Younger son has applied for his first European university! A 2021 grad, he’s taking a gap year this year like is older brother who is at AAU in Prague.

Next up? My husband and I start applying for graduate programs! We’re getting our documents through the apostille process to begin 2023 applications this fall.

I’d say Beyond the States has been a life changer for our family!

(Photo from Prague, 2021)

She’s Off to Rotterdam Thanks to BTS! She’s doing the MISOC program at EUR. She’s very excited.

She’ll do 2 days of the pre academic program, then Eurekaweek. The following week we will join her and help her set up her apartment and do all of the registering and signing up for things. There’s a week of orientation for her faculty and then classes start. I was surprised by how many orientation opportunities there are. I think that’s more unusual at European schools.

And we’re off ✈️ Heading to NL to start a whole new life adventure. Thank you 🙏 BTS and everyone in this group for providing support and guidance throughout this process.🥳

It’s official! Thanks to Beyond the States my son is successfully at Utrecht University and participating in orientation this week. He will be living directly on campus in the Science Park and he’s over the moon happy and excited!

Left my ❤️ in Europe this morning. He’s all settled in, been through orientation, starts class tomorrow. made a few friends already, and has even learned to navigate around town on his bike like a proper Dutchie. HaHa. We cannot thank you enough Jenn Viemont and the many friends here in the BTS community. What an experience these kids are getting! Now to figure out my next chapter….which will surely involve racking up the SkyMiles! 😘❤️

It’s official! Our Son Jaz will be heading off to Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences to join the AMSIB – {Amsterdam School of International Business} in August. He will study International Business Management! We’re super happy for him as it feels like a good fit. He was drawn to the School because of its internship heavy approach and project based learning curriculum.

Jaz has been raised abroad and has enjoyed being part of the inquiry based learning experience offered through the entire IB program. Because of this strong educational offering, and because we found Beyond the States, he has received several offers throughout Europe. WE are very fortunate to have had all these amazing opportunities come together for our family. Here’s hoping he will be happy, find his people, and do good things in this world;0)!

#AMSIB . . #beyondthestates

My son Sam (American from Iowa) and his girlfriend Julie (Ukrainian-Czech) who attend AAU in Prague, both got accepted into graduate programs at the U of Leeds (England), Brussels School of Governance (Belgium), and Marbella International University Centre (Spain). Julie also got into the U of Strathclyde (Scotland) and the U of Bologna (Italy). Sam also got into American University Paris (France). They have decided to attend Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and will be moving to Spain for the next 2 years. So proud of these two! Sending Sam to AAU with the help of BTS was the best decision we ever made.

Hello! We are a BTS family and wanted to share where we all are in case we can answer any questions about the school or city. We found BTS many years ago and it was a blessing to our family!

• Anglo American University, Prague: Our oldest son is in his last year at AAU. He’s studying Business Administration: Strategic Marketing & Planning.
• University of Pécs, Hungary: Our younger son is in his second year studying Archaeology. His partner, also American, is in her second year studying Computer Science.
• Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic: my husband and I just started graduate programs a few weeks ago! (we took a career pause for the adventure and education!). I am earning a masters in Cultural Sociology and my husband is earning a masters in Energy Policy Studies.

Happy to help in any way we can – connecting with you, or connecting you with our kids, about their schools, or life in these cities. I’m not sure we’ll be much help with student visa questions, but rather the day to day of living in these cities and going to these institutions.

(Our kids required us to take first day of school pictures since we made them take them. So here you are 😘. The pictures of them are from last Christmas; hence the cold weather wear)

Benedictine senior Zane Curry to attend college in Europe. Zane Curry has been accepted to the University of Georgia and Kennesaw State University, but the Benedictine Military School senior is taking a different path to college.

Curry, 18, has been accepted to four European universities: one in the Czech Republic (Anglo-American University in Prague), one in France (Burgundy School of Business in Dijon), and two in the Netherlands (Maastricht University and the University of Groningen). He has chosen to attend the Maastricht University.

“I was looking at prices of schools and how hard it was to get in,” he said. “I can’t really remember how but I mentioned it to my mom, and then she found this program called Beyond the States (Degrees Overseas Taught in English), which is this big group of moms that analyze and talk about all of these different European universities. She signed me up for that program and, through that, I was able to look at hundreds and hundreds of schools, and then kind of narrow it down to whatever fit me, and ultimately make my decision.”

Curry said attending Maastricht University will cost approximately $12,000 per year, comparable to paying in-state tuition to attend a university in Georgia. “Most of the degrees are (earned) in three years,” he said. After graduating from Benedictine on May 15, Curry will move to Europe, where he will be without family. Maastricht University administrators told him that he will be one of six Americans out of 1,200 students in the program he is leaning toward.

Barrett just picked up his diploma in Chemical Engineering finally, two years after graduating. My passport isn’t up to date so I couldn’t go. 😢 But his Dad and his aunt Susannah were there. He was fine with it. Mostly he went to see his friends. The diploma was just a good excuse to go, lol. University of Groningen, est. 1614. Thank you Beyond the States for making this possible!

We finally got to meet our Beyond the States Besties!!! Kathryn Tunstall has been my BTS BFF ever since we connected over our daughters applying to the same school in Barcelona. I cannot express enough how much more difficult & frustrating this whole process would have been without having Kathryn as a sounding board & a laughing partner! Thrilled that our girls get to kick off this journey together, living on the same hallway & sharing a kitchen/living room! What a blessing BTS has been to our family!

We’ve been in NL the last two weeks traveling around and getting my son settled in. The wild ride of all the paperwork and hoop jumping has mostly come to an end, and now he’s got a bike, a working SIM card, a BSN number, a way to access money, and a visa ready to be picked up. Whew!

Thank you so much to this group for all the wonderful, helpful, insightful, kind, and encouraging words. Nothing worth doing is easy, but this group sure takes the sting out of so much of this journey.

Sending love to all families who are saying goodbye to kids this season, whether it’s the first time or the bazillionth time! ❤️