Poll: Where Should I Go to Study Abroad

[RhombusHatesYou]

snip.

you should come to Australia...and more specifcially Perth! we got like....a belltower'n shit

There is a good pro for going to Perth. UWA is in the worlds top 100 universities. It's the only one in Australia to make that list I believe.

Who's list?

THE World University Rankings 2012-2013

(28)University of Melbourne, (37) Australian National University, (190) University of Western Australia - 8th of Group of 8 unis

Academic Ranking of World Universities 2012

(57) University of Melbourne, (64) Australian National University, (96) University of Western Australia - 5th of Group of 8 unis

QS World University Rankings 2012

(24) Australian National University, (36) University of Melbourne, (79) University of Western Australia - 7th of Group of 8 unis


Of course, some of us have to struggle on at 'lesser' universities... Even I will be going to the lowerst ranked Group of 8 uni this year (that's University of Adelaide for those what don't know) but it beats University of South Australia (where I've studied before, glorified TAFE that it is).

 

[Vault101]

Is it possible to raft the Bell Tower? Also, what is the likelihood of encountering giant spiders, death sharks, lazer koalas, or dragons while rafting said bell tower?

hmmmm.....only if you were to somhow rig a slide from the belltower...which would be challenging

and yoru chance of encountering dangerous creatures in the city is surprisingly low

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

oh theres also a big river

You shouldn't call the Swan a big river... It's only big by Australian standards, and Australian standards don't even require a river to have water in it (see the Todd and Fink rivers)

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

You just want him there to feed the monstorsities, in order to be safe yourself.

That's the entire basis of our Tourism industry.

 

[SpAc3man]

New Zealand. Different yet we speak english and have a diverse range of cultures.
Education standards here are very high too.
No crazy heat and spiders are normal sized. None of those mutants the Australians get.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

None of those mutants the Australians get.

Bullshit, I've seen bogans in New Zealand.

 

[Fluffythepoo]

Why pick 1? I'm set to go to Germany, France, and Spain through study abroad program (maybe even more than that xD). There's literally no limit on how many times you can go, and in canada at least they give you a nice little pile of money just for going, though that's probably a universal practice for the program.

If you have some Spanish going to a Spanish-speaking country would be a great way to develop your Spanish too (plus "i learnt Spanish in Spain" just looks plain good on a resume)

Also Germany has a great "Work Abroad" program (im not sure who else has it.. france/spain didnt), where you work part time and they pay for room/board (in addition to actually getting paid), so basically you pay the same as you would for a normal school year and you get an even more immersive experience.
Plus in addition to the Certificate in International Competency, or w/e thats been renamed too, you get another certificate for international employment experience, also called something else.. but same idea. So two certificates worth 18 credits apiece plus the other 15 credits (5 classes) all in one semester, it's just plain breaking the system xD (though you can only get the certificates once as far as i know)

 

[aba1]

Go somewhere that is best for your field of study going abroad is extremely expensive get the most out of your education. Also if you want a really different culture don't bother with Canada since the US and Canada share nearly the same culture. Some other Canadians will disagree with me but really at the end of the say we all know it is true sure we may have some different values but things are not that different.

 

[Supertegwyn]

snip.

you should come to Australia...and more specifcially Perth! we got like....a belltower'n shit

There is a good pro for going to Perth. UWA is in the worlds top 100 universities. It's the only one in Australia to make that list I believe. Many overseas students want to get in. Downside is it's competitive.

Germany is nice. BUT this one is huge. You need to take a German test as proof you can speak the language.

As you know Spanish you might as well use it and go to Spain.

Bullshit. ANU and UM both beat it by a mile.

You are talking out of your arse.

OT: I would personally go to Australia and go to ANU (The campus is better than UM), but you can't go wrong with Germany or Spain.

EDIT: God damnit I got ninja'd.

 

[BrotherRool]

Okay as someone currently on a year abroad in Germany, this is important, unless you're going somewhere with a high percentage of English speaking students, or is set up to take in lots of English speaking students, it's really best to go to a country where you have strong language skills.

It's just that much harder to make friends if you're struggling to quickly speak in a conversation. And German isn't an easy language to learn, although a lot of the vocabulary is very similar to English.

I wouldn't say that Germany is the most dissimilar from the US either, I've never been to the USA but Germany is probably easily the country in Europe most similar to Britain. They've got our drinking culture and we're fairly similar people with similar levels of openness (although thats definitely not true of the US and Britain =D), whereas Spanish people genuinely behave a little differently.

