The Collegeboard website is really useful. Register first so you can save your searches then go to college search then click on college matchmaker. Here you enter your search criteria and then show results to see those that match. It's important at this stage not to limit your search by cost of tuition as you will miss seeing colleges that you like and may get scholarship funding to attend. We narrowed our search geographically first, we only knew one person in America and they lived in Colorado so that seemed a good reason to look there. We discovered a beautiful state, a tolerant culture with magnificent scenery.
Once you'ved narrowed your list have a really good look at the colleges own website, all the ones we looked at were very good. The distances involved in the USA mean that many Americans only visit a short list of 2 or 3 colleges in person so the web sites have to be comprehensive. Many have virtual tours and there will be separate pages for athletics (which is all sports). Have a look at the admissions criteria as it may vary a bit from that published on the Collegeboard site.
Most things can be done via e-mail but I would also recommend speaking to the International Admissions Officer to get a feel for how they handle international students. Skype is good for making these calls with or without video.
If visiting is feasible, definately do it. We saw 6 colleges in one state in 5 days and got to have a look around the surrounding area too. All offered tickets for varsity basketball games and we got to see 3 which were excellent. Arrange your visit in advance, we joined some open days and at other colleges we had a personal tour and meetings with faculty. We arranged to see basketball coaces too, this involved separate correspondence to make the initial approach and then copying in the coach and the international admissions officer to all relavent correspondence. We had personal meetings with coaches and tours of the sports facilities in addition to the general tour of the campus.
Regarding the cost, the 3 of us flew out via Toronto and into Denver. We hired a big 4x4 as snow was predicted and we didn't want to get stuck. We stayed 2 nights in cheep hotels all in one room and the others with our friends, we ate out twice and bought picnic food or ate for free at the college or with friends the rest of the time. The whole trip cost about £2,000.
Monday, 30 May 2011
Sporting criteria
Sport and particularly basketball is really big in America. It's hard to imagine without seeing it for real just how big it is. Every high school has at least one indoor basketball court and usually several. Often they are just for basketball, if not they're only shared with volleyball, there not the millions of multicoloured lines you see here in English sports halls. Consequently there's lots of training opportunities and the standard of coaching is high. The basketball coach may be a teacher but he's unlikely to coach other sports. There is always lots of tiered seating for spectators who come by the hundred for every game. And this is just at school!
The college sports facilities are astonishing, there are several full time coaches for every sport and even in small colleges with 2-3000 students they have 2,500 seater basketball courts plus practice courts and these are just for the Varsity teams (official college teams). There are several others open all the time for non varsity students to play on. The varsity teams for all sports have access to separate weight rooms, physios and...well just look under 'athletics' on any college website and you'll see what I mean. ( BTW the term athletics refers to all sports not just track and field).
You have not only to be of a high standard but you have to be seen to be a high standard. This is difficult if you're in the UK as you're unlikely to be seen by a US scout unless you play for a British Basketball League (BBL) mens team or for the Englant U18 team. Getting some game footage on YouTube helps but, even then, the UK game is very different from the American game so coaches may not see want they want from your film.
If your sport isn't as big in the USA as basketball, such as soccer (or almost anything else) you stand a better chance of getting on a varsity team or even getting an athletic scholarship, which will cover all or part of the entire cost of attending college providing you keep up both your academis and sporting performance.
College sport is strictly regulated to ensure that education recieves priority over sport. Ther term student athlete is used and the word student deliberately comes first. To be eligable to play, a student has to meet and maintan a certain gradepoint average. This varies between colleges but is usually between 2.0 and 2.8. They also must never have earned any money from their sport.
The main governing body is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and each college will have an eligability officer who advises prospective and current student athletes as well as monitoring their eligability to play based on their attendance and grades. If a team fields an ineligable player they may have to forfeit the game, even if this has been accidental, and this is considered very shameful. There are 3 divisions which are based both on the size of the school and hence the number of sports on offer as well as the academic requirements. So Div 1 has at least 7 sports for men and 7 for women of a sufficient standard and with suitable facilities to compete at this level. Div 2 colleges are smaller and have to have 5 sports each etc.
The NCAA has a national eligibility centre with whom prospective student athletes must register. In addition to general information about the individual, they require proof of academic study and acheivement which has to be sent directly from the school. In Dan's case, this meant he had to take his GCSE certificates back to school for them to copy and endorse then send to the eligibility centre in an envelope signed across the seal by a school official. The same had to go from his sixth form college. He also had to provide details of the teams he played for and contact details for the coach so the NCAA could check that he hadn't been paid to play. This all takes time, so it's worth getting on the case early. You will be eligable with a good set of GCSEs and you can always add sixth form qualifications later.
