Finding the Right Fit Institution (Shanghai)

All right, we're going to go ahead and get started this so my name is John Macready an I am an assistant director at Loyola University Chicago. Thank you so much everyone for being here today. Uh, Mr Anthony Dong from um wife EIS Guangzhou is also here. So if you have any questions about any of the other webinars going on throughout the month of March, you're definitely welcome to ask her questions in the chat black box.

Hello and he can answer those for you, but I'm going to go ahead and get started so I'm just going to do a little brief overview about Loyola University Chicago and then I will go right into finding the right fit institution. And then throughout the presentation, if you do have any questions, please feel free to type them in the chat box an I will get to them at the end, so let's go ahead and get started.

Rights.

Alright, so just very quickly to tell you a little bit about myself. So like I said, I'm an assistant director at Loyola. I work mainly with our international student population from East and Southeast Asia, but I also work with some of our students from Chicago as well. and I was an education major in school and I spent quite a few years living abroad in Japan and the UK, and I've been with Loyola University Chicago for about 2 years now.

Um, so I've just recently, you know, within the past two years moved to Chicago and I'm really loving my experience there so far on. During the presentation, we're going to talk a little bit about finding the best fit location as well, but just a little bit about Loyola University Chicago, so it is a private Jesuit institution. We have about 17,000 students total, about 12,000 of those are undergraduate. It is a very.

Diverse University, we have students from all 50 States and 80 two countries. You can meet people from all around the world were also very very proud of the fact that 98% of our graduates are either employed or pursuing graduate education within three months of graduation.

Alright, so I'm sorry just saw Anthony posted that the audio and video is not smooth frame. Is anyone else having any issues or is it OK? I can try talking a little bit slower if that helps.

Alright, well we'll keep going. Hopefully it will smooth out, um, but we are located in the city of Chicago, uh, which is the third largest undergraduate institution in the US?

Sorry, sorry, the third largest city in the US sure let me just try turning off the video. Maybe that will help.

Alright, how's that? Is that a little bit smoother?

Hopefully you can still hear Maine.

Um, so once again, so we are in Chicago, which is the third largest city in the US. So we actually have two campuses in Chicago, oh. Excellent, sounds like the audio is better now. So the picture that you see right here. This is our Lakeshore campus, which is located a little bit North of downtown Chicago and it's right off Lake MI. So it is a really beautiful area. Lots of green space. And then we also have another campus as well.

Called the water tower campus and that is located right in downtown Chicago off of Michigan Ave, which is the main shopping area and the reason we have two campuses is so that students are able to do internships throughout the year rather than just in the summer. So it's a really, really great thing about having the campus in downtown Chicago as well as our main campus and being right in the city of Chicago, students can do internships with Fortune 500 companies social service organizations.

Health care organizations engineering companies. Chicago Public Schools. So almost all of our students are able to get some sort of hands on experience before they move onto graduation, which is really, really great when you're going out into the job field.

Just very briefly, some of the programs we offers, we have over 80 different majors and minors. Some of our most popular programs are actually our health pre health program, so students during pre Med pre dentistry pre physical therapy nursing things like that students within the College of Arts and Sciences studying biology. The hard Sciences are very popular physics chemistry. We have a brand New School of Health Sciences and public health that just opened and.

They offer programs such as exercise, science, health care administration, an public health, and then another really big focus for Loyola is environmental sustainability. So we actually have an Institute of environmental sustainability on campus and then being right on Lake Michigan, students are able to do hands-on work with wastewater management and working with different local organizations in the area to improve the environment.

Uhm, and then our other full for schools here. The School of Business School of Communications, School of education and school of Social Work. All of those are located right in downtown Chicago, and they all have required intern ships built in as part of their program. So all those students get a lot of hands on experience with in the city of Chicago before they graduate. And many, many of our international students are able to go on and find internships after they graduate in Chicago as well.

So that is definitely a big focus, not loyal? Uh, I'm very hands-on, lots of focus on improving the environment for the better as well as social justice issues.

I'm gonna go ahead and move on into finding the right fit institution for you so many, many, many choices there.

Alright, so first of all.

