I’m happy to announce the release of our first myUface student guide,“The Advantages and Disadvantages of University Study in the United States.”
It’s a compilation of some of our early blog work about the advantages and disadvantages of study in the U.S.
Enjoy!
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So we’ve considered most of the advantages and disadvantages of going to the U.S. for your university education. But you may still be having difficulty deciding if studying in the U.S. is the right decision. In this final post, I will present three pieces of advice about how you should go about making the decision whether or not to study in the U.S. (or anywhere else, for that matter):
The decision to study in another country is a daunting one, but it can be fun as well. The options for international students are more diverse and exciting than ever before. Consider all your options carefully, but always remember: if you do your research, take your time, keep your options open, and find good advisers, you will find the perfect program for you!
SERIES: Why study in the U.S.?
Here is a list of five other disadvantages to studying in the United States for you to consider:
For Your Consideration:
Can you think of other disadvantages to studying in the U.S.? If so, please share!
SERIES: Why study in the U.S.?
Here’s another potential disadvantage of studying in the U.S. that you should consider: in certain countries, and within certain professions, people who possess U.S. degrees are viewed with suspicion and even resentment.
To use an extreme example to illustrate the point: in certain authoritarian countries, if you possess a U.S. degree the security services may suspect you of being a spy. Really, it happens.
OK, for most of you this will not be a problem. But you could suffer from suspicion of your degree in other ways:
Are these reactions fair or reasonable? Absolutely not. But they can be surprisingly common, especially in fields like economics, politics, public policy, and so forth. I once met a group of Harvard graduates who had studied politics, but who were almost completely ignored by the politicians in their own country, and had all moved onto different fields.
By the way, this in no way applies only to U.S. universities. Usually, if this kind of attitude exists at all, it will exist in relation to foreign degrees in general.
The bottom line is, be aware of the “culture” that exists within your chosen profession, and ask yourself, would holding a U.S. degree help me or hurt me here? How will I fit in “going back?”
For Your Consideration: do you know what you’d like to do as a career? Do you know someone within that career who has studied abroad? How is their degree received among their colleagues?
SERIES: Why study in the U.S.?
Today we’re going to talk about a potential disadvantage to U.S. university study. First, a brief look back: in our last two posts – here and here - we discussed supposed disadvantages of studying in the United States: the difficulty of obtaining visas, and the high cost of a U.S. university education. We discovered that, although there was a kernel of truth to both of these, neither represented a particularly huge problem.
In contrast, today we’ll be talking about a real disadvantage for many of those who choose to study in the U.S., and it’s this: for many professions in many parts of the world, a U.S. education simply does not provide the appropriate preparation. Let me give you an example:
A student I met from an Eastern European country had always dreamed of studying in the United States. He wanted to become a lawyer. The problem was that, in his country, a law degree is awarded at the end of undergraduate education at a specialized legal faculty. In addition, his country’s system of law was completely different from that practiced in the U.S. In other words, by going to get an undergraduate degree in the U.S., he would have:
Now, that’s not to say he shouldn’t have wanted to study in the U.S. In fact, despite the disadvantages of a U.S. university in this regard, he ended up coming to study in the States. But even he acknowledged that those four years were in a certain respect wasted, at least in terms of how they strictly applied to his chosen profession (they were certainly not wasted in terms of his life – he had a great experience, made lifelong friends, helped him develop leadership and cross-cultural skills, and so on).
The bottom line here is that before you decide to pursue university education in the United States, you should do some research into how it might impact your chosen profession. In the majority of cases, a U.S. degree will probably advance your career. But in certain cases, due to the system used in your country, it might not provide you with the appropriate qualifications. This is particularly possible in some of the following fields:
For your consideration: do you know what you’d like to do as a career? What are the requirements in your country for having such a career? Do you need a specific degree? To pass a certain test? How will education in the U.S. impact your ability to meet such requirements?
SERIES: Why study in the U.S.?
As in yesterday’s post, I’m going to speak very briefly about a supposed reason not to study in the U.S.
The reason? It costs too much.
Verdict: False
As we mentioned in a previous post in this series, while it is true that a U.S. university can be expensive, it’s also true that the U.S. spends more per student than almost any other country. So it’s not as if you’re paying for nothing.
But more than that, is university study in the U.S. really so much more expensive than other countries? I’m always skeptical of claims like “universities in _____ country are expensive,” because, as we saw in yesterday’s post, there are so many different kinds of universities and programs available. In every country, you’ll find some programs that are expensive and some that are not. For example, let’s look at some very basic tuition information available on the web (NOTE: these are estimates taken from random sites for the purposes of illustrating a point):
Using today’s exchange rates, and taking the middle point of those ranges, tuition costs work out to be:
Now, are there differences? Yes. Are the differences so overwhelmingly big so as to make you immediately discard the idea of studying in the U.S.?
Probably not.
