Readers of this blog can now get a look at a number of various online resources by going to our new page, entitled ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
http://www.myuface.com/blog/additional-resources/
Here we’ll place websites, programs, etc. that we think you’ll find useful. To start with we’ve got about ten links, but this number will grow over time.
Hope you find it useful!
Are you considering studying internationally, but can’t make up your mind? Do you wonder if all the effort that goes into studying abroad will be worth it?
Well, here’s a sign that an international education will be considered very valuable in the coming years: the THINK Global School.
The Think Global School is a high school which changes its campus every trimester. If you are a student at the school for four years, that means you will live and study in twelve different cities around the planet. You can see more about the school here.
So why is this relevant to students considering studying at a university i the U.S.? Well, the people behind Think Global clearly believe that an international education is worth a lot, and that parents will be willing to pay very high tuition in order to prepare their students for a globalized world.
Just how much is that international education worth? Well, one year at Think Global school costs $88,000. Yes, eighty-eight THOUSAND.
Tuition at a U.S. university doesn’t look so expensive any more, does it?
After some time dancing around the internet, I stumbled across this collection of basic information about culture shock and how to deal with it. The website isn’t the fanciest you’ve seen, but the information is good.
I hope you find it useful.
For anyone who wants a quick eight minute guide to why it is so, SO important to internationalize your education, I highly recommend the following video, produced in June 2007. The message I take away? Education, education, education. Your education is the best investment you will ever make.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your impressions of the film:
Often, we think of international students as young people, often just out of high school. This profile of an international student at The University of South Carolina Upstate reminds us that international students can come from all age groups:
Andy believes his biggest accomplishment as an international student has been having his family here with him on his venture. Andy is thirty-six years old, married to his wife Ellen and the father of two daughters, ages four and two. On the weekends he and his family enjoy hiking in the Appalachian Mountains and dining on Russian, Asian, German and Italian cuisines prepared by Andy who has a passion for cooking. Andy and his wife are teaching their daughters to speak Russian, German and English.
This is a good reminder to all of us that international students can be older than 20; that they can have children and families; that they can have careers; and that they can be interested in things other than a traditional, four-year undergraduate program.
If you’re reading this blog and you’re an older professional who’s always dreamed of studying in the U.S., hey, it’s never too late!
The podcast returns from a long hiatus to talk about when and how you should ask questions during the process of applying to U.S. universities.
Speaking of questions, if you have any for the podcast, let us know at podcast@myuface.com.
Yesterday we shared a brief excerpt from Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat, in which he talked about the skills you need to succeed in a globalized world. Today, I’d like to share another excerpt, in which Mr. Friedman discusses the ways in which U.S. universities support exactly these skills.
Before I do, and for the benefit of those interested in the ongoing debate about globalization (what it is, whether it’s good, etc.) I want to mention that Mr. Friedman certainly has his critics (for example, here). Nonetheless, his views are valuable at the very least because they represent a strong current of thought regarding globalization and its impact.
With that disclaimer out of the way, here is Friedman on U.S. universities (with a big assist from Bill Gates):
It is a truism, but the more educated you are, the more options you will have . . . “Our university system is the best,” said Bill Gates. “We fund our universities to do a lot of research and that is an amazing thing. High-IQ people come here, and we allow them to innovate and turn [their innovations] into products. We reward risk taking. Our university system is competitive and experimental. They can try out different approaches . . . It is a chaotic system, but it is a great engine of innovation in the world . . .”
“America has 4,000 colleges and universities,” said Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education. “The rest of the world combined has 7,768 institutions of higher education. In the state of California alone, there are about 130 colleges and universities. There are only 14 countries in the world with more than that number.”
. . . [I]n 2003, American universities reaped $1.3 billion from patents . . .
In other words, U.S. universities innovate and take risks in order to adapt to a changing world. What’s more, because of the sheer number of universities, they do so on an unprecedented scale, and in a vast array of fields.
For that reason, if you are interested in sharpening you skills in terms of innovation and adaptability, you won’t go wrong by investing in a U.S. university for your higher education.
Here at myUface, we continually recommend to international students that they give serious, prolonged thought to their future careers before they apply to U.S. universities. Doing so will focus your thoughts during the application and essay-writing process, and lead to a better, sharper application – one with a much greater chance of being accepted?
We hear from students quite often, however, that thinking about what they plan to do so early on in their lives is a difficult challenge. Before introducing today’s blog post, let me first of all say, that’s OK, you can always CHANGE your career plans – but it’s still a good idea to have some!
Beyond that, though, I thought it might be useful to give all of the readers of the blog an insight into where the global economy is headed, as a tool for you to use in thinking about your own careers.
The following is excerpted from Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat, a national bestseller here in the United States that introduces us all to “globalization.” I would recommend that anyone interested in understanding the global economy today, and the direction in which it’s headed, should buy this book. For now, I wanted to focus on two sections: one (today) about the skills that workers of tomorrow are going to need in order to be successful; and the second (tomorrow) on the ability ot the U.S. educational system to impart those skills.
The way to succeed [in a globalized world is] . . . by upgrading your skills and making the investment in those practices that will enable you . . . to claim your slice of the bigger but more complex pie.
You have to constantly upgrade your skills. There will be plenty of jobs . . . for people with the knowledge and the ideas to seize them.
You actually want to become really adaptable. You want to constantly acquire new skills, knowledge and expertise that enable you constantly to be able to create value . . . . Being adaptable in a flat world, knowing how to “learn hot to learn,” will become one of the most important assets any worker can have . . . because innovation will happen faster.
Atul Vashistha, CEO of NeoIT, a California consulting firm . . . has a good feel for this: “What you can do and how you can adapt and how you can leverage all the experience and knowledge you have . . . that is the basic component for survival. When you are changing jobs a lot, and when your environment is changing a lot, being adaptable is the number one thing. The people who are losing out are those with solid technical skills who have not grown those skills.”
In short, it’s not enough to simply know information or possess skills. You have to know how to be able to use those skills and apply them to new situations. You also have to know how to learn new information quickly and efficiently. The watchwords of the age are: innovation and adaptability.
And as we’ll see tomorrow, these are precisely the attributes that U.S. universities specialize in cultivating in students.
Dear podcast listeners and blog readers! You can now subscribe to the myUface weekly podcast via iTunes.
Students who are applying to either the Bolashak Fellowship in Kazakhstan or the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program – or to any sponsored fellowship or scholarship – should check out how myUface can help.
For one thing, a lot of the advice you’ll find on this blog will DEFINITELY make you more competitive when applying for the Bolashak, Global Undergaduate, or other sponsored programs. For example, our timeline for applying to a U.S. university is a good resource whether you’re applying independently or through a program. Having trouble staying focused and getting all your materials together? We have collected some online resources to keep you from procrastinating.
Later this year we’ll be talking about completing applications, writing essays, preparing for tests, and doing well in interviews – all of which are very important to putting together a good application for any sponsored program.
So please, visit often. And do not hesitate to ask questions by commenting on the blog or e-mailing us at blog@myuface.com.
Welcome to the myUface blog!
Our goal is to provide you with all the information you need to pursue your education in the United States.
