I had the Y13 students sign up to use Match by Concourse. They are now starting to receive offers and scholarships. It is such an exciting time for them!

November Updates:

Dear Parent/Guardian, 

Please note for those students who applied for the November 1st early actions/decision deadline, congratulations on submitting your applications.  

As a result of applications being sent, universities will be sending out emails or links to portals to continue the application process. To ensure the application process is clean and without obstruction, it's extremely important to check regularly as they will inform you as to whether or not you are missing any documents and any decisions that have been made regarding your application.  

As a reminder, the documents I will be forwarding to the university are the following:

  • Official initial transcript 

  • Counsellor recommendation 

  • Teacher recommendations (if required) 

  • School Profile 

  • Unofficial IGCSE results.  

If they apply to a school that requires the official IGCSE results the link is on the Class of 2025 team's homepage.  

If your son/daughter hasn’t applied yet, please ensure that ALL universities you plan on applying to are in your Unifrog. Unifrog is not only our document-sending platform but also a way for me to track data on who is applying, where, acceptance rates, and scholarships. I am also able to track which courses of study the students are focusing on. I can use the data to help guide students in the future.  

Sending documents:  

I send documents either before or on the day of the deadline. As a holiday is approaching, I will send the documents the last day before departing for the winter holiday (Dec 13th). If you add a university to your list over the holidays, that is okay. Simply make sure that the university is in Unifrog, let me know that you have applied to the specific school, and then I will send the documents on the first school day of the new term, January 7th. 

Please remember to submit your application on time and check the time zone in which it is due, as time zones vary! 

Kind regards,  

Ms. Allen 

I have several students planning on taking a gap year. To prepare them for their delayed application process, I created this checklist for them to follow to get ready.

Document printing is common for university applications. While I try to go digital when I can, I realize not all schools want digital. So, I created this form for students who will be mailing in their applications or needing to have their documents authenticated. There form they need to fill out the lets me know what they are requesting, and this is for when they pick up and will be filled out according to their request.

CIS/EARCOS Conference 2024

I was able to represent Renaissance at the CIS/EARCOS fair for Univeristy Admissions 2024. I love being able to interact with fellow counsellors and University representatives.

Where did the Class of 2024 get accepted? 

We had students apply to many places. Several applied and then decided to take a Gap year either due to finances or needing a break for their mental health. Regardless. They were accepted into some pretty awesome places.

Renaissance International School Saigon, hosted a university fair for students and parents. It was the first time I had hosted something of this size.

Preparing for the HCMC Global Fair and the CIS/EARCOS fair.

We hosted the AUCA university fair, and we invited two other schools from Dongguan to join. This was the first in-person university presentation that we have had since the start of Covid. I think it went well, however, I am a little rusty on preparing for university visits.

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Not all of the schools are on the board. However, I am proud of what our Class of 2023 Qilins have done.

Students taking accountability for their education is important to the learning process. I created this course selection chart so that students can track their credit progress to ensure that they are able to graduate on time.

Sample email to parents for November application updates

Hello Parent(s), 

尊敬的家长，

I want to update you on the G12 application process. All UCAS applications have been submitted to the respective universities. We should hear back from the universities between now and April, depending on the universities' admission process. 

       你们好，在此向您更新12年级大学申请进程。目前，所有UCAS申请已经全部向对应大学提交。从现在开始至明年四月会陆续收到申请结果，具体时间取决于不同大学招生办的工作进度。

 

For the US, November 1 is the Major Early Action (EA) or Early Decision (ED) application deadline. If your student is applying to the US, November 1 is based on our timezone, not where the universities are located. Those applying ED must notify me of this as this is a binding application, meaning if they get accepted there, that is the only school I will support. You, the parent, the student, and I sign a contract agreeing to that as well. If a student is interested in applying to the University of California schools, the deadline is Nov 30th for everyone. 

      对于美国申请，11月1日为提前行动批（EA）提前决定批（ED）的申请截止日。请注意11月1日截止日期指我们所处的时区，而非院校所在地时区。由于提前决定批是限定性申请，一旦被这一提前决定批申请录取，学生只能最终入学这一院校，顾问办后续也只会为这一个大学提供支持性官方文件，所以有该申请意向的学生必须提前告知顾问老师。家长、学生及顾问老师需要共同签署相关合约来承诺提前决定批限制性的履行。11月30日为所有加州大学的申请截止日，在此为有意向申请加州大学的学生提供参考。

 

(US) After applying, students will typically receive an email from the school with either an update about their application, if they are missing documents or even portal information (similar to managebac) where they can track their application status. Please remind students to check their emails regularly. If they are confused about an email, I will be more than happy to read it and explain what the email states. If a student receives a university decision, they must notify me, as well as report any scholarships awarded. If a student is accepted ED, they must formally withdraw from all other universities within 48 hours and provide me with proof of those withdrawals. 

     （针对美国院校）申请提交后，学生一般会收到院校方的邮件，可能关于申请审批进程更新、相关文件文书补交、或供学生跟踪申请进程的院校专属申请平台（类似managebac）。请提醒您的孩子定期查阅邮件。如果学生不太明白大学的邮件，我非常乐意帮他们理解邮件内容。如果学生收到大学申请结果或奖学金，请务必告知我。如果学生收到了提前决定批录取，则必须在48小时内正式撤回其他的申请，并向我提供撤回申请的证明。 

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

      如有任何问题，欢迎与我联系.

