For students deciding between UK and US universities

Admittedly, I'm not a neutral observer in this: the US is, for most of you, a better place to spend your undergraduate years than in the UK. Here are several reasons:

• Specialisation is the wrong way to go in this day and age, even in tried-and-tested subjects like Law and Economics. You want to be flexible and adaptive.

• And how do you know that Law is right for you? Have you any idea what it means to be a lawyer in this overlawyered country? How do you know that you won't like something else better? In other words, committing to a future career or even university subject/major at this point in time is to ignore the possibility that more attractive alternatives will crop up in the future.
  

• It doesn't matter what you major in. I repeat: it DOESN'T MATTER what you major in. You can major in Classics and still get a job at an investment bank.
  

• In general, top-end US universities have smaller classes than their British equivalents. Smaller classes tend to be more conducive for intellection (which should be one of the great joys of university life overseas), because they allow for more interaction between students and professors. One of the great things about studying in the US (at least for me) was forming friendships with my professors. Unless you're in Oxford or Cambridge, this probably won't happen in the UK. Don't believe me? Ask around.
  

• Nearly all American universities have a campus. The London universities (King's, UCL, LSE, Imperial, SOAS, etc.) don't.

• You can get more financial aid from (private) US universities than UK ones. In fact, the following US colleges are need-blind for international students: Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, and Middlebury. Of these, the last 3 are well within reach for RJC students. I'm fairly confident that other US universities are moving in this direction too.
  

• On a similar note, US universities have much more money available for undergraduates looking to pursue independent research.
  

• LKY is on record as saying that he'd have gone to the US if he were a young Singaporean today. Ok, maybe this isn't a very good reason.
  

I'd like to hear the arguments for the other side, e.g. less time needed for a degree in the UK, making education there cheaper. And please, no silly claims about the superiority of British to US culture. This makes for interesting chatter, but it not a legitimate reason for choosing one country over the other. Only if you're 101% committed to a particular career and are manifestly uninterested in or hopeless at everything else apart from your chosen subject should you choose the UK.
Posted by kungfuzi at 1:25 am |