How Can Parents Best Support Their Child Through The University Application Process? - Dr Mallika Ramdas

Our Guest Blogger is Dr Mallika Ramdas, Head of University Advising, UWCSEA Dover Campus.  Mallika looks at the role of parents in the University Application Process.

How Can Parents Best Support Their Child Through The University Application Process?

The answer to this question is actually quite a simple one: by letting their child be in the driver's seat of the exploration and decision-making process, by respecting their child's choices, and by engaging in honest and mutually respectful conversations about any constraints (such as financial ones) that may limit the young person's range of options. Happily, universities around the world now offer a wide selection of courses or educational models (single subject, combination courses, liberal arts and sciences, and other variants) to enable students who do have cost, climate, family proximity, or other considerations to find options that would be a good fit for them. 

Most importantly, we believe that parents should be 'a cheer squad, not a nag squad,' in their child's university application process, to quote renowned adolescent expert, Michael Carr-Gregg.  Celebrate your child's aptitudes, abilities, and passions; understand your child's cultural and social preferences and values, or help him or her to explore what those may be; and allow these to shape your child's university selection process.  Sadly, too many young people are made to feel that they simply don't match up to their parents' very high expectations, or even worse, to some external (and often highly questionable) measure of success - the name and fame or ranking of the universities they get into. 

On this note, you may be interested to read a hard-hitting but powerful blog post written by a former ivy-league US university admissions officer and mother, titled 'Parents: let Harvard go.' 

We would also encourage you to read a thought-provoking article written by our very own colleague, Johanna Fishbein, in the forthcoming edition of the College magazineDunia, titled 'Don't Take it Personally: Thought on the Holistic Admissions Process.'

Happy reading, and enjoy supporting your children as they begin the journey towards life beyond school - they're counting on it.

Application Essays and Involvement of Parents

Following on from our previous post on the application essay, we found an article on parents involvement in the process.

The article entitled Is it a Parent's Right to Read Their Kids College Essay? details Shelley Emling's journey through her child's college applications.


What are you thoughts? Are college essays personal? Should a parent have the right to read the application essays? Let us know what you think!

Plan Well, Eat Well, Sleep Well, and Other Things : Checklist of Things for High School Students to Do Over the December Holidays

           December break is just around the corner. We know you’re looking forward to sleeping in, catching up with friends and family, and just all in all having a good time. We would like you to rest and relax; we’d also like to give you a few tips in order to ensure are making effective use of your time. We’ve divided the list up by Grade level. Grade 9 and Grade 10 students will be introduced to more tools through Family Connection in term two.


Grade 9 and Grade 10 Students:

•          Ensure your resume is up-to date.
•         Write! Find your “voice.” Reflect on your experiences so far. Write about a particular  significant event at an activity/in class/on the field/in the canteen.
•         Read! Get caught up on personal reading; spend some time exploring topics you enjoy.
•        Look for summer internship opportunities.
•        Stay involved in service projects/activities/ sports that you are passionate about

Grade 11 Students:

•        Set goals for yourself for next term.
•      Watch a play.
•      Complete the Personality Quiz on Family Connection
•        Complete the Career Profiler on Family Connection
•        Practice your music pieces.
• Prepare for SAT through PrepMe.  You can find this through Family Connection.
•     Explore Courses and Universities on UCAS or Family Connection, or through our Resources tab.
•        Continue to develop your art portfolio.
• Complete the Google Form entitled, “Finding the Right Fit University.”
• Update your resume.
• Come up with a list of 1-3 universities and your reasons why you like them.
• Return to your CAS reflections and add more details to them. These reflections will serve you well when you have to write essays for college applications
• Get caught up on any reading that you need to for your courses or read a book for fun!
• Stay involved in service projects/activities/ sports that you are passionate about
• Research internships for the summer/ summer programmes.
• Have frank conversations with your parents about the decisions you are making. Ensure all constraints (financial, geographical, courses/majors) are all clearly laid out on the table. If you and your parents are on the same/similar page it may make decision-making easier.  Remember you are the one going to university for 3 - 4 years. Also remember your parents are the ones paying for you to go to university for 3 - 4 years.
• Look for the calendar invitation for a one-on-one meeting with your university advisor. Accept the invitation.  Set a reminder for your one-on-one meeting time. If you cannot make the scheduled meeting, please let us know ASAP. The invitations will go out early next week, for meetings scheduled for the first week back.  After that, invitations will go out a week before meetings are scheduled.  

It may appear to be a long list, but most of this can be done within a solid hour or two a day (PrepMe and a conversation as a family will take more time and dedication).  Planning and being organised are essential elements to succeed and will make your life a lot easier as you are thrown back into the throes of classes and activities. So plan well, eat well, sleep well, and have a lovely December break!

Tuition Fees: Home Status and Overseas Student Status

After our presentation to Grade 11 parents on the application process in the UK several questions on tuition fees and the fee structure for International students and domestic students have cropped up.  With this post, we hope to point families to some resources as they start researching universities and the fee structure. Please note that policies and fees change, and at the time of writing this post, the details are correct. We encourage families to peruse individual university websites and also to contact university representatives directly, for clarification and up-to-date information.

Broadly speaking, all country destinations have two categories: International and Domestic. Domestic students are termed as those who hold a passport of that country. So you could be an Australian citizen, having lived in Singapore your entire life, and you are still considered an Australian national for university fees. This is also true for Canada, most European destinations, New Zealand, and the US (in-state tuition for State Universities has an additional category; we will speak with students one-on-one about this).  The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published an e-book, this has a section on tuition fees policies for OECD countries for 2012.