What is the right fit institution? So there are a lot of ways to decide that. Is that the University that your best friend is going to the college with the best radio station, the number one ranked school with US news and world reports? Or is it the college that you can afford? So the truth is that the answer is going to be different for every student. No institution is going to be the right fit for everyone, so you really have to do some research and this is something going to be mentioning a lot.

Um, to determine what University is the right University for you?

So these are the some of the things that we're going to be considering when deciding on the right institution for you. So institutions size.

Public versus private. What degrees and programs does the University offer? What is the geographical location? Is it somewhere you think you could live for four years? What are the costs of the University and the funding opportunities? What kind of engagement opportunities does the University have? What sort of things can you get involved in their University resources? What does the University offer for international students and students coming from other countries?

What kind of support do they offer? And then selectivity? Is it a school who will accept everyone? Or is it a school that only accepts 5% of all applications that are submitted each year? So those are definitely all things you need to consider.

So first of all, looking at institution size, so this is something important to think about. You have a lot of options here. There are universities in the US that have as many as 50,000 students.

And and then we have universities that have as few as a few hundred students, and then we have the majority of the universities which are going to be those that are somewhere in the middle that are middle sized universities. Kind of like Loyola University Chicago.

So you really need to think about what are the advantages and disadvantages of a large versus a small versus a midsize University?

So one thing you are going to want to look at, our average class sizes. What is the student to faculty ratio? How many students are going to be in your class an? Are they going to be able to have a small enough class to have access to the faculty that you can have one on one interactions with the faculty? There are some schools that are so big that the faculty the professor might not even know your name. They might not even know who you are. You're just one person and a very very large room.

Then you might go to another school where it's a very small class and maybe you have only 10 to 15 students in a room. So really think about what you want as far as classroom size and student to faculty ratio, and then also the campus size. As far as walkability in some very large institutions you may not even be able to walk from one side to the other. May take about 20 to 30 minutes to get from one side of campus to another.

Um, on the opposite scale. There is some universities where the entire campus may only be one or two buildings, so there's lots to consider here. Most universities in the US are going to be somewhere between very large and very small, so it could be anywhere from a few 1000 up to about 20 or 25,000 on the medium size, and then you get the very very large and the very small universities.

Another thing to consider is institution type, so public versus private. So the difference here is public universities are receiving their funds from the government, so the government is actually providing money to the University and so that they can run In addition to receiving tuition. An then private universities are actually privately funded, so they're funded by private donors.

So there are going to be some differences here, so this isn't always true, but a lot of times you will see more diversity at a private institution, so you might see students from many, many different areas, whereas public institutions in the US, typically you pay less money. If you were coming from in state if you're if you're at a public institution, so there may be more students from in state.

In a public institution in the US, because they will not pay as much money so it benefits them financially to go to an in State University. Another thing to consider is size. So this is not always true that many times public universities are going to be bigger than private. University is a lot of times private universities tend to be smaller and then the other thing is cost and scholarships. So typically a private institution is going to cost a little bit more.

Because they're not receiving that funding from the US government, but a lot of times private institutions will off also offer additional scholarships to make up for the difference, so it may seem at first glance that a private institution is more expensive. But then when you see the scholarships they offer, it may end up being the same cost or even less expensive than some public schools. So definitely keep all those things in mind, and it's not always true. Some of these.

Um are not necessarily true for every school, but they do tend to be true for most public and private schools.

Then think about the degrees and programs that are offered at the institution. So do you have a specific career in mind or you still kind of deciding between a few different majors and you are in 100% sure what you wanna do yet are there? Is there anything in specific that you're really, really interested in, um?

Look at the University is their depth and diversity within the academic programs? If you do change your mind, is there something else you're going to want to study? If it's a school just for engineering or mainly engineering and you aren't 100% sure you want to do engineering, you want to make sure that they have other things. If you change your mind that you might want to switch to.

Can you change your major if you want to, um, some schools. It is more flexible than others to change your major or out a double major or a minor. Generally in the US it is pretty flexible. So if you want to add a second major or a major and a minor and you can do that pretty easily and but that's not true of all school, so you do want to look into that and see how easy that is to do.

