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For college-bound kids hoping to get a little bit farther away from home than a couple of states over, pursuing a degree in another country could be an option worth exploring. Rather than studying abroad for only a semester or two, some Americans are choosing to attend school full time overseas. In addition to the more than 260,000 students who study abroad each year for academic credit at a U.S. college or university, more than 40,000 American students enrolled in higher education institutions outside of the U.S. for full degree programs, according to a forthcoming report which will be issued by the Institute of International Education Opens a New Window. later this summer. By choosing an international degree program, not only are you able to earn a degree, you have the opportunity to live and travel abroad as well, says Ashley Mikal, who is working on her masters in anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. In this last year I have met so many incredible people, including my professors and classmates, and Ive been able to travel around Europe, spending time at museums and historical landmarks that I otherwise would have only read about in books. Before students pack their bags and get their passports squared away, experts advise there are some factors that should be considered before crossing the pond to get an education. Personal considerations When deciding to go to school abroad, students should ask themselves the same questions as they would if they were looking at schools in the U.S., says Josh Irons, director of product marketing at StudyAbroad.com: Opens a New Window. do you want to study in an urban or rural environment? Do you want a large or small school? Is there any religious affiliation? As a student narrows down their choices they should look at the application process, says Irons. In the UK for instance, AP [advanced placement] exams are a major entry requirement because they are more closely aligned with the types of entry exams a UK student must take. In some programs, students may be expected to learn on a more independent basis, says Mikal, and could receive a sizeable reading list, be expected to read everything, attend lectures and write a paper at the end of the term that counts for the entire grade. Everything is done on your own, says Mikal. For some this works, for others it is a big adjustment. Do your research Students should always verify that a school is accredited regardless of the country they plan to study in, says Irons. A student should consider length of degree, cost, language of instruction and degree types offered. Students also have to do their due diligence in educating themselves about the countries and the cultures that they will encounter, says Allan Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education Opens a New Window. . He suggests students talk to alumni or people that you know who have completed a degree internationally. Thats as important for an American student going to the London School of Economics or to the Sorbonne [in Paris] as it is at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, he says. It really pays to talk to someone whos done it or is there doing it so you know exactly what to expect because there is no one size fits all. After students determine what university to attend, they should verify that theyre going to have some level of support from the host institution to help navigate the move, advises Dr. Brian Whalen, president and CEO of the Forum of Education Abroad Opens a New Window. . The support services are very important and some universities actually have representatives here in the United States and they can meet with students to provide some support from here in the United States through their branch office, says Whalen. That can be very helpful for students and also for parents who might have questions and concerns and want somebody whos located nearby whom they can call upon to help out. Cost The majority of international degree programs take less time to complete than standard four-year American universities, which can be cost efficient in terms of tuition in the long run, according to Irons. Many countries average tuition is less than that of the US, he says. The caveat here is that the weakness of the U.S. dollar has made some places that were traditionally bargains not as cost effective as they used to be. While the currency exchange is definitely something to consider, as well as other amenities like room and board and travel expenses, Mikal found it less expensive to pursue a masters degree abroad because she completed her program in one year instead of two. While there are few scholarships available for U.S. students, because of the difference in tuition, it still ends up being an affordable decision, says Mikal. Additionally, you receive free healthcare and there are many student run events and free opportunities as well. As far as U.S. federal financial aid goes, there is a lot of debate concerning new financial aid regulations and how foreign institutions relate and accept the processing of aid for American students going to school abroad, says Whalen. That is something for the student to ask about upfront, to understand the policies that the individual universities have and that may determine whether or not they apply and what kind of financing they might be able to obtain, says Whalen. Differences in education Attending a university in a foreign country can be a great learning experience for students, but it can also serve as a reality check of the differences between the American and foreign education systems. Goodman points out that American students tend not to be prepared to deal with other countries lack of grade inflation. There is a different grading standard--probably the hardest thing to understand about grading abroad is that very few people get As, he says. The average grade abroad is probably a C and thats perfectly fine. In a job interview, you may have to do some explaining about that. The experts suggest students find out if the field of study or degree that they are pursuing is transferrable to other parts of the world before committing to a degree program. Whalen suggests finding out what alumni who have completed the program are doing career wise and if that degree is widely accepted. They will have to weigh the cost benefit of that, whether being overseas and pursuing that degree for a period of time takes them out of the loop of the traditional way students proceed from graduation from getting perhaps an internship during the summers here, getting their first job and perhaps going on to graduate school, says Whalen. It will be a different path for sure, but the student needs to consider how they will proceed through that path themselves.
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On Jan. 8, 1835, all the big political names in Washington gathered to celebrate what President Andrew Jackson had just accomplished. A senator rose to make the big announcement: "Gentlemen ... the national debt ... is PAID."
That was the one time in U.S. history when the country was debt free. It lasted exactly one year. By 1837, the country would be in panic and headed into a massive depression. We'll get to that, but first let's figure out how Andrew Jackson did the impossible. It helps to remember that debt was always a choice for America. After the revolution, the founding fathers debated whether or not to just wipe clean all those financial promises made during the war. Deciding to default "would have ruined our credit and would have left the economy on a very agricultural, subsistence basis," says Robert E. Wright, a professor at Augustana College in South Dakota. So the U.S. agreed early on to consolidate the debts of all the states — $75 million. During the good times, the country tried to pay down the debt. Then there would be another war, and the debt would go up again. The politicians never liked the debt. "What the battle was really about was how quickly to pay off the national debt, not whether to pay it off or not," Wright says. But, just like today, it wasn't easy for politicians to slash spending — until Andrew Jackson came along. "For Andrew Jackson, politics was very personal," says H.W. Brands, an Andrew Jackson biographer at the University of Texas. "He hated not just the federal debt. He hated debt at all." Before he was president, Jackson was a land speculator in Tennessee. He learned to hate debt when a land deal went bad and left him with massive debt and some worthless paper notes. So when Jackson ran for president, he knew his enemy: banks and the national debt. He called it the national curse. People ate it up. In Jackson's mind, debt was "a moral failing," Brands says. "And the idea you could somehow acquire stuff through debt almost seemed like black magic." So Jackson decided to pay off the debt. To do that, he took advantage of a huge real-estate bubble that was raging in the Western U.S. The federal government owned a lot of Western land — and Jackson started selling it off. He was also ruthless on the budget. He blocked every spending bill he could. "He vetoed, for example, programs to build national highways," Brands says. "He considered these to be unconstitutional in the first place, but bad policy in the second place." When Jackson took office, the national debt was about $58 million. Six years later, it was all gone. Paid off. And the government was actually running a surplus, taking in more money than it was spending. That created a new problem: What to do with all that surplus money? Jackson had already killed off the national bank (which he hated more than debt). So he couldn't put the money there. He decided to divide the money among the states. But, according to economic historian John Steele Gordon, the party didn't last for long. The state banks went a little crazy. They were printing massive amounts of money. The land bubble was out of control. Andrew Jackson tried to slow everything down by requiring that all government land sales needed to be done with gold or silver. Bad idea. "It was a huge crash, and the beginning of the longest depression in American history," Gordon says. "It actually lasted six years before the economy began to grow again." During the depression, the government started borrowing money again. No one says that paying off the debt caused the depression. The bubble was going to pop sometime. But the result was that we had to kiss a debt-free U.S. goodbye. The country never came close again. |
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May 2015
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