The education department of the UK Government decides the categories of student fees. There are two broad categories however,  UK/EU known as “home” and Non-EU or “Overseas”.  The fees increase in the UK, for domestic students from £3,000 to £9,000 has everyone talking; even British Intellectuals are discussing the increase in tuition fees.  With the increase, families are more concerned about what category they will fall into.

As mentioned earlier, usually universities look at a student’s passport and citizenship. However, in the UK, a student’s citizenship and residency status are evaluated. If you are an EU passport holder or a UK citizen, you may not instantly be considered “home status.” Usually families have to prove that they pay taxes in the UK or an EU country and have records of this for three years prior to a student enrolling in university. In addition, if you already hold citizenship of an EU country or the UK, and a parent works for a UK or an EU-based company, this will benefit the student’s claim for home status. Finally, if the family is only outside of their home in the EU or the UK (for two years or else), this should be highlighted to gain home status.

However, the classification of “home” fees can be complicated and we recommend that individuals contact specific universities to clear doubts. Families should also visit the UK Council for International Student Affairs website for detailed information on Home status vs. Overseas status

To assess whether someone is viewed as “Home” or “Overseas,” students may be asked some questions and will need to provide some information:

·           Do you have permanent residence in your current country?

·           Give details of countries in which you have lived with the dates.

·           Do you own property / pay taxes / have medical insurance in the UK?

·           Is your father’s / mother’s work contract temporary?

·           Is your father’s / mother’s employer UK / EU based?

Please note that documentary evidence will be required for all claims.

According to Education UK average costs, per year, for International students are:

·         Arts courses: £7,000 to £9,000

·         Science courses:  £7,500 to £22,000

·         Clinical courses: £10,000 to £25,000

 

It is important for families to understand that a university can charge different fees for different courses. It is up to the university to decide what fees it will charge for the courses it offers. However, the Guardian University League Table lists the minimum and maximum tuition fees charged by each university for domestic and International students for the academic year 2012-2013.

The next question may be, is there financial aid available in the UK?  The UK government wants to ensure people are not deterred from enrolling into university because of lack of funds. Bursaries and scholarships are forms of financial help for International and home status students.  Students will have to look at individual universities to see if there are bursaries they are eligible for.

Home status students can also apply for a loan. The Students Loans Company administers all student loans. It manages student loans to EU students from any national UK student finance company. Students must apply to the Student Finance Company that is in the area they are from (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, or Wales).  There’s also information on Student Loan Repayment.

Deciding where to study and what course to enroll in is a difficult task. Add to the mix the complication, for some, on fees category, and the university application process becomes an emotional and financial journey.  We encourage families to find out all information about fees and additional costs (accommodation, transportation, food and so on) as students explore their options. To make it a little less difficult, we ask families to ensure they have open and frank discussions about several factors: location, course of study, and definitely about finances.

Good luck researching university options!

Roles and Responsibilities in the University Admissions Process

As students settle into the first term of this school year, we wanted to let you know about happenings in the University Advising Centre.  We have already had several visits from representatives of Canadian, US and UK universities.  The visits were well-attended and Grade 11 students are starting to learn more about the different academic offerings in different countries.  Upcoming assemblies to Grade 9 and 10 will highlight the factors that universities consider when selecting applicants and what younger high school students should be doing as they look ahead to university.  An introductory assembly for Grade 11 this month will be followed by a talk in early October by Jeremiah Quinlan, Admissions Dean of Yale-NUS College here in Singapore, on “Why Go to University?” which should spark some interesting conversation around the dinner table.

It is worthwhile at this early stage to reflect on the roles and responsibilities of students, university advisors and parents throughout the process.  We see the university admissions process as a natural extension of our students’ growing self-awareness and self-development.  Students will be expected to conduct their own research into those places that would be a good match for them both academically and socially and target their applications accordingly. It is each student's responsibility to be aware of, understand and meet the requirements and deadlines of each university.  UWCSEA will also have internal deadlines to facilitate the processing of a high volume of applications.  Students are of course assumed to be the sole authors of their application essays, and to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity in all dealings regarding university applications, financial aid and scholarships.

University Advisors are here as resources to provide the background context of university considerations that allow students to make informed decisions throughout the process.  Advisors will assist in all aspects of the application process, including discussing goals and future plans, refining university lists, identifying testing requirements, providing essay feedback and advice, processing all supporting documents, advocating for students with university representatives and troubleshooting as needed.  University advisors promote UWCSEA at international conferences and keep abreast of trends and developments that might be valuable our students.

We know that parents can find it stressful to anticipate their child’s university admissions process.  We therefore have a few recommendations:

•Let your child have the driver’s seat on this journey.  While parents can support and encourage their children, sometimes too much parental involvement may not be the best thing in the long run. Students who take ownership of and experience some measure of autonomy in the application process are better equipped to succeed independently once they get to university.   

•If you have financial, geographic, or other constraints on your child’s search, discuss them early on before your child gets too invested in a particular destination. 

•Encourage your child to see university as a match to be made, rather than a prize to be won.  Students should research universities for good fit, where they will be happy, appropriately challenged and grow as individuals. 

•Try to help your child resist applying to certain universities just because his or her peers are.  It is important that students need to imagine themselves as successful in a variety of settings.  As most parents are aware, decisions made at the age of 17 rarely determine where adults find themselves in mid-career.  

•Help your child maintain perspective and see the university search and application process as simply the first step of a life-long process of self-discovery.  

Parents, let your child know that you believe in their ability to navigate the university admissions process.   Hold on to your hats, and enjoy the ride!