Whether studying abroad suits you and whether you need it, and common reasons to go

For example, the three pivots I mentioned: a change in job function, a change in location (for example, from working in Taiwan to working in the US), and a change in industry (for example, starting in consulting and pivoting to tech through an MBA or master’s).

How schools evaluate applications, and whether grades matter

The main point is that although GPA is fairly important (maybe 30% to 50% of the weight), you should play up your strengths, play down your weaknesses, and find your highlights and distinctive qualities!

Don’t keep circling around your weaknesses. Think your story through and write it down, write down your future plans, and do it in your own genuine voice so professors and schools understand you better. Then, once you’ve submitted your essays and materials, you’ll have no regrets.

You can tell yourself you’ve written everything as well as you can, and whether the school admits you is out of your hands. So my advice is: before you apply, really take the time to understand these three things. Do your self-reflection, work out whether studying abroad suits you and whether you need it, and cover every element of the application. Bring out your highlights and distinctive qualities in your materials as much as you can, and you’ll greatly improve your chances of admission and of landing your dream offer!

Today’s goal was to get you familiar with these three ideas early, so you can start planning ahead!