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How to choose a school to study abroad

Abstract: How to choose a school to study abroad? Not every student can go to Harvard, and not every student is suitable for Harvard. School is like shoes that everyone wears. Fit and comfort are the most important. When choosing a school, we usually consider the main aspects such as admission requirements, school rankings, scholarship opportunities, tuition fees and living expenses. What problems should we pay attention to when studying abroad and choosing a school? Introduce the key points of 14 on how to choose a school for studying abroad for friends who are interested in studying abroad.

1, professional and university rankings

Determine the major you are interested in, find out which colleges offer the major you want to study, and choose the school that suits you through the teaching and scientific research level of this major.

On the surface, the comprehensive ranking involves many aspects such as teaching quality, scientific research level, hardware facilities, etc., but not every index is related to international students, which is too macro. In contrast, the professional ranking reflects the teaching and research strength of a school in a certain professional field, the employment rate of graduates, the local influence and so on, which is more practical.

First of all, we should collect the information of each school on the Internet, what is the top major of the school, and how the teachers are, depending on the development of graduates. The most important thing is how universities rank at home and in the world. After all, in the eyes of many people, this is a stepping stone to job hunting. The more famous the school is, the greater the chance of finding a good job.

So where can I get an authoritative university ranking? Although there are many rankings of various universities in the world, these four may be universally credible: American News, QS, Time and ARWU.

These four rankings were launched by four different organizations and were widely recognized internationally. If you don't want to go to official website to search for information one by one, these rankings can provide you with the most intuitive information. If your favorite school is among the best in any of these four rankings, you can basically be sure that it is a good school.

But there is still a difference between ranking and ranking. A school may have different rankings in different rankings. Therefore, you can't just decide the quality of a school by one ranking, you must know what the scoring standard of each ranking is.

For example, USNEWS and QS have the largest academic ability, accounting for 40%; School citation and teacher-student ratio account for 20% respectively. However, in the ranking of The Times, teaching and scientific research account for 30% respectively, and school citations account for 32%. ARWU, on the other hand, pays more attention to the school's international scientific research achievements and academic performance.

Focusing on different indicators will naturally lead to different results. Therefore, when we choose a school through these rankings, we must think clearly in advance which aspect of the school we value most, and then choose the corresponding rankings according to these indicators for reference.

In addition, I also want to remind you, don't forget to check the ranking of your chosen major in these schools in the world.

Another thing to remind the applicant is that the choice of school should be based on the applicant's actual situation. Students' GPA, language scores, GRE scores, these hardware conditions are all factors of school inspection, so these factors should be taken into account when choosing a school. Secondly, some schools also have requirements for students' software background. For example, students applying for project management are required to have one year's relevant work experience, so both students and newly graduated students should avoid such schools. Therefore, when choosing schools, we should avoid schools with special background requirements.

2. Course content

In different universities, professional courses may be the same, but the ways of education and assessment may be very different. What is the focus of the curriculum set by the school and whether it meets its own purpose need to be considered. Some teachers pay more attention to their usual performance, so the final exam results only account for a small part of the final total score. Some teachers value grades, and the final exam will decide life and death.

Before choosing a school, you must find out what your chosen professional course is, what courses you want to study, what the assessment method of the course is, and who the teacher is. This information can be found on the official website of the school. Moreover, the tutor of each course will publish the readinglist of his course online, and buy the above books in advance to study, which is also very helpful for his homework.

Step 3: Cities

Although geographical location cannot determine the quality of a school, the place where you choose to go to school determines the place where you will live in the future, and you should also decide what you want to take to school according to your location.

The most direct considerations are: cost of living, local culture, local weather and various factors affected by environmental changes.

For example, if you study in Britain, would you like to live in London and experience the hustle and bustle of a British metropolis, even if it means paying a lot of high living expenses? Or you want to live in Nottingham, a city famous for its low cost of living in Britain. There are quiet and warm cafes all over the street, but there are few job opportunities and entertainment facilities. You can become a Buddhist youth who is bent on studying ... In short, this is a major event related to food, clothing, housing and transportation. Think twice before choosing.

4. Scholarship setting

Although learning knowledge should not attach too much importance to material things, it is still very important to go out to school. After all, going to college is not only a school, but also a life. You know, some scholarships from foreign universities are still very generous, and if you really get them, you can save a lot of money.

Different schools have set up scholarships for international students, but each school has different qualifications and standards for obtaining scholarships. If you want to get a scholarship, it is very necessary to inquire about the relevant information and acquisition conditions of the scholarship in advance.

If you want to know the specific scholarship information, students and parents can go to official website to find out what scholarships are available and whether they are qualified to fight for them, so that students who want to apply for scholarships must check clearly before making a choice.

5. Campus life

If you consider all the factors comprehensively, you still think that there are two schools with the same level, and community culture and after-school life may be your final decisive factors. Durham University may open a comedy road, Manchester University can let you hold your own small concerts in local clubs, and Oxford and Cambridge will hold boat races every once in a while.

6. Alumni Network

After entering the campus, you have automatically associated with other people who enter this school. A strong alumni network can provide students with career guidance and employment opportunities.

Does your university have an excellent alumni network to help you find a valuable summer internship? Have you cooperated with big companies or institutions? Do you support independent scientific research projects financially? Is there any chance to do scientific research with the professor?

7. Internship and research opportunities

Many schools pay attention to practice, and there will be many internship opportunities in enterprises, so students who value internship opportunities can pay special attention. When you are about to graduate, internship opportunities will become crucial. A good internship can exercise you, make you better adapt to your future work, and also add points to your resume.

