Heart Break Kid
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RE: How bad are Eastern Universities compare to Western?
(10-06-2017 01:26 PM)Svoboda Wrote: I don't think it's a bad idea to do part of your education in some Eastern country. Especially if you want to work in a field where speaking more languages and having extensive experience in other countries is a major plus.
Things to keep in mind:
Ideally you want it in combination with a Western uni/college. For instance Bachelor in the West and Master in the East. Or try to find a combination of universities that allow you to transfer credits from the university East to the university West. Unless the university East is top notch make sure to get a degree West.
Even though the courses are in English you should absolutely learn the local language to at least intermediate level but try to aim for advanced (it has to be at a level that it has value).
Try to leverage the value of the language skills and the market: IE being an american that's fluent in Japanese, Russian or Chinese will bring more opportunities than being an American that speaks Danish.
Absolutely, studying in a university in Asia or Russia can be useful for language and networking reasons (assuming you have a interest in that particular part of the world), that's very different from getting a degree from those universities. Wish I spent a year abroad myself, if you're willing to immerse your self in the language you can gain a decent skill.
Realistically, a degree from Japan doesn't mean as much as a degree from America. There are great universities in Japan, but if someone from America or Britain or Canada has the grades to get into University of Tokyo or Osaka University, then they could get into a good tier 1 school in their homelands and would be more marketable.
Having a degree from Hong Kong or other places with good schools is not "worthless", but if you ever plan to work in the West you would be at a comparative disadvantage.
If we're talking colleges from Thailand and Vietnam, which the OP might be inferring - then that really is worthless.
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| 10-06-2017 01:38 PM |
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Stallion
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RE: How bad are Eastern Universities compare to Western?
I've met plenty of westerns studying in Asian universities (Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand...).
You don't really need to know the local language when you start, although some may expect you to learn it during the first couple years. Which you should be eager to do anyways, otherwise I don't know why the hell you moved there in the first place.
Good universities will teach everything in English (same goes for Europe). However it's in your best interest to learn about the local culture and language once you are there. Don't be one of those douches that lives for 5 years in a country without learning the language.
There is very little SJW stuff going on, but there is plenty of other bullshit to deal with. Mostly, they expect you to become a sheep, a social drone. If you are a western you can get away with much more than locals though.
But when I visited KAIST in korea they where installing iron bars on the dorm windows because the number of student suicides was getting out of hand due to stress. Go figure.
As far as prestige goes, it depends on the field I guess. I'm waaaaaaaaay more impressed when an American engineer tells me he went to Todai than if he went to Standord or Harvard. I know getting into Todai as a foreigner is orders of magnitude harder than getting into any of those. Specially if he went through a Monbukagakusho.
But at the end of the day, university is just a step you need to take to get a fancy paper that allows you to work. I went to a third tier, totally unknown university. It never held me back. If you are good, you'll manage and nobody will even read the education section of your resume.
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| 10-10-2017 09:20 AM |
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Heart Break Kid
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RE: How bad are Eastern Universities compare to Western?
(10-10-2017 09:20 AM)Stallion Wrote: I've met plenty of westerns studying in Asian universities (Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand...).
You don't really need to know the local language when you start, although some may expect you to learn it during the first couple years. Which you should be eager to do anyways, otherwise I don't know why the hell you moved there in the first place.
Good universities will teach everything in English (same goes for Europe). However it's in your best interest to learn about the local culture and language once you are there. Don't be one of those douches that lives for 5 years in a country without learning the language.
There is very little SJW stuff going on, but there is plenty of other bullshit to deal with. Mostly, they expect you to become a sheep, a social drone. If you are a western you can get away with much more than locals though.
But when I visited KAIST in korea they where installing iron bars on the dorm windows because the number of student suicides was getting out of hand due to stress. Go figure.
As far as prestige goes, it depends on the field I guess. I'm waaaaaaaaay more impressed when an American engineer tells me he went to Todai than if he went to Standord or Harvard. I know getting into Todai as a foreigner is orders of magnitude harder than getting into any of those. Specially if he went through a Monbukagakusho.
But at the end of the day, university is just a step you need to take to get a fancy paper that allows you to work. I went to a third tier, totally unknown university. It never held me back. If you are good, you'll manage and nobody will even read the education section of your resume.
Maybe, but then again there are American universities where you could say the same thing. A student who went to Cooper Union will be a better student than someone who went to Columbia University.
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| 10-10-2017 03:30 PM |
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Zerdame
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RE: How bad are Eastern Universities compare to Western?
If you intend to work in Asia, get your degree from the countries who are at least better known in Asia for their education standards (e.g. japan, Korea, HK, Taiwan, Singapore, China) The rule of thumb(if possible) in the most ideal situation is to graduate from the top 3 universities of the country you intend to work in. So if you wanna work in Japan, it's a lot ALOT more impressive if your CV stated you were from Todai than the west. Even though Todai is better in ranking than Seoul National, if you wanna work in SK, employers would wet their pants more if you came from Seoul U rather than Todai.
If not, just do the 4 years in the West and come over.
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| 10-10-2017 05:34 PM |
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