LACs for Middle Eastern Studies +Arabic

ccgmom
Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:51:38 +0000

Great responses- thank you all.

zapfino- yes these are larger schools, but both great suggestions. He may have to consider the possibility of a larger school setting, although larger schools tend to lose that personal touch found more often at LACs.

Ghostbuster:

1. In an ideal world, we’d all have the finances available to be able to not only visit all the schools we’re considering, but also be able to pay tuition without taking out loans. The family did visit some schools whilst over here prior to his senior year in HS. Time and money constraints limited how many they could visit. His school is an LAC in the state of Washington, not Washington State. An aunt and uncle live about 40 minutes away giving him some family connection to the area. He didn’t consider bigger schools out East.


No, Washington does not have the same weather has Turkey. But neither does Germany where he went to HS. He just started his soph year and does have a girlfriend from the school. He is laid-back and quirky, but quirky in the sort of way that makes those around him excited about new ways of envisioning things. Certainly there are transition issues with most third culture kids who come back to their “home” country and of course, he was not exempt to them. However, the kid is just not happy at this school. It’s more of a fit issue.


3/4. His parents have encouraged him to ride out this semester as they put a deposit down on a winter term study-abroad course through the school last spring. He carefully selected classes this fall that appealed to him rather than ones that just fulfilled requirements in an effort to make the school into a “fit”. It hasn’t worked. His experiences thus far has made him very aware that no school will be a perfect fit.


Not homesick- again, he spent 4 years at boarding school. No religious issues. No “America just isn’t what I thought it would be” issues. As I can read it, other than the intangible fact that he doesn’t feel like the school fits him, he’s been disappointed that his creative nature has tended to be squashed at the school rather than encouraged. He’s great at higher level thinking and thinking outside the box. This school doesn’t seem to appreciate outside the box.


I’d prefer not naming the school, privately or otherwise. Sorry. It’s a mid level LAC in the state of Washington that has a bit under 3,000 students. His parents are trying the best they can from overseas. They’re in contact with others in the States to gather info and help give their son the best guidance possible.

twomules, GW is a great school. One of my former students currently attends GW. I’d have to agree with Ghostbuster that selectivity would be an issue here.

Grcxx3: He was intellectually prepared for the transition issues, but we all know that reality is a whole different story! Nevertheless as I stated before, he handled those issues pretty well. You are right on target about needing a place that has a good percentage of internationals or third culture kids. His school probably could have had more TCK’s. Their website says that they have students from 30 countries. I could not find the percentage of int’l students.

Again, thank you for your kind suggestions. I’m passing on the info you give. The more suggestions they get, the better sense they have of what schools they can pursue.