Welcome to the video series determining the best University to attend. This is the second video in this series.
My name is Markus Landis Gardner, I have taught in American Universities for many years and I have taught in high schools and Universities in China for about four years. This video series is dedicated to helping parents and students find the best University to attend. In this video series we would talk about three types of people, the shy students, the outgoing student with lots of friends and who is happy to be with any friend and also the outgoing student who does has close friends who here she spends a lot of time with. Of course this video series is a generality and will not fit all students. If you wish for me help you or your child, please contact me at info@dreamforabetterworld.com. For this video series, it might be helpful to get the free workbook on www.adreamforabetterworld.com, this second video is dedicated to determining whether you or your child should go to University close to home or far away.
We will look at eight important characters in deciding whether to go to University close to home or far away. These factors in no particular order are: the type of student, family health, been away before the past friends, location, money and opportunity. One of the most important in my opinion is the type of student, if the student is an outgoing student who can get lots of friends easily then here will have the easiest time adjusting to being away from home because loneliness can be countered by lots of friends. An outgoing student who has close friends may have a hard time in hers because they may miss their friends and their family but because they are so outgoing, they should be out to get new friends quickly and that to regular telephone calls and chats on the internet with family and friends they should adjust well.
The shy person will have the hardest time adjusting especially if they are very close to his or her family. This type of person usually will have one or very huge, very close friends and spend most of their time either with them or at home. Going far away from home to University for the first time will have a very dramatic impact on his or her life. If they can not cope, they may drop out irregardless of how smart they are as the depression may overcome them. It is important that if they or his or her parents are interested in seating this type of student far away from home, did they first try to work their way up to that? Startles sending them for weekend to family they’ve never seen before far away from home. The next step is to this something they would enjoy while away from home for a summer. So this of course depends on the student.
If they love to learn then send them to a homestead program with a foreign language programs which hugely means going to a foreign country but with the homestead program, they would be in a loving home with people who would care for your child in this way he or she can get exposed to being away from home but still have a family to take care of him or her. If they would prefer having fun for their summer instead of learning then some types of summer camps, say after tenth or eleventh grade, see how they adjust. You can consider a summer camp as a very small University which has lots of activities.
They learn things and meet lots on the people, I would strongly suggest trying tenth grade summer camp with the help of a cellphone so that they can call home and maybe eleventh grade summer camp with a cellphone is for emergencies only. If a summer camp is not available then how about spending the summer with the distant relative they may not know. This will make the parents happier as they will be with family but because the student does not know this relative, it is like being away from family. Try to give him or her involved in activities in that city and making friends with the people around them while he is afar away from you.
Remember the goal is to get your child ready to be away from home for long periods of time without your child being affected by depression. Now let’s look at family health, no child will feel comfortable going to school far away if as close family member is very sick or dying. If you’re really want your child to go away for school and if very close family member is extremely I'll or dying then family meetings and may we talk to a counselor so we’ll be required. You must ask yourself what happens if that family member dies when he or she is far away from a college. How will this affect the student? Will he or she be able to continue studying wit a peace of mind or will their grades suffer dramatically? You must think about all this items before deciding to tell the child to go away to school under these special circumstances.
Next let us look at location, if you grew up in a small town many times the child growing up only one has one desire on her mind and that is to get away from home. They want to see and experience the big city. Another possible situation is that they grew up in a big city and may want a change. Maybe go to a small city unfortunately this type of prejudice can really hurt their opportunities in the future if a bigger University is in a bigger city. Going from small city to big city is good for better Universities but the opposite is not true. I can understand the desire for some peace and quiet but the long term goal must be considered. That is all the time we have for this video, we will continue this portion of Determining the Best University to Attend in the next video.
I hope you have enjoyed this video. Please watch the rest of the videos in the series to see how to choose the best University to attend. Thank you very much for watching!
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