Another very very important thing to consider when deciding on a University geographic location. So urban versus rural, would you prefer to be in a big city or would you like to be in a little quieter area? May be out in the country somewhere where maybe the cost of living is a little bit lower. Safety, maybe you really really want to be in a big city, but you prefer to be also somewhere that's a little safer, so maybe you look at a city that's not so big or a little bit.

Smaller the city. Also a big city isn't necessarily unsafe, but you do want to look into the University you're attending and look at what safety measures they put into place. Is there campus security? Do they have emergency beacons throughout campus? Different things that they offer to make sure the campus is safe for students surrounding resources. If you're attending a very small University that's out in the middle of nowhere in the country.

They might not have many resources for things like internships or, um, academic resources. Things like that. So you do want to take that into account if you're thinking about going someplace, that's maybe a very small town housing availability. Sometimes if you are studying in a big city, they may not have housing available on campus. You may have to find your own housing, so particularly if you're looking to study in a big city in the US, you definitely want to check and see if they provide guaranteed housing.

For international students.

And then something that's very important. Um, even though it may not seem important, but it actually is important when you have to live. There is weather, uhm, so do you like hot weather? Do you like cold weather? Maybe you really, really really hate hot weather, but you really want to go to a school that's in a very warm location and you want to go to school so much you think it's worth it to spend your time in really hot weather? Or the opposite, you really, really hate cold weather, and but you really like the school. That's in a really cold area.

Uh, when you think you can tolerate it? Uhm, one good option here if you can. I know it can be very difficult, but definitely, um, if you can, definitely visit the University. If it's a University that's in a cold area. If you can visit them in the winter to see what the temperature is like there.

Opposite if it is a an area University lives in a very hot area. Maybe visit them in the dead of summer to see how hot it is there and if you can tolerate it. Very, very important to make sure that you're not going to be miserable because of the weather. There is every different type of weather in the US from very hot to very cold in many different things in between us. Wow.

The next thing you're going to want to look at our cost in funding opportunities. So like I mentioned before, UM, depending on what school you are going to use, some of them are going to have very different tuition than other schools, so cost, so you're going to want to look at our tuition number one room and board, so that would be the cost of living in a residence Hall an for a meal plan.

The cost for books and supplies in the cost for basic living costs. So generally you will find that it is going to be more expensive to live in a big city in the US and then in a smaller city. And that's going to be generally true no matter where you're looking.

And then the next thing you're going to want to take a look at our scholarships so both campus based scholarships and external. What scholarships does the University offer to international students? An then you can also look at external scholarships scholarships that are offered from other things outside the University. Some universities will accept and stack outside scholarships, so that is something that you also want to take a look at.

Uhm, another thing is the availability of on campus jobs. So international students in the US can work on campus for up to 20 hours per week. Um, however, some smaller schools may not have that many jobs available for student workers on campus, so you may not be able to find a job. So that's definitely something. If you want to work on campus to earn some extra money for living expenses, you want to take a look at the school and see if they have good availability.

For on campus jobs and then paid internships as well, there are some universities where you can actually do paid internships during the summer and you do want to see if that's something that is offered at the University that you're interested in.

Next thing our engagement opportunities, what sort of things outside of academics are you interested in? Are there any? Is there anything that's very, very important to you? Um, so obviously some people are very interested in sports in the US we have something called the NCAA ranking, which is how competitive sports are out of school. If the school is in NCAA Division one like loyalist Chicago, that means they are very, very competitive. That's the highest level. So unless you are a nationally

Ranked athlete it's unlikely you would be able to play on their varsity sports teams, however, even schools that are very highly ranked for sports are going to have club and intramural teams available. So club teams are still going to be competitive. You're going to be competing with other schools and then intramural teams are really just when you play for fun, so you're not really competing seriously with intramural teams. Maybe you're interested in creative and Performing Arts.

So things like theater, music, dance, art and Design. A lot of schools have different music and theater productions throughout the year or dance productions that you can get involved with, even if you're not majoring in Theatre, music or dance a lot of times you can still participate in the theater productions or the music productions, even if you're not a major. So that's definitely something to check into. Clubs and student organizations. Some schools are going to have many, many as many as.

