College Tidbits Blog

Today’s Guest Blogger: Charles Sumpter, Jr. 

I went on a term abroad to China in my sophmore year in college.

I do not know about all of you, but most students at my school didn’t go on a term abroad until at least their senior year, so I was jumping the gun. My school boasted about the amount of students who went abroad and I was just happy to be represented in such a high statistic.

I went to Shanghai, China for my term abroad, and that experience quite frankly has changed my life.

Before I went to China, I had only taken one year of Mandarin. I was blown away by the number of people who did not speak any English. However, I do not regret that experience at all because it really put my Mandarin to the test, and made it stronger. I had to order food, get around and take my classes all in Mandarin; so in a sense I was really immersed in the culture.

My senior thesis dealth with nuclear proliferation between the U.S. and China and that was influenced by my term abroad experience. My thesis later became my first book, State of Existence, which will be released on November 22. So all in all, my term abroad experience has in fact changed my life, 4 years later.

I would love to go back to China one day and see just how much has changed since I last been there.

I will tell everyone who is considering going abroad to do it. Do not let anything stand in your way, whether it is finances, or just scared of going away from home. There are ways around that and I am certainly glad I did it when I did.

When I went away, the U.S. was in the middle of the Presidential elections. Actually, I remeber sitting in a hotel in Beijing on election night watching the numbers as they came in. I can also remember walking down the street at night and people asking me how could Americans vote for Bush again.

I did not know what to say, I tried my best to explain, but certain things are uniquely American and I had a hard time getting through to many.

As I said before, anyone out there please seriously consider going abroad, it changed my life and it will change yours.

Charles A. Sumpter Jr. a native of New York City recently completed his undergraduate degree at Union College in Schenectady, New York while also taking credits at American University in Washington, DC.

He graduated with an interdepartmental degree in Political Science and Modern Languages (Mandarin).

During his undergraduate experience, Sumpter traveled to china and studied at Fudan University in Shanghai.  He now calls Washington, DC his home and works as a Congressional Affairs Analyst.

You can contact Charles by visiting his blog: A Leader in the Making

Today’s Guest Blogger: Kelly Kilpatrick

More and more, we are hearing in the news and other sources online that 4-year college degrees are not as valuable as they once were.

This trend is due to many factors, and among them is the fact that students go to college simply because it is expected of them, not because they actually want to go.

In days past, students took aptitude tests that determined their specific interests, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, and then chose institutions that would help them hone their skills.

Although many schools still use this method of determining what students should do after graduating high school, the current trend is to get students to at least try going to college first…Read more

Guest Blogger: Jill Howell, Education Consultant

Question: My junior son is a smart kid. Good grades came easily to him in junior high, but since he has been in high school his grades have suffered significantly because he does not do a majority of his homework assignments.

His GPA is currently in the 3’s and he is repeating two courses this year to try to improve his GPA because he received D’s in them last year. He scores very high on most tests.

Answer: question is both a valid and common one that I address in my private practice on a regular basis. In many cases, when a bright student like your son is not living up to his potential, it is often because that student has yet to become personally invested, for whatever reason, in the role that he plays in his own future — the college application and scholarship processes included — and, as an 11th grader, this spring semester is a critical time for him in maximizing his opportunities after high school…Read the Entire Article

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