Once you start to play for a varsity team, the eligabilty clock starts ticking. You can only play for 4 years but if the coach wants you but doesn't feel you're ready, you can have a red shirt spot on the team. This means you can train but not play for the team, so you can gain experience and improve your skill but the clock doesn't start until you play competitively.
Some colleges have Junior Varsity (JV) teams, sometimes known as development teams, these are to bring on inexperienced players without using up their NCAA eligibilty years. The aim is that JV players will ultimately become varsity team members. They get coaching and get to use the same facilities as the varsity team but compete in a lower league. This is what Dan has been offered.
Everyone benefits from the student athlete set up in a college. If the team does well, the gate receipts are high (maybe 8000 tickets at $10 each per game in a div 1 college) this brings in large sums of money per year for the college which is ploughed back into sport, the academic facilities and faculty. So if the sport is good so are the academics. For the best athletes to be able to play they also have to be successful academically which helps them beyond their sporting career. Wins all round. Consequently, there is considerable accademic support for student athletes, some colleges have special athletic accademic centres which the student athlete has to clock in and out of for a set number of hours per week. Faculty come to them for tutorials in order to maintain their GPA. This is big business and so great effort is made to ensure both academic and athletic success.
It's clear to see why we don't do so well in the UK, my university barely had spectetor space in the over used multipurpose gym.
The college sports facilities are astonishing, there are several full time coaches for every sport and even in small colleges with 2-3000 students they have 2,500 seater basketball courts plus practice courts and these are just for the Varsity teams (official college teams). There are several others open all the time for non varsity students to play on. The varsity teams for all sports have access to separate weight rooms, physios and...well just look under 'athletics' on any college website and you'll see what I mean. ( BTW the term athletics refers to all sports not just track and field).
You have not only to be of a high standard but you have to be seen to be a high standard. This is difficult if you're in the UK as you're unlikely to be seen by a US scout unless you play for a British Basketball League (BBL) mens team or for the Englant U18 team. Getting some game footage on YouTube helps but, even then, the UK game is very different from the American game so coaches may not see want they want from your film.
If your sport isn't as big in the USA as basketball, such as soccer (or almost anything else) you stand a better chance of getting on a varsity team or even getting an athletic scholarship, which will cover all or part of the entire cost of attending college providing you keep up both your academis and sporting performance.
College sport is strictly regulated to ensure that education recieves priority over sport. Ther term student athlete is used and the word student deliberately comes first. To be eligable to play, a student has to meet and maintan a certain gradepoint average. This varies between colleges but is usually between 2.0 and 2.8. They also must never have earned any money from their sport.
The main governing body is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and each college will have an eligability officer who advises prospective and current student athletes as well as monitoring their eligability to play based on their attendance and grades. If a team fields an ineligable player they may have to forfeit the game, even if this has been accidental, and this is considered very shameful. There are 3 divisions which are based both on the size of the school and hence the number of sports on offer as well as the academic requirements. So Div 1 has at least 7 sports for men and 7 for women of a sufficient standard and with suitable facilities to compete at this level. Div 2 colleges are smaller and have to have 5 sports each etc.
The NCAA has a national eligibility centre with whom prospective student athletes must register. In addition to general information about the individual, they require proof of academic study and acheivement which has to be sent directly from the school. In Dan's case, this meant he had to take his GCSE certificates back to school for them to copy and endorse then send to the eligibility centre in an envelope signed across the seal by a school official. The same had to go from his sixth form college. He also had to provide details of the teams he played for and contact details for the coach so the NCAA could check that he hadn't been paid to play. This all takes time, so it's worth getting on the case early. You will be eligable with a good set of GCSEs and you can always add sixth form qualifications later.
Once you start to play for a varsity team, the eligabilty clock starts ticking. You can only play for 4 years but if the coach wants you but doesn't feel you're ready, you can have a red shirt spot on the team. This means you can train but not play for the team, so you can gain experience and improve your skill but the clock doesn't start until you play competitively.
Some colleges have Junior Varsity (JV) teams, sometimes known as development teams, these are to bring on inexperienced players without using up their NCAA eligibilty years. The aim is that JV players will ultimately become varsity team members. They get coaching and get to use the same facilities as the varsity team but compete in a lower league. This is what Dan has been offered.