8. Campus safety

Some cities have high crime rate and safety. Parents, especially girls, will feel more at ease when students choose a safer city.

9. Field trip

That's not enough. Hearing is empty, seeing is believing. When you have finished the online inquiry and positioned yourself in several schools. The next thing to do is to open your mouth. No matter how clear you are, you are certainly not as clear as the school staff.

You should be able to find the contact information of each department or course teacher on the school official website. If you have any questions about your study or campus life, you can contact the relevant person in charge. For most domestic students, email seems to be the only choice, and in most cases, the other party will reply to you quickly.

But if conditions permit, you should visit the campus in person on the school open day. Although you may have all the information about the school online. But if you want to know whether you want to study and live in this university, the most effective way is to walk around the campus in person and get in touch with the students and employees on campus.

Even if you don't have the opportunity to make a field trip, you can get in touch with the admissions office of this university. They may provide you with opportunities to contact and communicate with students at school, and you can get first-hand information about campus life.

Solve the doubts about studying abroad

1. Choose a school with more or less domestic students.

Schools with many students in China: As there are many students in China, schools will pay special attention to the needs of these students when formulating the syllabus. In addition, in schools with many students in China, you won't feel lonely, and you can also have a good relationship. For some students with weak self-care ability, it is more appropriate to choose such a school. However, the language environment of schools with a large population in China is relatively poor.

Schools with few domestic students: the more well-known schools, the less domestic students. In teaching, the school will not pay special attention to the needs of China students, and China students may be even more unsuitable in school rules, syllabus, curriculum and teaching methods.

2. Choose an established school or a cutting-edge school.

Established schools, such as Oxford University and Cambridge University in Britain, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Harvard University in the United States, Sydney University and Queensland University in Australia, Toronto University and Columbia University in Canada, have always been the first choice for international students. When recruiting new students, these established colleges often take into account the applicant's academic performance, club activities, hobbies and specialties, and the comments of referees. Only students with active thinking, wide interests, outstanding specialties and excellent grades can attract the attention of prestigious schools. Of course, without a certain economic strength, it will be difficult to realize the dream of attending a prestigious school.

Frontier schools are generally established for a short time, but their professional settings are closely combined with market demand, so they also have a certain popularity. For example, Valle College in France has only more than 20 years of experience in hotel management education, but it has more than 65,438+00 branches in Canada, Russia and other places, and won the World Hotel Service Industry (Best Training Course) Award in 2003; The University of Waterloo in Canada was founded in 1959. Relying on high technology, it has developed into a well-known comprehensive university in Canada. It is worth mentioning that some frontier schools need to be improved in teaching quality, teachers, equipment and teaching environment due to their short establishment.

3. Choose a comprehensive school or a professional school.

Many overseas colleges and universities belong to comprehensive schools, which implement a multi-disciplinary balanced development strategy and have a wide range of majors, but they also have their own advantages. For example, City University of London is a multidisciplinary comprehensive university, which enjoys a high reputation in the world, and its advantages in international finance, investment and banking courses are particularly prominent, so it is called the "cradle of financiers". In addition, Waseda University in Japan, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, etc. All the same. Excellent comprehensive schools are often extremely competitive, and applicants are excellent students, so they need outstanding conditions.

Professional schools have a particularly strong teaching and research strength in a certain professional field, and have a high status in the world, and take this as an enrollment advantage. For example, Lausanne Hotel Management College in Switzerland is famous for cultivating senior hotel management talents. Paris Higher National Conservatory of Music and Lyon Higher National Conservatory of Music are both top conservatories in the world. Maraoni Fashion Design Institute in Italy is one of the three major professional fashion institutes in the world. These professional schools are very strict in the selection of students, especially requiring applicants to have a certain professional foundation.

4. Choose a research school or a teaching school.

Teaching-oriented schools pay more attention to teaching, mainly focus on basic subject education, and lack characteristics in specialty. Moreover, such schools are mainly undergraduate education, which is not suitable for international students who want to receive postgraduate education.

Compared with ordinary universities, research universities pay more attention to academic research and give consideration to teaching. Usually, research universities have first-class teachers, first-class disciplines and first-class original achievements, and pay attention to cultivating research-oriented talents. However, according to the actual situation of domestic students, most of them are studying undergraduate or teaching-oriented master's courses, which have few academic research components and relatively low requirements for the research strength of the school. Therefore, only those students studying for honorary bachelor's degree, research-oriented master's degree and doctoral degree courses need to do a certain amount of research projects and write research papers, which is more suitable for choosing research-oriented schools.

5. Choose a public school or a private school.

Public schools are usually funded by the government. Generally speaking, the number and scale of public schools far exceed that of private schools. Moreover, the study expenses are relatively low and the teaching facilities are relatively perfect. Moreover, public schools in some countries provide tuition-free education, such as Germany, Sweden, Italy, France and other countries. However, the entry threshold of public universities is generally high, and the application competition is fierce.

Private schools are invested by private individuals or private institutions. In western countries, many top universities are private schools. Take the United States as an example In the ranking of comprehensive strength of American universities, the top 20 universities are mostly private institutions, especially Harvard, Stanford and MIT. These private college diplomas are extremely rich in gold, but the entrance threshold is high and the tuition is extremely expensive. At the same time, foreign private schools are mixed. In the "Early Warning for Studying Abroad" issued by China's Ministry of Education in recent years, most of them are exposed by private schools, and there are many problems such as excessive fees, poor teaching quality, poor management, closure and so on.