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4 Reasons Students Should Consider Going to College in Europe

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Craig Meister

High school students analyzing America’s higher education landscape today are wise to question whether it makes sense to pursue a degree at a college or university that is overpriced, ideologically stifling, and socially antithetical to their personal values. Yet, if they are serious about acquiring valuable knowledge for their career goals and for overall self-improvement, students should not cower at the thought of earning the exact degree they want wherever they want to earn it. While in most cases, young Americans will only consider college or university options in America, the good, and somewhat surprising news to many, is that there are terrific – and even superior – higher education options beyond America’s borders. In fact, young Americans may be better off spending their entire undergraduate careers in Western Europe instead of the United States of America. Here are four reasons why:

Earn Your Degree in 3 Years Instead of 4 Years

Why spend four years at Yale, Harvard, or Princeton when you could spend three years at Oxford, Cambridge, or Imperial College London? The standard undergraduate degree takes a good year longer to complete in the U.S. than it does in England, where the standard undergraduate degree is typically completed in three years. In fact, across Europe, many degrees are doable in only three years. Why does it take longer in the U.S.? Well, that’s mainly because in England and across Europe universities…

Don’t Waste Your Time on Required General Education or ‘Diversity’ Courses

In America it has become standard for large public research universities, small liberal arts colleges, and everything in between to require students to complete general education and distribution requirements that have little to nothing to do with their major area of study. This means that if you are an Engineering major you may still need to take a course in the social sciences in order to earn your degree. If you are Math major you may still need to take a required diversity course to meet graduation requirements. If you are an Economics major you may still need to fulfill a foreign language requirement before you receive your diploma. You get the idea.

UCLA

Taking even a few required courses that you have no interest in adds up fast – so fast that soon you find yourself paying for an entire year of tuition that has nothing to do with your intended career or major area of interest. In Europe, especially in England, every class you take will be in your major (or as they call it, course) area. If you are studying History, every course you take will be related to History. If you want to immerse yourself in Business, all courses you take from day one until the day you graduate will educate you about business.

UCL1

UCL2

Male students in particular are often not as inclined to multitask as female students; therefore, men, pay attention: England’s style of higher education is best suited for the student who knows exactly what he (or she) wants to study and who does not want to mess around with subjects that are tangential to his (or her) goals. It’s one thing to get a broad-based education in high school; college is arguably the ideal time to focus on a very narrow subject deeply. Sadly, most undergraduate institutions in the U.S. don’t permit students to delve as deeply and fully into subject areas as their counterparts in England because of the many other academic requirements U.S. colleges and universities place upon their students.

Pay Less Money Than You’d Ever Expect for a European Degree

The retail price of Europe’s top universities is often far less than the retail price of tuition at America’s top universities. In many cases college is free to European citizens, which promotes great economic diversity of students attending European universities. In addition, many universities in England and throughout Europe participate in the U.S. Federal Student Aid Program, which allows American students to take out loans similar to the ones they would be taking out to attend U.S. colleges anyway. In Germany, college is essentially free to all non-citizens – even Americans, and one may not even need to learn German to study in Germany, as increasingly entire undergraduate degree programs in Germany are offered in English.

Expose Yourself to Amazing Experiences and Diversity Outside of the Classroom

If you are studying in a big American city you can of course go out to dinner at a great French restaurant or hit up the clubs in the trendy part of town. If you are studying in London, you can spend your entire weekend in Paris, Budapest, or Seville. In Europe, centuries worth of the culture and history of Western Civilization beckon around nearly every corner. While the U.S. is fascinating and filled with important sites and dynamic culture, if you are from the U.S., college is an ideal time when you could be exposing yourself to a life unlike any you have experienced in the past or will experience again in the future. Europe offers you just this sort of experience.

While many American colleges boast of diversity when pointing to the race, state of residence, or country of citizenship of their students, it is obvious to anyone who looks at the situation critically that such diversity is often superficial at best. At top American colleges especially, no matter a student’s race, state of residence, or country of citizenship, he or she is far more likely to be a son or daughter of a doctor, lawyer, investment banker, politician, or owner of a major company than he or she is to be the son or daughter of a farmer, factory worker, waitress, construction worker, or truck driver. Your college years should be the time to gain exposure to a greater diversity of people and perspectives than you ever could gain exposure to in high school or may ever be able to have access to again upon entering the world of work. Studying in Europe will allow you to do just that, as European universities attract students from all economic levels and all corners of the Earth because of their relative affordability and quality.

Skin Deep Diversity

If you are studying in a small town in the U.S. your most likely social options each weekend will consist of getting drunk or staying sober in the dorms or off-campus with middle or upper class peers. As mentioned previously, in Europe, university students often come from a greater number of countries, cultures, and classes, and these individuals’ ideal diversions often does not come in the form of getting drunk at frat parties or at pre-game or post-game parties on and around campus. If you have had any social life in high school, college social life in the U.S. has a very real feeling of ‘been there, done that’ with a splash of greater excess. European students’ ideal form of socialization is on average more sophisticated than that of their peers in the U.S. both because of Europe’s lower legal drinking ages and more diverse social preferences.

Europe vs. America

Bottom Line

Going to college in Europe often means attending class with and living nearby students who are more focused on their academic and professional goals and who socialize in myriad ways that average American students would never even consider on their college campuses. Europe is not for everyone; however, if you find yourself unhappy with or underwhelmed by your undergraduate study options in the U.S., you should seriously consider crossing the pond and challenging yourself to a style of education and a social environment utterly distinct from what you would likely experience at most colleges and universities in the U.S.

