What matters the most when studying in the West

There are no more modern, more complex businesses with more added value and better paid work in Lithuanian industry and agriculture, therefore talented people are not needed in Lithuania. To apply your talents, it’s worth thinking about studying and working in the West. 

"Explaining to the blog Euroblogas.lt, the head of the public institution "Studijos ir karjera ", an experienced educational consultant for studies abroad, Žaneta Savickienė named that now the three most popular countries where young Lithuanians prefer to study are the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland. 

According to Ž. Savickienė , the popularity of the Netherlands is due to the fact that the country has the largest choice of English-language studies in the non-English-speaking part of Europe. ”Even their government is considering taking a step back and reducing English-language studies. Studying in English actually means that education is given to foreigners. Studying in the Netherlands is not free. It cost everyone around € 2,000 a year. 

According to Ž. Savickienė Denmark took the step back some time ago, which reduced the number of study programs and places in English. Nevertheless, Denmark remains one of the most popular choices among those who decide to study abroad. 

 "Denmark has been very popular with our agencies. The only problem is that our children often choose college when choosing universities in Denmark because they just don’t know. In both Denmark and the Netherlands, technical universities are colleges. However, children see the word “university”, think that they are studying at it, finish it, go back to Lithuania to study for a master's degree and then find out that they have not acquired a proper education. Therefore, you really should carefully analyze the high school you are choosing. Pay attention to how and where her diplomas are recognized, because the name “university”, “college” or “school” does not mean anything yet.”

Currently, Ireland is closing the top three most popular foreign countries to study among Lithuanians. The reason is that it is an English-speaking country, so the choice of studies in English is large. Also, in Ireland, tuition is free, you only have to pay a university infrastructure fee. 

"The ratings need attention, but they do not need to be absolute. There really is no need to be afraid that the university chosen is tenth rather than fifth, I think the most important thing is for it to be in the top 100. 

However, it is of great importance if you need to compete for your chosen place of study. Our agencies also work with those universities that take everyone if only someone looks to them. But what of that? You will have a foreign diploma, hang it on the wall, but studying among noncompetitive, academically weaker, classmates is certainly not a great benefit. It is always better to be below among the very good because then there is an impulse to improve. Therefore, I really advise to choose only those universities that have competitions to enter the selected programs. 

However, you also need to assess your capabilities. When we talk to children with an average grade of 8 and they are thinking about Oxford, Cambridge or Stanford, it is possible to try to provide documents there, but you need to know and understand that this is the best playground,” - the consultant emphasized. In addition, she pointed out that admission to good foreign universities is a bit different than in Lithuania.

All of them have an admissions committee that evaluates not only the future student’s grades but also their motivation."

Admissions committees for foreign universities want to see a child’s cover letter, and our children are not taught or advised on how to write them. 

Another thing we are losing out on is the teachers’ recommendations that need to be made.

Not only do our teachers not know, they also don’t want to know how to write recommendations. If it is written in such a way that changing the surname can be used for half of the class, then it is null and void, just a plus in the application. And so our teachers hurt the very best students. Where there is a large competition, there the admissions committee reads the recommendation from to. And in the competition for the best higher education, our children are left as naked in nettles,” - regretted Ž. Savickienė. 

Therefore, she stated that a young person who decides to study abroad must become her own manager from the first grades of the high school - look for career counselors, learn to write cover letters, and unobtrusively provide teachers with guidelines on how to write recommendations."