The Communicator

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The Communicator

The Communicator

The International Option

Community students take many different roads after high school.  Some take a year off to travel the world. Others join the military or attend Michigan or other U.S. colleges and universities.  Some students though, decide to study abroad.  The thrill is easy to see.  There’s adventure and the fun of meeting new people.  “Only one or two Community kids actually apply to International colleges [per year]” says John Boshoven, a counselor at Community High.

Boshoven has been helping kids on their after high school paths for many years.  “I’ve always thought it would be kind of cool, but if you’re going to be going to an international college, you’ve got to be able to learn—you’ve got to know the language.  Because if they’re teaching you in the native language, you’re going to be  in trouble unless you’re fluent.”  Boshoven says.  And fluency does not always mean just knowing how to converse.  “in reading comprehension because you’re going to be reading texts and they are going to be very complicated.”

The language issue is the main reason why most students opt to go to Europe or other countries of their native tongue.  “They usually [go to] Canada or other English speaking countries. So it’s the UK Scotland, more often it’s the UK [over] Scotland. Not so much Australia.” he said. “Going to College to get immersed in language is not a very good idea because they are teaching you in the language you are not familiar with.”

Another main reason students don’t apply to International schools is caution in the US government. “there’s some fear in stability in the dollar, stability of the economy, stability of the governments, and having families so spread apart”

So what exactly do you need to get into these colleges?  “It depends on the college” Boshoven said. “Ideally, you would have the same criteria you would need to get into U of M. A good solid 3.8 grade point average.  Probably a 1200 to 1300 SAT,  28 to 30 ACT.  The Canadian colleges and the British colleges, the UK colleges, aren’t as complicated as ours in terms of admission.  They don’t care if you’re a slug on the couch in terms of Community service.  They don’t really care about community service.  These are great big state Universities so all they care about is are you going to be successful in academics.  So it’s grade point average, test score.  That’s about it.” he said.

International colleges do visit Community high.  Again, they are mostly from English speaking regions. International colleges such as McGill, York, Western Ontario, University of British Colombia, and Quest University have visited Community in the past.  These colleges generally visit the whole region to reach many high schools at one time.

Community students have a pretty good acceptance record.  They have been everywhere from Oxford to Aberdeen. “usually, kids who want to do that are adventurous and probably pretty successful students.”  Boshoven says.  The odds are good.

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The International Option