Need help finding colleges please!! (international student)

TTG
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 15:34:51 +0000

I’d say, in general, the answer is a very unsatisfying “it depends.”

On the one hand, you have the answer in #16, which is accurate and helpful. I can add another similar example. I know someone who manages hiring for a large financial institution in a large nation outside the US. They say they only will look at resumes from about a dozen US universities. So that is one side of the argument. (And kind of crazy from a US perspective, because there are incredible people graduating from any different universities, so they are just flat-out overlooking a lot of potential talent.)

On the other hand, I know an international student who just graduated from one of the handful of most prestigious US LACs. I’m sure it’s ranked very low in QS and Times rankings. They had tremendous interaction with faculty and deep support from the school in arranging internships, coops, and opportunities to attend very significant conferences, etc. That is one benefit to a small LAC where students might get extra attention and resources. They have developed a great network, are doing very well, and can probably attend any grand school they would like.

Sometimes on CC, I note that Kenyon, a small LAC in Ohio, has produced almost a half dozen of the most successful writers over the last few decades (Laura Hillenbrand, John Green, Bill Watterson, etc.). San Jose State sends the most, or almost the most, people to jobs in Silicon Valley. It is a public CA school ranked below the big ones in the state, Berkeley, UCLA, etc. I know a business owner in the Boston area who mostly employs Northeastern students because they do a better job for them than the Harvard students they’ve employed. Holy Cross is a mid-size Catholic university in a mid-size city. It offers academics as strong as anywhere, and students are very well prepared and do well in winning scholarships and going on to prestigious grad schools.

Many public universities, including state flagships, offer fantastic educations and research opportunities. And many students go on to very successful careers. If you wanted to go into science, whether or not you were going on to grad school, you might get fantastic lab research opportunities at any one of dozens of state research universities.

Some, like myself, like to argue what is most important is HOW one goes to school, not WHERE. Some of the most successful people I know, both in their careers and personal lives (and they are extremely wealthy), attended schools that are not very highly ranked. One, who is very extremely successful ($$$$$), attended a third-tier public university that is not ranked in the top 500 on any list. They worked hard, did very well, and went on to a top grad school.

Of course, in some countries, and in some specific fields (particularly finance), where you go does matter. You’d have to figure out what is most important where you intend to live and work, and what you might do. But you would get a great education at any of the schools mentioned in this thread.