Counseling Newsletter |

Be sure to expand the Counseling Newsletter this week!! It’s a busy week for information!!!

All: It’s never to early to organize papers, homework, and assessments for the coming Semester Examinations.

Juniors: Junior conferences are in full swing. Have you made an appointment to see your son’s/daughter’s counselor yet?

Research, Research, Research!! Which universities will you apply???

The popular University Labs are Monday’s after school in room 3-203; The next two University Labs will include Japan/Korea on April 22 and Thailand on April 29. Please mark your calendars.

BIG SAT PREP NEWS: ISB is making available the “Prep Me” SAT prep course as a part of grade 11 students’ Naviance account. Just go to your Naviance Home Page and click on the Prep Me link, register, take a diagnostic test and/or enter any previous SAT results, and begin the exercises. There is no charge for the Prep Me service. Start preparing for your May or June SATs!

Seniors: Seniors applying to universities in Japan, Korea, Australia, South Africa etc. with late deadlines, PLEASE be aware of those deadlines. They can vary from university to university!! See your counselor if you have any questions.

WARNING: We have been notified that there have been unscrupulous agents who have been posing as a Northeastern University Enrollment Service to help admitted students in the enrollment process. Northeastern University does not employ, or sanction, any outside agents in Thailand.

As you receive your offers for universities, remember that when you make a deposit for a university, you are committing to that university for a year. You may not deposit at more than one university. You have to make up your mind! Universities that learn accepted students have “double-deposited” will sometimes remove their offer.

The Senior Transition Program dates have been announced: May 23 and June 5. Mark your calendars.

Upcoming University Visits (Consult Naviance for additions or changes)

The George Washington University April 9 10:15

University of Dundee (UK) April 24 10:15

International Christian University (Japan) May 10 10:15

Holland-Belgium Tour – Cathy Curtis
During the week of March 17, I participated in the Holland/Belgium University Tour. The purpose of this tour was to explore universities in Northern Europe that have strong university programs conducted in English and to gain first-hand knowledge of the courses, the curriculum, the cost as well as the university’s view of the IB program and how well our students would be prepared to embark on the curriculum. There were 10 universities visited (listed below). Unfortunately, I was only able to visit the first 8, so my report will on be on those universities.

My overall impressions were extremely positive. Some larger universities are now offering a liberal arts college within the larger research university. These University Colleges are based on the philosophy that students need a broad-based curriculum in the liberal arts and they give students the opportunity to delay deciding on a specific major until the end of the first year of the three-year program. I did notice that most students who graduate from the university college system do go on to graduate school.

The program offerings are extensive, demanding and thorough. Most of these programs do require an IB diploma but the points necessary are certainly doable for our ISB students. Most of the university colleges have about 600 students and class sizes are typically 20 – 25 students. Some programs even offer a semester study abroad.

I also visited universities, though, that specialized in business, or engineering or sciences. Each university had specific courses, which made for an interesting variety and an array of choices for our students considering Holland/Belgium as university destinations.

One of the highlights of the information given was the low cost of the universities – for EU or EEA students, tuition ranged from €1840 – 4000 per year and for non-EU students tuition ranged from €8120 – 12,000 per year. Since the programs are only 3 years, these costs are quite good.

I have listed the universities below with their specific webpages, but I’m also in the midst of writing full briefs on each university and putting them on Naviance. Students (and parents) may look up the college/university in Naviance and see the in depth explanation.

Amsterdam University College – https://www.auc.nl/

Leiden University – https://www.leiden.edu/

Rotterdam University College – https://www.eur.nl/euc/

University College Roosevelt – https://www.ucr.nl/Pages/default.aspx

HZ University of Applied Sciences – https://hz.nl/en/Pages/Homepage.aspx

Vesalius University (in Brussels) – https://www.vesalius.edu/

Maastricht University College – https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl

Eindhoven University College – https://www.tue.nl/en/

Tilburg University – https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/

University College Utrecht – https://www.uu.nl/university/college/en/Pages/default.aspx?refer=/ucu

EARCOS Teacher’s Conference
Ms McDowell attended the 11th Annual EARCOS Teacher’s Conference in Shanghai last week. The Pre-conference was for High School Counselors and University Admissions Representatives. After an interesting opening session entitled “Insights into the Culture of our Korean Students,” the participants attended sessions focused on Working with Korean Students, Mock Admissions Committee, and How US Universities Condense an Application into An Admit. A School Fair allowed universities to visit with Counselors from 24 international schools. The University Fair provided time for counselors to speak to 24 admissions officers from the US, Korea, the UK, and Switzerland. During the main session, Ms McDowell presented with Mr. Jemison Foster (Bangkok Pattana School) on the topic of University Advising and Handbook Development and also moderated a session with Mr. Steve Smith, the founder of Naviance, (an online counseling program used by High School students to investigate career and university options). The program was rich with very useful sessions that provided information on both social/emotional counseling topics as well as university advising.

HONG KONG UNIVERSITY TOURS
Greetings from HKU! Here is to invite you and your students for our upcoming Campus Tour Activities which is dedicated to Non-JUPAS Prospective Students.

This Campus Tour is a session which aims to give schools, prospective students and parents an overview of HKU Campus, student ambassadors from various faculties will be around and share their life on campus. Non-JUPAS Admission Counsellors will also be there to answer questions regarding application and requirement enquires.

We will be launching several session of this activity from April to June, and here is our schedule:

Campus Tour for Prospective Students on April 5 (Fri), 2013 (Registration starts from March 27 – April 2) https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?reg=N&UEID=22277

Campus Tour for Prospective Students on May 2 (Thu), 2013 (Registration starts from April 8 – 26) https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?reg=N&UEID=22085

Campus Tour for Prospective Students on June 6 (Thu), 2013 (Registration starts from May 6 – 31) https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?reg=N&UEID=22087

Campus Tour for Prospective Students on June 21 (Fri), 2013 (Registration starts from May 27 –June 19) https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?reg=N&UEID=22087

Registration for various sessions are open in respective links during the period of time stated. We are always welcome to learn more about details of these series of events: https://www.als.hku.hk/admission/intl/admission/admissionHK1

***the link to the Parent Presentation for US Competitive University Admissions given by Dan Grayson on April 4 will be available in the e-communication next week.