Sometimes college reminds me of a mini version of the rat race, “I gotta get a good SAT,ACT score, high GPA, gotta get into the elite college,gotta get hired at Wall Street, gotta be a CEO, etc.”

Honestly I don’t care where I go to college, I care in the sense that its accredited and that I learn, but I don’t care about the Ivy colleges. I know my parents were disappointed but the truth is that I really wish they had been less of helicopter parents and more of letting me find my own path.

After awhile kids get tired of doing things for their parents and want to find their own path. That’s why I didn’t want to go to college. I believe in knowledge and in education, but that doesn’t mean you must go to college for those things.

Thanks for this book, I appreciate that you are willing to give different pov at your blog. =)

With regard to the cost of college in another country being far less- its absolutely true. We have been taking Chinese language courses here for something around $15-20 US per class. There are other students here who have been taking courses in law, science, business and cultural studies for far cheaper than at home- many of which are taught in English (and for classes not in English- translators are available for international students.) The cost of living is low here also, far lower than the cost of dorms and apartments in the US, which is another thing to factor in.
Of course, if someone is going to do a study abroad in London or Paris, the costs would likely be higher. But Asia has some phenomenally inexpensive options that I would recommend to anyone considering a high school or college international experience.
Most colleges in the US, by the way, also have options to test out of required courses, even if they don’t directly accept the credits from another school. Older students who work in a field for years before getting a degree in their area often use these to avoid having to take basic 101 and 201 level courses in subjects they are well versed in already.

I am a homeschooler. I homeschool because I want to give my children the best education I can. I pick great curriculum. I tailor my lesson to the needs of my children. They are doing great. If I chose to live overseas, I would still homeschool. I would take my children to historical sites and immerse them in the culture. I would not enroll them in the foreign school. I just don’t see that as a great cultural experience. “Come on kids let’s immerse ourselves in the public school of this country”.

I didn’t take AP classes or exams, and still found much of the material easier to handle than at the high school level. For me, it had a lot to do with schedule. In HS, I had 4 classes without any real break. In college, that is not the case.

Calculus, Chemistry and English are the AP classes in my HS that stand out. I know people who passed those exams with a 4 or 5 and still had to take “Intro to …” when they got there. One of my closest friends had to take Intermediate Algebra (Math 098) despite passing Calculus with a 5 — the accuplacer ended when he couldn’t do a certain kind of problem. He wound up CLEP-ing out of a bunch of classes so he could finally take Calculus.

At the graduate level, legacies (etc) don’t count for a lot — but most people seem to believe that they do. That’s why I mentioned it. I’ve been asked probably fifty times how many extracurriculars I had in my undergrad career. So I mentioned it in my comment. I’m not going to say it’s worthless, but lots of people feel like they have to be superheroes or something to get into grad school. They don’t.

I truly feel that my year abroad at age 15, totally immersed in a language I had not studied previously was the best experience I have ever had. I think it was one of the factors that set me apart from the crowd and allowed me to win a fully-paid academic scholarship to a top university. Later on in my business career having fluency in more than 1 foreign language allowed me to manage operations in many countries.

We plan to offer the same opportunities to our son once he is old enough.

It’s worth noting that there’s a difference between college credit (meaning that the AP class counts toward the number of credits you need for graduation, so you can potentially graduate one or two or three semesters early) and college placement (meaning that you can skip the introductory classes in that subject and go straight to the more advanced ones). Colleges often offer one but not the other, and the policy usually varies from department to department.

“The funny thing was, that when they took the equivalent college courses, they were easier!”

Are you sure they didn’t just find the college classes easier because they’d seen most (but not all) of the material already? If the college is really making them retake easier versions of classes they’ve already taken (i.e., not offering placement), then that college has a very stupid policy.

“Six weeks ago, I was notified that I’ve been granted admission to an Ivy League school’s graduate program. I don’t have a 4.0 GPA, I didn’t kill myself going after thirty extracurriculars and I don’t have any relatives that attended. Instead I volunteered a bit, I worked a bit in a few jobs, and I busted my hump in my classes.”

