Month: March 2024

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As a parent, it’s difficult to often trust anyone else with your child’s welfare. Study abroad counselors are those guiding your child through one of life’s most important, and more often than not, difficult decisions. How can you then work best with your child’s college counselor, so as to ensure the best possible experience for them through this difficult, strenuous process of college applications?

• It’s important to treat your child’s consultant as an ALLY—as study-abroad mentors, they’re almost second parents to the kid, and they also have the child’s best interest at heart. It’s the counselor’s job to give you real information about the likelihood of your child’s admission possibilities based on their grades. It’s NOT judgment, but fact. Please take it in that sense.
• Don’t wait for a crisis to meet the counselor. Use their time effectively to convey any important information about the child, and take invitations for meetings seriously. Respect their time, as much as you respect any of your child’s teachers’. While they might be providing a service, they ARE professionals. They don’t need to be constantly reminded, or be contacted outside business hours.
• The education consultant knows what they’re doing. They have access to current information and trends, connections to colleges around the country, and the responsibility to do what’s best for each mentee. Enter this relationship with a positive attitude—don’t question their knowledge. Definitely ask questions if you’re unsure about something, but respectfully.
• Help the agency and the student coordinate, but also ensure that your child is taking ownership of their activities. It’s neither your’s or the counselor’s responsibility to do the child’s work for them—it’s the child’s application, and they MUST be held accountable for it right from the beginning. Remind them of deadlines, help them prioritize tasks, proofread and provide suggestions, but they must do their own work and stay ahead of their tasks.
• Don’t pressurize the child into your dreams. This also means, in all honesty, don’t hover over your children, even if they’re applying to YOUR field. This makes it difficult for the abroad-education counselor to provide the right advice or lead them down the path that’s best for your child. Guide them, but let them find their own way. It’s imperative to their success.

Having a good relationship with your child’s college counselor goes a long way toward smoothing out the rough pavement on the road to college. You’ll be glad to have had the support at the end!

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As a high-school student interested in education abroad, you must have heard from your college counselors  or high-school counselors about the daunting admissions process. It’s a long, often frustrating process with one of the most difficult questions you have probably ever asked yourself—how do you know which college is the right fit for you?

Some of the best abroad education consultants will tell you that college tours are one way to show your interest in a college before or during the admissions process, alongside discovering the answer to this question. It’s also a foolproof way to get real information about resources, facilities, and college atmosphere, and a chance to talk to someone who is already there. More often than not, these tours are led by a student, who can directly respond to your questions about student life.

Here are some things you MUST check on a campus tour to make the most out of it:

● Academics:

• How popular is here on campus?
• How accessible are the faculty on campus for office hours?
• How big are classes? Are classes lecture-based or discussion-based?
• How satisfied are you with academic advising?
• Are professors available for research with students?
• What are the attendance policies like?
• Do students use any on-campus tutoring programs or writing centers?
• What kind of labs and research centers are available and accessible to undergraduate students?

● Campus Life:

• What is it like to be a first-year on campus?
• What kind of support is available to international students?
• What do you do when you’re not in class?
• What kinds of things are there to do in the school’s hometown?
• Which clubs and organizations are popular? Is there a club on campus?
• How’s the food ?
• Is it easy to get around campus? Is it disability-accessible?
• Do most students live on campus? How are the dorms?
• How safe is the campus? What measures are in place to protect students and staff?
• What resources are available for students to access in case of safety emergencies?

● Student Body?

• What makes the student body unique?
• Do students of different races and classes interact easily? Are the cliquish?
• How do student politics work here?

● Career Services:

• Are internships available? How do you find them?
• Is Career Services helpful?
• Does the school have a co-op program ?
• Are there opportunities to build leadership skills on campus?
• What options exist for service learning in the community?
• Do employers recruit students on campus?
• How easy is it to find summer jobs and other kinds of work through the school?

However, please do some basic research about the school before you go on a campus visit; do not depend on the guide for ALL the information. Carry some water and snacks with you; tours can get slightly overwhelming. Don’t hesitate to take pictures, as long as you take permission from the tour guide. While your excitement is valid, please don’t interrupt the tour guide while they’re speaking, and wait for the right moment to ask questions. Usually, there is time allotted at regular time intervals during the tour, or at the end, to ask questions. Follow-up the tour with an email, thanking the university and the guide for their hospitality!

Don’t forget to have fun, and Bon Voyage!