Best Value Colleges in the U.S for International Students
~According to Forbes Magazine~
A Google search of “is college worth it?” yields nearly 300 million hits!
New York Times states that it is apparently important to have a four year College degree and having this will reduce the wage gap in a country. The Economist goes on to say that there is no simple answer for this question and proceeds on with a lot of analysis about the costs and the worth of different degrees. The Balance which is an online financial advice site also considers this question. They stated that a College Degree is still worth it, despite its extremely high cost.
All these News media and analysis sites answer this question with the careful scrutiny of the return on investment of the College Degree. Not all College Degrees pay for themselves/ government funded, most of them are sky high expensive. But the fact of the matter is whether being in debt for such a degree is worth it.
Forbes Magazine has calculated ‘ Best Value Colleges for International Students 2017’. It is of course the inevitable truth that some degrees are of better calibre than some others.
The List of Colleges is as follows:
Babson College
Bryn Mawr College
Claremont McKenna College
Columbia University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mount Holyoke College
Georgetown University
Princeton University
Brandeis University
University of Pennsylvania
Babson College
This College has a student body of 3000 and is located in Wellesley, Massachusetts. There are notable reasons as to why Babson is the best College for International Students. The institution has a very large population of international students on campus. Every year almost one third of a batch consists of students from the international community representing 47 different countries.
Amir Reza, the Vice Provost of International and Multicultural Education at Babson stated to Forbes that “International students are seeking out a very particular type of education. Our focus is business and liberal arts and we’re highly ranked in entrepreneurship.” As noted by Forbes Amir Reza finds that international students want to study business but also like the option of enrolling in classes in the humanities and social sciences. He positions these students as very entrepreneurially-minded.
Babson is also popular because it’s one of the only private institutions that offer need-based scholarships for international students. This had been implemented to increase the socioeconomic diversity of the student population.
In an effort to help its international student graduates as well as non- Babson alumni find jobs and stay in the U.S., the college recently launched an entrepreneurship program that offers grads the opportunity to become an “entrepreneur in residence” while obtaining employment authorization, thereby giving them a job and extending their stay in the U.S.
Studying in Babson reportedly makes a student think in an intercultural context. It becomes a part of the ecosystem of learning instead of a self-segregated student body.
Bryn Mawr College
Founded in 1885 Bryn Mawr College is a women’s College. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,381 where the setting is suburban, and the campus size is 111 acres. Going to a Women’s College can be very liberating. This College enrolls only women for the Undergraduate programme while men have an allowance for the Graduate courses.
Undergraduates have 36 majors and 41 minors to choose from and the students can also enroll in programmes from other Philadelphia area schools through Bryn Mawr Partnerships with Haverford College, Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania. Over one third of Bryn Mawr students major in mathematics and the sciences which is three to five times the national average, and the college is among the top three institutions in numbers of women physics majors. The student body is unusually diverse: nearly one third comprises students of color, and an average of 10% is international students.
Considering the women empowering slogan of Bryn Mawr, in reference with a country like Sri Lanka which is culturally sometimes not so outgoing, this could be a great option.
Claremont McKenna College
Founded in 1946, Claremont McKenna is a Liberal Arts College. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,347, its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 69 acres situated in Claremont, California. The school is part of the seven-college consortium known as The Claremont Colleges, which includes Scripps College, Pomona, Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Claremont Graduate University and Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences.
The school is home to 10 distinguished research institutes offering students the ability to conduct graduate-level research with faculty. Claremont McKenna specializes in economics and government and features accomplished scholars who are committed teachers in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
Almost 40 percent of full- time undergraduates receive some kind of need-based financial aid from Claremont. Students get to feel the intimacy of a small residential college with small classes and a student- faculty ratio of nine to one, and the shared resources of a larger research university at this College.
More than 90% of student’s complete internships and nearly half study off-campus during their four years. They also make the academic faculty members available for the students to build relationships which could help in careers.
Columbia University
Columbia University situated in New York City is an Ivy League College. It is a private college founded in 1754 which has an undergraduate enrollment of 6,113.
Columbia University comprises three undergraduate schools – Columbia College, The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the School of General Studies – as well as a number of graduate and professional schools, including the highly ranked Business School, Teachers College, Law School and College of Physicians and Surgeons. The university also has a wellregarded College of Dental Medicine and Graduate School of Journalism.
Distinguished alumni include John Jay, founding father and first Supreme Court Justice, and former president Barack Obama. Columbia also administers the Pulitzer Prizes.
This is an esteemed College which is quite liberal in accepting students of colour and different races. Called “the quin- tessential great urban university,” Columbia is diverse in every way: students come from 50 states and over 90 foreign countries; over half of undergraduates are students of color, and over 500 student organizations are offered, including 31 Division I Ivy League athletic teams and dozens of community service organizations, performance groups, political clubs and publications.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Widely known as MIT, the Institute admitted its first batch of freshmen in 1865 following an effort by reputed natural scientist William Barton Rogers to found an educational establishment with a focus on the practicality of industrialising America.
MIT has five schools, one college house, and 34 academic departments along with world-class laboratories. Its strengths lie in the fields of engineering, science and technology. They have a regressive assessment process, where the students they accept are only the very best who makes the cut.
Alumni of MIT include Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon; Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general; Edwin Land, creator of the Polaroid camera; and 78 staff and students who have won the Nobel Prize. Mechanical, scientific and engineering creativity and expertise thrive at MIT, arguably more than in any other educational institution worldwide.
Fun Fact: Staff are so determined to bring out their prodigies’ genius that pranks, known as ‘hacks’ in the community, are rarely punished and instead, actively encouraged. Such hacks have in the past included one student presenting a tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs by replacing a clock tower with the Apple logo, and another involving a fire engine being placed on top of the university’s Great Dome in remembrance of 9/11!
The above five are the top five U. S Colleges best suited for International students. Await more information on the next best colleges in the next issue of Education Times!
Devuni Goonewardene