Are you waiting to receive that admissions letter from your first-choice school? Here’s some advice from our bloggers on how to stay calm, and why a rejection isn’t the end of the world.

Jaime Bellemare

I remember waiting to hear back from New York University (NYU). I applied early decision and was set on living in the city. I was with my dad on the way home from one of my softball games when my brother called and said that he letter had come in the mail. I couldn’t get home fast enough, but I was terrified. I knew that my chances of being accepted were less than great.

When I got home I ran to the kitchen to find the letter. Small envelope, like I expected. Unfortunately, the made for film idea that small envelopes are equivalent to rejection is actually pretty accurate. Of course, there are exceptions, but not in my case.

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College students and faculty protest at the State Capitol in Sacramento, California (Photo: REUTERS/Max Whittaker)

Before coming to the U.S., I had the myth in my mind that American students are all rich financially and can afford a college education very easily. Or if American students are unable to pay their fee then having an American nationality solves all their problems and government provides them free education. I also thought no one needs to protest in the States, as people get all the rights very easily and they need not to worry about anything.

Back in Pakistan once I read Franklin D. Roosevelt’s quote, “The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize,” and Mark Twain’s statement, “Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail.” I started believing ….. American youth are so lucky and blessed that their policy makers know the vision and importance of education. Unlike developing countries, America doesn’t need to compromise education budget over defense budget.

But while staying here I realized that reality is quite the contrary. Although a certain percentage of American college students do come from wealthy families and have large expendable incomes, most American college students come from moderate-income families. Most American students enter college knowing they must apply for loans, work part-time, and earn scholarships in order to meet their financial obligations.

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If you’re applying to study in the U.S., you’ve probably been worrying about whether or not you’ll get that acceptance letter in the mail.  Once you do, you’ll have a whole new set of things to worry about, including decisions like where to live and with whom. Al-Jamiat has been offering some advice on how to approach these practicalities of your first year.

She’s covered whether to live on or off campus (“you have to determine the best option to match your lifestyle”), how to live with a roommate (“it’s probably a good idea to discuss décor”), and how to choose about your major (“think long and hard about what you really enjoy”).

The website is targeted at Middle Eastern students, but the advice is useful for any international student.

The most popular question I get from my friends in Vietnam is how to speak English fluently and correctly. I realize that it is a aching question that not just my friends, but also learners of this global language are trying to answer. In my case, even though I was taught English since the beginning of middle school in Vietnam, the things I learned then were barely adequate to carry out a conversation or even write up a letter in correct grammar.

In 9th grade, I decided to focus on studying English intensively on my own, which helped me land a scholarship to study in America through an exchange program – a thrilling turn for my education.

Obviously, being in the native speaking environment was a golden advantage, but at the same time, I still had to study and practice the language. By the end of high school, I was very confident with my English skills. All of my hard work paid off even more in college, because the classes at St. John’s College are discussion-based, so there’s a lot of talking.

Here are some of the things that worked for me when I was learning English. Since everyone has a different learning style, what worked for me won’t necessarily be best for you, but hopefully this will at least help you along.

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Creative commons photo by Flickr user Ehsan Khakbaz

The new year in Afghanistan is called Nawroz (sometimes spelled Nowruz or Nawruz in English). The first day of the Afghan month Hamal, which falls on the 21st of March, was the first day of the new year in Afghanistan and some other countries.

This day is considered one of the biggest holidays of the year. People start getting ready for Nawroz a month before and celebrate the actual day following the old Afghan traditions.

One of the biggest traditions for Afghans on Nawroz is to wear green clothes and to cook green things. The idea is to give a new start to their lives, the same as the growth of the green plants in the spring, so they will be green, happy and fresh until the end of the year. The word green in the Dari language is “sabz.” Therefore, Afghans prepare seven dishes that start with the letter “S.”

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China Daily “Big Talk” interviewed two representatives from EducationUSA, who gave some useful advice for prospective students.  In particular, they addressed misconceptions that many Chinese students have about studying in the US.  The video is on their website, but here are some highlights:

Misconception: Chinese students can only apply to certain types of universities

One misunderstanding is that there are only a limited number of schools to which Chinese students can go now.  We in the US don’t have a quota system at all.  So it’s not exactly true that more schools are opening their doors because they’ve always been open, and they’ll continue to be open.

- Lauryne Massinga – director of EducationUSA Asia – Northeast

Misconception: You need great SAT scores to go to a good college

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New submissions for our Glossary of Confusing Words!  This week we’re defining “institute” and “underway.”

Unfortunately the people who suggested these terms didn’t leave their email addresses, so we can’t thank them personally, but they’ll know who they are, so here’s a public thank you to them.  Anonymous suggestions are still welcome suggestions.

1) Institute

“School or research group?” asked the person who suggested we define “institute.”