203 hundred different clubs and organizations you can participate in an then if it's a very small school, it might not have as many, so it is something to just look into. See what kind of options are available as far as club in the student organizations. Then Greek life. So sororities and fraternities at some schools in the US as many as 80% of students might be involved in Greek life. If that's not something that you're interested in, you might not want to attend a school like that. So maybe check and see.

How many students are involved in Greek life? Maybe that's something you really want to get involved with, but the University you're interested in does not offer that, so definitely check that out and then volunteering and community outreach, which is a big focus out loyalist Chicago. Definitely if you're interested in that check and see if your school has opportunities for volunteering and community outreach.

Moving on to University resources, many schools are almost all schools are going to offer things like libraries, computer labs, food, housing. But some schools might not offer these other things, so support for international students check to see if your school that you're interested in has specific International Student Advisors who can help you with visa immigration questions.

Say you want to get an internship in the USA and which we call curricular practical training or CPT. You need a international student office. He will support you and help you to get the paperwork necessary to do that internship. You definitely want to make sure there is support for international students at the school you're attending. Some schools will even have their own international academic advisor who can help them. Make sure that your setup on a four year plan of study.

Check to make sure the school you're interested in offers tutoring and writing Centers for. Maybe you need someone to proofread a paper you're writing or help you out with the math class. Not all schools will offer these, but many, many schools well and then disability support. So if you have any sort of disability that you need support for, many schools have something called a student Accessibility center. So for example, if you needed extra time on a test because of a disability or different housing where maybe you live by yourself or something they can support you with that.

So definitely something to look into. Especially check to see if the school you're interested in offers international student support and resources for international students.

And then Lastly selectivity. Do you have what the school is looking for? So you may have found the perfect school. It looks great. On paper everything looks amazing, but this school only accepts you know 8% of students per year. Um, so many many students are going to fill out an application, but they're not going to get accepted. So you need to think about what the right fit is as far as selectivity as well. Some people do think it's a good idea to have.

You know a dream school or reach school and maybe a school that you're like very secure about. Uhm, but you need to think about it for yourself. Maybe make a list of schools, maybe one that you would really love to get into, but you aren't 100% sure that you'll be accepted. Maybe one that's a little bit more selective and you really like it? Um, but you're not 100% sure you'll get in, but you think you probably would. And then maybe a school that you're pretty sure you're going to get in no matter what. But you wouldn't actually mind going there.

Um, so definitely make a list. Take a look at those things you're going to want to look at. What kind of academic profile they're looking for? What types of grades and test scores most schools will have that available online? Or you can find it online as what the average grades and test scores are for students at that school. Look at if the school requires extra curriculars, some schools don't even look at extracurriculars.

Or clubs and organizations you've been involved with?

Some schools that's very, very important. Maybe a particular school. Every student who applies is academically an amazing student, so they have to look very closely at what clubs and organizations you participated in. If you held any leadership positions. If you have any unique accomplishments, so there may be a very, very selective school might take a look at those things as well, so it's not enough necessarily just to be really, really good academically for some of these schools. Some of them are also going to be looking at extracurricular activities and accomplishments.

And then like I said before, the importance of multiple applications, you don't want to just apply to one or two schools you want to apply to a good number of schools so that you have options. If you don't necessarily get into your dream school, you want to have other schools available that you can use as a backup, but you're still like and you would still like to attend.

Alright, so now we're going to talk a little bit about finding the right fit program, so trying to decide what program is right for you. What do you want to major in?

So some of the things you can should consider here. Um, are the program offerings in the US, the curriculum that's offered support from faculty, cooperative, an internship opportunities? The individual learning style and also the flexibility of the program?

So first of all, say that you're interested in studying to be a biomedical engineer. So first thing your gonna do.

Take it to look at the school and that you're interested in. Maybe you have your dream school. Does it even offer biomedical engineering? It's not that common in major, they might not even offer it at every single school. So take a look and see if they offer it. See what the curriculum is offered, what sort of classes do they offer as part of the bio medical engineering curriculum doesn't meet the industry industry standard, so one good thing to check here is the program.

Accredited most programs will have an accrediting body. Engineering has been accredited body so you can check that and check to see if the program is an accredited program. Does IT support your goals for further studies? If it's the type of program where you're going to go directly into a Masters or a pH. D program, you want to make sure there is support for that with faculty and that they offer research opportunities and maybe even opportunity for funding.

