<p>Today an overseas colleague asked me to suggest a community college in the U.S. for his nephew (int’l). He said nephrew’s English is not very good, so his parents are thinking of enrolling him this fall in a community college for a year, before he transfers to Stanford or Harvard. </p>
<p>I didn’t even know where to begin…</p>
<p>Maybe let them know the acceptance rate…what is it now, 3%? Along with the average accepted GPA/SAT, while telling them it’s a little harder to get into those schools nowadays. Maybe they just don’t know.</p>
<p>I taught English to Speakers of Other Languages for many years, some of them at a community college, so I may be able to offer some advice: There is NO answer to your question! Where do they want the boy to live? There are many community colleges that offer ESOL classes, so it depends upon where he lives. Check to see if the instructors are TESOL Certified, how many levels they offer and how the classes are structured (i.e. “Grammar based”, “Conversational”, etc).
Next, do the parents and boy understand that it is extremely difficult to get into schools such as Stanford and Harvard? What is there about this young man that leads them to believe that he would be an attractive candidate to a super-selective school over and above the US students who apply? If his English isn’t good then I doubt that he’s taken the SATs/ACTs, so he would have to develop the proficiency in the language in time to take the tests and apply to transfer- it’s unlikely that he could do that within the first few months of the school year since he’d have to sit them by the October dates. Then he’d still have to score well on the TOEFL Exam (Test of English as a Foreign Language). While Harvard may not require that, they do require the SATs and Stanford does want the TOEFL. Even though some schools don’t ask for that exam, it’s a waste of time and money to attend classes and deal with text books when you just don’t have the necessary tools to get the most from them.
I don’t envy you if you decide to have the talk with your colleague and point out the flaws in his thinking!</p>
<p>I don’t know if you actually wanted a recommendation, but Edmonds community college, just north of Seattle is excellent & they have dorms.</p>
<p>Encourage your colleague to discuss this with the counselors at the closest advising center of EducationUSA. <a href=“https://www.educationusa.info/[/url]”>https://www.educationusa.info/</a> Truly, those people will have useful information for that family. To start with, they will be able to help the family begin to comprehend the amount of lead time needed for application and admission, and will help the family evaluate whether a community college, a college/university based ESOL program, or a free-standing English institute along the lines of [Discover</a> ELS Language Schools ELS Courses for Learning English - ELS](<a href=“http://www.els.edu/en]Discover”>http://www.els.edu/en) would be the better choice.</p>
<p>Several years ago, I looked into the community college option for an overseas friend’s daughter. She ended up choosing a language program in Canada that offered the the chance to study English for about nine months and French for three.</p>
<p>Another one in the greater Seattle area is Bellevue College - they have a language program for international students. They initiate visa application process for students admitted into the program. To study in the US, a foreigner needs a student visa</p>
<p>[English</a> Language Institute @ Bellevue College](<a href=“http://www.bellevuecollege.edu/eli/]English”>English Language Institute @ Bellevue College)</p>
<p>@happymom, EducationUSA is a great suggestion. I actually visited one office in the country we’re presently living in-- was very impressed by their resources. I’ll recommend it to the family.</p>
<p>What language is this student strongest in? Not all language programs teaching English are equal. HI has a lot of students from Japan learning English. They even have a U. Our flagship U has an East-West Center with a lot of international students as well.</p>