Also German food is boring. It's meat and salad (often weird salads with Gherkins). Always. But absolutely everyone is fluent in English (including a homeless person, who had a conversation with me in perfect English)

The only factor I know about Spain is that the stories of it's economy being bad right now really aren't exaggerated. People are struggling to find jobs and everything is being cut to the bone. In some ways this can be a good thing, because everything is becoming very cheap, my friend on a year abroad in Spain said you can basically just turn up and find a house within a week (although halls are better because you have more people around you)

Other than that, have fun, it can be an absolutely brilliant experience and many other people who've went away have wanted to come back. But consider everything carefully because it's not impossible to have a less happy time. There's a lot to pick up in a very short time period and a lot of things will be harder than they normally are. If you happen to be a fairly shy person, I really would recommend an English speaking country, but otherwise I hope you have a fantastic time wherever you go.

 

[Eleuthera]

EDIT: God damnit I got ninja'd.

Which is in itself quite an accomplishment since there were nearly three hours between the ninja and yourself...


OT: In case you would consider the Netherlands as an option, all Masters degrees are (supposed to be) taught in English here (in practice this isn't always the case, so try to check before signing up). On the other hand if you want to learn a new language stay away, at the first sign of non-perfect Dutch most people will switch to English immediately giving you no chance to learn out language.

 

[trollnystan]

I'm going to say come to Sweden! Because I'd be unpatriotic if I didn't =P

Although our universities aren't too shabby - haven't gone myself so can't really give a educated (ha!) opinion. And English is like a second language here, haha. I do believe a lot of courses are even given in English, and/or have a lot of English text books.

Otherwise, since you're looking to go as far away as possible, Australia and New Zealand do sometimes feel like they're on a totally different planet from the rest of us considering how often we hear news from that part of the world. Just don't get eaten by their wildlife and you should be fine. (Beware the dropbears!)

 

[Fatboy_41]

snip.

you should come to Australia...and more specifcially Perth! we got like....a belltower'n shit

You've also got the West Coast Eagles and the Cockburn Dockers. Or, the Cock Docs. Both are reasons to avoid Western Australia.

If you're coming to Oz, come to Melbourne. Greatest city in the country. Great place to base yourself and explore from here in any free time that you have.

If you choose anywhere apart from Australia, choose Ireland.

 

[prophecy2514]

Come to Australia! you might accidentally get killed

 

[Floppertje]

Come to the Netherlands. we've got pretty good universities and legal pot I've heard the language is a pain to learn, but everyone here speaks english anyway (with horrible accents, granted, but not so bad as to be totally unintelligible). So yeah... come here. good times.

 

[freaper]

Come to Belgium! you will probably end up drinking more than you want!

 

[Lizardon]

snip.

you should come to Australia...and more specifcially Perth! we got like....a belltower'n shit

There is a good pro for going to Perth. UWA is in the worlds top 100 universities. It's the only one in Australia to make that list I believe. Many overseas students want to get in. Downside is it's competitive.

Germany is nice. BUT this one is huge. You need to take a German test as proof you can speak the language.

As you know Spanish you might as well use it and go to Spain.

About UWA, you've got that a bit wrong. It's the only university in Western Australia to make the list. Some of the uni's in the eastern states rank higher.

That said it's still a great uni and I would highly recommend that it should be seriously considered if you're thinking of studying in WA. But that's just my honest, totally non-biased and not for sale opinion.

*kicks text books that bare a suspicious resemblances to UWA's under rug*

 

[Vault101]

You've also got the West Coast Eagles and the Cockburn Dockers. Or, the Cock Docs. Both are reasons to avoid Western Australia.

If you're coming to Oz, come to Melbourne. Greatest city in the country. Great place to base yourself and explore from here in any free time that you have.

If you choose anywhere apart from Australia, choose Ireland.

Cockburn dockers???

pretty sure its Fremantle..unless they moved

 

[SpAc3man]

None of those mutants the Australians get.

Bullshit, I've seen bogans in New Zealand.

We keep them segregated in west Auckland and Hamilton.

 

[Angie7F]

Snip

I totally agree.

I am bilingual in Japanese nad English and spent my life growing up in both Japan and Australia but being able to speak Japanese doesnt really get you too far. Being able to speak English as a Japanese is what is giving me a competitive edge, not the other way around.

I think Mandarin would be cool to study.
Although China seems to be having problems here and there, but overall, i dont think many industries will be looking to China to manufacture things etc and being able to communicate in Mandarin would be useful.

My friend speaks Arabic and landed a job in the oil industry.
That seems to be a good business to be in because there is a lot of money there.

I voted Germany simply because my business is fairly deeply connected with Germany right now.
Also their culture and work ethics/ philosophy is something I admire as a consumer.