Hello World,
I posted last year a thread about choosing between going to an accredited Electrical Engineering program in a university
that will provide me with full scholarship - paying nothing - or go to a prestigious (I’ll call it X), but expensive one ( 180,000 $ ), and I decided that I will go to the one with the full scholarship. Now I am in the first semester of that school and I don’t like it here ( to know why check out BONUS ).
Important info:
- I'm an expat in the middle east
- I want to have my masters in a top EE Universities like MIT and Stanford
- Quality Education is more important for me than employment
- I want to be an entrepreneur, and that why I don't want to have university debt or to work in the middle east
- Time is important for me and I want to spend my life time doing the projects I want instead of working to pay debts
- In University X you can repay debt in two ways (180k US):
- 15% off of your salary every month until you pay full debt
- work in the country for 2-7 years (determined by the number of scholarships you get ) for one of 170 companies
- Many Companies here make it harder for you to get employed if you're an expat compared to a country national (even if you're better)
Pros and Cons of the one I’m in:
- Honors Program
- Full Scholarship
- ABET Accredited
- Students not motivated at all
- Some faculty are not as good as the ones in Uni X
- So biased and racist, and give country nationals much more benefits
University X :
- A branch of a top (top 20) EE American university and ABET Accredited, and the Computer Eng. program is integrated in the EE
- The student body is spectacular
- state of the art Labs
- Awesome Faculty come from places like Caltech, TAMU, IBM, Qualcomm and Motorola
- I'll have great debt or have to work in the country for one of 170 companies for 2-7 years then I will be Debt free
BONUS:
The students here, without disrespect, are so dump like for real in lectures sometimes I answer like 4 questions in a row then I just shut up thought I know the answer, because they give me the look of ‘shut up nerd !’ and usually nobody answers afterwards.Also, the students here are not motivated and don’t have love for learning at all; I am not taking about my class or sth I’m talking about 99.9% of the whole uni students. I go to the library (which is so big ) almost everyday, and I find in this massive library only about 40 students maximum and many of them just chat with each other instead of reading books or studying. Moreover, the university is so racist; I mean because I am an expat I can’t have many opportunities and in the admission they look for your nationality first, if you’re a country national they just accept you immediately regardless of the major you applied to.Thus, hundreds of ‘better’ get rejected, and that what make students here not so intelligent.
many of X Uni graduates went to top schools…So what you think guys? should I transfer?
It’s their country. Why should any country treat foreigners better than their own. If you don’t like it there as an expat, then leave.
no no I am fine with favoring your country national over expats, but giving people stuff they don’t deserve is another thing for example some applicants had 3.2 and the national had like 2.8 and they accepted them and rejected the expats !
They may be admitted, but that doesn’t mean they will still be there in class the second year.
Go find some second and third year students. I bet their classes are a fraction of the size of the first year courses.
in fact they’re (I think) in third year (MIT Caltech Stanford CMU)
( some of them are in MSc second year )
Are both in the Middle East?
Can you bear the option of working for 2 years - would that be enough to cover your tuition with your parents’ budget?
Are you so sure you’d get into University X?
Does the country have actual discriminatory policies (ie., some Gulf countries have slavery/indentured servants and many treat people from the “slave origin” countries like subhumans, e.g., Nepalese in Qatar) or is it national favoritism (ie., a foreign has to do more and better to get the same stuff as the nationals)? Is the fact you’re not a national visible (ie., color, type of hair), is it stamped on your identity card (ie., some countries stamp a person’s religion on their ID…)
As for a quick fix, I agree with happymomof1: hang out with the 2nd or 3rd year students. 
No. We meant that you should speak with second and third year undergraduate students in your own program. They can tell you if the classes are still full of students who aren’t motivated.
Ahaa ok thanks, I’ll do that
It seems they’re also hopeless… 
Just excel and do an MS after. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you don’t even need an MS or certainly any debt. And if you REALLY want to be an entrepreneur, why do you want to wait 2-7 years after graduation? Circumstances in your life could change drastically by then.
If you’re doing well in your current institution, there’s no need to leave. You can matriculate into a top MS program if you continue to excel.
The main reason is that it has better Education and better spirit that is it. The fact that nobody from this university (to my knowledge) went to a top-tie university frightens make me so much, and make me feel that I’m having lower level of eduction than should be.In the other hand, University X graduates made it to all type of great schools after the BSc.
“to my knowledge”
Go ask your professors about where students go for grad school. They should know this.
If you are interested in an MBA, then it doesn’t matter where you get your undergraduate degree. What matters is your work experience.
but doesn’t it matter for engineering MSc ?
Ask your professors about the MSc. They know that kind of stuff. It is THEIR JOB to get their students into grad school.