Summer vacation is almost here and many high school students will be traveling to different destinations. If you are planning to visit a country where you would like (or think you might like) to attend university, summer is the perfect time to schedule university visits and campus tours!

Here are our top tips for successful university visits:

• Do not schedule too many visits – You may be short on time or there may be a few universities in one particular city that you feel like you can visit in one day. It will be too much if you try to visit more than two universities in a day. Not to mention, the universities will start to blur together and you probably will not be able to retain as much information. Scale down your visits to the must see universities and take virtual tours online for the others you are not able to make.
• Do not wait until the last minute – Now is the time to find out visiting times for your universities. Summer is the most popular time for students to visit from all over the world, so reserve your space early so that you and/or your family can be accommodated.
• Schedule an on-campus interview – Many universities will give you an opportunity to meet with admissions representatives who are very knowledgeable about the application and admissions process. These people are important to get to know as they can answer specific questions regarding the university. However, another way to get an up-close and personal perspective is to schedule an on-campus interview, if offered. It is possible that you will interview with an alum, current student or even a person from the admissions office. This one-on-one opportunity is great for narrowing your list down and determining if the university would be in your top 10.
• Meet with a professor – While summer vacation is just that, vacation, there are professors who stick around campus for the summer. If you know which field of study you are interested in, contact the admissions office or contact the professor directly (if their information is online) and request a time to find out more about your specific program and the types of courses you would be taking within your major. Many professors are glad to speak with prospective students and their families and may even remember your visit, which may be helpful later on.
• Enjoy the campus tour – Yes, it may be hot in some places or the tour guides are loading you up with quirky facts about the university, but the tour is one of the most crucial parts of the visit. It allows you to imagine yourself as a student there. As you walk from building to building, or through the quad on a campus, imagine that this is a typical day. Do you see yourself eating in the dining hall or hanging out in the student center? Take advantage of your surroundings and determine if this is a place that could “feel like home”.

DCB Class of 2017 excited about their new university lives ahead

If you are unsure about the type of university you want to attend or you think it doesn’t matter if it has a large or small population, visit different types of universities within your field of study in a specific city (large public, small private, liberal arts, research based). That way, you will find out what you must have and what you can live without.

Enjoy this part of the process and, most importantly, enjoy your summer!

Dulwich College Beijing counseling team offers career and university advice and support to all Senior School students. Preparing students for university start as early as Year 7 (Grade 6). They spend many hours with each student to guide them with admission essays and to make the right choices for university applications. Students’ final choices often reflect the right fit for them individually – whether it is campus location and size or area of specialty, and it is not necessarily based on university ranking.

This post is provided by Dulwich College Beijing. 

Photos: DCB 

This content marketing series is divided into three parts under the themes of sports, leadership, and the arts. This is part three of the three-part series. In part one, we spoke to the talented art students and their insight can be found here. In part two, we spoke to the sporty students and they share their fuller school life experience here. As the graduating class of 2017 bids farewell to family and friends, they have come full circle and share their ups, downs, and advice for younger students.

Students have a greater ownership in school when their voices are heard. Dulwich College Beijing (DCB) provides numerous avenues for students to realize their full leadership potential on a small or large scale and joining the Student Leadership is one of them.

Far left: Silvia, Lesley, and Johanna with friends

Students need to apply for the Student Leadership team and undergo several rounds of interviews, including an elevator pitch in front of the Headmaster and the school leadership team. The aim of this process is to mentally prepare the students for future application or selection process to universities and jobs. The prefects, as what the leaders are called, are comprised of a Head Boy, a Head Girl, and their Deputies, and the rest of the team with individual portfolios ( i.e. Sports, Media, Performing Arts, Sustainability Prefect etc.). The leadership team is open to Year 12 and serves a one-year term until Year 13.

We sat down with outgoing Head Girl Johanna S., who has been at the school for eight years, Deputy Head Girl Lesley Z., who has been at the school for five years, and MUN Prefect Silvia S., who has been at DCB for almost nine years.

Silvia giving a speech at MUN

The three young ladies share their background and motivations for wanting to take up leadership roles.
Lesley: I’m Chinese-American. I always wanted to be a prefect when I was a younger student because prefects were like role models. It seemed like it would be a nice way to give back to the school community. I really didn’t think of becoming a prefect leader until the process was announced when I got to know more about it. Then I realized that if you become a leader you could do so much more than just be a prefect.
Johanna: I’m Swedish-Chinese. I have quite a similar experience to Lesley on how I got involved in this role. I always looked up to the prefects especially the leadership team and they really encouraged me to take different pursuits. I saw how they were able to influence the school and they were almost seen as teachers more than just students, so I really admired that.
Silvia: I’m Austrian-Chinese. I was running, alongside Johanna, DIMUN (Dulwich International Model United Nations), which is the school Model United Nations. I got into that from middle school. I started participating in MUN conferences then I realized it was quite an intellectual challenge and a way to meet new people who were really smart as well. And so I decided to get into leadership in this area because I have a lot of ideas and I thought they might bring some benefits to the system as well.

