Going to Europe for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is thinking about attending St. Andrews. He needs to show he's ready to live that far away from home but as a PP mentioned, airfare to the UK and travel time is similar to DC-westcoast.

No, DC to London is 8. hours to Edinburgh then St Andrews, further. DC to LA is 4.5 hours. Not comparable.

But airfare cheaper to UK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some differences: I have heard that there is a lot less hand holding. Like kids need to find apartments to live in often (i.e., handle housing and meals on their own). Many classes have one test at the end. That can be nerve-wracking, in terms of knowing how you are doing/having no chance to correct mid-course. In the UK, drinking can be taken to extremes/unhealthy levels.

Last but not least, you may be kissing them goodbye for the rest of their lives. My friend's kid met and fell in love with an EU boy. Now they live together and work over there. Makes for few visits, if close contact in your old age (when you have grandkids) was something you had hoped for.

Given where the United States is at this time in history, I'm encouraging my kids to live elsewhere. I would be thrilled if they did that and would visit them/their families, wherever they are, including for weeks or months at a time in a nearby Airbnb.

Got back from Europe last week. A lot of major European countries are having more and more heatwaves due to climate change, and they aren't prepared for it. Stayed at mulitple hotels and was in places like malls or airports where the A/C systems simply couldn't keep up -- they were never sized capacity-wise to assume the heat like they have now.

It's 81 in Stockholm today for example -- only slightly cooler than here, but few dwellings on Stockholm have a/c.

Stop complaining about Europe not following the idiotic rules of air conditioning of Americans. As you may know, Air Conditions are big power guzzlers and therefore co-responsible for the global warming. Europe would be perfectly capable to installing Air Conditions, but they don't want to. Get used to the heat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is thinking about attending St. Andrews. He needs to show he's ready to live that far away from home but as a PP mentioned, airfare to the UK and travel time is similar to DC-westcoast.

No, DC to London is 8. hours to Edinburgh then St Andrews, further. DC to LA is 4.5 hours. Not comparable.

But airfare cheaper to UK.

DC to London is only six. My kid’s at Cambridge. I’m bicoastal. i think it’s pretty much the same except I try to do night flights to London snd sleep in the plane. The real difference has been the amount of COViD testing and proof after arrival but, for now, that’s gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is thinking about attending St. Andrews. He needs to show he's ready to live that far away from home but as a PP mentioned, airfare to the UK and travel time is similar to DC-westcoast.

No, DC to London is 8. hours to Edinburgh then St Andrews, further. DC to LA is 4.5 hours. Not comparable.

But airfare cheaper to UK.

DC to London is only six. My kid’s at Cambridge. I’m bicoastal. i think it’s pretty much the same except I try to do night flights to London snd sleep in the plane. The real difference has been the amount of COViD testing and proof after arrival but, for now, that’s gone.

7 to London and 8 back to DC

It's 6 from NYC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friend of mine has a son at the University of Reading. I looked up the cost out of curiosity

For 2022/23, standard fees for international students are:

£19,500 a year for non-laboratory courses and International Foundation Programmes
£23,700 a year for subjects with significant laboratory study or workshop content.

Living costs are an important part of budgeting for your degree; accommodation costs around £137.55–£193.06 per week for a standard to premium en-suite single room in University self-catered accommodation, inclusive of bills. This amounts to around £5,502–£7,722.40 a year for the 2022/23 academic year

£50 a week for food (so £2000 for 40 weeks)

Call that roughly £27,000 to £33,400 which converts to about $32,000 to $40,000.

Not horrible by US standards, but not cheap either.

University of Reading is a total dud school. There are some of those in Europe too. Pointless trying to get a degree from a dud school because it will lead to the same barista jobs as a dud school in the USA will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We will look into Dutch universities for our DC in couple of years.

- non EU Student tuition fees still much lower than most US colleges
- Netherlands is very easy for English speakers as almost everyone speaks good English
- many English language programs in Netherlands
- relatively low crime rates
- good public transport systems

One obstacle is finding decent accommodation

It will be around the same cost as a state college once you account for room and board.

DC likes the atmosphere for students in Netherlands. If the same cost overall, it is definitely worth considering.

