Study Abroad or in Your Home Town? 7 Reasons Why International Degrees Are Better

For some, the question ‘Why study abroad instead of at home?’ might be simply a rhetorical one, the benefits of studying abroad being obvious, while many people still have doubts and hesitations when deciding to take this leap towards an international education. But how do you figure it out for yourself? How do you decide if studying abroad is good for you?

You’ve probably heard it all before, but here are a few ways people may not have put the issue of where to study:

1. Taking the hero’s journey

Be like Beowulf or Ulysses! Be the hero who travels the world and comes home to share his spoils, adventures and experiences with his friends, family and neighbours. Only that instead of bringing home the head of the monster or the golden fleece, you could return with a degree to help you open your own Golden Fleece Factory and enough language skills to talk to and negotiate your way out of tight situations caused by all kinds of local or foreign monsters.

2. Space is the final frontier

You need your own space, just like everyone else does. Or, better said, space is the first boundary you need to set by moving out of your house, your hometown and your comfort zone. The sooner you go out there and get used to living on your own or with your peers, the sooner you get a better grip of your own limits and your destiny.

3. See if the grass is greener on the other side

But so is the degree! You probably know that there are so many study programmes worldwide, set up to respond to the changing economy, to public demand and to innovative ideas. But chances are you might not find that special Bachelor’s in Astrophysics or Master’s in Marine Biology in walking distance from your house or at your local university or college. So, in order to chase your dream, you’ve got to walk that extra mile. Or just take the plane! Check out what other disciplines you may find.

4. Seek and you shall find

Yup, you read it right! Everyone says it’s important to find yourself in order to become an original person, but how are you supposed to discover yourself if you keep searching in the same place? What if you’re good at maritime law but you live in the middle of the desert? What if you’re good at chemical engineering but all you can learn at home is agriculture management? You can’t know what you’re good at or what you’re meant to be until you try, seek, live, fail (yes, fail!), and try again, beyond your local area code.

Read the experiences of these students that studied abroad:

• Rebekah's story
• Davide's story
• Morgan's story

5. Get your money’s worth

You would think that staying close to home would be more affordable than going abroad to study, but it isn’t necessarily the case. There are many countries around the world where having a cheap tuition fee, bonus facilities for international students and plenty of scholarships is the only way to survive and prosper. While some make a business out of higher education, with supply and demand driving tuition fees, others have more philosophical reasons for offering cheap tuition and affordable study programmes. In fact, studying in your hometown might actually cost you more in the long run, affecting the salary you can get once you graduate. If you take into account the reputation of the university, the value of the specific Bachelor’s or Master’s degree and the costs, you might end up making a very good deal overall. And who doesn’t like getting a better deal for their money’s worth?

6. Don’t weep, take the leap

Many people end up wishing they had undertaken a risky and adventurous professional experiment abroad at least once in their life. But doing that later in life is harder than you might think. Between careers, responsibilities and the sheer dread of wasting valuable time, professionals end up accepting the fact that they will never find the right moment to explore life abroad. That’s why studying is the perfect opportunity. Your education is meant to be time-consuming, inspirational and formative. It’s the perfect context to take advantage of and it’s more likely you would regret not doing it than being daring and curious.

7. Change your mind, and it will change you

Making decisions, in general, involves a certain degree of flexibility. The decision of where to study itself is affected by how flexible you are when considering your options. Studying abroad changes the way you make decisions by making you reconsider other options when you are confronted with choices. This is mainly because foreign people in foreign places think in foreign ways. Which doesn’t have to mean that it’s worse, just different. In dealing with this reality, you will have to leave your familiarity bubble, filled with idioms, clichés, patterns and stereotypes, and actually pay attention to others. You will see that listening, observing, empathising, and analysing things differently due to a considerable change in venue will shape your mind for the better. Not to mention that talking and understanding a foreign language is proven to literally reorganise your brain, making it more complex and efficient. And there’s no better moment to go ‘brain hacking’ than during your study years.

So, don’t just choose the option that’s closest and easiest to reach when starting your career. Take a leap, go for the journey, see what it’s like across the international fence, go browsing through your brain and look closely when choosing where to study for a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.

It’s not too late to get your adventure abroad going!

Read the original post here