April 08, 2007

In the news: getting into college in the US

You probably know the feeling. You've just finished high school, done many tests to get into university and now it's time for the results. You sit around biting your nails nervously, checking the internet every 10 minutes to see if the final list has been published...

Right now, thousands of American teenagers are waiting for the letters sent by universities, telling them whether or not they have been accepted. Their system is different from ours; there is no entrance exams like our 'vestibular', so students choose where they want to study, apply for a place and wait for the answer.

The
New York Times has an interesting article describing how students, counsellors and parents feel as they wait for the results.

ABC News also has a story on the topic, discussing how expensive it is to go to college in the United States. To watch the video, click
here and then on the image.

2 comments:

Cristina Costa said...

What a nice exchange of perspectives! In Portugal we have to take national exams after the 12th grade. Then, we can apply to some of the university courses, according to the subjects we took the exams on. Then we have to wait for 2 months or so to know if we got accepted. It can be a very stressing period!
beijinhos
Cris

Mônica said...

It's interesting to see what students in different countries have to do in order to get into college. But it seems that, no matter where they are, stress and anxiety is something they all have in common!