Congratulations on your acceptance. In my experience, though – and I don’t mean this to diminish your accomplishment in any way – when it comes to grad school admissions, grades in classes unrelated to your major, extracurricular activities unrelated to your major, and legacies all count for exactly squat. In other words, they don’t really look for well-roundedness – they look for someone who’s skilled in and passionate about that one particular subject, because you’ll be living, breathing, eating, sleeping, and dreaming that one particular subject for the next two to ten years of your life.

I’m currently doing my first work term and my bosses told me when I started that they specifically picked me over other candidates because they thought the year abroad showed maturity and autonomy. During my midterm review, they said they were impressed beyond their expectations. Considering I’m just a normal kid, I’m positive I can attribute all this to going abroad.

The funny thing was, that when they took the equivalent college courses, they were easier!

When I took the ACT, I got a terrible score. I didn’t really sweat it, because I was able to see that it didn’t really matter with the schools I was going to go to anyway. I wound up dropping out of high school and going to college. I come from a very disadvantaged background and had no support for going to college. I had to make it on my own.

Six weeks ago, I was notified that I’ve been granted admission to an Ivy League school’s graduate program. I don’t have a 4.0 GPA, I didn’t kill myself going after thirty extracurriculars and I don’t have any relatives that attended. Instead I volunteered a bit, I worked a bit in a few jobs, and I busted my hump in my classes. I’m not perfect. The key is that they want someone well-rounded, and it doesn’t hurt that graduate programs are less competitive than their undergrad counterparts. The vast majority of students will never attend grad school (no matter what their major or undergrad degree was).

If you want to give your kids a head start on college, ask them if they’d like to take a college course while in high school. Lots of teens do this now, and it makes them way more competitive for scholarships because they already have proven they can handle the time investment of college. CLEP is also a great investment if they know the material (or want to learn it).

The key is to let your kids focus on what it is that they want to do. If they want to be an artist, send them to a college course in their medium (painting, figure drawing etc). If they want to be a scientist, then ask if they want to try a beginning science course.

Final words: Support your kids in what they do. CLEP CLEP CLEP! Also, no one ever died going to a community college and/or public college. In fact, the savings are tremendous.

The expat community- and admissions officers, more importantly, are well aware of the fact that an american abroad having an experience is just resumé building by some other name. Study abroad programs- and even a year of residence abroad- are really just not that interesting. For the most part, americans abroad don’t learn the language or make any other significant advances in cultural learning. What is more, a year is scarcely enough time in which to do that.

It sounds like this path is being touted as a magic bullet, an easy way off the GPA/SAT / Designer college treadmill. The bottom line (and I can tell you this as an academic) is that it’s simply not true. You might end up with a more interesting kid, but not necessarily a more successful one.

Bottom line, the American university system will give points to the first kid that did a year in Botswana. The next twenty year-in-Botswana kids are significantly less interesting, and then the equation reverts to GPA/SAT/caliber of school once again. The system rewards parents with lots of money to pour into prep courses, prep schools, and extracurriculars, and the kids who are disciplined enough to just suck it up and stay on the treadmill. While this alternative might seem so interesting that it’s viable, it’s really not.

Just a perspective from the inside of the machine.

I just want to clarify a few points:

**I totally agree that if you’re going to go abroad, you should enroll your kids in the local school there (and not the American version). However, it’s also true that you need to be flexible and recognize that things might not fit neatly into a box. We did a combination of things with our daughters abroad: enrolling them in a local high school, enrolling them in a local college, and best of all, finding interesting and passionate tutors who were more than happy to help them in certain subjects. The point is not to assume that one path will fill your student’s needs but to keep your eyes open and look for great combinations of experiences.

**A lot of people assume that a “global” education is only for rich kids, but my whole intention in writing the book is to suggest that this is not the case and in fact, there are some great options for kids from families that don’t have a lot of money. My husband and I had an annual household income in the mid-five figures for several years prior to selling everything and leaving the US. And while we lived abroad, we saved thousands of dollars per month (with the same income) because our cost of living was so much lower than it had been in the US (and we were frugal all the way through). I know many families who are living abroad with the same income (from working virtually, writing, etc.) as they had in the US but saving a lot for college and their retirement while having a much happier and more enjoyable lifestyle.