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Creative commons photo by Flickr user alexandralee

It’s a little crazy that my spring break ended just a couple days ago, but already the end of the semester is only a few weeks away. By the end of April, I’ll have finished all of my regular classes and will only have a couple of final papers left to turn in. I’ll be able to say goodbye to my responsibilities as a George Washington University student for three and a half long months.

As an undergrad, summer break meant going home to New Jersey for a few months, working a low-stress job as a groundskeeper or warehouse worker, and usually bumming around during my free time. As a graduate student though, since my program is all about professional development, it’s tough to get away with just going home for the summer. Almost all of my classmates have an internship, job, or some cool project already lined up.

For my own part, I’m fortunate because the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at my university awarded me a generous grant to study Mandarin in Taiwan this summer. It’s a pretty awesome deal, and I’m really psyched about it, but it was definitely a process getting there. There are a couple of things that I think helped me out along the way:

Getting started early

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For anyone who has been following the case of Tri-Valley University, The Chronicle of Higher Education has an in depth report on how a so-called “sham university” managed to get on the list of SEVIS-approved schools…and whether other schools in the U.S. may also be operating on the fringes of the law:

Other colleges—most of them unaccredited—exploit byzantine federal regulations, enrolling almost exclusively foreign students and charging them upward of $3,000 for a chance to work legally in the United States. They flourish in California and Virginia, where regulations are lax, and many of their practices—for instance, holding some classes on only three weekends per semester—are unconventional, to say the least. These colleges usher in thousands of foreign students and generate millions of dollars in profits because they have the power, bestowed by the U.S. government, to help students get visas.

You may have heard about or seen the YouTube video of a UCLA student mocking Asian students on her campus.  I won’t post it here, but you can find it easily enough.  Inside Higher Ed looks at what the video might indicate about how Asians are treated on campus, and how racism against Asians differs from racism against other minority groups in America.

Tara responded to the video on her personal blog, writing:

As a foreigner, I try to love the country I am currently living in, it may take time but so far, I have to say that America is the land that is closest to me of all the countries of the world except my home country China. The thing is, sometimes, you may find people who are different from you are weird or hard to accept at first, but believe me what you only need are time and a warm heart that is willing to accept new things…

Luckily, our bloggers have had positive experiences dealing with their American classmates.  Check out these two posts for more on what they’ve found:

Are Foreign Students Stereotyped by American Classmates?
Do International Students Fit in with American Classmates?

Las Vegas. It’s the sort of place which has been portrayed in mythical terms in the movies and on television to such a scale that it seems impossible to think of it as a real place, an actual city where people live and work.

Photo: Carol M. Highsmith

I had been meaning to take a trip there for a long time, and this past weekend, as spring break sprung to life, a few friends and I set off from Santa Fe, New Mexico due northwest to “Sin City.”

I encountered many thoughts and feelings over the course of those few days. As many of my American friends had foretold, the word “surreal” kept popping up much more than “magical” or “mythical” in Las Vegas.

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Last week we started a glossary of confusing terms you might encounter when applying to U.S. colleges. We defined the word “college,” which has a very different meaning in the U.S. than in most other English-speaking countries, as well as the words “community college,” “bachelor’s degree,” and more.

» Visit the Glossary

We also asked for your feedback to suggest other terms we should define, and here are two of the words you asked for. You can suggest more words to add using the Glossary Suggestion Form at the bottom of this page or by leaving a comment:

1) University

One of you asked for more clarification about the difference between a college and a university. Unfortunately, the difference is not well-defined, and often the same schools could just as easily be called a college as a university.

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University of Kansas basketball trophies displayed in the university basketball stadium, Allen Fieldhouse (Creative commons photo by proforged on Flickr)

If you are a college student in the U.S., international or American, there are two things in March that create a hiatus in academic life. The first is spring break, which is usually a well-deserved week-long break after the dreaded midterms. And it’s usually about that time that the second – “March Madness” – starts.

For most U.S. college students those two words don’t need any explanation, but for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, let me explain a little bit. “March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA’s (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I basketball tournament. This is probably the most important event related to college athletics, and at the University of Kansas I can truly feel the emotions flowing in the air.

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Two fun online games to help you improve your English that we’ve stumbled across this week:

1) Knoword – a vocabulary and spelling game. The computer gives you a definition and the first letter, and you type in the word.  You can also switch between American English and British/Canadian English.  Thanks to the QI elves for the tip.

2) LyricsTraining - A game based on song lyrics.  You select from a set of YouTube videos, and as the video plays you fill in the missing song lyrics.  Song lyrics can be particularly tricky, and even native English speakers can sometimes have trouble – for a good laugh, visit KissThisGuy, a website of misheard song lyrics (via @ESLGurus).

And studying English ever gets too hard, here’s some inspiration.  New research shows that learning a second language helps delay memory loss and could even prevent Alzheimer’s disease.