By Shireen Korkzan
<[email protected]>

Senior Matthew Johnston was born in Brockville, Ontario and has lived in the United States for 13 years. But after his final year in an American high school he will return back to Canada to attend McGill University in Montreal, even though he was also accepted to Purdue, University of Minnesota and Drexel University in Pennsylvania. Johnston is one of few students to study across the border after high school.

“It’s cheaper to go to McGill and it has a strong engineering program with good connections,” Johnston said. “It’s the same reason why people go to Ivy League schools; McGill is one of the most selective and best schools in the country. Plus, its something new to try out.”

Johnston said he also applied to, but was rejected from, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts and Princeton. University of Waterloo in Ontario did not reply back to Johnston in time for the May 1 college committment deadline. He also said he does not care where he lives after college as long as he has a decent job, but he would prefer getting a job in Canada.

Although she was born in Indianapolis, senior Aoi Taniguchi said she is certain she will attend college in Japan, but won’t know where she is going for sure until less than a month after she takes the college entrance exams for the five or six schools she will apply to in October; tests are different for each college and major. Japanese colleges start in April. Taniguchi said she did not apply to any colleges in the United States.

“I didn’t think about applying to Japan until last summer after visiting colleges there,” Taniguchi said. “I will be moving back to Japan a week after graduation to spend all summer and fall studying for the entrance exams. I won’t come back to the United States any time soon; it’s not easy to make this choice.”

Alejandra Adan, associate manager for marketing and communications for IB Americas, headquartered in New York, said she strongly recommends students to study overseas, but thinks students travel abroad for personal reasons.

“Some students who are from different countries and go to high school here will want to go back to their homes to study there,” Adan said. “Traveling abroad would also be a challenge. I think some students choose to do this to experience cultural emersion or language acquisition.”

As for Johnston, he said there would not be any problems with going to a college outside the United States. If anything, studying across the border will be more beneficial for students for various reasons.

“Don’t not consider going to a college overseas,” Johnston said. “It’s not out of your price range; it’s cheaper than going to a school out of state and FAFSA generally works with schools outside the United States. Also, it’s university Everyone goes there to learn. Going overseas just gives you a head start to being independent.”

Whether or not students choose to study outside the country, every college offers some sort of learning process. The location of that university just makes the learning experience a little bit different.

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INTERESTED IN GOING INTERNATIONAL?

Here are some Web sites to help you get started on your research:

University worldwide
univ.cc

University and College Search Track
www.braintrack.com

Association of American International College and Universities
www.aaicu.org