Destination USA Tips & Tricks, Part 1
In the next weeks leading up to our Destination USA course coming up on the 5th and 6th of June, I want to start introducing some of the issues that hopeful future American college students here in Romania will have to tackle. Today I will start of with a deceptively simple one. This week we met with a gentleman who has successfully brought 7 students (2 of whom earned a free tuition) to Pepperdine, one of the best liberal arts schools on the West Coast. At one point he explained to us how he he would start to select the few special students out of the hundreds who listened to him speak at the convention he attends every year. As he put it rather bluntly, he didn’t have time for people with stupid questions. His answer, before he would turn to talk to someone else was “check the internet!”
Unlike myself, as Romanians, you likely do not have college councelors to walk you through the application process. My college councelor was directly in touch with admissions directors of excellent universities, was able to recommend the perfect set of schools for everyone in my graduating class, help us all with our essays, and on and on. You must rely, first and foremost on your own wits. So, this week’s tip is Research! The internet is a profoundly powerful research tool and far more so in English than in Romanian. Literally anything you can think of can be asked in a search engine to great success. If there is a question you can ask yourself, you can likely type that question into google and get a multitude of answers.
Let’s do an example. If I type the following “what tests do international students have to take for american college” into google, I will immediately discover that international students must take the TOEFL and the SAT. Further, I’ve also discovered a very useful site www.collegeboard.com. Even such a cumbersome question as that got me one click away from the answers I needed and opened doors to a resource like college board.
Don’t know what the SAT is? Gogle it. Want to know how to do well on it? Google it.
In all likelihood, you probably don’t know that many American colleges. Try googling top 100 or top 50 colleges (make sure that you keep in mind that colleges and universities are both great but are categorically different in America. Wondering what I am talking about? Google it 
.) Another great resource is wikipedia. If you want to learn about all of the ivy league schools, a quick search on wikipedia will provide you all you need to start researching the individual schools.
.) Another great resource is wikipedia. If you want to learn about all of the ivy league schools, a quick search on wikipedia will provide you all you need to start researching the individual schools.A last minor point: every school has an extensive, well-done website and every website ends in .edu rather than .com or .ro, etc. So, if you google a school name, like Kenyon College or Stanford University, just click on the .edu link. Finally, if you know what you want to study, keep in mind that every department (English, biology, economics) has their own web page often with professor profiles.
In the weeks leading up to our Destination USA seminar, I will continue to post tips to get started and give you all a sneak peek of what you’ll see in the class.
Va Asteptam
Adam Cernea Clark
American Teacher at Shakespeare School
Comentarii (14)
E o treaba foarte faina ceea ce faceti voi. E o oportunitate pentru orice tanar de a ajunge in Anglia, de a participa la cateva zile impreuna cu echipa voastra. De asemenea e interesant modul acesta de a invata engleza, e altfel, dar mai simplu, mai eficient si mai usor. Good Job:)
imi place foarte mult concursul si speram mult sa castigam
Cred ca aveti cea mai buna scoala de engleza din tara iar aceasta sansa pe care o oferiti tinerilor este laudabila.
Mi se pare o idee foarte buna ceea ce faceti si de aceea imi doresc atat de mult sa particip si eu.Asa putem cu totii invata mult mai bine engleza si de asemenea capatam experienta.Felicitari “Shakespeare school” pentru realizarea acestui concurs si pentru sansa oferita.
De mult am vrut sa particip la un concurs de genul acesta,iar teacher ne-a spus despre acest site.Super:D
Acest concurs a fost o oportunitate minunata prin care ma pot exprima. Mi-am dorit de ceva vreme sa scriu despre modelul meu de erou favorit.
Cand m-a traznit prima oara ideea de a studia la o universitate din afara, parea ceva cat se poate de ireal si… ei bine, pueril, irealizabil. Cu trecerea timpului, se contureaza tot mai clar faptul ca asa ceva este posibil. Proiecte ca ale voastre fac posibila implinirea visului pe care il am de ani buni. E remarcabil ce ati reusit sa realizati pentru toti tinerii romani.
Keep it that way, you do a great job!
hello! am citit site-ul vostru, e foarte bun,poti primi informatii utile despre o cultura si o civilizatie fascinanta!
The name “England” is derived from the Old English word Englaland, which means “land of the Angles”. The Angles came from the Anglen peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea.
An alternative name for England is Albion. The name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain.
It will be a pleasure to go in England and learn what means a unit state.
Speram ca munca noastra impreuna cu toate eforturile voastre de a mari numarul persoanelor care vorbesc coerent engleza, sa fie una optima , rasplatita prin dezvoltarea culturii. Apreciem opotunitatile oferite si va multumim enorm pentru ca ne acordati o sansa.
I think that you are doing an excelent job here ! It’s a brilliant ideea to give tips to students and make them realize that collages from US or UK are an option too. Also it’s very important to be informed about these collages because are different from how they are here. So thanks a lot !
It’s a great opportunity to Romanian students to be able to aply to US collages as well. I thinh it is very good to give them tips about how things are there and what they have to do if they want to aply.
It’s a great idea for that competition.I thinkh whith that competition,we can speacking english.
I think every student wish to study in US or UK because it’s a great experience and you don’t know when you’ll have the next chance.