Here is a quick article I wrote that will be published later this year in the IB magazine for students. It is a quick guide to searching for a university in the global context and may be useful to our grade 11 students just beginning their research.
Enjoy,
Robbie
If you’re an IB student, you made the right
choice. The long hours of work spent on your internal assessments, extended
essay, and all the other parts of the IB Diploma are going to pay off. You will have a passport to a university
virtually anywhere in the world. After
two years of the IB program, academically, you’ll be ready for anything they
throw at you.
As the number of IB Diploma Program
graduates has grown, so has the number of universities around the world that
are eager to enroll IB students.
Why? Well, research has proven
that IB students are simply better prepared for the demands of university level
work. Completing an Extended Essay, juggling CAS activities, and studying
topics in depth is exactly the types of things you’ll be doing when you’re in
university.
Yes you’re prepared, but how will you
decide where or what to study at university?
It’s a tough decision, but here are a few tips on how to start your
search and find the university that is the best for you….
Know
Thyself.
The students who are most successful when
it comes to finding and applying to university are the ones who know what they
are looking for- obvious right? Well,
not always. Ask yourself a few of these questions. What do you value? Do you value service learning? Sports? Rigorous academic debates? Study/Life balance? Social justice? Music and the Arts? When you’re researching
universities you can ask the question, “Does this university value the same
things that I do?” If they do, your application
will be music to their ears, because you are seeking the same thing that their
university provides. Like many
university advisors have said in the past “finding a university is a match to
be made not a prize to be won.”
Think
about the IB subjects you’ve loved and why
There are virtually thousands of topics you
can study at university and it’s easy to get overwhelmed when looking at
university brochures. As a starting
point, consider why you chose the IB courses you picked. What projects have you
enjoyed the most? Was it the marketing project in your IB Business course? Your Biology dissection lab? Creating your
Visual Art portfolio? What topic did you
write your extended essay on and why? All of these things may translate into a
possible university course. If you’re
still undecided… that’s OK. More on that next…
Know
the system you’re applying to
Asia, Australia, Scotland, USA, Canada,
Europe… there are so many possibilities
when you are an IB Diploma graduate!
However, their systems vary greatly, not only in how they deliver higher
education but in how they accept their students. Let’s take the UK for example. Most UK
universities will ask you to pick a course of study, and once you are there, it
is likely you will specialize in this subject from day one. So if you’re the type of student who has
known you wanted to be an architect since the day you picked up your first LEGO
set, then this might be a good fit. If
you’re undecided on what you might like to study, the U.S. might be the best fit
as you generally won’t be asked to pick a “major” subject until your second
year, instead focusing on a broad general education, for which, as an IB
student, you are already well prepared. Meanwhile, many universities in Asia,
Scotland, and Canada, will allow the flexibility to choose a general area to
start (Arts or Sciences) and then specialize later on. Do your homework and investigate the
universities and how each program will work, the courses you’ll take, and how
you will be assessed in those courses.
Find out from the admissions offices at
those universities you are interested in how you’re evaluated against other
candidates. Is it purely on your IB results or IB predictions? Or is it a more
“holistic” process, which will include essays and references as part of the
applications? To what extent do the
universities want to hear about your extra-curricular activities?
Think
carefully about Money.
It’s a reality that in most parts of the
world, Higher Education is expensive. Even if you’re applying to universities
in countries where tuition for higher education is free (yes, these countries
exist, even if you’re not a national in that country.) you still need to
consider living costs and other fees.
Find time when you can have a serious chat with whomever is going to
help you finance your university to discuss how you will fund your education.
It’s not an easy conversation, but the sooner you have it, the better. There is nothing worse than having a student
get accepted to universities, only to find out later on that it is not
financially possible to attend. If you
are going to need financial aid, start the research on this as early as
possible.
Don’t
get wrapped up in rankings or league tables
Rankings can be very deceiving. Especially
when trying to rank universities in different parts of the world. Often times
theses rankings are based on the quality and quantity of the research conducted
at the university, which is usually conducted at the Master’s or PhD level by
top professors whom you might not see much of and doesn’t necessarily translate
into good learning experience for first and second year students. If you’re
going to use rankings, look for ones that are ranking the best undergraduate
teaching, highest student satisfaction, or highest graduation rates; these
measures will have a greater significance for you. Meanwhile, you should look
at all rankings with some skepticism because (Warning! TOK question coming
up). “To what extent can we truly
measure student happiness at university?”
Admissions standards are not a
reflection of the overall quality
If you research a university that has a
threshold of 25 points for entry, this doesn’t mean the university is
substandard; it may mean that they respect the demands of the IB program and
the strength of its graduates. In fact, some universities in the UK have
lowered their IB requirements knowing that IB students are very well prepared.
In some systems, they flip the process. It might be very easy to
get in, but you have to 'prove yourself' once you arrive. It's easy to get in,
but it's harder to stay.
Meanwhile, a university that only accepts
10% of its applicants (like the Ivy League universities in the U.S) should not
be considered "better" in terms of the quality of
program because it is harder to get in- it's simply a matter of numbers and
popularity. There are universities who accept 40-60% of their applicants
offering the same high quality of academic program.
The Big Picture
My students often mock me because I use
this expression WAY to much, “Let’s look at the big picture.” The big picture is that in 3-5 years you
want to come out of university and hopefully find a job. You might want to make
lots of money, you might want to help others, or you might want to save the
world from environmental collapse. That
part is up to you. The question is what
are employers looking for? They want someone who can communicate clearly in
writing and in oral presentations, solve problems, work as part of a team,
plan, organize and prioritize? Any of
these sound familiar? Yes, you’re
already doing most of them as an IB student right now. So keep up the good work, keep building these
skills, and the rest will take care of itself.
