Going to mediocre college in the US vs. top university in Australia or Canada

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>Going to mediocre college in the US vs. top university in Australia or Canada (for undergraduate)</p>

<p>I think it depends on where you want to work after you graduate the school. I want to go to ivy league graduate school in the U.S. and work in the U.S. after school. Which will be more advantageous for me? I’m trying to transfer to either Australia or Canada, because the education in the U.S. is ****ing expensive and has no (or scant) financial aid for international students.
Do you think the undergraduate education in the U.S. is the best? </p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>Are you a US citizen, or from Australia/Canada?</p>

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<p>im neither
and i'm asian</p>

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<p>Oh, ok. There's top quality schools both here in the US and elsewhere, so I'd look at costs first. What do you want to major in?</p>

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<p>also, i'm currently attenting a university ranked top30 in the us, and trying to transfer because the eduation in the us is ****ing expensive for no reason</p>

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<p>i want to do engineering or architecture</p>

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<p>Which college are you at? If it's a private school, it will definitely be a lot more, but you can get top educations at good public schools. For example, I live in Florida, and FSU and UF are both pretty "prestigious" for public schools. If you plan on going to grad school, then going to a non-Ivy league undergrad school won't hurt your job prospects after college - the job will look at your grad school, not undergrad.</p>

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<p>If the OP is an international student, they cannot get in-state tuition rates in any state. The only exceptions I know of are some of the "directional" schools in Minnesota. However, none of these have the strong reputation the OP seems to be looking for.</p>

<p>A US employer is probably more likely to have heard of a Canadian university than an Australian university, simply because of the distances involved. Note that you largely moot this point if you complete graduate school. However, any number of events can get in the way of achieving this goal. For example, what if you have a possibility for a great job offer immediately after undergraduate?</p>

<p>US graduate schools are more likely to have heard of the top universities worldwide.</p>

<p>McGill University in Canada appears to have good name recognition in the US, especially in the Northeast. (I recently asked about this to get a second opinion on another thread.)</p>

<p>Attending an average university when you're capable of doing the work at a top university is usually a mistake unless you have no other acceptable options. This is what I did for my first Bachelor's degree, for reasons too complicated to go into detail about here. The average university is going to be nowhere as academically stimulating as the top university. The average university is not going to open anywhere near as many doors as the top university. It would probably be a blunder to attend an average university in the US out of a vague fear that US employers won't recognize the value of a degree just because it was awarded by a Canadian or an Australian university.</p>

<p>Note that by average, I mean a university which is average by overall university standards, not by CC standards.</p>

<p>Which of the following would you rather have to explain to an employer?</p>

<p>(a) I had to leave a Top 30 US university for financial reasons. So I transferred to ABC University. Not many Americans have heard of it, but it's one of the top universities in Australia. It's significantly cheaper to attend Australian universities than American universities.</p>

<p>(b) I had to leave a Top 30 US university for financial reasons. So I transferred to XYZ University. You may not have heard of it because it's not very well known beyond a 100 mile radius. I was there primarily because a merit scholarship made it possible to attend and graduate. No, it doesn't have a particularly high ranking. But at least I managed to earn a 3.8 GPA.</p>

<p>Good luck, whatever you decide.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the response.</p>

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<p>Many American students can come to Canada and go to the cream of the crop schools for under $20,000!</p>

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<p>Yeah, definitely don’t go to an overpriced college in the US if you’re an international student. Honestly, it seems most international students I meet here are pretty rich and are paying full costs out of pocket. As you pointed out, colleges here are expensive for no good reason (well actually, it’s because in countries where college is free, it’s paid for through taxes and only the best students get to attend, whereas our taxes are relatively low here). Architecture and Engineering are the kinds of subjects that don’t vary as much from country to country (engineering in Canada = engineering in US basically)</p>

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<p>Come to University of Toronto, it’s awesome.</p>

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<p>May depend on where you want to reside after school.</p>

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<p>"Which of the following would you rather have to explain to an employer?</p>

<p>(a) I had to leave a Top 30 US university for financial reasons. So I transferred to ABC University. Not many Americans have heard of it, but it’s one of the top universities in Australia. It’s significantly cheaper to attend Australian universities than American universities.</p>

<p>(b) I had to leave a Top 30 US university for financial reasons. So I transferred to XYZ University. You may not have heard of it because it’s not very well known beyond a 100 mile radius. I was there primarily because a merit scholarship made it possible to attend and graduate. No, it doesn’t have a particularly high ranking. But at least I managed to earn a 3.8 GPA."</p>

<p>Both of these seem fairly acceptable to me.</p>

<p>I think when it comes to graduate schools, your test scores, GPA, and significant work/leadership activities are going to have more impact on grad school admissions than where you go. Question is, what do you mean by “mediocre” American school? Most schools in the Top 100 are going to be perfectly acceptable to both an employer and graduate schools.</p>

<p>My gut is telling me to go with Canadian universities, though, if only for the proximity to US employers, in case graduate school DOESN’T work out for some reason (if you want to work in the US after graduating that is). Many Canadian universities are very well respected in the US, but my bet is most people haven’t heard of Australian schools. If price is equal between a top Canadian uni and a mediocre American uni, I see no reason to not choose the higher ranked school.</p>