Reply to Are We Crazy for Questioning a $250k US Degree and looking abroad?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We’ve been over this so many times.  It’s clear what’s happening.  Your kids can’t get into the Ivies or other top privates and you’re too embarrassed to say they’re going elsewhere in the USA, so you send them abroad and having made that decision you now insist that their educations are better, they’re having more fun, their job prospects are better etc.

What’s really going on is that instead of going to college with the unwashed American masses they’re doing it with the unwashed European ones for less money.

Your kids are going to school with millions of other kids. They’re not going to Harvard.

What you’ve chosen to do is fine.  Great.  You do you.  But it doesn’t make you special, it doesn’t make your kids special, and it certainly provides no license to tear down kids who aren’t doing the same thing. I guarantee you most kids at most everywhere are  “having fun.“[/quote]

I'm always fascinated by the confidence with which some people psychoanalyze the complex financial and educational decisions of hundreds of families they've never met.

The central premise that this is a 'backup plan' for students who can't get into top US schools is a tired, easily disproven myth. As I and many others here have shared, DD turned down two Ivies to study in the UK. Her story isn’t unique. This is not about rejection; it's about a different set of priorities with a desire for real-world global experience, not just one stamped with a familiar US ranking.

Frankly, the idea that all the world's 'top students' only clamor for US schools is an incredibly US-centric view of the world. Brilliant students everywhere have different goals and different definitions of 'the best.'

Ultimately, praising one path isn't an attack on another, and it certainly isn't a license to tear down the choices of others.

Anyway, for those of us who are actually interested in the productive conversation the OP started, let’s ignore these trolls.[/quote]

Just because you say it anonymously doesn’t make it true.  Very very few American families are turning down Ivy League schools to study in Europe.  If your kids are, you are a real exception to the rule.

And that you are seriously asserting that the USA isn’t far and away the preferred destination for foreign students means that you have no credibility.  [/quote]

You clearly do not possess the ability to engage with what is actually written.

To be clear for everyone else following along:

1) My point was never that the US isn't a popular destination. My point was that the world's 'brilliant students' have many goals, and to assume they all prefer the US is a US-centric view. These are two very different statements.

2) You are arguing against a point nobody made, which is the definition of a strawman argument.

This is no longer a productive discussion. I won't be engaging with you further. I'm going back to the actual topic
[/quote]

It’s not only a “popular” destination.  It’s THE MOST POPULAR and by a long shot.  We import way more students than we export and with good reason.  That you refuse to concede that is very telling.  [/quote]

[b]Show me the data. And put any conclusions in context of the size and population of the relevant countries. Because what you are saying sounds like typical American insular assumptions that they are the best. I’m from Europe and we absolutely hands down do not ever, under any circumstances believe that the US is superior to so other world renowned institutions.[/quote][/b]

The U.S. attracts the most international students of all nations, hosting an all-time high of more than 1.1 million international students during the 2023-2024 academic year, an all-time high since COVID. Key factors for this interest include the country's reputation for renowned high-education programs, with about half ot he world's top universities located there, along with advanced technology and strong research capabilities.

India, China, and South Korea are among the top countries from which students come to study in the U.S.  This is all googleable[/quote]

I’m sure the US subtract many brilliant foreign students, but the overall numbers are not particularly impressive. Last year the US had 1.1 million international students, Canada had 1 million, Australia had 780,000, and the UK has 732,000. The US had a population 5 times larger than the UK, 8 times Canada’s and 12 times Australia’s. It’s hardly a resounding endorsement of US college education.[/quote]

Sorry, but you lost the argument. The Chinese, Korean and Indian students will kill to study here. The numbers don’t lie. America is no 1 for sheer numbers. As to your point about demographics- that is nonsense because the public and private institutions in America control the number of foreign students. [/quote]

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