This One Characteristic Trumps Leadership

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Craig Meister

Don't Copy; Be Original

Forget about the leader-follower paradigm, which argues that to get into a top college you need to be a leader and not a follower. There is something that is even better than being a leader if you want to give yourself the best shot of admission to all the colleges and universities on your list.

Yes, Instant Admission is a Thing, and it’s Awesome

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Craig Meister

You may know all about Regular Decision, Early Decision, and Early Action, but do have you heard about the most exciting type of Admission? Instant Admission is pretty much the dream of every student and every admissions officer; it’s fun, fast, and exhilarating.

All About Early Decision

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Craig Meister

When you apply Early Decision you send you application in by a specific early deadline and receive an admissions decision earlier than regular decision (usually in the middle of December). If admitted Early Decision you must attend that college. You will be required to sign a statement agreeing to this binding policy – and so will your counselor and your parent(s). Once admitted Early Decision, your high school is not allowed to send your transcripts, teacher recommendations, and school profile to any other colleges on your behalf and you must withdraw any pending applications to other colleges while also informing colleges that have already accepted you Rolling or Early Action or Priority that you must decline their offers of admission.

• Going for Early Decision must be well thought out and carefully contemplated. If you applying to a college Early Decision (ED) it should be your first choice college and you should have visited and attended an informational session for that college. Early Decision should be discussed in detail with your counselor and family.
• The only way to nullify an Early Decision commitment is if the financial package is insufficient; however, this is not always possible and even if it is, this may not leave you much time to apply to other colleges.

Priority Admission vs. Regular Decision

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Craig Meister

Comparing Priority Admission and Regular Decision is not that hard to do. What is hard to understand is why anyone would miss applying by a college’s priority deadline and in the process settle for applying Regular Decision.

When you apply Regular Decision you are applying by a college’s Regular deadline, which is typically in early winter (January or February). Students can apply to more than one college Regular Decision. Decisions tend to be received between March and April.

Priority Admission is when a college sets a date by which applications given the most consideration must be received. This date precedes such colleges’ Regular Decision deadlines. Students can also apply to more than one college Priority. Plus, Priority Admission is non-binding, which means you don’t have to attend the college if admitted. If a Priority Admission deadline is offered by a college on your list, you would be crazy not to apply by this date.

Watch the video below for a more contextualized discussion on the topic of Priority vs. Regular.

All About Rolling Admission

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Craig Meister

Rolling Admission colleges review applications as they are received and make decisions on an on-going and space-available basis. Chances of acceptance at a Rolling Admission college improve greatly if the completed application is sent during the late summer (August or September) of a student’s senior year in high school.

When is the Best Time to Take an SAT Subject Test?

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Craig Meister

If you are taking AP, IB, or other very challenging high school courses, you should be planning to take SAT Subject Tests to impress college admissions committees; yet, many students have no clear strategy as to when to take SAT Subject Tests. You are not going to be one of those students after watching this video.

Don’t Ask Your Teacher to Change Your IB Predicted Scores

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Craig Meister

Many schools ask teachers to make IB predictions during the first weeks of a student’s senior year. Once the predictions are made students would be wise to avoid confronting their teachers about them.

How to get High IB Predicted Scores

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Craig Meister

Don’t worry about the exact methodology or rubric teachers and counselors use to produce and report your predicted IB scores. Instead, focus on what you can do to inspire teachers to give you the highest predictions possible.

Your actions play the largest role in determining your IB predictions; therefore, you are responsible if they are not what you had hoped. To underscore this point just a bit more, we’ve enlisted the support of the sage advice of Oprah herself:

American vs. Canadian College Admissions

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Craig Meister

More than ever students applying to college in the US are also looking to Canada for more college and university options. The same can be said of their Canadian counterparts. With this in mind, it’s important to review the major differences between the admissions process in the United States and Canada. While the following information is very valuable in general, please remember that specific colleges and universities may of course deviate from the general rule outlined below. Always remember to check with the college or universities on your final list to ensure that you are meeting their admissions criteria and meeting their priority deadlines. Good luck!

  Canada United States
Application Deadlines Apply as soon as the applications are available online (in many cases December or January); deadlines vary by institution but are generally later than the US and typically on a rolling basis. Be careful to not apply to late, as Canadian schools don’t have the same May 1 reply by date as US schools and they typically take long to process applications Deadlines vary by institution, but are generally earlier than Canada and most have specific deadlines including those for Early Action (non-binding) and Early Decision (binding).
Admissions Criteria – Academic Performance Academic performance is the most important decision factor; requirements vary by institution and by competitive programs. Senior/junior year performance is crucial to many Canadian universities – most all will require first semester senior year grades (or predicted IB scores), so late bloomers can really benefit. Academic performance is the most important decision factor for both private colleges and universities, with more weight given to rigorous, college-prep curricula. Most US universities will look at grades 9, 10, 11, and 12with more weight on senior/junior year performance. First semester senior year grades are required for admission, unless the student is applying Early Decision, Early Action, or early in the Rolling cycle.
Admissions Criteria – Other Less emphasis on reference letters, essays, and extracurricular activities (most universities will not require this information for evaluation). More emphasis on reference letters, essays, extracurricular activities, and demonstrated interest (especially at mid- and small-sized private colleges/universities).
Admissions Criteria – Testing Some require SAT/ACT, and rarely SAT Subject Tests, but not all. Inquire with each college you are considering. Most weigh SAT or ACT scores, and sometimes SAT Subject Tests. An increasing number of colleges are test optional (see fairtest.org).
Decisions Decisions roll out from February to April, or even later. Decisions can be rolling or with deadline schools no later than April 1. The uniform reply/deposit deadline is May 1.

More information:

Universities Canada

Education in Canada

EducationUSA

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