SY 2022-2023

This year has been flying by. We are three months into school and prepping our seniors for applications. The number 1 thing I can think of to tell seniors, aside from maintaining grades, is to make sure your official documents (passport) are up to date!

 

I am so proud of the Class of 2022! They have overcome a lot, from stress to lockdowns, concern about which schools to apply to, and worried about waiting for acceptances. So far, 87% of the students who have applied have been accepted somewhere. We have 2 that had application seasons later in the year and are still waiting on results.

University Decisions

It’s that time of year when students have received all of their offers (US/UK) and need to make their final decisions. Below is an example of a parent email that was sent to our parents:

Hello Parents,

尊敬的家长们，

As we are fast approaching the end of the school year, we will discuss one of the final things about the application process, which is deciding which university students should attend. Students should have the majority of their university results by now, and many have to make a decision by May 1st. Students need to pay the deposit to their firm university to secure their seat.

本学年已悄然接近尾声，我们将讨论申请流程中的其中一项收尾工作——决定最终入学院校。目前，学生已经收到了绝大部分申请的结果，很多已发放录取的学校要求学生在5月1日前决定最终是否入学。如学生决定入学，则需向该校支付留位费锁定学位。

When students pay a deposit to a school, they can only pay a deposit to 1 school. This locks them into that school. As a school policy, we will only send the final official transcripts to 1 school. If a student gets accepted off the waitlist and chooses to attend that school rather than the school they paid the deposit to, they must formally withdraw prior to me sending the official transcript. The counseling office will not support any other universities than the matriculation school.

学生在支付留位费时，仅可向一所学校支付。支付完成，该生去向即锁定于该校。据我校规定，顾问办只向学学生决定最终入学的这1所学校发送毕业官方成绩单。如果学生在给一所学校支付了留位费以后，收到了候补院校的录取，并想改为最终入学这一候补院校，则需要在老师发送毕业官方成绩单前，正式撤回已支付留位费院校的申请。升学顾问办只对学生最终决定入学的1所学校做后续支持工作。

As for deciding which school will be best, there are many considerations, and each family and student's preferences will be different. The things parents and students might want to look for are proximity to an airport, public transportation, weather, cost, and quality of the major program. I recommend students to make lists of pros and cons, and the school with the either least number of cons or the most tolerable cons is the school the student should choose.

对于最终入学院校的抉择，不同的家庭、学生都会有各自的考量。学生及家长们可以通过机场、公共交通、气候、生活成本、大学专业和课题项目等方面来作为衡量因素。我建议学生们针对每所录取学校列出它们的利与弊，优点最多或弊端大多可接收的院校即为最适学校。

Once the decision has been made and the deposit is paid, please inform Ms. Kendra of their final university choice.

做出最终决定并支付留位费后，请将最终选择告知Ms. Kendra。

Please let me know if you have any questions.

如果对此有有疑问的地方，欢迎与我交流。

 

Curriculum Vitae

 
 
 

University Research

Working with G11 students I like to focus on Fit rather than rank. We focus on longevity of attending school not transfering around to the next best place.

 
 

Part 1

Part 2

 

Career Interest Profiler

Grade 10 students at ISD are tasked with selecting their IBDP course selection. As such, it is important for these students to know what their desired career path might be and which courses to take in grades 11 & 12 to best prepare for university.

 
 
 

Linking BridgeU and CommonApp

A very important part of the application process is linking CommonApp accounts to BridgeU so that I am able to submit documents for applications. I am not always able to be in every advisory at once, so utilizing videos has been tremendously helpful.

 
 

Not sure how to pay for university?

There are several different ways to get scholarships. Many times students applications will qualify them for merit scholarships. Typically if a student applies early decision (ED) or early action (EA) they do not usually qualify for such scholarships.

Here are a few sites that might be helpful.

If the student holds a US passport and is planning on attending a US university they will need to will out Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). You should NEVER pay to fill out FAFSA. It is free to fill out. Students do not need to accept the money offered either. Many schools will require FAFSA to be filled out prior to assigning their own scholarships to students. Students must fill it out every year they are attending university.

I have not used this resource before: Sallie Mae, they have many scholarships as well.

Chegg also has a wonderful array of scholarships. This company is also known for students being able to buy and rent textbooks.

The university might have its own scholarships for different majors students can apply to, however, they will have to research those on their school’s website. Usually found under a tab called Financial Aid & Scholarships.

Planning on going to the US but do not want to take the SAT/ACT?

 

  • Test optional means the school does not require tests to be submitted. If a student has an ACT or SAT they can submit it, however, if the results are poor then there is a possibility that the score will negatively impact their application.

  • Schools that are test flexible will often accept any test (ACT, SAT, TOEFL, IELTs) for admissions. Therefore, students can submit whichever test they felt was the best performance.

  • Luckily Fair Test allows students to see which schools might be the best fit for them if there is no desire to take the SAT or ACT. Go to https://fairtest.org/university/optional