Hello, I am a belgian student who would like to attend to a uwc college.
Uwc is a sort of organisation that put together 15 schools all around th world, and at the end you attend for an IB (international baccalauréat ).
They have graet values and style of life that i completely agree with, and they join student from all over the world and they learn how to live together. The process last for two years.
Currently I am in a super great school that have a great education and the working environment is super.
My problem is that my mum disagree with the uwc colleges… her arguments are:
“Uwc colleges are very far, you will be alone”
“Uwc is expensive and you have a great school, maybe better than uwc, and it’s free”
“You will not see us/it will be difficult to see eachothers”
You have to know that my parents are divorced and that my mum only have me as a kid, so she is very “sad” that we only see eachothers partime.
Please if you have any solutions as parents how to convince my mum that is a graet opportunity and my dream to study with such values, all is good to hear.
Is your family so wealthy as to be able to pay this large tuition for little in return? That’s what jumps out at me in your situation.
And also, her concerns of losing you these two years are profound and, in the larger picture, may be more important than your dreams of this school.
Iv’e been trying to convince my parents for two years. I’ve done a lot of research and talked to them about exactly why I want to go in a very calm way. Maybe you should try to address her fears one by one. You could tell her that you won’t be alone because you will have teachers to care for you. (depends on the school you want to go to). UWC gives out many scholarships they will do their vary best to make it affordable for you.They don’t want it to be a constraint.
Being away from your parents is hard (I’m on exchange at the moment) and its something to really think about. It will be hard for your mom as well so think about that too.
My family is finally letting me apply (just in time). Their reason was that they don’t want to hold me back. I probably won’t get in but I am glad I get the opportunity to try!
Good Luck!
The point of UWC schools is to be abroad, among international students, and learning how to think and cope in that situation. Your parents have to be onboard with the philosophy, but they’re terrific and graduating from one, due to the selectivity and reputation, your odds of getting a full-tuition/full-ride scholarship to a US college is very high.
As for missing your mom: skypoe, facetime, texts once a day…
If money is really that big an issue, then that pretty well settles it; however, I get the feeling that it’s far more than money, otherwise all of these other roadblocks wouldn’t be thrown up. UWC-Atlantic used to be free for everyone, and that certainly made things easier. It still is free for Americans. The UK used to pay to send their students to Atlantic College, and when they pulled that around 2000 it changed things.
My wife went to UWC in the mid-1980s and it was a life-changing experience. She had the same three roommates for both years, from Belgium, Norway, and Scotland. Two of the three still keep in touch; the third kind of fell off the face of the planet, although they still keep in touch some. My wife used to get care packages that included boxes of American cake mix, which all of the Europeans loved because European cake tends to be quite dense. The Belgian roommate quit her corporate job to open a cupcake shop, and I’ve always wondered if she might have been influenced by my wife’s cake mix.
I think Atlantic College is the top UWC, followed by UWC-Adriatic. If I were sending a child I would want it to be one of those two or none at all. A tremendous number of UWC grads go on to be highly successful, including the king of the Netherlands, although he was only a prince at the time. He attended three or four years before my wife.
AC is very rigorous academically, but there is far more to it than academics. It you have a chance to go to AC, you would try to go.