A Visit from Boise State University: What Our Students Learned About Studying in the US
We recently welcomed Ivane Helias, International Enrollment Counselor at Boise State University, to Sunshine Grammar School and College. She travelled to Chattogram to meet our students and staff and to talk about undergraduate study in the United States. As a Computer Science teacher, I joined the session, and it turned into one of the more useful counselling visits we have hosted.
Why a Visit Like This Matters
Many of our students think about studying abroad but only see the process from the outside. They read rankings, they scroll through websites and they hear stories from relatives. What they rarely get is a direct conversation with someone who actually reads applications. Ivane gave them that. She walked through what an American undergraduate degree looks like in practice, what campus life involves and what a university expects from an international applicant.
About Boise State University
Boise State is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Ivane spoke about the academic side and the student support side of the campus, including the facilities available to undergraduates, the research opportunities open to students early in their degree and the services that international students can use when they first arrive. For students who have only pictured large East Coast campuses, hearing about a different part of the country was a genuinely new perspective.
Scholarships and Our School Partnership
The part that drew the most questions was funding. Ivane explained the scholarship options available to international undergraduates and how they are assessed. She also spoke about the partnership that connects our school with Boise State, which gives our students a defined pathway when they apply. For a family weighing the cost of a US degree, that kind of information changes the conversation from "is this possible" to "how do we plan for it".
The Computer Science Angle
I spent some time discussing Computer Science and Information Technology pathways with her, since that is what most of my students ask about. We talked about how the subjects our students take here map onto a US undergraduate programme and what a Computer Science student can expect in the first two years. It was useful for me as a teacher too. Knowing what universities abroad are looking for helps me advise students earlier, rather than in the final term when options have already narrowed.
What I Took Away From It
Students perform better when a goal feels reachable. Sitting in a room with a university representative, asking questions directly and getting straight answers does more for a student's confidence than any amount of browsing online. I hope we continue to host visits like this.
Thank you to Ivane Helias for making the trip and for giving our students such a clear picture of what is available to them.
Contact for students who want to follow up:
Ivane Helias, International Enrollment Counselor, Boise State University
Phone: (208) 426 4367
Email: ivanehelias@boisestate.edu