Insight Overseas The College Admissions Process Outside the US

International Admissions Places More Empahsis on Career Path and Test Scores Most high school students, both US and international, would agree that US colleges and universities are great models of higher education. US students are familiar with the SAT, ACT, and the Common Application, so it’s very tempting to simply examine college admissions through an American lens. However, doing so would be a disservice to the unique and complex college admissions processes of countries outside of the United States. The US is known for it’s approach to â€Å"holistic† admissions, and in order to grasp how this affects the US admissions landscape, it’s important to know how other countries evaluate college applicants. Not only does this help US students who might consider applying to international universities, it also helps international students better understand how they can succeed in the US admissions process. Here’s what the college admissions process looks like outside of the US: Canada Canadian students benefit from a highly streamlined, career-driven college application process. Although methods of education may vary from province to province, Canadian colleges often dedicate themselves to individualized courses of study, such as art or engineering. Conversely, Canadian universities function more like American colleges and universities by providing a more academically focus curriculum for those seeking careers in law or medicine. Admissions requirements are very cut and dry. Canadian students are expected to rank their colleges or universities of choice and submit them for examination. Admission to Canadian institutions of higher learning is based almost exclusively on grades—or, as the Canadians would call them â€Å"marks.† China The Chinese version of the SAT is the â€Å"gao kao,† and it’s been making waves on international news sources for years. The gao kao, or â€Å"high test,† is only offered once a year, is scored out of a total of 750 points, and is twice as long as the American SAT. Unlike the SAT, which functions as a mere facet of a prospective student’s entire application profile, the gao kao serves as the only factor in admission to third-, second-, and first-tier Chinese universities. Cutoffs to apply to China’s best universities are dependent on residence and ethnicity. Given that 10 million frazzled students take the gao kao annually, it’s clear why the stress caused by the test has been compared to a stampede of ten thousand horses across a log bridge. The United Kingdom The UK college admissions process is similar to Canada’s in that there is an emphasis on specialized career paths. American schools, especially liberal arts colleges, highlight the importance of the â€Å"undecided† major and allow students to flit from course to course before deciding on a career path. In England, Northern Ireland, and Wales, there is no such thing as an undecided major. British admissions require a universal application called the Universities and College Admissions Service application. Through the UCAS, students can only apply to five schools per year. All the essays are standardized—which means that there are no supplemental essays like those found on the US Common App in the United Kingdom. Fun fact: Oxford University and the University of Cambridge, universally acknowledged as not only the top schools in the UK, but also as the top rival schools in the UK, have instituted a very interesting admissions rule: no student may apply to both Oxford and Cambridge during the same admissions cycle. Imagine if Harvard and Yale did the same! If you are an American high school student drafting college essays or editing your resume, make sure to keep in mind the global nature of higher education. Higher education differs by region, country, and continent. This makes the college admissions process especially challenging for international applicants, as they must grasp the idea of "holistic" review. For help naviagating the US admissions process, be sure to download our International Guide!