The bottom line is that, yes, the U.S. will tend to be more expensive for university study . . .but probably not by such a large amount as to outweigh the various benefits of going there. And always remember, there are going to be universities in the U.S. that cost less than the average university in the U.K. or Australia. It all depends on what you want and what kind of program you’re looking for.
For Your Consideration:
Have you looked at specific universities in the U.S.? Do you know how much it would cost to attend? Have you looked for other schools which might cost less?
SERIES: Why study in the U.S.?
In today and tomorrow’s post I’m going to speak very briefly about two supposed reasons not to study in the U.S. Occasionally I’ve heard these from students.
Reason #1: It’s too hard to get a visa
Verdict: FALSE
You do hear about a number of international students who don’t get visas to the U.S. The process also seems complicated, filled with all kinds of strange-sounding documents like I-20s. The truth is, though, when you hack through all the confusion, the process of getting a U.S. visa is really quite simple:
Now, there are certain steps of the process which do present real difficulties for large numbers of international students. Quite often the above scenario can become much more complicated (and throughout the year we’ll talk a lot more about visas). But for the majority of international students the process – though long – ends in success. It’s also worth mentioning here that many think the Obama administration may be more open to international students.
The bottom line is that, for most students, if you’re serious about studying in the U.S., the visa process is more of a hassle than a real disadvantage.
For Your Consideration:
Have you hear horror stories of students not getting U.S. visas? Please share them with us!
SERIES: Why study in the U.S.?
If you’ve done any research at all about U.S. universities, you’ve probably heard quite a bit about how expensive it can be to study in the U.S. Although I want to note that the difference in cost between universities in the U.S. and other countries is often exaggerated, I think it is safe to say that, in general, and with many individual exceptions, the cost of a higher education at a U.S. university is going to be higher than in other countries.
This is often brought up as a reason not to study in the U.S. Certainly, cost should be an issue in deciding what university to attend, but it should not be the only issue. It helps to remember that, in most cases, university costs are high for a reason, and that quite often the increased cost of U.S. university education reflects, at least to a certain extent, the higher expenditures made by U.S. universities upon the educational process. The OECD notes that the United States spends more per tertiary student than all but 3 OECD members (Norway, Luxembourg, and Switzerland). A large part of that comes from student tuition costs.
More money spent for each student means more money for state-of-the-art facilities. By facilities I don’t only mean classrooms, but also money for research, for top-notch professors, for sports venues, for student comfort, for libraries, for IT resources, and so on and so forth. Quite often, then, the high cost of a university can positively reflect the quality of the education you’ll receive at that university.
In fact, the situation is even better – many of the most expensive universities in the United States actually spend more – sometimes two or three times more – on each student than that student spends on tuition.
The point here is that when it comes time to look at individual universities, don’t look at the cost in a vacuum. An expensive school might be worth it because of the quality of education it provides. An inexpensive school might actually present less value because it doesn’t provide the same educational resources. Of course, in many cases, and depending on what you want to study, expensive universities will provide poor quality, and inexpensive universities will provide high quality.
Don’t be scared off by the high cost of U.S. universities. Look at the total picture, including the educational quality they provide, in making your decision. And keep in mind that in many cases, you’ll get what you pay for.
For Your Consideration:
Do higher tuition costs translate into better facilities? Do better facilities mean a higher quality education?
SERIES: Why study in the U.S.?
According to the Open Doors report, there are approximately 623,805 international students at U.S. institutions of higher learning. That’s 3.5% of the total student body, and more than the entire population of Wyoming. And for every student that is studying in the U.S., there are many more who want to study in the U.S.
You may have heard about the increase in students going to study in other countries, such as Britain or Australia. You may have even been contacted by a university in a country other than the U.S., and they may have told you something like this: “Yes, the U.S. used to be the top destination for international students, but they’re on the decline. The newest hotspot for international students is _______.”
Now, it is the case that other destinations have increased in popularity over the years. But the United States remains the top destination for international students. And far from decreasing, over the past decade the number of students in the U.S. has vastly increased, from 514,723 in 1998/9 to 623,805 this past year.
So, there is no doubt about it – the U.S. is the country of choice for international students.
But it’s worth pausing for a moment and asking a simple question: why?
This is obviously an important question if you’re planning to spend four years of your life studying in a foreign country. Over the next few days, I’ll seek to answer this question as honestly as I possibly can, providing you with both the benefits and the disadvantages of a university education in the United States.
Let me say right from the outset that I am not exactly a neutral evaluator. As a product of the U.S. university system, and as someone who has spent a fair amount of time working with it, I am what you might call a partisan of the U.S. higher educational system. I happen to think that it represents the best available option for a majority of international students. But I am also aware of its shortcomings, and I promise to present them to you in as unbiased a light as possible. I hope that, by reading this series of posts, you’ll gain a fuller understanding of what would await you at a U.S. university.
For Your Consideration:
What’s your impression? Are U.S. universities a good place to study?
SERIES: Why study in the U.S.?
Welcome to the myUface blog!
Our goal is to provide you with all the information you need to pursue your education in the United States.
