CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION ABROAD: WHAT TO PREPARE

More and more parents are sending their kids to continue their higher education abroad. If you ask them why, you’ll get various answer. Some just wants their children to attend university that is better than those available in the country. Some other wants their children to get more opportunity and job offer upon returning. Some other believe that sending their kids abroad make them more independent and open-minded.

If you are among these parents, or at least planning to be, then be prepared. Sending your kids to study abroad sounds like a solid plan for their brighter future. However, every opportunity comes with cost. Not to mention, opportunity for studying abroad is pretty limited while the applicants are abundance. So, are you prepared to pay the cost?

First thing first, communicate with your kids

This is not one-party decision, unlike that time you entered your kids to kindergarten or grade school of your choice. Your kids were young, but now they are old enough to make a decision about something that will impact their future.

So, before deciding on anything, you and your kids have to be on the same page first. Ask them if they have any plan to continue to study in university. If no, why? If yes, where? Do they already have clear idea what university they want to go to?

Ask about their interest and match it with their performance so far. Is it reasonable for your kid to pursue math when he or she has better track record on social studies? If not, does your kid have any plan on how to overcome possible difficulty during his or her studies later? Do they have only one interest, or do they have more?

Do they like the idea of continuing education abroad? Do you think he or she is capable enough to be left alone abroad?

This is important, so you won’t get any surprised rejection from your kids after preparing them to pass the university admission. Before deciding, and planning everything, make sure to share the idea to your kids and your spouse, let them have some time to think about it, and ask what they think about it.

Start early, hire tutor for English and other standardized test if necessary

Once everybody are on the same board, it is time to start preparing. Make sure your kids have enough time to prepare before the admission period. One year before the admission is ideal time to start.

Each university has different requirement for their admission. Overseas university, however, will always have requirement for applicant’s English capability. English ability is usually measured through three globally recognized standardized test: TOEFL, TOEIC, and IELTS.

TOEFL, TOEIC, and IELTS measure the test-taker’s ability in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English – all of them are basic skill to join and follow academic activities in English-speaking universities.

For some students, especially if they come from any country in which English is either the first or second language, it’s an easy task. However, sometimes, even if the kids are already used to speak and listen to English, they still don’t know how to articulate their idea properly – verbally or not. This can lead to poor result on TOEFL, TOEIC, or IELTS.

Tutor can help your children to pass the minimum requirement of English ability for overseas university admission. The key is, rather than finding someone who is used to teach English as school subject, find someone who has experience guiding people to pass TOEFL, TOEIC, or IELTS, or is specialized on those tests.

Specialized tutor knows not only about grammar and other English lesson substance, but also the strategy to ace the test and getting the score your children needs.

Sometimes, university will also require some standardized academic test such as SAT, LSAT, GMAT or GRE. These tests measure the test-takers ability on some basic academic ability, including math, logic, reading, and writing ability. University in Asia usually don’t have these requirement, but most of universities in USA and Europe do.

Hiring agents or tutor specialized in admission

Besides taking standardized test, usually university has other requirements. They are quite basic, such as making study plan and mission statement. Sometimes, the university want it in the form of video.

Your children can find hundreds of examples of study plan and mission statement online. Let them learn the structure of a good essay. How to choose the title, structure the whole content, and plan on what to highlight. It’s the same with video mission.

To get feedback on their essay and video, tell them to contact seniors who have already passed overseas admission before and show the essay or video. If they have no such network, you can direct them to find online forum in the internet where aspiring students for higher education help each other correcting admission essays.

If you are not confident in being able to help your kids in this area, however, you can hire education agent or tutor that is specialized in assisting aspiring student to pass admission in university they want. Agent or tutor will not guarantee the admission, but they will make the process easier. If you are not familiar at all with admission process to university, we recommend you this service.

Agent or tutor will compile information on the university, making sure you won’t miss any update on requirement, quota, scholarship opportunity and deadline. They will also guide your kids to fulfil all the requirement, including making essay or video that will highlight their strength and convince the university that your kids are the best candidate for the class.

Sending your kids abroad to study is something many parents would want. However, you can’t just tell them to go study abroad. You should be actively participating in supporting your kids by preparing them as best as you can do so they can get into their target university.

Do you have any plan sending your kids for university abroad? What preparation have you taken for your children? Tell us all about it below.