Universities we are considering are highly ranked in EU and decent rankings world wide. Many graduates do well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you really certain that an EU passport entitled you to resident tuition? I believe it is common in the EU to require that the prospective student have been ordinarily resident in the EU for several years prior to entering university to qualify for that benefit. I'm sure there are many variations and nuances to any residency requirement but it's worth looking into for the particular country or universities you are targeting.

Yes, at least for the universities of their country of citizenship, it's completely free unless it takes you longer than usual, and even then, it's really cheap. But good point, we would definitely look into this for other EU countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some differences: I have heard that there is a lot less hand holding. Like kids need to find apartments to live in often (i.e., handle housing and meals on their own). Many classes have one test at the end. That can be nerve-wracking, in terms of knowing how you are doing/having no chance to correct mid-course. In the UK, drinking can be taken to extremes/unhealthy levels.

Last but not least, you may be kissing them goodbye for the rest of their lives. My friend's kid met and fell in love with an EU boy. Now they live together and work over there. Makes for few visits, if close contact in your old age (when you have grandkids) was something you had hoped for.

Given where the United States is at this time in history, I'm encouraging my kids to live elsewhere. I would be thrilled if they did that and would visit them/their families, wherever they are, including for weeks or months at a time in a nearby Airbnb.

Got back from Europe last week. A lot of major European countries are having more and more heatwaves due to climate change, and they aren't prepared for it. Stayed at mulitple hotels and was in places like malls or airports where the A/C systems simply couldn't keep up -- they were never sized capacity-wise to assume the heat like they have now.

It's 81 in Stockholm today for example -- only slightly cooler than here, but few dwellings on Stockholm have a/c.

Stop complaining about Europe not following the idiotic rules of air conditioning of Americans. As you may know, Air Conditions are big power guzzlers and therefore co-responsible for the global warming. Europe would be perfectly capable to installing Air Conditions, but they don't want to. Get used to the heat.

Nonsense. Nobody in my extensive circle of European friends lives without AC. There are myriad reasons why European buildings aren’t air conditioned but lack of demand isn’t one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Which country? Each country has a different educational system.

We're French and not sending our kids to French unis as direct admits. The system was reformed a few years before the pandemic, to deal with an influx of students, and the reform was a disaster, worsened by Covid. ParcourSup is a system of ranked choice that supposedly depends on your Baccalaureat performance, but in practice some very high-scorers sometimes don't get their preferred university choice (or any uni!), which has led to some really bad press in recent years, and deservedly so. High schoolers coming from abroad without the Bac were initially not recognized by the system, and now don't have priority in the system so may not end up getting any of their preferred university choices. It's a complete mess.

Additionally, coming from the American system which does not teach students how to write long essays, admissions counselors generally advise expats not in an accredited French high school to avoid a totally French, writing-heavy, university system, but pick other unis in their countries that have exchange programs with the best French unis instead. Exchange programs cater to international students, which makes them a better fit (and they have classes in French or other languages). Unless you're going for STEM degrees, but then you still run into the ParcourSup issue.

We are looking at British and Canadian universities, particularly McGill, since Montreal is French-speaking.

Slight thread drift. If you want instruction in French (rather than a world renowned university that teaches in English but does everything within Quebec's language laws) look at University de Montreal, especially if your student is more STEM focused.

And, I'm sure you know this already, but Quebec French is very different, especially when it comes to slang and everyday usage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friend of mine has a son at the University of Reading. I looked up the cost out of curiosity

For 2022/23, standard fees for international students are:

£19,500 a year for non-laboratory courses and International Foundation Programmes
£23,700 a year for subjects with significant laboratory study or workshop content.

Living costs are an important part of budgeting for your degree; accommodation costs around £137.55–£193.06 per week for a standard to premium en-suite single room in University self-catered accommodation, inclusive of bills. This amounts to around £5,502–£7,722.40 a year for the 2022/23 academic year

£50 a week for food (so £2000 for 40 weeks)

Call that roughly £27,000 to £33,400 which converts to about $32,000 to $40,000.

Not horrible by US standards, but not cheap either.