The Failures of Communism - Free Essay Example

Communism is a terrible ideology that prevents the deserved freedoms of those living under that countrys rule, leaving behind distressed civilians and a corrupt sovereignty. The word is originated from comun in the French language, meaning common, or community. Communism comes in different forms, whether it is just a mere social label or a pure following of certain degrees; however any form is mutually unhealthy. The leading source of distress within a communistic state or nation is due to the belief that economic equality a valuable idea and is properly achieved through the abolishment of private properties. This would mean a man could be legally allowed to enter another mans house without his prior consent. That eliminates all consideration of privacy an individual may want. The elimination of private properties is one of many heavily established bits of the Communistic studies. This comes from the Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in early 1848. In the Communist Manifesto text, authors Karl Marx and Frederick Engels both imply the means and goals of Communism. With what they wrote, they did not have quite an idea as to how much their book would affect the world. Creativity is valued amongst many people from all sorts of social rankings. This is not quite the case for a government based on the principals of Communism. Being a nation formed on the requirement of repeating your daily steps for your communistic model, needs all attention diverted on the forced economy. This repeated economical schedule demands nothing but absolute copies of everything, not allowing for a change in ones routine. A change in an individuals routine is considered at its core to be creativity, a symbol of humanly design. The model of Communism forces a symbol of automated design, set apart from human instinct and creativity. A cause of such forcible repeating within a nation is the direct limitation or dissolving of the rights to which a human should be entitled. In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx states ten different ways to oppress the people into redistributing everything they own. This would be considered a community share, which means you can take whatever yo u want from anybody and they are required to give everything they make to the community. When a man is forced to collect and give unwillingly, that is immediate oppression and a way of showing how that individual has no rights. With the never-ending policy fulfillments of Communism, the government ensures a good communistic figure is always placed into office. There is no room for anything to exist except for rotten, untainted corruption. The people often follow in this poor example, being corrupt themselves. An example of this would be briberies of any sort. If wanted, a parent could bribe their childs teacher into giving their student better grades. There is a social ladder for what is legal as well. While your average bureaucrats have a relatively low salary for work, it is legal for them to money from briberies, often involving a violent act of some sort as the leverage. All of corruption may be started by one corrupt individual. For example, in 1921, Romanias government had been overrun by Communism. This ruined the economy for Romania and the health of civilians. In 1965, the people of Romania had believed to rid the nation of its Communist ways, soon electing a new president into office. The presiden ts name was Nicolae Ceau?â„ ¢escu, who seemed to have brilliant ideas of running the country at first. This all turned out to be false however, as he oppressed the Romanians more than they had ever been. One day in 1989, the corrupt president and his wife were executed by the civilians in what was called the Romanian Revolution. Corruption under Communism leads to crime, which ends in death and destruction. In a Communist country, you need to always be careful about what you say; or it may cost you your life. In some cases, you may be told by a government official to spy on one of your friends and report back to the officer. If you lie to the officer in an attempt to save your friend, both parties may be killed by the acting officer. If you tell the truth as to what your friend or target is doing, your chances of living are much higher. To avoid making enemies is the best idea you can have, because your enemy could report you for falsefully saying you despise the government. There is no right to a lawyer or to try making a court appeal, the government is the court, and you are always guilty. Under communism, the state makes the rules. Unfortunately, every state follows the model for Communism, some states are worse than others though. This includes having no rights to any private property, no freedom of religion, or any religion for that matter, and many other humanly-restricting laws. This may seem like a God-awful situation any civilian may face, but what if a citizen was to somehow leave that county? It may seem like it would be the end of all issues as an individual, but it in all realization is a very difficult objective to carry out. Firstly, if you were to make it to the border or tell any of your friends about you leaving the country, an official may be listening and report you. Severe punishments or lifetime imprisonment would be the result of an attempted escape going awry. It can also be difficult to leave the country for there is always border patrol seeking to arrest anyone trying to leave. If you do however manage to escape to another country, the chances are that your neighboring country is a Communist nation as well. This is what made it so difficult to flee a Communist country during the Cold War in Eastern Europe, every neighboring country was under the same rule you were forced to endure. The Soviet Union in Russia was especially brutal for this idea this during the Cold War. The bureaucracy would often beat anyone to death that they believed was an attempting refugee, even without asking them questions many times. If you successfully escape to a non-communistic country and ever return home, you will most likely be killed or thrown in prison for life. For all of the provided reasons, Communism has been shown to have no valuable forms. Whether you may be facing anything above adversity, negative affects internally, not having a chance to express creativity, not having any rights, consistently viewing corruption in its raw form, and fearing for your life as your friends may turn their backs on you and foes may report you, the importance is found in seeing how negative of an affect Communism delivers. Everybody deserves freedom, yet not everybody earns them either. There is no way of earing freedom, we are just given it sometimes, and often take it for granted. Communism is a horrific ideology which limits the freedoms humans should have while under that nations reign. Communism has failed in Russia, Romania, and many other countries, which leaves behind certain unwanted aftermaths. Communism will always fail, because it never worked in the first place.