HKU is ranked #22 according to QS world rankings, above some prestigious U.S. institutions such as Johns Hopkins. Do you think this ranking is deserved or is HKU “overrated”? I’m asking this because I received an offer from HKU BASc Applied Artificial Intelligence Program. I also received offers with +50k scholarships per year from Oberlin, Denison, and Fordham. Should I go with one of these U.S. colleges or prefer HKU?
hku is amazing, local hker here. they have an outstanding med and law faculty. I think accepting the hku offer depends on a lot of factors, however academic wise HKU is outstanding.
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The QS ranking mostly applies to graduate school - it heavily emphasizes research output, publications, etc. For undergrads, class size, access to professors and labs, ease of registering for classes, flexibility to design your program according to interests, support for student research… is much more important.
I’d pick Oberlin if you are politically involved (left) and Denison if you’re not. Fordham isn’t very well known for CS.
Another issue with HKU is that it’s not going to be democratic. Things you think or say may get you in trouble. If you’ve grown in more restrictive environments you could adjust, but if you’re the type of students who wants Oberlin, HKU would be unbearable or you’d land in jail quickly.
HKU if you don’t care about all of the above and want a graduate school experience, Oberlin if you’re as intensely academic as you are political, and Denison otherwise.
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I’m already living in a restrictive environment - Turkey - so I don’t think it will be an issue for me. I don’t care about politics anyways. HK is cool because finding jobs and salaries are higher - at least that’s what I was told -. In the US, I may not find jobs after graduation and the student visa expires very quickly.
Well, Turkey is restrictive and you can go to jail for speaking your mind, but it’s nothing like the crackdown on democracy and democratic-supporting students in Hong Kong. I suppose that if you’re used to watching what comes out of your mouth, what you type on social media, what you say on your phone, it’s not as risky, but still pretty uncomfortable.
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The environment will be very different. HKU may be about the same as what you’d expect from a university in Turkey. Most Germans don’t think of uni as some life-altering experience. It’s where you go to learn and get credentials. Probably about the same with HKU or in Turkey.
The LACs like Oberlin and Denison offer much closer more faculty involvement. IMO, they’d set you up better for PhD programs in the US if that is what you’re interested in.
It really depends on what your career goals are.
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HKU is the best option for your planned area of concentration.
HKU is about academics & jobs, while in the US college is as much about the social experience as it is about academics & one’s career.
Did you apply to any schools in Canada ? University of Waterloo ?
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I applied to UBC in Canada. Waiting for the results.
If accepted & affordable, then UBC should be given very serious consideration. Great school, gorgeous location, exciting city, & easy to earn work permits for many years or permanently.
Vancouver is a great place to live, work, study, & socialize.
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And Canada is much safer than Hong Kong for college students right now. So, if you’re looking for a “graduate school” type experience, UBC would match everything you’re looking for, without the risks at HKU.
This is silly, considering that on a per capita basis, all the top feeders to PhD programs are LACs.
Sorry, but I do not understand why your post is directed to me.
For the academic experience, it tough to beat a good LAC if they offer what you want to study.
Once again, I have no idea why this comment is directed to me.
Best guess:
Because you highlighted academic experience and “area of concentration” for a kid interested in Economics, Mechanical Engineering, CSE, and CS (I agree that isn’t clear from this thread, but is from the other thread posted along with it listing all admissions).
In addition, “academic experience” can be severely impacted by not speaking the language and not knowing the culture (OP does speak English and some French, but not Cantonese which is the main language for most people, even if English proficiency is very high, as it is in Sweden or the Netherlands)
and/or being sent to jail and/or getting a classmate sent to jail (the latter 2 being why HK parents are trying to send their kids to the UK through the special asylum program that was set up last summer, and why college students are escaping as fast as they can due to classmates reporting torture and even rape - shocked me because I wouldn’t have thought the Chinese-backed police would behave like that in Hong Kong, which was working on a different system from the mainland, incorporating elements of the Chinese sytem along with elements of the British system. It means the experiment has been crushed.)
Best to be familiar with local laws & customs.
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How old were you both times? In college? Where you with a group, with the Fullbright program, within an “American” management system/environment?
Did you know anything about the Soviet Union? Did you speak some Russian?
OP doesn’t seem to understand why the HK situation matters, so “all risks were known in all situations” probably doesn’t apply. This student probably would not really have a sense that s/he is “pushing limits”, since he doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t know the culture. Even in a favorable environment, when you’re working hard at learning from mistakes and those surrounding you are in part benevolent, the cultural misunderstanding can lead to unfunny situations but here it could be risky.
18, 19, & 20.
The student should learn quickly the expected behavior when visiting a foreign country. Anyone who reads news on a regular basis should understand.
Except that this student has a choice: s/he has been admitted to a dozen top colleges in the US and Europe. Why choose the riskier place? If s/he really wants to attend university in a restrictive country, which I can understand from a cultural point of view, perhaps not right out of HS, perhaps after learning a bit about the language/culture in order to avoid being expelled soon after arrival or being roughed up by soliders/police or sending classmates to jail.
Both UBC and Polytechnique would be as strong academically and wouldn’t be as risky.
@1NJParent: OP has applied to lots of different subjects/majors. It looks like s/he wants to study something quantitative that leads to a job, rather than just AI per se.
I agree the US universities would mostly offer an experience (residential college, community) coupled with strong academics but not the depth in specialization his/her other choices offer.
The OP wants to study AI, in which case HKU is a better choice than the US alternatives s/he listed.
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