U.S. Universities vs. International Universities

<p>I wanted to share an article which breaks down the cost of some popular schools-- NYU, Harvard, Brown, Middlebury, with some international schools in Canada, the UK, and elsewhere. </p>

<p>Heres the article: <a href="http://www.safetyisdangero.us/2014/09/19/supercharge-college-going-abroad-4/"&gt;http://www.safetyisdangero.us/2014/09/19/supercharge-college-going-abroad-4/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Actually, I was very surprised that you can go halfway around the world and get a cheaper, higher ranked education. Why are things in the US so expensive? </p>

<p>I'm really convinced americans should consider going to other countries for University--after all, people from foreign countries are willing to leave their country to come here. At least consider Canada guys. </p>

<p>Any thoughts? </p>

<p>For the right kid with certain interests, I agree. Mount Allison looks dirt cheap to an American,and they’ve produced more Rhodes Scholars than any American LAC.</p>

<p>Keio and Waseda are highly-respected privates in Japan (people have called them the Harvard and Yale of Japan) and they cost about the same as going as an in-state student to a public here.</p>

<p>However, in many foreign schools, you don’t get nearly as many options or resources as you do at American universities. In many/most of them, you enter a major program and you take the courses for that major and only the classes for that major. If you decide that you don’t enjoy math after all or can’t hack it? Tough. You can try to start over as a freshman in another major (maybe at another school, depending on who takes you).</p>

<p>Also, at almost all foreign universities, there aren’t as many resources like writing centers or career/grad school advising. If you’re studying something like engineering, there’s a reason why ARWU (<a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2014.html”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2014.html&lt;/a&gt;) says 10 of the top 11 and 13 of the top 15 are American: because the top American universities have more money than anyone else.
And pedagogy at some top-ranked institutions (outside Oxbridge) is just straight-up lecture where the students aren’t suppose to ask questions. </p>

<p>Basically, I consider even the top universities (most of them) in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere to be akin to state schools here. Top state schools, perhaps, and I’m someone who believes that a bright motivated non-disadvantaged kid who gets to go to Cal/UMich/UVa (or UIUC/GTech/UT-Austin/Purdue/etc. for engineering) for half the price of JHU/Vandy/WashU (or even Columbia/Cornell/Duke) would be silly to turn down the former for the latter, but there’s less hand-holding and it’s more sink-or-swim at UToronto/SciencePo/Oxbridge, etc.</p>