Interpreters and Conference Interpreting

Hello everyone!

My name is Blanca and I would like to apply for the MIIS after finishing my degree in Translation and Interpreting. My working languages are Spanish, English, German and French. I would like to ask you if you have to send a sort of dossier (including your academic records and diplomas) and what does the entrace exam consist of.

Thanks,

Blanca

Hello Bianca,
about MIIS, there is no entrance exam (like there is at ETI Geneva, or ESIT Paris), all you need is to submit translation tests, so-called "Early Diagnostic Tests", in your A, B or C languages. Together with your transcripts/diplomas/degrees from other schools they will determine whether you are suitable and they should admit you or not.
I am not sure why they don't have an entrance exam.
Cheers
Joanne

Thank you for your reply, Joanne. Well, that really helps, knowing that I don't have to fly to Monterey to take an oral exam . I guess the main reason is that a great number of students applying for the MIIS are not originally from the US and it would be quite difficult for them to attend.

Thanks again

US universities generally do not have in-person examinations like in Europe for admissions to a program.

Instead, you must send a general application to the university itself (not the department/specific program) which usually includes transripts from past studies, a statement (not a lettre de motivation but an actual essay; Westminster asks for the same thing I believe) and a couple of letters of reccomendation (in a signed, sealed envelope, either sent directly to the university or unopened, by you, with the rest of the paperwork), TOEFL scores if you are not a native English-speaker, and GRE scores.

(the Graduate Record Examination, which is a complete annoyance to anyone, no matter what your field. Basically it is a test of your verbal (vocabulary and logic) and quantitative (ie math) abilities, to see if you are capable of doing graduate research. Once again, this is rather ridiculous, but reccomended, if not required, for most US graduate programs)

For the specific graduate program itself, whether it be interpreting at MIIS, linguistics, or nuclear physics, there will often be extra documents to send in. In this case, the Early Diagnostic Test, in other cases, papers from past studies, more letters of reccomendation, etc.

Hopefully I have cleared up a bit about the US admissions process for anyone looking at Monterey. Don't worry, we are just as confused by the European admissions!

Thanks for your help, Sonjaks:). It seems a totally different admission process indeed .

Actually the first time I heard about the Graduate Record Examination was while visiting the MIIS website . I'm pretty sure that it's a sort of an unofficial requirement, so it looks like I will have to sit the GRE tests.

I guess I'll post at the Westminster thread as well for some details as for the application, because the website doesn't help much.

Cheers,

Blanca

I should clarify that the reason MIIS does not have an entrance exam (in person) is not necessarily a good thing (maybe maybe not). And one should not say that it is like this because in the US one does not have an in-person interview at any school.
The University of Leeds (UK), for example, also has only such tests, they would interview in person if the candidate is in Europe, but it is not an entrance exam.
And oh, there is no GRE test required for MIIS, no matter what the field of study. Now whether this is good or bad, I do not know
cheers