Johanna on stage at DCB’s Founder’s Day last year

These were some of the benefits they were been able to gain from their roles.
Lesley: As deputy head girl, most of my leadership experience comes from managing a portfolio. I’m in charge of the ICT [Information, Communication, and Technology] sector. One thing that I learned from this so far is probably taking initiative. It’s because when you do a lot of tasks, it’s easier to envision ideas. But to actually get down to materializing those ideas, it requires you a certain level of commitment. I learned how to tweak my approach to things to make it easier to get things done.
Johanna: It really challenged my time management skills and resilience. The IB program is quite rigorous and with a lot of other extracurricular activities. It was a bit hard to balance everything at the beginning but then it taught me to prioritize and be most efficient with the tasks I was given.
Silvia: I guess as a leader in MUN, firstly you have to be good at MUN itself to be able to organize a conference. We’re also a kind of hands-on in what’s happening.

Johanna, Silvia, and Lesley take a selfie at their graduation ceremony

Balancing between their academics and leadership roles did not diminish their enthusiasm for either.
Johanna: I wouldn’t say my leadership role took away anything from my academics, I would probably say the opposite. Having all these extra-curricular activities is more of like a stress reliever than something that pressures you most of the time. Also, having so many things can help you become more efficient.
Lesley: I agree. I like making a list of all the things I need to do and prioritize them.
Silvia: I just do it.

Future prospects
Lesley: Amherst College
Johanna: Yale University
Silvia: Oxford University

Learning by Leading: Model United Nations at Dulwich

Dulwich International Model United Nations Conference teens are anything but ordinary.

Words of advice
Lesley: Taking a leadership role can be scary! But the ultimate experience and benefits greatly outweigh the fear, so you should definitely try.
Johanna: Try to take every opportunity out there and be dedicated!
Silvia: First, know what your talents are and then be good at them. 

This post is paid for by DCB.

Photos: Courtesy of DCB & Uni You

This series is divided into three parts under the themes of sports, leadership, and the arts. This is part two of the three-part series. The talented art students share the projects they are most proud of here. As Dulwich College Beijing’s graduating class of 2017 bids final farewell to family and friends, they have come full circle and share their experiences and advice for younger students.

Dulwich College Beijing (DCB) offers numerous athletic programs to their students as part of their physical education curriculum and after school activities.

Students get numerous opportunities to take part in competitions organized by the school and the Dulwich College International network such as the Dulwich Olympiad, the annual Rugby, Netball, and Tennis competition, Dulwich College Games and others that the school takes part in such as Association of China and Mongolia International Schools (ACAMIS) and Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA) tournaments according to the sports department.

Ben at a tournament on the school’s soccer pitch

Three DCB students share life lessons they learned on and off the pitch/field/pool; Danish Rebecca S., who has been at DCB for ten years, Chinese-Ethiopian Binyam A. for a total of ten years, and British Ben B. for four years.

Rebecca: In Junior School, I played handball, athletics, gymnasts and cross-country. In senior school I began to play football, volleyball, and basketball, swimming until Year 8. I am captain of the girls’ varsity football and volleyball teams.
Binyam: My main sport is football and I have been playing since I was six-years-old. I played basketball as well, volleyball, and a little bit of rugby but as I got older I only play football now. I’m captain of the varsity football team.
Ben: In terms of sports, coming to Beijing meant a big change. In the UK, I played cricket, hockey, and rugby and they were my three main sports. When I came to Beijing, the sports offered were different, they didn’t offer rugby, hockey, or cricket. I play football now.

The gains from playing a sport helped shape their experiences.
Rebecca: There are physical benefits. You feel good about yourself. There are also the social aspects as well, which is really nice. I think all of my best friends come from sports teams.
Binyam: Like Rebecca said, the social aspect is huge. You get to meet so many new people. Another big thing is it’s a great stress reliever especially as we are getting older and the workload starts to grow. It helps me sort of process better. I find after training, everything sort of falls into place and you see it in a better light, it becomes easier [to handle].
Ben: Diversification. Although the only sport I played here is football, I learned about basketball, and I enjoy watching it sometimes. Probably the biggest thing that has already been mentioned is the social aspect. I was new to Dulwich, it helped to break that social barrier with a sport which was nice. Sports enables you to push yourself, and in terms of academics, I think that’s good, especially when you are in a highly academic school like Dulwich, you can push yourself further than you think.

Rebecca runs after a ball during a match

Unlike many schools, DCB encourages their students to coach. The students share what their coaching experience has been like.

Rebecca: I coached the same team twice; when I was in Year 11 & 12 (Grade 10 & 11), I used to coach Year 7 (Grade 6)  students football together with their teacher. It’s a very different kind of experience of interacting with younger students that you may not have the opportunity to meet and talk to. They think of me more as a friend than a coach.
Binyam: I coached in Year 10, my little brother’s team actually. It was a really great experience working with them for it showed me a different approach to football. My brother plays it for fun and you see that when you play football and are having fun, you develop so much better. I learned more from my little brother.
Ben: I coached cricket to Junior School and younger Senior School students; it was fun. I played cricket a lot and there’s a big difference between playing and teaching. It has changed my perspective of cricket a bit because it made me realize how difficult it is to teach a sport, so I praise people who can do that effectively.

