Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Foreign universities are only cheaper for the small percentage of students who don't need any financial aid. Practically, how many Americans have ever met a foreign uni graduate? How would they know the difference between a great Canadian or UK university and a bad one or a fake one? Even well educated Americans who don't work in international affairs are unlikely to meet graduates of more than a few foreign institutions. I know people who attended UCL and LSE, but I know nothing about the quality and competitiveness of the other University of London member institutions the way that I know the differences between the University of California campuses.

I don't understand the thrust of this argument. Are you suggesting that you should choose a university solely so that people know, "Oh, that's a good one, s/he must be smart!" That if other people don't know that your school was good - even if it was fantastic - that all that matters is what other people know about it. This post reveals so much about people's prejudices and insecurities about education today. It's not about the ACTUAL education, it's only about what people think about it.

By the way, I know a ton of people who went to a foreign university, so I have no idea what you're talking about.

The concern is about jobs. Given a choice between two equal-seeming candidates, if one comes from a background that is familiar, visualuzable, and knowable it may tip the scales. Also getting letters for grad school. It can help if recommender is known or has connections. But many foreign schools have well-connected faculty.

DD applied to and was accepted at multiple UK and Canadian colleges, but she chose to stay in the US and take a year abroad instead.

Thoughts/observations:

UK 3 year programs pretty much required you to declare a major on day one and stay there. Didn't think DD wanted to commit so early (she has since changed her major twice here).
St Andrews has a 4 yr plan that gives an MA at the end of the 4th year that seemed to be mostly US students.
Most US students seemed to be at UofT or McGill; in the UK it was St Andrews, Oxbridge, and U of Edinburgh. Not so much the schools in smaller cities (Glasgow, Bristol, Belfast). That could be a good thing or a bad thing.
Canada has demanding and easy schools, just like US. They did offer financial aid (some was substantial).
Some of the Canadian schools are HUGE (think SEC-type big). They do NOT offer the handholding that some of the US schools do; they seemed very sink or swim.
The cold was not an issue but the long dark winter days were.
Transportation to Canadian schools other than McGill or UofT could be lengthy.

The US kids we saw on campuses all seemed very happy, though. In fact our tour guide in Toronto was from Fairfax...

Anonymous wrote:Foreign universities are only cheaper for the small percentage of students who don't need any financial aid. Practically, how many Americans have ever met a foreign uni graduate? How would they know the difference between a great Canadian or UK university and a bad one or a fake one? Even well educated Americans who don't work in international affairs are unlikely to meet graduates of more than a few foreign institutions. I know people who attended UCL and LSE, but I know nothing about the quality and competitiveness of the other University of London member institutions the way that I know the differences between the University of California campuses.

I don't understand the thrust of this argument. Are you suggesting that you should choose a university solely so that people know, "Oh, that's a good one, s/he must be smart!" That if other people don't know that your school was good - even if it was fantastic - that all that matters is what other people know about it. This post reveals so much about people's prejudices and insecurities about education today. It's not about the ACTUAL education, it's only about what people think about it.

By the way, I know a ton of people who went to a foreign university, so I have no idea what you're talking about.

My kid have dual citizenship (US/CDN) and I am currently considering it. DC definitely wants to go out of state at least, but there are a few concerns:

1) DC goes to a very rigorous high school, and the Canadian universities I've checked with just go with unweighted GPA and SAT/ACT scores, so it takes no account of the difficulty of coursework/school. So not sure she'd get in, even though she'd be a much stronger student than one with a better GPA from our local school down the street. (no harm to try, though)

2) Not sure how easy to get a job back in the states afterwards, don't think there is a strong network like in many US schools (if anyone knows more about this, I'd love to hear)

3) DC has had depression and I'm concerned about such hardcore sh**ty dark freezing weather just not helping this particular kid stay in the 'normal' zone, mental-health wise. I used to live in Edmonton and O.M.G. My cousin emailed me a screenshot of his weather app this morning it was (-27F) and it was still dark on the app, and where I live the sun had come up a while ago. Maybe if you've grown up with weather-from-hell you are tougher at managing it, but I am scared that my snowflake will fall apart and it's very far away from us to manage. (any thoughts on how to manage this, or thoughts that I'm overreacting, would be appreciated)

I’m from Canada and went to school in the States. I have family members who teach at U of T (University of Toronto). Most Canadian schools are huge and the undergrad experience is completely different from that in the U.S. Certainly it can be a strong education but I don’t think students get the same kind of life experience/dorm living/undergrad life that’s available here, especially at liberal arts colleges. Our kids are still young but we will probably consider Canadian schools in the mix. But they are not the same as many strong U.S. colleges.

Anonymous wrote:Canada is very good. Much less hand holding.

Eh. It varies widely.

I tried to get both my kids to go abroad. They weren’t having it—they wanted to be closer to home, not really near home but somewhere like NYC.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2019/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats

Foreign universities are only cheaper for the small percentage of students who don't need any financial aid. Practically, how many Americans have ever met a foreign uni graduate? How would they know the difference between a great Canadian or UK university and a bad one or a fake one? Even well educated Americans who don't work in international affairs are unlikely to meet graduates of more than a few foreign institutions. I know people who attended UCL and LSE, but I know nothing about the quality and competitiveness of the other University of London member institutions the way that I know the differences between the University of California campuses.