As a high school student, I often ask myself, is there light at the end of the tunnel? Will I finally complete the trek known as “education”? The answer is no, because after high school there is college. Even so, whenever I think about college, I feel that I finally see that tiny speck of light! In order to help our fellow school mates find their own speck of light in their universities, the Student Torch Newspaper team decided to interview each college during the D.I.S. College Fair in order to help everyone in the great decision of selecting the right “tunnel”.
Every year, D.I.S. holds a college fair inviting universities around the world. On September 25th, we welcomed colleges and agencies from the U.S., Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Australia, Singapore, U.K., and Taiwan. You may wonder, what is the purpose for this event? No other reason than to aid the students in selecting their dream university!
Having in mind the purpose of the event, we asked several questions, one of them happened to be which colleges provide scholarships. According to data obtained from college administrators, 18 out of 19 colleges (excluding educational agencies in Taiwan) have scholarships for international students. Several scholarships are merit-based; Hawaii Pacific University for example, provides a scholarship of $10,000 for students with a GPA of 3.8. University of Simon Fraser on the other hand, chooses the top 2 students for a scholarship. Troy University has a scholarship that pays for the awardee’s full tuition, housing and board. Others such as the University of New Hampshire and the University of Massachusetts have different scholarships every year.
Special services such as visa support or clubs offered to assist international students are also important. In the University of British Columbia, students are hired to help out other international students, and it even has a club dedicated to Taiwanese students (the Taiwanese Students Association). For Charles University in Prague, an agency called the LF1 MEDSOC office, facilitate international students with their visas and their healthcare issues. A center called the International Students and Scholars Center (ISSC) is also established in Arizona State University. The ASAP program in Algoma University matches international freshmen to students from Algoma for mentoring. According to Jacobs University, it is very easy for Taiwanese students to go to Germany because of Taiwan’s visa requirements. This same university also provides German classes and a host family program.
With different proficiency requirements many students might find it confusing . Nearly all schools require TOEFL scores, but several do not require SAT. These schools include Minerva Schools at KGI, Hawaii Pacific University, Kendall College, La Salle College of Arts, and many others.
Several schools also revealed interesting facts about their colleges. University of Massachusetts for example, has services for students to get a job or internship on campus. Kendall College is a professional school for culinary arts and hospitality management. According to the SAE Institute of Digital Media administrators, international students find it hard to receive a merit-based scholarship in Australian universities, especially for medical or science related programs. La Salle College of Arts on the other hand, revealed interesting facts about the Singaporean system. They said that if a student enrolls in a Diploma program, the government requires the students to work in Singapore for three years. This allows graduates to receive a job after graduation.
Let us not forget about the agencies that assist and guide students toward their dream college. Oncampus gave us information about four schools from U.S. to U.K., and the Taiwanese agencies, Beacon Star, CTM Education, and Envision Recruit, all provide D.I.S. students the proper guidance and support to seek their dream school.
D.I.S. truly appreciates these universities and agencies, and we all received valuable information from the administrators. Finally, the Student Torch team hope that you may all choose your dream college, and see that speck of light at the end of your tunnel.
