■ Studying for Bachelor degree in Europe: draft checklist

Going to college is arguably the most exciting period of our lives and the decisive foundation step for future development. Europeans have a lot of flexibility, colleges in many countries and tons of subjects to choose from; at the same time each country has its own higher education quirks. Too much choice is itself a daunting prospect. Lately I have been investigating this area for my daughter. Although too young for college, our high school wants us to commit on 3-4 major subjects right now (!?), so I had to take an overview of life, the universities and everything. This blog post is what I came up with, as a first approach.

1. What to study?

This is the million dollar question... or even why study at all? Most of the super-successful people of our era didn't go or didn't bother finishing college. But for the rest of us lay persons, a university degree is a sure bet for a career, and college life abroad is an edifying experience in itself. We study to gain the background for our future job and career. Ultimately one aims to be happy and content with life — some money helps too — a goal that can be reached with a job compatible to one's character and abilities. Here are the major points:

What are your strengths?. Are you a person with analytical skills, or a peoples' person? Is your memory good or do you rely on logic to compress knowledge into broad rules? Are you driven and ambitious or rather lazy, seeking maximizing returns under minimal effort? Are you smart or average intelligence? Being honest is hard but will save you disappointments down the road. If you are a fish, don't pick a course on tree climbing!
What do you mostly enjoy?. Most people enjoy what they're good at. What are you good at doing? Follow that path and it will build your confidence and help you stand out from the crowd. If you choose what you enjoy for a job, then it won't even feel like you're working. Of course when you are 14 it's hard to tell whether you prefer a career in Computer science, Architecture, counting penguins in Antarctic, or any one of the tons of available employments...
What is the future outlook?. Some jobs pay better than others. If you pick a degree in Philosophy, you may be happy but you won't get wealthy — possibly to the detriment of your happiness. Also think of your career, your job development over time. Life is long and you will be bored doing the same thing every day. See if you can find a course that is in a relatively new area (not too crowded) with good future prospects.

There are hundreds of undergraduate courses to choose from in a typical university. It's not an easy decision. If uncertain, pick a generic course that will teach you the basics in a promising area, and then specialize in a subject with a good postgraduate (master) course.

2. Which country?

My grandfather was "cosmopolitan" on account of having visited the city nearby his village, once. Now there are 27 EU countries to choose from, where to study and work. The choice is limited by language. Only a few EU countries offer full English undergraduate courses — and UK isn't an option since Brexit. Many countries offer English courses at postgraduate level but we are focusing on bachelor studies.

For my family, Greek language is another option, but neither Cyprus nor Greece have the vibrant environment needed for business and innovation. So we are looking abroad. For Europeans USA is out too, being far, expensive — and Trump is not really welcoming foreigners from what I hear :)

Living in EU offers easy mobility, but ultimately you want to study in a country where you'd work in as well. Thus lots of factors come in apart from the available universities, as the economic status, culture — even weather. The constraint about English language narrows down the suitable countries dramatically, as many of the top countries only offer courses in their own tongue (Germany, France, Belgium...). UK is out because EU students pay "overseas" rates (30K+ a year just for university fees).

Unless daddy is a millionaire, cost is an important consideration. Most EU countries subsidise first time undergraduate (and master) studies, so tuition fees in public colleges are very reasonable (many are free, and at worst rise to 3000 euros a year).

Private colleges are much more expensive and out of consideration because of poor ranking. Somehow they feel like McDonalds of higher education <g>

If we trust review websites living expenses don't vary much across Europe, with an average in the area of €12000 annually for accommodation, transport, subsistence, utilities and all the rest. Naturally this average will vary upwards in bigger cities where accommodation is at a premium.

Overall cost doesn't seem to be a deciding factor for country selection, as prices are comparable across Europe. For overall costs (fees + expenses) I have budgeted a realistic 20K euros annually.

Here is a list of countries I am considering, which can cater for English-speaking students without any knowledge of the local language.

Netherlands. Avenging the loss of East India trade, Holland was quick to claim the English student trade after UK put itself out of the college game. You won't find an EU country with bigger selection of pure English courses at top ranking universities. However accommodation seems to be a thorny issue, since finding affordable student flats is next to impossible. Undergraduate courses last 3 years and there are many further education possibilities.
Obviously Dutch language will be required for everyday life, but there are lots of foreign students and youngsters pick up new languages easily
Ireland. An obvious choice for English speakers (once you master the local dialect) offers the broadest range of undergraduate courses — albeit Irish colleges rank below those in Netherlands. Here English courses are the norm and of highest quality (it is questionable whether the special English courses in Holland are on par academically with their Dutch equivalents). Undergraduate courses take 4 years in Ireland, the extra year acting something like a combined Masters degree (?). Exceptionally further education (Masters etc) is not subsidised — perhaps on account of the aforementioned 4 bachelor years — and cost a lot more (in the area of €15K annually for ICT). I am not certain that Ireland is stellar for a working career either, perhaps only marginally better than Cyprus.
Denmark. If you can bear arctic winters, Denmark offers a few English bachelors. Here public education is absolutely free, and apparently accommodation isn't as big a problem. They have a rather complicated admission system that splits applicants in 2 quotas
Disturbingly university admission in Denmark requires all the supported documents early, before the dates when international exam results (UK A-levels and IB) are announced. This means that most international applicants must lose a whole year (!) waiting for admission. That looks like a show-stopper for Denmark.

3. Which university?

How do you pick a good nurturing university for your studies? Almost all colleges offer degrees in ICT (computer science), but which one has good (well paid) teachers, resources, and attracts other bright students fostering a stimulating learning environment? University rankings help such decisions. Although the exact metrics used for rankings are foggy, inaccurate and possibly dubious — there are many ranking "providers" that don't agree with each other — still it's better than going completely in the dark. The one I used adjusts the rankings per subject, so you can find the top ranking colleges per country on the desired subject.

Even if we don't really want to choose a college at this stage, it is informative to see what kind of subject and other admission requirements exist. What I found is most colleges are similar (although the devil is always in the details, see the Denmark problem above). They all need proof of your high school education level, and accept individual country school diplomas (Apolytirion in Cyprus) as well as standardised exams like UK A-levels and International Baccalaureate (IB). Somehow they convert the submitted international paperwork into grades that can be compared with the native students of the country, deciding who to admit.

Some colleges admit all applicants, whereas others (usually the top ranked) have a fixed number of available positions and they either rank the applicants (using their school and prior exam results) or even make students go through extra exams to decide who goes in (especially in Netherlands the so called selection procedure).

To choose a college you'd have to consider more than just the global ranking, such as

Tuition fees (they are comparable and low for public universities as we saw)
Number of students and percentage of international students
Is it a country campus or some industrial building within a large city?

All universities offer online tours for a quick glimpse of the surroundings. When the time comes to actually pick a college I suppose one would have to visit the location and sample the environment first hand. But this is another future blog post!

Picking what and where to study in Europe is a huge search problem, and I barely touched the basics here. I discovered some broad constraints that any optimal policy should satisfy, somewhat limiting the vastness of the choice, making it more focused and manageable. As always, lady Fortune is an essential ingredient, that will determine if you succeed in your studies and ultimate career choice — as well as hard work!

Good luck for all prospective students!

ps. For computer science the essential subject selection is Mathematics, required everywhere. The best bet for international student admission is IB, whereas A-levels are on the wane.