global nomads TCKs

<p>I agree with her GC. Kids who have travelled and lived all over the world will be hard pressed to find four years of excitement in a small environment.</p>

<p>HOWEVER, the smallness of the student body--or the smallness of the college town might be counterbalanced by an in-depth program which would absorb four years (or three plus one year abroad) of intellectual energy. </p>

<p>Perhaps she should carefully screen the small LACs for program depth? </p>

<p>I believe American tcks are counted in the international pile for admission 'geography'--but they are not counted in the 'international' pile for population stats. There are marketing reasons for the discrepency, IMHO.</p>

<p>I was puzzling over TCK too! That website was great! The quote from Mark Twain is the best articulation of why kids should travel/work/live in different countries if possible during their youth:</p>

<p>"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it solely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the earth all one's lifetime." -- Mark Twain</p>

<p>Here's an interesting article for third culture kids and their parents. <a href="http://www.collegejournal.com/mbacenter/newstrends/20050209-schiffler.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegejournal.com/mbacenter/newstrends/20050209-schiffler.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>:) I'm not a parent..but..this is something you all may want to check out. I work at a hospital, this drug is brand new, many dr's may not even have it in yet, but if you call and ask them to order it, they more than likely will, or will have you pick it up at your pharmacy and bring it with you on your next visit and administer it to your child..it's most assuredly a wise option...
<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/11/health/main673470.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/11/health/main673470.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Loved that quote Patient....</p>

<p>holycow, We also live overseas (in Southeast Asia) and our son attends college in Massachusetts.</p>

<p>My son did end up choosing an LAC instead of a large university. He went to the same highschool as Robyrm's kids, so same situation: the GCs feel that the LACs are in general good matches for kids from this highschool. Having said that, many of my son's friends have gone on to excel at large universities, the Ivy League, U Texas and everything in between, so I'd say that the international experience itself is not a determining factor in choosing the size of the school. As a parent, however, I've been really pleased with the level of personal attention and community involvement that he's found at his LAC. Being 10,000 miles away, it's been comforting to know that the natives are friendly and that help is easy to come by, both personal and academic.</p>

<p>Logistically planning the college visit trip to see a wide range of schools and spend quality time at each was the biggest challenge for us. Since there was no possibility that our son would have been able to return to the US for a second visit after the acceptances came in, we only wanted him to apply to colleges that he had seen. We also made good use of the Collegiate Choice videos for prescreening and for reminding once we were back home.</p>

<p>American citizens living abroad may be or may not be classified as internationals, depending on what the college needs. If it matters to you, you'll need to ask the individual school. In general the colleges like expat kids because they help the school with "international diversity" and they don't have visa or language issues. If they come from a third world or an Islamic country so much the better.</p>

<p>My son has a network of kids from his highschool all over the US (and Europe) whom he frequently visits on holidays. His college classmates have also been very hospitable in inviting him to their homes, so vacations have never been a problem for him. Most colleges are aware that a number of kids can't make it home for the holidays and will compensate by leaving the dorms open, arranging trips, all kinds of options. </p>

<p>My son's transition was very smooth. Again, I think it was really helped by being in a friendly close-knit community. The school also had a wonderful firstyear orientation program and living arrangement which greatly facilitated making friends, fast.</p>

<p>He definitely misses home and finds it difficult to articulate to his new friends what living in a third world alien culture is really like. He's also bemused at being so "totally out of it" about American cultural icons, but a few evenings in front of the tube remedied that. The school he attends is in the middle of the diversity range (in general LACs, especially those in rural locations are lower than big universities) and this was an initial concern. As it turned out, however, my son feel the overall diversity -- racial, religions, ethnic, sexual, political, social, economic -- is sufficient to keep things interesting.</p>

<p>Two obstacles that he still needs to overcome are learning to drive and thinking "Republic of Indonesia" everytime he sees the abbreviation RI.</p>

<p>momrath, thanks for the post. I guess your child went to ISB, JIS, SAS, ISKL or one of those schools (we live in a different part of Asia). How much do colleges actually know about these far flung schools? I imagine my D will have total culture shock - we all experience it every time we go for home leave (all those strange reality tv shows??!!!), but living in the States will be very difficult for her I think. I know she is out of touch with the American teen culture - and when I read some of the threads on this site I am sure she is not prepared for a lot of the types of situations she will be confronted with. And Charlotte Simmons - I only hope it is a totally distorted fabrication. Her GC keeps pushing LACs as being a good fit for my D. We will have to visit more this summer - any suggestions of good LACs in the northeast?</p>

<p>holycow, All of the selective schools recruit in Singapore and Hong Kong. Beyond that think it depends a lot on how aggressive the college placement/counseling organization is. When my son was going through the process several years back, I don't think there was one selective college that visited his high school. Part of that was due to the fact that nobody ever wants to come to Jakarta and part I think was because the counselors just didn't have close relationships with the colleges. Once a high school establishes a history of kids matriculating and succeeding at a college, then it's more likely that future kids will be accepted. In my son's case, no one could even remember when a student had gone to Williams and his year two ended up there, so it's very difficult to predict.</p>

<p>The east coast LACs that my son visited were Williams (which he attends), Amherst, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Trinity, Conn College, Skidmore and Haverford. Plus Brown and Tufts, which although not LACs, are "small" in feeling. There are many others in all ranges of selectivity.</p>

<p>As far as culture shock my son found the best indicator of social trends was Mad Magazine!</p>