I am very curious to hear from American parents whose kids went to UK, Ireland and Europe to do their undergrad.
Were the kids happy. Did they enjoy the experience. Did they get placed upon graduation and were they satisfied with the outcome.
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My niece is studying environmental engineering in a 5 year program at Trinity College Dublin which will give her both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s.She loves it! She is also saving a lot of money.
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What will be the process upon her return for finding employment ?
Do they have resources for re entry here or is she on her own ?
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That is exactly my thought — I feel these foreign universities are far better value for money. We are interested in Trinity College Dublin too. I do wonder though if foreign students get placed after graduation easily and what starting salaries are like. That’s the big question mark?
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They’re thinking that engineers don’t seem to have much trouble getting placed regardless of where their degree is from.
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Who is “they”? Placed in the US or placed in Ireland? Are there visa issues and is it a lot harder to get jobs there for US citizens? What ate starting salaries like.
It used to be that way for Comp Sci majors too. It made no difference where you went to school. Landing a job is US was possible. This is no longer the case. Fresh graduates are not getting a placed.
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Define better value ?
Do they prefer to go overseas or you are just looking for lower cost because we have that here as well.
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“They” refers to my niece and her parents. She’s not planning to stay in Ireland after graduation - at least not at this point. So, the issues you raise haven’t been her concern.
I know what you’re saying about CS, but this hasn’t been the case with engineering otherwise.
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I am not really sure how people go about finding jobs in US outside of campus recruitment which it seems she would need to rely on.
I know how it works for finance jobs but right now the US market seems dismal. So at least for finance jobs I would not count on going elsewhere and finding a job here in the US.
Would be curious to hear how things play out once she finishes college.
Higher quality education at a lower price with higher acceptance rates.
Trinity College Dublin, LSE, Imperial, UCL, KCL, Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrew’s, University of Edinburgh, Boconni, etc are top notch.
You can get cheap education here but not at colleges that have global name recognition.
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Just a family of one - but neither of my kids used campus recruiting.
My son used indeed for both his internships and full time. The internship was tough - he ended up with two offers, one not in his area.
He went back a second summer - so didn’t apply for too many other.
For full time, he also used indeed.com and had 19 interviews and 5 offers by Xmas, and then stopped. His intern company came in later.
My daughter - found her internships on indeed. She worked for the state in summer and had one or two other possibilities but not related to what she wanted. For DC, she had 7 offers for the semester - so indeed worked.
She got her full time job on a tip from me - an organization to look at - and fortunately, that worked so she didn’t have a full time job search.
What major are you thinking?
I have no doubt you can find jobs outside of the college. In fact, Cornell showed how kids find jobs - and percentage wise, through the university was not huge. The biggest category was company websites and 3rd party sites - which I assume are linkedin/indeed types. They seemed to have sundowned that website for a new one which no longer shows the how found.
So I don’t think “most” are finding jobs on campus. Of course, there’s alumni and networking and all that - but I think most are finding on their own. That’s my belief and the Cornell info was validating that. I’m bummed they took it down.
I see - and just asking the question, not disputing you, do all those names have “staying power” here? What major, outcome? You note quality at a lower price - I’m not sure anyone knows quality…they know rep? I’ll never forget my MBA roommate college roommate was at Wharton - and when he talked to him, it was a joke. Their entire focus seemed to be finding a job and companies wanted them due to where he was. I’m not sure he was really being educated - but yes the reputation was second to none, of course.
If you’re coming back here, does global recognition matter?
So @Bill_Marsh noted Environmental Engineering. Many, not all, engineering jobs, want ABET accreditation. I went to the ABET site - Trinity is not ABET accredited. It doesn’t mean it’s not a great program - but it may limit the types of jobs the student is eligible to get.
So I’d check into things like that.
With an account named “Hockey_Dad”, are you interested in schools in Canada?
We live in the northeast of the US, but one daughter attended university in Canada. She found a very good fit, did very well, got a great education, and saved us a ton of money. After graduation she got a job in the US, and is now studying for a PhD at a very good (and well known) university in the US.
She happened to graduate and was looking for a first job during the COVID pandemic. As such many of her initial interviews were done via Zoom. This means that I overheard some of them. She got to repeat the sentence “I am a US citizen” multiple times. Apparently people asked.
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Interesting she was asked that. At the same time, it’s amazing that she got the interviews then…
Funny you mention. My son is a dual citizen. US and Canada. I am very interested in Canada too and personally think Canadian universities are very good value for money… McGill, University of Toronto, etc and high acceptance rates.
Curious to hear how she went about finding a job in the US? What was her major? Did she interview through campus?
Major is not decided yet, but my son will likely study Econ, math, comp sci
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Thanks! Will check into Trinity’s accreditation.
UTD is accredited by Engineers Ireland, which is the accrediting agency for engineering schools in that country.
Although ABET claims to be worldwide - and it is - it has big holes in where it reaches across the globe and outside Nort America. For example, there are no ABET accredited schools in the British Iles or Ireland, there are none in France, and none in Italy as well as lots of other places.
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Yeah, I don’t know if that’s an issue or not. I do know many (not all) jobs state that graduation from an ABET accredited school is required.
Do they really search? No idea.
@Hockey_Dad obviously many study abroad - but it’s a good question. I imagine kids over there, unless they’re high end firms (like banks, consulting) have to find jobs on their own. Will those school names be found?? Most job apps have a list of schools - and you choose the school from a drop down. I don’t know if they include international schools. You can go check out some on company websites to see.
You can also look up alums on linkedin or ask the schools about their American students to see.
But I do think counting on colleges to find you a job is a thing of the past.
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The same is true for me and my two daughters.
For universities in Canada, if you are a Canadian citizen, you pay the prices (eg tuition) for a Canadian citizen (even if you have never lived in Canada). The one exception would be some circumstances where a student might qualify for in-province tuition, which for some schools is even lower (although for most it does not matter).
For those of us who live in the USA, the exchange rate is also favorable.
McGill and Toronto are both very good, large, alleged to be somewhat bureaucratic, and known for grade deflation. They are great schools for some very strong students. There are however many other very good universities in Canada.
And yes the value for the money is very good.
I think that she mostly looked at on-line job listings. She did not interview through her university. She did get multiple job offers reasonably quickly once she started looking in the US.
My understanding is that the economy is not as strong now as it was when she was looking. What the economy will look like four or five years from now is beyond my ability to predict.
Biology.
Typically biology is said to be a rather poor major in terms of finding a good job after graduation. Her experience was quite different and much better. I think that the main issue was that as an undergraduate student she discovered that she liked working in a lab and was good at it. For her last two years of university (including summers) while other biology majors were getting premed experience, my daughter was instead in the lab doing research. Her first job (down her in the US) at least to me sounded a lot like what she had already been doing in the lab at university.
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This is going to vary widely by kid and by university, just the same as in the US.
The experience varies from a full residential experience at Oxbridge, to some universities in Europe that don’t offer any student housing at all, and varying inbetween options.
Obviously being 6+ hours flight away (or much longer depending where in the US vs where in Europe) there is going to be a certain amount of independence needed on behalf of the kid.
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