Everyone benefits from the student athlete set up in a college. If the team does well, the gate receipts are high (maybe 8000 tickets at $10 each per game in a div 1 college) this brings in large sums of money per year for the college which is ploughed back into sport, the academic facilities and faculty. So if the sport is good so are the academics. For the best athletes to be able to play they also have to be successful academically which helps them beyond their sporting career. Wins all round. Consequently, there is considerable accademic support for student athletes, some colleges have special athletic accademic centres which the student athlete has to clock in and out of for a set number of hours per week. Faculty come to them for tutorials in order to maintain their GPA. This is big business and so great effort is made to ensure both academic and athletic success.
It's clear to see why we don't do so well in the UK, my university barely had spectetor space in the over used multipurpose gym.
Academic criteria
Like all universities the world over, different ones have different entry criteria. US kids are continually assessed thoughout their time in high school and come out with a Grade Point Average (GPA). This is a 4 point scale which using the UK lettering system is roughly equivalent to A=4, B=3, C=3, D=2, E=1 and the rest =0. So you add up all your scores and divide by the number of subjects and you have your GPA.
There is no universal educational standard testing across the USA so a GPA from one state may be quite different from that of another. So many colleges also want kids to do one of the two standard tests either SAT or ACT. This is an exam that tests English and maths as well as a number of optional individual subject tests which are required for some courses (or programs as they are known in the USA). Many colleges accept either but it's worth checking as some prefer one over the other. You can sit the test in the UK and it can be booked through the College Board website who also show details of all the colleges including the average scores for admitted students. Dan took his SAT at the Americal School in Hillingdon, north-west London. It gets booked up early so book early. As it tests Mahs and English, I would strongly recommend doing it soon after doing GCSEs while it's all fresh in your mind. Dan did his a year after and found it harder. It's mostly multiple choice and there are many differences in the language such as maths topics have different names and the use of English varies too so practice is essential. Books with test questions are widely available and fairly cheep and you can sign up for practice questions through the College Board website. There's also coaching available this is a similar price to any private tuition. The exam is 5 hours long with a few short comfort breaks. It costs about £70 which includes sending your results for free to 3 colleges. This has to be done promptly after the results come out otherwise it costs $10 per college. The colleges only accept results directly from the exam centre.
Dan sadly didn't do too well with his GCSEs achieving only 4 at grade A-C thankfully including English and Maths. He went on to study an OCR National Extended Diploma in Sport at Long Road Sixth form College and gained an overall merit, equivalent to 3 A-levels at grade C. So this gave Dan a GPA at high scool of 2.5 and this went up to 2.8 after sixth form. Not enough toget into many of the swanky colleges, but easilly good enough for a good selection. In reality, many colleges will accept a good set of GCSEs and A-levels are a bonus and may even count as credits for your degree meaning you don't have to complete as many credit hours for your course.
Most colleges aren't familiar with foreign exam results and have to convert them. Some do ths themselves, others want it done by one of the credential checking companies such as World Education Services (WES). This is not cheep at around £180 and thankfully we didn't need it.
There is no universal educational standard testing across the USA so a GPA from one state may be quite different from that of another. So many colleges also want kids to do one of the two standard tests either SAT or ACT. This is an exam that tests English and maths as well as a number of optional individual subject tests which are required for some courses (or programs as they are known in the USA). Many colleges accept either but it's worth checking as some prefer one over the other. You can sit the test in the UK and it can be booked through the College Board website who also show details of all the colleges including the average scores for admitted students. Dan took his SAT at the Americal School in Hillingdon, north-west London. It gets booked up early so book early. As it tests Mahs and English, I would strongly recommend doing it soon after doing GCSEs while it's all fresh in your mind. Dan did his a year after and found it harder. It's mostly multiple choice and there are many differences in the language such as maths topics have different names and the use of English varies too so practice is essential. Books with test questions are widely available and fairly cheep and you can sign up for practice questions through the College Board website. There's also coaching available this is a similar price to any private tuition. The exam is 5 hours long with a few short comfort breaks. It costs about £70 which includes sending your results for free to 3 colleges. This has to be done promptly after the results come out otherwise it costs $10 per college. The colleges only accept results directly from the exam centre.
Dan sadly didn't do too well with his GCSEs achieving only 4 at grade A-C thankfully including English and Maths. He went on to study an OCR National Extended Diploma in Sport at Long Road Sixth form College and gained an overall merit, equivalent to 3 A-levels at grade C. So this gave Dan a GPA at high scool of 2.5 and this went up to 2.8 after sixth form. Not enough toget into many of the swanky colleges, but easilly good enough for a good selection. In reality, many colleges will accept a good set of GCSEs and A-levels are a bonus and may even count as credits for your degree meaning you don't have to complete as many credit hours for your course.