And does the curriculum support your strengths? If you are very, very bad at math, you may not want to study something where you have to take multiple calculus classes. So just keep that in mind. Depending on what you are good at academically and then Lastly, do you find it interesting? Maybe you think you would make a lot of money if you become a doctor, but you find it very, very boring. Just study biology.

So.

It's not enough just to be academically good at something. Uhm, it's going to be a lot easier for you if you're also interested in it as well.

One thing you're also going to check on our support from faculty? Do they have office hours available? If you have questions, can you make appointments with them? Like I mentioned before, if you want to go on to get a Masters or a pH D, you want to make sure that you have the ability to do research that the faculty are supportive of. That, and you can usually find that out ahead of time if you look up your program of interest and look at some different faculty.

On the website, it even has their email address usually, so you can send them an email, see if they are willing to support students with research, and then is the faculty willing to provide recommendations and connections in the field. So and something else. It's very important when finding a job is networking. Are they able to help students with that?

And then cooperative and internship opportunities. So is this supported by the University at Loyola University Chicago? We actually have something called the experiential Learning Center that assist students with finding internships. Is the school you're interested in have something like that, or do you have to find an internship by yourself and suggest it to the school you really want to look into that and see how easy it is to find an internship. Maybe check also with some current students at the school.

And then see if they were able to find internships and if they had any assistance from the faculty.

Are the internship ships that are offered in line with your program. So are those even something that's going to be helpful for you? Maybe they do offer internships, but it's not even something that's in your field of study. Maybe you're studying engineering, for example, in the intern ships are offer business. That is something you want to check on specifically in your own fields.

And then individual learning style. So this is important to some people, just depending on if you are a hands on learner. Some students learn better just by listening in a classroom to a lecture. They take notes and they memorize the nodes and that works for them. Which is great. Other students need more hands on research and learning. So for example they learn better if they are in a classroom where you break up into groups and you work on a project.

I mean, you practice everything hands-on. Sometimes that's better for certain students, depending on their learning style, classroom versus online, a lot of classrooms in the US today offer online classes as well, so just depending on maybe you're someone who learns really, really well at an on line class. Or maybe you're the type of person who really needs to be in person with a professor so you can ask questions one on one to really learn something.

And then teaching and classroom environment. So the teaching and classroom environment in the US is a little different than in some other countries. So for example, it is more participation oriented. Students typically have to give their opinions more and kind of share and have discussions with the class rather than just the teacher lecturing. The whole times are usually a little bit more interactive. That is something to consider, and it can be different depending on the school as well.

And then flexibility of programs. So switching your major. I touched on this briefly before. How easy is it to switch your major? Is it something you can do easily, or do you have to, you know, actually fill out paperwork and talk with your school and you know take a whole bunch of additional classes? At what point do you have to declare a major?

At what point if you switch is it gonna require you to take extra classes in the summer? So definitely something you want to look into major an minor combinations. There are some schools where you might not be able to do a major certain major and a minor together. So for example, you might be studying business and you really, really want to do a minor in dance, but maybe the School of Business does not allow minors that are outside of that school.

That is something you want to look into, especially if the majors and minors are very, very different and then are you learning transferable skills? Are you learning something that you are going to be able to use when you go out into the job field or when you're working with other fields as well?

And then program offering in the US. So this is something to think about. Sometimes programs in the US might have different names, but they might mean the same thing. So for example, we have a program at Loyola called visual communication and this program is very similar to what you might see is something like digital media or graphic design at another University. And there are many, many.

Different programs like that where it might be what you're looking for, but it might be a different name. So, for example, some schools have a program called data science, other schools, it might be the exact almost exactly the same program, but it's called Analytics and modeling. So just know to look that some programs might have different names at different universities and then does the program match your actual interests? We talked a little bit about this before, but is it something you're actually interested in?

I mean, you're going to find fulfillment with after you graduate and move on to get an actual job in the field.

All right, and then very briefly, let's go ahead and take a look at the steps that you need to take to finding the right fit, and this is kind of to summarize everything we talked about so far.

