Please help! I'm going crazy!!!!

Applying to College
1

<p>Dear people,</p>

<p>I am facing a hard decision between studyong abroad or transferring and I need some advice from someone. I am currently enrolled in a small LACs as an international student. This is the second semester of my freshman year. I have recently applied to 6 schools as a transfer student for this fall (2012). The reason for this is, first and foremost, that my current school is not very academically challenging. The student body is mostly comprised of drop-outs from other colleges and/or kids who took a few years off before deciding to go back to school, resulting in an average on-campus age of 22-25. Most -but not all- of the students don't take their academic work too seriously, so even if some instructors are committed to giving us a quality education, they end up tailoring their classes to people who don't necessarily want to study, or whose intellectual skills are below average. It's been a very frustrating year for me, and I've ended up taking overload courses, auditing a couple more and writing papers for extra credit becaus I don't feel like I'm getting enough from my education. So I applied to Reed, Oberlin, Amherst, Grinnell, Kenyon and Sarah Lawrence College with the hope to find in one of them what my school lacks. I am still waiting for the admissions letters, and today everything changed...</p>

<p>I received a letter from a LAC in Massachusetts saying that I've been accepted into a Study Abroad program they have in Bhutan, a small country in the Himalayas. This is the only school in the world that has a program in Bhutan, since it's a VERY hard place to get into; the government has a strong anti-tourist policy so that visitors have to pay $200 a day just to be there, plus accommodation, meals, transportation, etc. The only two other ways to enter the country are to get a job (virtually impossible unless you speak the language- a Tibetan dialect) or to study there. If I accepted my place in the program I would be doing both; spending a semester at the only private college in the country while doing an internship at an environmental conservation institution.</p>

<p>So here's the conundrum: I have until April 1st to accept their offer, and the admission letters from the colleges I applied to won't come until May 15th. So I have no idea what to do. On one hand, it has always been my dream to go to Bhutan and I thought it would be impossible, since I don't have the money to go on my own and it's considerably better to live there for 4 months than to stay as a tourist for a week. This might very well be a once in a lifetime opportunity, since the program is only in its third year of existence and I don't know if it's gonna be around again, or if I'd even be accepted later after rejecting the offer this year. On the other hand, I know that my future could be compromised if I did not transfer to a better school. However, I do not even know if I'll be admitted into ANY of the schools I applied to, so to find out that I gave up Bhutan for nothing would be soul-crushing in many ways. I don't think it's possible to defer transfer admissions due to space availability, and I cannot defer the Bhutan offer either.</p>

<p>So could someone please, please give me some input, things to consider, insight, help to put this into perspective? I have not even told my family that I applied to transfer schools or to Bhutan, since I didn't want to disappoint them in case I was not accepted, so I don't know who else to talk to. Thanks in advance for your help :)</p>

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<p>There is nothing stopping you visiting Bhutan as a tourist. You do not need to be studying abroad or have a job there to enter the country. I think you have been mis-informed (possibly by someone selling you a study abroad program?).</p>

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<p>I would go for it. If you do get accepted into any of your choice colleges, there’s always the possibilty of deferrment…especially with a letter or phone call explaining this unique opportunity. College will always be there, and despite some of what you read here on CC…it’s not impossible to find a great school that’s a good fit.</p>

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<p>Dear Cupcake, I had to do a lot of research on Bhutan in order to apply to the program and the government there has a strong program to regulate tourism since its introduction in 1975. In order to go as a tourist, you have to find a travel agency to arrange it for you and process your visa with the government. This same person has to stay with you AT ALL times during your stay in Bhutan. You cannot travel arounf the country unless you get special permits, so you’re confined to very limited spaces chosen by the travel guide. Also, you need to pay a fee of $200 a day that goes for conservation issues, on top of whatever you paid as a tourist. There’s just one airline that flies there twice a week and you cannot purchase a ticket on your own, an agent has to do it for you. That’s what I meant when I said it was ver complicated to go to Bhutan as a tourist :slight_smile: It is of course doable, I just would probably have to wait 10 years or longer to have the time and resources to go there for a week or so, which still would not be the same as living there for a prolongued period of time and experiencing the local lifestyle in a closer way…</p>

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<p>You’re wrong about the costs of visiting Bhutan as a tourist. It does cost $200 per day, but that’s for a tour that includes your food/lodging/transport etc.</p>

<p>If your current university really is as crap as you say, I think it’s a no brainer - transfer.</p>

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<p>Dear keepittoyourself. I appreaciate your corrections. However, my intent with the post was not to enter a discussion on the tourist policy in Bhutan, but to get some advice as to what the best course of action at this moment in my life, and not in a hypothetical future when I’ll have the time and resources to potentially go as a tourist, could be. If you have any more input to share on that regard, I thank you in advance for it.</p>

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<p>Just so you know, you’re coming across as a bit rude and entitled.</p>

<p>My point was that going to Bhutan as a tourist is not as expensive as you seem to think, so you should transfer and spend your study abroad money on a nice long holiday to Bhutan, if you are desperate to go there.</p>

<p>And 4 months in a place on an organised programme is not ‘living’ there.</p>

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<p>No, you are not seeming rude or entitled. Its a legit question. But, what is your interest in the enviro conservation internship? Strong enough, career-related, so it makes this opportunity significant? Or just a side thing? Bhutan figures in your future academic plans, relates to your probable major- or seems incredibly exotic? And, what’s the money situation? Could you pay your reserve fee for Bhutan and make a final decision after 5/15?</p>

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<p>I think the tone of</p>

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<p>was a bit rude and entitled.</p>

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<p>Hi lookingforward. Those are all good questions. The reason I’m interested in Bhutan is because they have a very strong environmental conservation policy; 72% of the land is protected as national forests, and even though they could exploit their resources more industrially and export them to India, they choose not to buy into the idea of unlimited growth and development. I had been looking for a model that took into consideration things other than financial value, and I have not found it outside of Bhutan. I think there is a lot to learn from their commitment to environmental conservation, which is why I thought the internship there could be a good opportunity to have a first-hand experience on the field. However, it is true that I could learn a lot about their policy by doing secondary research on it; there are a few scholarly papers and scientific reports that I have come across in the past. My plan is to go eventually work in environmental policy and law either here or in my country of birth, so I do not think I’d want to pursue a career in Bhutan, but rather to take the knowledge and tactics used there and apply them later in this side on the Atlantic.
As for my studies, I am currently pursuing a double major in Environmental Policy and Political Sciences. I could pay the reserve fee for Bhutan (I believe it’s $200), and I can use my financial aid package to cover most of the study abroad cost. However, I do not think it’s correct to do so, since they would contemplate me as part of the group, and one of the applicants who got rejected for the program would lose his or her place in it because of me.</p>

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<p>Sounds like it would be a strong feather in your cap to have both Bhutan and the internship in your resume. And, an unusual experience, not offered to many.</p>

<p>Not sure what you mean about fin aid. You are sure your current school would extend FA to cover this program? Or did you mean you are accepted to the MA college and thus making a commitment to them? Or?</p>

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<p>I meant that my current school would be willing to sign a consortium agreement with the MA college so I can use my financial aid package here to cover part of the costs of the program. I did not apply to the MA college, just to the program. I applied to 6 other schools as a transfer student, so if I did a commitment to Bhutan, I’d lose my place at those schools. On the other hand, I don’t know if I’ve been accepted in any of them yet either.</p>