UG Students Talk About How To Choose The Right College Abroad

Question: As student counsellors, what advice do you give to students about selecting a college abroad?

Iqra Khan: In Europe, there are limited numbers of universities and many courses are niche. So what I have seen is that the confusion about choosing colleges occurs once students start receiving acceptance letters from universities. That is when you have to consider the different criteria to zero down on one university. First criteria would be rankings because for Indian students rankings are very important while deciding between colleges. You can consider either college rankings or the department rankings. Second criteria would be location. Consider things like the popularity of your chosen course and the job prospects in the region, the cost of living, number of hours allowed for part-time work, distance from accommodation and availability of modes of transport etc. Other than that I always recommend students to try to get in touch with the students currently studying there through LinkedIn or Facebook. This will help you understand how life is actually like at the university.

Udit Narang: I will focus on the rankings. It is very important that you choose a university which is known to be good at teaching your chosen course. If you are looking at pursuing a management course, don’t go for a university known for science and engineering courses. For example, Brown University is known to be excellent at science and engineering courses, while University of Illinois, Chicago is known for its management courses. These are the examples where the universities are known for one particular course. That is why looking at department ranking is very important.

Question: How did you make a decision about choosing a university to study at?

Aakash Sethi: There are lots of good universities here in Canada which are in the top 50 lists, like University of British Columbia, McGill University, University of Toronto etc. However, since I knew which course I had to pursue, which is software engineering, my main choices were the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto and University of Ottawa. These are the universities best known for my chosen course. Then I had to consider the location and finances required for living costs as Iqra mentioned. After looking at all the criteria, University of Ottawa was the best option for me.

Vedant Jain: My field of study (biology) deals with research, so I know I can’t be looking for a job after finishing my under-graduation degree. Rather, I have a fixed career path where after finishing my bachelors, I will be following it up with a masters and PhD degrees. So, for biology state universities are the best option to pursue bachelors degree because there are a lot of student-professor interactions. For those who plan to pursue a career in biological sciences, I definitely recommend looking at American state universities because the study experience here is really different. For example, right now I’m working on a research paper about cancer, and maybe this opportunity wouldn’t have presented itself if I was at studying at an Indian university today as research on cancer is still limited there.

Also, for other streams like engineering, undergraduate degree matters a lot more than my stream. For biology, a PhD is a pre-requisite for a successful career, whereas engineering students can immediately put their technical knowledge to use after under graduation.

I agree with other participants that you can’t rely on rankings alone. I’ll give an example to make it clearer. I’m sure not many have heard of the Rockefeller University. It is the first biomedical university in the US. It has never made it to the top university rankings but has produced 24 Nobel Prize laureates in biological sciences. That is why it is important to be specific about your field when you talk about the ‘best’ universities.

Question: I wish to pursue mechanical engineering from a German college. How should I go about my college application process?

Iqra Khan: To study undergraduate courses at German universities or colleges, you need to have 13 years of education. There are two options for Indian students to make up for this – first, either you enroll in an undergraduate course here in India, finish one year and apply at a German university, or second, successfully clear IITJEE Advanced. Then you can apply to German public universities even with 12 years of education. Other than these options, there is an aptitude test named TestAS which is required by certain universities. If you manage to clear this exam, you can apply directly to undergraduate courses.

German universities also require German Language Proficiency test scores. If the language of teaching will be in German, then you need to have at least C1 level of proficiency which is an advanced level. If your selected course will be taught in English, then you need B1 level of proficiency.

About the Expert Panel

Vedant Jain

Vedant is in his first-year of the Biology undergraduate course at Pittsburg State University, USA.

Aakash Sethi

Akaash is currently pursuing the course Baccalaureate of Applied Sciences in Software Engineering from University of Ottawa, Canada.

Udit Narang

Udit is a student admissions counsellor at Shiksha.com with 4+ years of experience and is an expert of the US and Canadian universities.

Iqra Khan

Iqra is a student admissions counsellor at Shiksha.com with 8+ years of experience in study abroad counselling. She is an expert of European universities and Rest of the world universities.

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