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Foreign Student Series: Answering Your Questions

July 29th, 2009 at 03:18am Under Education report

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

We answer some questions this week in our series on getting into an American college or university.

The first question has to do with our recent discussion of English language tests. Vo Ngoc Toan from Vietnam would like to know about the TOEIC– the Test of English for International Communication.

Graduating students and alumni at a job fair in New York

This test is designed to measure skills in English as spoken in the workplace. People may be required to take it if they apply for jobs with companies or other employers. But TOEIC scores are not used for college admission in the United States.

The Educational Testing Service administers the TOEIC. It says the test measures the language skills of people working in an international environment.

American colleges and universities accept scores from the TOEFL and often the IELTS. If you missed our report on these tests, you can find it at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Click on Foreign Student Series.

Tahir Mahmood from Pakistan asks how to improve his English before taking these kinds of tests. Well, you can start by looking for ways to use English as much as you can. Watch American movies and TV shows and read books in English. Look for English speakers to talk to.

The Internet has a lot of free resources for English learners. Visitors to voaspecialenglish.com, for example, can read, listen and watch programs on many different subjects.

The United States Department of Education recently launched a free Web site designed to help immigrants learn English. The site is called USA Learns. The address is u-s-a-l-e-a-r-n-s dot o-r-g.

Next, a question from Turkey: Hasan Eker asks about getting a postdoctoral position in the United States. This is work generally done by a person who recently earned a PhD, or doctor of philosophy degree. The National Postdoctoral Association in Washington, D.C., has information about international postdocs on its Web site. That address is nationalpostdoc — all one word — dot org.

And, finally, we have questions from Iran, Afghanistan and Indonesia about how to pay for an education through loans or jobs. There are rules that restrict the kinds of jobs that foreign students can have while studying in the United States. But stay tuned. In the next few weeks, we will discuss financial aid as we talk about the costs of an American education.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember.

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Foreign Student Series: Admissions Tests

July 24th, 2009 at 02:56am Under Education report

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Many American colleges and universities require applications for the fall term to be completed by January first. But some have deadlines of December first. So this was a fitting week for a research group in California to release its latest “national report card on higher education.” The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education calls it “Measuring Up.”

The report says the price of college has increased more than four hundred percent since nineteen eighty-two. Costs have climbed much faster than other prices — as well as the wages of average families.

The group warns that a continuation of these trends would put higher education beyond the reach of most Americans. And it would mean greater debt for those who do go to college.

The report also expresses concern that the United States is losing its leadership in sending young people to college. Earlier progress can be seen in the percentage of Americans age thirty-five and older who have a college degree. In a comparison of twenty-nine countries, the United States is second, after Canada.

But today other countries are making progress more quickly. The United States is tenth in the percentage of college-educated adults age twenty-five to thirty-four. And it is seventh in the percentage of eighteen to twenty-four year olds in college.

Also, a lot of students drop out. The report says college completion “has never been a strength” of American higher education. Among the twenty-nine countries, the United States is fifteenth in college completion rates.

Completing college first requires getting admitted. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we begin a discussion of entrance tests.

Advisers say a student’s high school record is the most important consideration. But most American schools require one of the two major college-entrance tests.

The SAT measures reasoning skills in math and language and includes an essay question.

The four-hour test costs forty-five dollars. The international processing charge is twenty-six — plus an extra twenty-three dollars in India and Pakistan.

Students may also need to take subject tests. Information about the SAT can be found online at collegeboard.com.

Next time, we will talk about the other major test, the ACT– and about schools that do not require either. And we will discuss the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember.

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