5 ms·
Seriously American students should consider studying abroad. PhDs is a paid job in many countries. Also graduate and undergrad programs are tuition free, even f
by jernfrost 9y ago
Seriously American students should consider studying abroad. PhDs is a paid job in many countries. Also graduate and undergrad programs are tuition free, even for Americans in many European countries.
I think a problem is many Americans think they have the top universities in the world, but you forget that is really only the ivy league which most Americans will not be able to attend anyway.
I went to a decent university in the US, before going to the Netherlands instead. I got to say it was much better in the Netherlands for several reasons:
1. Most of my professors shockingly spoke BETTER english than at the US university. WHY? Because in the US there is an abundance of professors/teachers from foreign countries, especially from India and various asian countries. These professors often pronunciations of the english language which is hard for an American or European to understand. Dutch professors in contrast speak very clear english. Yes dutch is the native language, but at Master level all courses are taught in english if you don't speak dutch. For undergrad there are several special schools which do english only teaching.
2. More modern facilities. They had better equipped university library. Newer computers in the computer labs etc.
3. They teach you more about how to think. I felt US university was closer to a high school experience. A lot of hand holding and focused on learning lots of stuff. In the Netherlands it was less workload but harder problems. You spend more time thinking than doing.
4. More time with your professor and less time with student assistants and other non-professionals.
5. Easer to be a student in general. You don't need a car to get around. Dutch cities are very walk and bike friendly, and there is lots of public transportation.
6. More FREEDOM! For young people there seems to be way too many restrictions in the US. Can't drink until 21. Gender separated dormitories etc. I find that in the Netherlands and Europe in general you are treated more as an adult. You live in apartments with other students on campus (or off) and there are nobody going around enforcing lots of stupid rules.
- bob_theslob646 9y agoI agree with most of your points but does a European PhD hold the same exact weight as an American PhD, on average? I know that might sound silly, but I'm genuinely curious.
- sytelus 9y agoIt depends. If you are looking for job in tech industry then it really doesn't matter. However if you looking for faculty position in academia or position as researcher/scientist in industry then your alma mater becomes super important. However even then top univ in Europ that would have same weights American counterpart. The only problem is that there are fewer "top" univ in Europ than in US.
- j7ake 9y agoif a PhD student published the exact same quality and quantity of papers but their universities differed then it doesn't matter. For example if you published 3 papers in nature (or in comp sci 3 best paper awards at your competitive conference ) during your PhD nobody cares where you did your PhD. Prestigious universities matter for PhD students if you "fail" , meaning you were unable to produce significant work worth mentioning. Then you can use your prestige to get a job in industry.
- sytelus 9y agoIn current state of affairs, US acts a giant vaccine pump for talent which means lot of great academics which were supposed to exist in their native countries now exist in one of US universities. I think the recent number on US contribution to research output of the world was staggering 35% far eclipsing any other countries in the world. If you are looking for great department you don't really have lot of choice. However current political climate is rapidly changing this status quo.
- skummetmaelk 9y agoHow do you measure research output? If you measure it as papers published per capita (admittedly not a very good metric), several european countries lie above the US. The EU in general also has the highest amount of scientists/researchers per capita. We tend to be biased against results from outside the major ivy league institutions because ivy league results are reported in the press as "harvard professor finds X" whereas the rest of the world has its findings reported as "researches discover Y", or if they are lucky "scientists from country X discover Y". This leads to the extremely superior branding of the top US universities which everyone can name, while they struggle to name 3 of the best institutions in Europe.
- trentmb 9y agoIt seems like a weird form of colonialism.
- cyberpunk0 9y agoThis is nice advice for those who can afford it...
- matttproud 9y agoLiving, studying, and working abroad are great, I have done all three and am abroad now. Do not get me wrong when I caution: Accepting foreign residence as U.S. American under the present and proposed tax regime may not be a panacea. We pay taxation on foreign income; and if the tax regime changes to impute an estimated tuition cost, you may be in the same boat as the one you started. For all intents and purposes, the double taxation exemption is useless — especially if you live in a country with a higher nominal cost of living than the U.S. This is not normal. It is one of two countries to tax its citizens when domiciled abroad. The other is Eritrea. I’ll be frank: I had only one thing to be excited about in this tax bill, and that was the possibility of rescinding citizenship-based taxation (CBT) and moving to residence-based (RBT), but I think the Senate draft doesn’t include this provision. The rest of the law is garbage as far as I am concerned. But back to the original point, the U.S. is toast. Get out of there. That’s what I have done in my Fortress Zürich. This is a great place to raise a family and live. Each time I return to the U.S., I cannot help but be bombarded with realizations of its regressive characater and barbarism.