University of Reading is a total dud school. There are some of those in Europe too. Pointless trying to get a degree from a dud school because it will lead to the same barista jobs as a dud school in the USA will.

What my friend told me is her son will get a BS in computer science in three years (knocks a lot off the total price) and is taking only science and math courses so I highly doubt he will end up as a barista.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you really certain that an EU passport entitled you to resident tuition? I believe it is common in the EU to require that the prospective student have been ordinarily resident in the EU for several years prior to entering university to qualify for that benefit. I'm sure there are many variations and nuances to any residency requirement but it's worth looking into for the particular country or universities you are targeting.

Yes, at least for the universities of their country of citizenship, it's completely free unless it takes you longer than usual, and even then, it's really cheap. But good point, we would definitely look into this for other EU countries.

Definitely varies by country/school. I’m the PP who has a kid looking at Trinity College Dublin, and you have to be an EU resident to get the reduced rates. Irish citizenship alone does not do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With pandemic travel saga and all, i would rather keep my 18 year old here in US, money isn't everything. You can find affordable colleges here.

What travel saga? That htey may get delayed on their way over by a day due to a missed flight connection?

+1 No one prevented US citizens from coming back to the USA during COVID.

Yeah, but some of the countries where they were studying wouldn't let foreigner students back in for example, New Zealand and Australia. They wouldn't even let their own citizens go home. Even Canada was making life difficult for foreign students to return to their Canadian universities for a time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you really certain that an EU passport entitled you to resident tuition? I believe it is common in the EU to require that the prospective student have been ordinarily resident in the EU for several years prior to entering university to qualify for that benefit. I'm sure there are many variations and nuances to any residency requirement but it's worth looking into for the particular country or universities you are targeting.

Yes, at least for the universities of their country of citizenship, it's completely free unless it takes you longer than usual, and even then, it's really cheap. But good point, we would definitely look into this for other EU countries.

Definitely varies by country/school. I’m the PP who has a kid looking at Trinity College Dublin, and you have to be an EU resident to get the reduced rates. Irish citizenship alone does not do it.

And some places you have to actually be resident in the country, not just holding a passport because of your mom or dad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friend of mine has a son at the University of Reading. I looked up the cost out of curiosity

For 2022/23, standard fees for international students are:

£19,500 a year for non-laboratory courses and International Foundation Programmes
£23,700 a year for subjects with significant laboratory study or workshop content.

Living costs are an important part of budgeting for your degree; accommodation costs around £137.55–£193.06 per week for a standard to premium en-suite single room in University self-catered accommodation, inclusive of bills. This amounts to around £5,502–£7,722.40 a year for the 2022/23 academic year

£50 a week for food (so £2000 for 40 weeks)

Call that roughly £27,000 to £33,400 which converts to about $32,000 to $40,000.

Not horrible by US standards, but not cheap either.

University of Reading is a total dud school. There are some of those in Europe too. Pointless trying to get a degree from a dud school because it will lead to the same barista jobs as a dud school in the USA will.

What my friend told me is her son will get a BS in computer science in three years (knocks a lot off the total price) and is taking only science and math courses so I highly doubt he will end up as a barista.

Yes, that's probably true. But would you want your kid getting their qualifications from Montgomery college and then trying to get a job? That is the equivalent. Just because you've never heard of The University of Reading doesn't mean the rest of the world hasn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you really certain that an EU passport entitled you to resident tuition? I believe it is common in the EU to require that the prospective student have been ordinarily resident in the EU for several years prior to entering university to qualify for that benefit. I'm sure there are many variations and nuances to any residency requirement but it's worth looking into for the particular country or universities you are targeting.

Yes, at least for the universities of their country of citizenship, it's completely free unless it takes you longer than usual, and even then, it's really cheap. But good point, we would definitely look into this for other EU countries.

Definitely varies by country/school. I’m the PP who has a kid looking at Trinity College Dublin, and you have to be an EU resident to get the reduced rates. Irish citizenship alone does not do it.

And some places you have to actually be resident in the country, not just holding a passport because of your mom or dad.

Right. My kid is an Irish citizen, but we live in the U.S. So if they went to TCD, they would pay the same rate as a non-citizen kid.