Would anyone prefer Asian colleges over ivies?
By “anyone”, are you referring to American students?
@GMTplus7 no, just any student intending to apply for college in general
What do you see as the advantages of college in Asia? The value proposition is very different for citizens and non-citizens.
@GMTplus7 Significantly lower tuition fees (for tsing hua, tuition is $10,750), cultural exposure, and that Asia is currently on the rise. Schools like National University of Singapore are also quite competitive in my opinion. I was just wondering the pros and cons of doing so…
For American students, there is a major downside in terms of job recruitment opportunities. American companies will be recruiting on American campuses. Plus, unless the schools have well know names life Oxford & Cambridge, overseas universities have little name recognition among most Americans.
There are also issues with working in a foreign country. Non-citizens in a foreign country will need a work visa to work in that country. Work visas are typically not awarded to fresh graduates who don’t have years of work experience.
Cultural exposure can be gained by study abroad programs.
Then there’s the style of instruction/learning in Asia, which tends to be rote memorization vs class discussion/Socratic instruction.
For American students, in state tuition at public colleges can be had for a similar cost.
There are only a handful of schools in Asia capable of competing with top American schools, I would say less than 10. To top it off, these schools are extremely competitive to get in, and the way education works in Asia means that you will get a lot of busy work not found in American schools.
Actually, I don’t think anyone smart would attend an Asian school just to get cultural exposure. In fact, I would say that if they were already exposed in the first place they would be better fit than someone who hasn’t. Meaning, an American Japanese who speaks/writes fluently and familiar with Japanese schools would be a better fit at University of Tokyo than another who seeks cultural enlightenment. Cultural exposure can be found in many study abroad programs in American schools. You get the benefit of an American degree with exposure to outside learning.
And yep, many of the public colleges in America with similar cost would be easier to get into and be better institutions, such as UW, UCs, UVa, etc.