So first of all, take a moment to be introspective, so think about what is important to you. What factors are most important to you that we talked about? We talked about a lot of different factors that you can consider from everything from location to cost, to engagement opportunities, to academics. Just think about which factors are most important to you and then based on those factors, try to make a short list of universities and programs.

Uhm, So what universities are going to fulfill the most of those factors on the list? You might not be able to get everything, but you're going to try to find universities that satisfy those different factors that you have listed. There are a lot of free on line career in program quizzes if you're not 100% sure what you want to study yet, are you still haven't decided you can do some of those online and those can actually help narrow things down and help you decide.

Um, which careers in programs might be more interesting to you and figure interest as well as your academic strengths? And then, most importantly, email admission counselors with specific questions. So like myself, pretty much any University that you're interested in is going to have admission counselors who were there to help you take advantage of that. Reach out to them. If you have any questions, any of the things I talked about.

Their job is to help you answer those questions and help you know what they offered their school at their school, what's available to you. So if you look at their website, you should be able to find their email address. Just reach out to them. Ask all the questions that you have about what you're looking for. Obviously, do some research 1st, and if it's something you can find really, really easily on the website, you don't need to email them about that, but anything that you're not able to find easily on the website.

They won't mind at all if you just send them a specific question.

Alright, and I'm going to go ahead and wrapped things up there. If you have any questions, please feel free to type them in the box below and then my email address is also listed here as well. If you think of anything after we in the session alright, someone just had a great question. So alea asked, do you think that taking a Community College course or something similar can be helpful with deciding what's right for you? Yes, I definitely think that is a great idea.

If before you start at a University if you want to take like a dual credit class with a Community College or maybe the summer before you want to take a few classes. I think that's a great way to try out different University level classes and see if it is something you're really interested in just because you liked studying something at high school doesn't necessarily like mean you'll like it at the University level, so it is very helpful to try something out.

At a Community College level, just try out of class and see if it is something that you might be interested in pursuing as your major.

So great question.

Any other questions?

OK, um Sam had a question, so if I'm considering taking education as a career, what are some ways I can extend my experience and knowledge of it when I am in high school? So, great question. This is actually a great question for me because I was an education major back in high school or in college, so this is a wonderful question. So for me, some of the things I did were finding volunteering experiences.

And jobs over the summer that allowed me to kind of experience what it would like be like to work in education. So for example, I worked when I was in high school I worked with a volunteer group called adopted class where you worked with teachers and public schools and you help them in the classroom and different things to assist them. So that was really really helpful for me. 'cause I got to experience what it was like being in the regular school classroom and working with children.

Something else I did was working as a college or sorry as a camp counselor, so I worked with children there and got to teach them different skills and kind of see if it was something I was interested in and so I think definitely looking into seeing if there any volunteer experiences related to education you could do or something working with children just to see if it's something that you like. It is very helpful to try out things like that during high school, especially like during the summer.

OK, Amanda had a great question. She said, do you take demonstrated interest into consideration when evaluating a students application? So we do take it into consideration, but it's not a huge factor for us at loyal. I think it really depends on the school. Obviously we do take a look and see. Typically on a student application page we can see all the times they've interacted with us. If they've ever visited campus and if we've ever met with them in person. Like if we visited their country and.

Went to their high school if they attended our session. Typically we can see all that on a students page, but that's not a huge factor. Uhm, in deciding admission, obviously that's going to be mainly based on the students, academics and test scores. An extracurricular activities that we do. Take a look at that, and it is available to counselors as well. So if a student is very, very borderline about whether they are admissible or not, we might take that into consideration.

But I do think that's going to be different at different schools.

Alright, great questions. Any other questions?

Alright, well I think we will go ahead and wrapped things up here. Thank you everyone so much for attending a. Once again my name is John Mcwethy a man. If you do think of any other questions you can always email me at jmcquady@luc.edu and I would be very very happy to help you. Um summer asked will there be a recording? Yes there is going to be a recording of this session so I will make sure to send that out to everyone tomorrow.

Um, so thank you again so much and thank you Anthony for being here. A man helping to facilitate.

Um and yeah, it looks like the recording is going to be up on the website as well, so you'll be able to access it there.

Alright, thank you everyone again and have a wonderful rest of the day.