Need help in understanding US colleges

[superman]

Hi,
I am a new member here (I see that the board is relatively new too).

We are based in India.
My son has taken SAT in March 2011 and has scored excellent (his target version to join in US in 2010 Fall, the regular admission course time for his batch students in US).

Now he is focusing on XI CBSE board exams as well as IIT JEE. He goes through a integrated IIT coaching which is being taught by a reputed organization. He seems to have some tough time with the expectation (as obvious). But he thinks, he will do good as he is seriously interested in IIT but he shows similar interest in US undergrad. So I am really confused.

Can any of you recommend if he is interested in bio-tech, is it better him doing undergrad in US than India? Can he do UG in India first and then Masters in US and in the end, it should not matter for his career?

I will look forward for some answers to clear my confusion. Cost is my concern along with which universities to choose.

Thanks for any help.

[iplrocks]

These are my thoughts.
- If your son has shown interest to do undergrad in India, and then wants to do M.S.or PhD in US to get the same exposure, I would not discourage and instead encourage him.
But most kids at 16-17 are unsure of what they will do next. If he also has uncertainty in what he should do next, then US undergrad in biomed/biotech provides flexibility that after 4 years, he can choose to be Doctor/Engineer/researcher because in US, in undergrad there is lot of flexibility for course selection after 1 or 2 years of undergrad. Many choose to be a doctor after doing bio-engg undergrad and viceversa.

- UC (University of California) which has many campuses but whose 3 campuses Berkeley,San Diego, Los Angeles have well known Bio-tech undergrad programs in US. Most of the bio-tech companies are situated either in Bay area or southern CA near Irvine/SanDiego/LA which enables students to have good tie-up for learning opptys with leading industries while studying. UMichigan Ann Arbor is another good state university whose cost is not that high compared to California. And many in the top 15 list I sent are private like MIT, John Hopkins, Duke etc and their costs are usually high. But see below where need based scholarships can reduce the cost significantly.

- Most of the aid/scholarship/grant colleges provide in US is need based. Since you are in India, if you show very less assets or assets tied up in all investments and not much cash, he will qualify for lot of aid. For example, university shows $45K for the yearly fees/dorm etc but if a student shows proof that even though he is USC, his parents are in India and they cannot provide for him, the cost will turn to be $25K or even less with all these aid/scholarship/grant/ work pay arrangements etc. He will discover all these secrets after securing the seat and talking to student counselors and senior indian students. Being USC will not stop him to qualify for aid because most aids are need based in all the universities. Actually being in US and earning money here disqualifies us for all such aids but we have seen that Indian kids get lot of advantage because of this need based Mantra and citizenship or non-citizenship does not matter.

- You did not mention what his SAT score is.2100 -2400 SAT score is considered good score but for him to get to top 15, it has to be in the 2200-2300 range atleast as many students score perfect these days making the competition very tough.

-I would also encourage him to take JEE very seriously and try to get into IIT. If he cannot secure seat for any reason, then have plan B to apply to US universities. All schools have admission officers/guidance counselor to get him all the information he needs once he gets admission. He/You can sit together and decide to come or not come after all the comparison of costs etc.


Hope this helps,
if you have any questions let me know.

[dambodambo]

IPL rocks, that was a really informative post from you. I hope you will answer some of my questions here.

We are now in India after a stay of few years in US and I have come back to US again for short term assignment and rest of the family is in India. My daughter joined her highschool in India when we returned. She has always been an honors student and did very well both in academics and in extra curricular activities. She is a very mature, polite, simple, non-controversial, focused student and sure knows that she wants to pursue technical line but, as of now, she is not a 100% sure of which branch of engineering. This is where she thinks that US education will help her in making the right choice. She has admission from a top5 university from US. Even after getting accepted by that top US school, her effort in IIT preparation has not come down by a bit. She is as serious with this as she was before the acceptance came. According to her teachers, her test results, our opinion, her confidence, etc., she will crack JEE with a decent rank and will make it to one of the old 5 IITs. She is not hung up on US undergrad education. As much she loves to go to US for undergrad, she wants to make a decision on this, after making a decent homework. She accepts logical explanations and is open to discussions and wants to base our decision on agreement.

