I disagree a lot here. I did study abroad and I'd argue that this might have been a one of the best things that has ever happened to me: 1. This is completely

I disagree a lot here. I did study abroad and I'd argue that this might have been a one of the best things that has ever happened to me: 1. This is completely false. You have just as much time as you would have had back at home. Yes, you might have more things to worry about being on your own but you can certainly make up for it and learn to make compromises quickly. Expecting to come out fully prepared out of university is plain stupid. In most scenarios you end up with an average amount of theoretical and practical knowledge but you are nowhere before you end up crashing into your first job when you realize that the studying is just beginning. 2. That is highly personal. You either live with the mindset that you need a degree to get a job or take the most out of the situation. If the degree is your primary goal, then yes, you won't have the adequate will and determination to better yourself. I had professors that spent 5 or 6 hours after lectures talking to me and explaining some nitty-gritty details just because they saw I had genuine interest. I never asked them to dedicate any more than a few minutes but on multiple occasions we ended up staying in the hallways way past midnight discussing different topics. 3. I honestly don't get that point. 4. While the friends and family statement is correct and fitting in somewhere new is something that takes forever, regardless of the tons of effort and dedication, if you find peace in being alone, it's a huge advantage. Sooner rather than later I fell in love with digging deeper and deeper and following rabbit holes that most of my peers had no clue about. Eventually I became the second-best student by a fraction of a percent, given that I was studying in a foreign language. 5. Depending on what you are studying, this might be a good thing. My native language has very little in common with the two other languages I've had to learn, other than the fact that they are all European. Their structure is vastly different, two different alphabets, completely different way of constructing sentences and thoughts in general. For software engineering, I feel like this is a brilliant mental exercise. 6. In a vastly globalized world, this seems like a non-issue. If anything it teaches you to look at things from multiple perspectives and take the best out of both worlds. Certain solutions can be applied successfully in completely opposite social and political environments and solve multiple problems in the process. 7. Same as 3, I really don't understand the point the author is trying to make.