Most colleges aren't familiar with foreign exam results and have to convert them. Some do ths themselves, others want it done by one of the credential checking companies such as World Education Services (WES). This is not cheep at around £180 and thankfully we didn't need it.
Seeking advice
The process is really complicated and the US education system is very different from the UK one and, unless you find someone with personal experience of marrying the two, it's pretty frustrating. We were also lucky that one of Dan's school careers advisers is American, so she was familiar with both systems. I think in hindsight, we could have sought her advice more than we did. The trouble is that you don't know what it is that you need to know at the start and so we just stumbled around for a while before we picked up the thread of what was required.
She put us on to the Fulbright Commission which is a very good source of information; they advise people from the USA wishing to study abroard as well as 'aliens' who want to study in the US. They have a good web site but also run seminars where you are talked through every step of the process. We attended one of these evening meetings and had a good chat with one of the advisors at the end which gave us a much better understanding of what to do.
She put us on to the Fulbright Commission which is a very good source of information; they advise people from the USA wishing to study abroard as well as 'aliens' who want to study in the US. They have a good web site but also run seminars where you are talked through every step of the process. We attended one of these evening meetings and had a good chat with one of the advisors at the end which gave us a much better understanding of what to do.
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Whats the weather like?
You could stick a pin in the map. Perhaps go back to where you had that fantastic holiday. Choose the name you've heard of in a film. You could buy an instantly out-of-date book of the top 500 colleges. You could search the interweb and read the profile of all 3874 colleges, universities and junior colleges in the country.
Alternatively, you can check out the weather forecast. It's as good a start as any. Pick a state that has the weather you want and there's likely to be a suitable institution in it. Big, small, urban, rural, private, state-run, expensive or cheep, it'll be there. This is precisely the advice of the Fulbright Commission.
Dan wanted hot initially, but eventually felt he'd like four seasons with proper hot in the summer, reliable snow in winter and nice leaves in between.
Alternatively, you can check out the weather forecast. It's as good a start as any. Pick a state that has the weather you want and there's likely to be a suitable institution in it. Big, small, urban, rural, private, state-run, expensive or cheep, it'll be there. This is precisely the advice of the Fulbright Commission.
Dan wanted hot initially, but eventually felt he'd like four seasons with proper hot in the summer, reliable snow in winter and nice leaves in between.
All about ball?
You can't just turn up and play. Not unless you're content to play whoever shows up at the hoops on the street corner. College, or rather university, is where it's all happening. You can't just turn up and play there either.
They call them student athletes in the USA, with the emphasis on 'student'. You have to study and you have to study hard or you can't play. It's a kind of symbiotic relationship between professors and coaches. Good coaches make for good sport that people want to watch. Thousands turn up to pay and watch every week at every college. Sport brings in vast sums of money to the college. Money is spent on facilities, staff and research to provide a good learning experience and prestige for the college.
The student athletes have to maintain their accademic performance to be allowed to play. Professors want the students to succeed to keep the money coming in so they devote extra time to ensure they do so. Coaches want to ensure they keep the players on the court so they ensure they attend their classes. Voila. Everyone's a winner!
They call them student athletes in the USA, with the emphasis on 'student'. You have to study and you have to study hard or you can't play. It's a kind of symbiotic relationship between professors and coaches. Good coaches make for good sport that people want to watch. Thousands turn up to pay and watch every week at every college. Sport brings in vast sums of money to the college. Money is spent on facilities, staff and research to provide a good learning experience and prestige for the college.
The student athletes have to maintain their accademic performance to be allowed to play. Professors want the students to succeed to keep the money coming in so they devote extra time to ensure they do so. Coaches want to ensure they keep the players on the court so they ensure they attend their classes. Voila. Everyone's a winner!
Starting dream
Dan plays basketball. Not just a bit. He lives and breathes basketball. This is good. No standing on windy touch lines or steamy swimming pool stands, no raquets, sticks, pads or engines to buy. The kit drys quickly, balls are cheap and the game is respectful. He gets better and better until he announces that the place to be is the USA if he has any hope of getting to the top.
This isn't too good if you live in the UK. So, in spring 2010, we began our voyage of discovery of how to get to the USA so he can realise his dream.
This isn't too good if you live in the UK. So, in spring 2010, we began our voyage of discovery of how to get to the USA so he can realise his dream.
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