With the above background, I would appreciate if you can share your thoughts on the following points:

1. I am concerned about her social and emotional preparedness to got to college in a far away land like the US. If she had done her high school in US, I feel she would have been socially better prepared. Or, if we were living in the US, she would have had good psychological support. We do not have any of our family members in the US, whom she can lean on.
2. She is a staunch vegetarian who prefers South Indian food, though can manage with some North Indian stuff. Continental food does not appeal to her at all. Managing a meal or two while on vacation is different from managing for quite some time, until she learns the technique of doing it.
3. She is quite sensitive to cold and was never happy with cold at all in east coast. As much as she says, this is not an issue, I am worried about this.
4. Coming to the financial aid aspect - based on what I have heard from a few who have made it to this top school, the aid package they got was not interesting at all. They had to practically shell out about 200k for 4 yrs. All say that the student needs to be smart in getting the aid from schools. I don't think that my kid is street smart this way (more a straight forward than streetsmart) and neither we as parents know the secrets of doing this. We will get to know about the aid package in April. We are in a fix because, on finance grounds, should we stop her from going or is it not ok to do that? Is it worth all that money?
5. We are talking of one of the best colleges in the world. But we are also talking of the best college in India (IIT), where she is confident of getting into (with all stars being on her side). So, is it right for us to spend that kind of money and send her to US, foregoing IIT admission?
6. I believe, getting to that top US school for grad studies after IIT is extremely difficult. One has to be one in top 5 at IIT to get into that school. Would you second this?
7. Do you personally know about the college life at US campus for this north eastern university? I have heard that it will be very stressful for undergrad students there and to be at the top there is extremely hard. Do you think that geographic separation from family of this kind where she would get to see us very rarely, make her home sick and affect her performance and get into depression?

I hope you would not mind if I bothered you with this lengthy post for your advice.

Looking forward for your advice.

[iplrocks]

Hi Dambodambo,
First of all , Congrats to your kid and your family for this achievement. I am no expert but have tried to answer some of your questions. I also suggest to continue the application process for rival colleges and try to sweeten the aid package from this college where your kid got acceptance.

1. Don't bother much about this as kids who come to college have varying level of EQs and maturity levels. High school prepares them only to an extent as they still live in home and are not facing quirkiness on daily basis. Living in US offers some psychological support and as indian parents, we worry about this more than others. But don't make that as the only deciding factor as there are lot of international students who deal with this admirably too.

2 and 3. Students will get used to cold climate eventually after some struggle. They can manage with veg stuff in campus and after one year, can start preparing minimal stuff at home with like minded roommates in apartment. Their appetite gets affected a bit along with their indigestion problems and that is one thing that bothers parents. No easy solution because even being in US, parents cannot offer them daily food as they live away from parents : ). Support network is there but teenage students never care much about their parent's support network

4. Being in India and filing US taxes might work as advantage for you and make the total bill more affordable for your family. Hope her cost comes down considerably because of this. Counselors and seniors are good in helping find deals. There are several work-study programs colleges offer which help in bringing the total cost down. First semester you may pay more but subsequent semesters, there is a high possibility that cost comes down.

5. IIT and other top colleges in US curriculum might be comparable. Way of teaching differs, in India it thrives due to peer competition, whereas US allows more creativity but unless your kid is innovative type, this might not matter much.There is no right or wrong answer here. Indian workforce in US who immigrated in 90s or 2000s never felt inferior through out their career in US companies or labs or universities but the landscape has become much more competitive than when we studied years ago, so I can't answer which is better. Cost is also part of equation for us middle class families and the psychological impact of sending a 17 year old girl abroad to be on her own. Many international kids do come and study away from parents and cope well too. So think deeply and take one decision. Either way, you shouldn't regret much after weighing all the pros and cons.

6. Grad. program at any top school has much lesser class strength than undergrad and that's why it's difficult to get in for international students. Plus due to diversity reasons, grad school usually takes much less accomplished students than in undergrad. Plus they don't like their own students for same diversity reasons, so please consider these factors too. If she can't get to same school for Grad, she can surely get in for another top comparative school. Levels of all top-5 to top-20 schools are comparable and do not differ much.

7. UG at top schools are very stressful but it's not that capable students can't manage it. Due to some bad publicity(some suicide cases) in media, many colleges have undertaken many steps to make it less stressful now. Geographic separation does not matter much as their calendar is full with activities but they do miss home food and they do miss family in cold depressing months. But in college towns,there is lot of student population within just 2-3 blocks or a Train-stop away. They enjoy that too. First 2 semesters are hard and once they start living in apt. they really start cheering up and get used to separation, so take it easy

Hope this helped you a little.

[superman]

Thanks iplrocks for your post. It helps a lot. I will ask more questions if I need to.

Are you aware of any scholarships or aid programs that we indian parents can access to without getting admission any specific college so we can decide on college based on max. aid?

[sportsisking]

Superman,
There is collegeconfidential.com and collegeboard.com which deal with the questions you posted. You might be able to find some answers from there. Let us know what you find.