**I’m not suggesting that community college is the best option for high school kids–just that it can be great for some, as can four-year colleges, volunteering abroad, studying abroad, etc. The point is to be aware of the options so that they can be put on the table for kids to choose. (And yes, this isn’t about choosing for your kids once they are about 15–it’s about making sure they aren’t stuck on a track that isn’t right for them and helping them understand the alternatives.)

**It’s not that my kids got tons of scholarships to great schools–that’s not the track we were on at all. We cared more about what they were LEARNING than where they went. They didn’t go to elite schools–they went to the ones that gave them good financial aid, accepted their credits from around the world, and didn’t make them jump through ridiculous hoops to get in. AND they graduated from college by 19 or so, meaning they saved a lot of money because they were motivated, built momentum in what they were learning, and really had a chance to dive into the education that they found most exhilarating. Despite this economy, they are financially independent and absolutely thriving in their chosen locations and positions. I think that’s what most parents would hope for their young adult kids!

**I am not suggesting that every family should sell everything and move abroad with their kids, nor am I saying that all kids must spend a year abroad–just that it’s a great option, far more affordable than most people know, and probably the best choice to prepare kids for their own most thrilling and fulfilling opportunities in the future. But it does depend on the kids and the parents have to be on board, obviously. In fact, I’d say that the biggest obstacle is parents who are fearful, lacking in information and lacking in imagination about the wonderful options available to their kids. By sharing our family’s story and those of many students, I hope to give readers a chance to see what’s possible and encourage them to design their own exhilarating educational experiences.

It’s a tragedy to put kids in any educational situation which dulls their enthusiasm for learning and diminishes rather than amplifies their talents. We simply felt we could give our kids more chances to learn about themselves and the world–and so we proactively selected/created better options for them. ANY parent can do that in a way that fits their comfort level, budget, and values.

My hope is that my future kids don’t want to go to Harvard and instead choose someplace like Rice or Texas A&M.

My niece just graduated high school. I had the chance to visit her last winter and saw her AP Physics course work (I took AP Physics back in 1977-78). It read like General Science from the 8th grade. She took the Physics B exam and got a 5. I was very proud of her (even if I only got a 4 back in the disco era).

Finally, a child’s education is about the child, not the parent. I see too many folks (including one of my sisters) living their lives vicariously through their kids’ education, a la, “Well I never had Mandarin in junior high, so Taylor should take it,” yadda yadda yadda. Help them develop their interests and their strengths and get them interested in THEIR goals.

I asked my sister last year, “What would you do if either of your kids wanted to be a mechanic or a chef” after hearing all the college resume
“augmenting” they were doing. She just looked at me a bit crosseyed. I don’t believe the thought ever crossed her mind. This is not Lake Woebegon, and not all children are above average, folks. If your child’s strength is to be a life guard or a landscaper, physicist or general practitioner, then encourage that.

It has its own rewards for someone like me who enjoys travelling the world and learning new cultures and languages, sure. But for succeeding in a career, I think strong academic skills coupled with good people skills matter more. And the path to that is probably more about solid academics (made fun and self-directed in as many ways as possible), and participating in team sports (which, however much it may irk a bookworm like me, is probably the best way to learn how to function socially in the real world). Which is a lot more traditional than a lot of what is being talked about here.

Our family “unschools”, meaning we let the kids follow their own interests, design their own lives, and set their own pace, with much interest and guidance (not formal lessons, though) from parents. Our oldest is now a senior in college, the next one begins college in the fall, and I know the younger two will find their way also. My kids approach the world with a passion and fervor unknown to my husband and me (we were raised in the traditional school system) until we began homeschooling our kids, and in the process discovered a whole new world ourselves.

I do agree with you that the traditional path works very well for some people. It worked well for me. But even for students who thrive in the traditional system, maybe there are other paths that would allow them to thrive even more. Obviously, the ideas presented in this book are just one person’s opinion, whether that opinion is sold as an alternative or as a “need.” If you can’t recognize that, maybe you should re-read your screen name.