No parent really wants to see their child leave home for university, especially if they plan on going far away from home. When a child is considering putting an entire ocean between home and school, it’s terrifying. But there are several really good reasons why it can be highly beneficial for students to head across the pond for their higher education. Should your child travel to the U.S. for University? Look at the numbers, the stats, and the facts and you can help your child make this important decision that will affect the entire course of their life.
International Studies
Recent studies show that more and more parents are considering sending their kids to the U.S. to get their high education. And as they say, parents know best. One rather exhaustive study conducted by HSBC shows that students who want to build a global future need to study internationally. This will not only help them in the professional world, but it will also help them in their personal and social lives.
Students who study abroad learn how to work with and talk to a wider, more culturally diverse group of people. They get exposed to different types of people and they learn how to thrive even in unfamiliar situations at a young age. In other words, studying abroad looks great on a CV and it gives students real-life skills that will continue to help them far, far into the future.
Growing Pains
Traveling abroad helps students truly expand their horizons and truly learn to stand on their own two feet, an extremely important lesson that will only serve them as they move forward into the future. Being on their own also helps students develop new confidence in themselves. Going an ocean away from home to learn is a pretty big deal, after all. the student who can successfully complete a semester abroad will know in their hearts that they can truly do anything and achieve anything.
Standing Out
Students who do something big, like going to another country for a semester or two, stand out from the crowd. Approximately 3.2 million high school graduates go to college every fall. In a few short years, they will become college graduates who will be competing for some of the same jobs, internships, and graduate school programs. There’s a lot of competition. The students who have achieved something dazzling are the ones who are going to get those opportunities first.
Every day, Google processes more than 3.5 billion searches for college info. That’s a ton of students who are out here doing the work, doing the research, and preparing for their own futures. Arming a student with international experience is a great way to help them get ahead in this highly competitive world that students face immediately after they leave the comfort of a University setting.
Other Benefits
By going to a different country to attend school, students can also explore lots of new things and experiences that will stay with them for a lifetime. Many American colleges offer different amenities and a totally different experience than what students find in European Universities. Sports are a huge part of student life at American colleges, with many institutes of higher learning offering all sorts of athletic facilities and teams for students to use. Swimming, the most popular recreational activity for children and teens aged 7 to 17, is offered as a competitive sport at many American schools, along with other distinctly American sports such as basketball and American football.
After all, college should also be about having a little bit of fun and making lifelong memories. There are lots of ways to do that at American schools, which place just as much emphasis on student life and activities as they do on academics.
