Every year, AHS’ graduating seniors head off to colleges around the world to start the next big part of their lives.
AHS is home to students from 76 different countries. Most will stay close to home or attend college somewhere else in the states, but how many will choose to travel to another country? The answer: very few.
Only a handful of AHS students apply to international colleges each year. Of these students, many have already lived in that country and know what life there will be like.
So why do so few students apply to international colleges? For one, they are so far from home that many students do not even consider applying. Also, unless they have lived there before, they have no firsthand experience of what to expect from everyday life and the school system.
There are also the challenges of going somewhere new. Communication can be very difficult in other countries, and adjusting to life there may take awhile because of cultural gaps and language barriers.
Senior Hannah Wallin, who recently applied to two German universities is among the few who are seeking a college experience overseas.
“Since it’s an international university, everyone basically has a different culture,” she explained. “I was an exchange student last year, so I learned how to look at things from an outside perspective. It’s important to be open and tolerate differences in culture,” said Wallin.
For others, it is financial issues that deter them from traveling abroad for college.
Colleges alone are very expensive, and travel adds even more to the total cost. In some countries, the U.S. dollar is worth a lot, but in others it is worth very little, driving up the price of an education.
These problems aside, there are many advantages to attending international colleges.They serve as a chance to meet new people, observe other cultures, and learn in a way different to our own.
They also give students a chance to study things they may not have been able to study in the U.S.
“You’re going to a school and getting an overseas experience, getting immersed in the culture, maybe a language that’s new,” explained Career Center
Specialist Robin Roth about the benefits of international schools.
Senior Deepu Nair has other reasons for wanting to attend a college overseas.
“In the context of India, the curriculum is much more comprehensive and they cover a lot more,” he said. “They might not focus that much on the practical applications of the studies, but you gain a complete mastery of the theological basis of the subjects.”
International colleges also provide students with the opportunity to learn about the world through a total immersion in a different culture: an experience only possible overseas.
“There’s more of an international feeling,” said Wallin about the unique qualities of the German schools to which she is applying. “It’s not just people from Germany, it’s people from all over the world.”