Binyam gets ready to shoot the ball

Future prospects.
Rebecca – Gap year with three projects: Dive Master Course in Indonesia, wildlife rehabilitation center in Africa, and Football Academy in Denmark.
Binyam – holding offers at Northeastern University, University of Toronto and St. Andrews University
Ben – Kings College London

Words of advice.
Ben: Don’t be afraid to fail. Try risky things. I think people catastrophize things. Get that balance and get that stress relief.
Binyam: Take every opportunity you have, even if you feel like your ability isn’t where you think it should be or you think you are not the best player just keeping going at it, keep going to training.
Rebecca: Take advantage of the relationships you make, you can learn from each other. Those relationships tend to help with the different strenuous aspects of school life

This post is paid for by DCB.

Photos: Courtesy of DCB and Uni You

This series is divided into three parts under the themes of sports, leadership, and the arts. This is part one of the series. As the graduating class of 2017 bids farewell to family and friends, they have come full circle and share their experiences and advice for younger students.

Behind every great artist, there’s a great teacher, and many of those performers and creative types are quick to thank their mentors and educators — from actors like Kerry Washington to legendary singers like Patti LaBelle and more. We might one day hear some of the stars of tomorrow giving the same credit to their teachers at Dulwich College Beijing (DCB), seeing that this British international school in China brings such strong programmes to nurture budding talents.

The school knows that starting early is key to igniting a passion in talented students. That means even their youngest students (18 months to 3 years) have a specialist music teacher in their class every week. In Year 3 (7 years old), students kick things off with a recorder and ukulele then move to wind and strings instruments.

Flemming performs her piano solo at Dulwich Music Awards

There are also over 100 music and drama events, art exhibitions, and artists’ visits (VPN required) in an academic year that provide pupils with the opportunities to hone their skills based on DCB’s philosophy of student-led projects.

We spoke to three students, Flemming L., who has been at the school for six years, Simone Z., who has been at the school for eight years, and Tristen W., who has spent his entire academic life at the school.

The three talented Year 13 (Grade 12) students share their background and reasons for pursuing their creative paths.

Flemming: My interest is in music, especially piano and choirs. I started playing at a really young age and my parents just really urged me to move on. They really told how important it was to have one skill that you are really good at. Over the years I have discovered my talent in music over many other subjects so I continued on this road.
Simone: When I was younger I used to love drawing and my parents encouraged that. They sent me to sketching classes, typical kinds of art related classes and I chose to continue to take art at school at GCSE through [to]IB.
Tristen: I didn’t have a passion for music until I was a teenager. That’s when I started to fall in love with music in general because I have been actively listening to different kinds of music.

Tristen in one of the state-of-the-art music production studios at DCB

Here are some of the benefits the students have experienced.
Flemming: I have met many great musicians and fellow students like Tristen. I also built really good relationships with every music teacher I have had.
Simone: For me, pursuing art is cathartic at times and it’s very different, the arts and performing arts, from your other subjects. Being able to take that class many times a week gives you a release from the typical mathematical, science subjects.
Tristen: Definitely my social skills [improved]. I remember when I was small, I was a really closed [off]person. Then, when I got into music and started to attend a lot of the events at school, I was able to open up myself a bit more and communicate with more people. That helped me make more friends.

Royal Shakespeare Company Practitioner Guy Jones at DCB

DCB interviewed director, dramaturge, and facilitator about his time at DCB.

The students have projects that they are most proud of accomplishing.
Flemming: The project I’m most proud of is an oral class for junior school students that I initiated and am the only teacher of. There’s this external music exam called the ABRSM and it includes a section called oral. I started this project because I benefitted from this system from a really young age and I wanted to help more junior school students prepare for it. I knew that a lot of students at DCB would be taking ABRSM exams. I started this project in Year 12 as part of my CAS project but after CAS ended I found it really interesting so I kept on offering it.
Simone: The teachers gave me license to decorate and refurbish our Common IB room last year. I solicited photographs from fellow students in the IB programme. I was quite proud of the final result because it proved to me that art doesn’t have to be something only critics look at, it could be something students and everyone can appreciate.
Tristen: I’m really proud of the composition arrangement that I wrote for a songwriter/producer. I’m not exactly proud of the project itself but because it marks the beginning of my musical career.

Simone at her final IB exhibition at DCB

Future prospects.
Flemming: Northwestern University
Simone: Brown University
Tristen: Berklee College of Music

Words of advice.
Flemming: Grab all the opportunities you can get. You can get something meaningful out of everything you do. There’s no such thing as a waste of time; you can learn even from the smallest thing.
Tristen: For someone with a strong passion, [try]not be too desperate to reach it [success]. Once you are too desperate you lack the experience and head into things without knowing much.
Simone: Fake it until you make it! I think the key to improving and increasing your ability is to have the confidence that you can do something and throw yourself at it until you get better. 

This post is paid for by DCB.

Photos: Courtesy of DCB and Uni You