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Study Abroad For Computer Science Majors?
sbilstein writes "I'm currently a sophomore studying computer science with a penchant for international travel. While I do realize that the internet precludes the need for us geeks to travel farther than our desks, I'd still like to take a few courses taught in English or Spanish (the two languages I'm fluent in) somewhere outside of the country. The trouble is I can't go to just any school, because like any other engineering degree, I have to take technical courses every semester. So I need a school with a something at least similar to a computer science program in the states. Has anybody here from the US studied abroad while doing computer science? Was it worthwhile? Or anyone from outside the United States recommend a university program?"
I wonder if it would be economically feasible to study in india.
Come on? Isn't is obvious? Go for a semester in Spain. In Europe we do have real computer science courses. Northern America doesn't have a monopoly on that (And never had, if you think that you need to learn a bit history). Remember, Dijkstra was Dutch, Linus was Finnish and Alan Turing was British.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I think it's an important question.
I'm (hopefully) going to be in a similar situation as you in a year. I'm planning on choosing where I want to go based upon culture and what experience would be best for me, in terms of what cultures it would be most enlightening/helpful to be at least somewhat immersed in. For me, that's what a study abroad program should be about. Once that's done -- especially in the Spanish/English speaking world (minus colonies,) is shouldn't be hard to find a university with some sort of technical course.
So I guess what I'm saying is, what's the point in studying abroad if your primary concern is the quality of your coursework? Nothing in the english/spanish world has the same opportunities in CS as the US, with few exceptions.
You should talk with your study abroad program counselor. They will have a list of all international universities they do an exchange program with. If you go through them, you wont even have to pay for either tutions or lodging (staying). They can even provide you with list of students who went to other countries and you can talk to them for more details (culture, studies, etc).
While i'm certain that you can find overseas CS courses, i haven't come across any so I cant give any advice in that area, although i was contemplating the same question last year, I go to the University of Washington and wanted to travel and study abroad, so I took a communications course overseas(Studying tourism :) Hopefully you still have to fill elective requirements for your school(I saved all of mine so that i could take easy courses with the famously difficult ones), if you do, find something fun and take that, I went to Switzerland and made several industry contacts(Parallels Virtualization).
Where, exactly? If you expect classes in English, then you betta' stay/study in the USA.
Learn Chinese...that will go a long ways towards improving your net worth in the mean time.
Note that if you are looking to earn a degree, the courses that you take must be accredited by the institution that you want a degree from. Your major counselor should be able to tell you if there are foreign universities that they will accept CS credits from, and if so those are the only choices you really have. Otherwise be aware that simply going abroad to study does not mean that it will count towards your graduation at home.
I went to Australia and Japan for grad school, can't recommend it highly enough. Not only was my program great, but the international experience is invaluable. You owe it to yourself to spend at least a year studying abroad, whether it adds to your technical degree or not.
OMG! Wau!
Have you asked your school? Most schools have a study abroad office dedicated directly to this. Some schools even have a program setup specifically for certain majors paired up with other universities.
You could also look at a Maymester or Summer program. It would let you travel while not having to take a semester off from school.
because like any other engineering degree, I have to take technical courses every semester
I was unaware of this 'requirement' at my school. As long as I got X classes done by graduation they didn't care when I took it.
I don't ever remember this in my
I went abroad for a semester to Newcastle University in the UK. I placed out of my first year in CS, so that made it much easier for me, though I couldn't afford to do the whole year. I took core classes (I go to a liberal arts school) and had an absolute blast.
Newcastle is a science school. In fact, one of my friends over there is a CS major. The European CS curricula are far more formal than what we have here in the states, however. They're really teaching Computer Science, while my program is really more Software Engineering. If that's the case for you as well, don't even think about trying to take CS classes in Europe.
Linus was Finnish
Was? Did I miss the obituary?
Uhh, it's been 12 years or so, but I studied abroad in Lancaster University in England. They had computer science courses - they're taught in English, and were interesting and had a bit of variety from what I had in the states. I'm sure there's lots of colleges/universities abroad that have c.s courses, but Lancaster had a study abroad relationship with my college so, heh, it was good. Was it worthwhile? Well, yeah, the experience was invaluable, but not so much for the c.s courses, though they were good, but for the experience living abroad in a different culture.
If you speak Spanish, why not Spain? Our "Ingenieria Informatica" is pretty much the same as your CS, I think. And we have lots of pretty girls ;)
I was a computer science major and studied overseas twice. One term in London and another term in Vienna. I wasn't able to take classes related to my major, but it was a great opportunity to knock out those dreaded general study courses you have to take. The general study courses seemed to be easier overseas because they try to focus you on maximizing your cultural experiences and travels, and less emphasis on the courses. Even if it makes you take some summer courses to make up for it, it is worth it. You won't get the opportunity to enjoy the world at a young age as well as the significant discounts being a student abroad.
You would get more free time to take in your surroundings, applied experience and a different class of references, at the very least. You would also have the benefit of a shorter duration if it ended up being not your bag.
... Edinburgh, Imperial College, or perhaps Manchester (they have one of the earliest electronic computer, still in working order). There's also Canada -- Waterloo has a renowned engineering program.
Not sure if Cambridge does exchange programs, but if you're abroad for a year instead of a semester, their Part II CS tripos is quite gruelling; it's basically a complete undergrad education done in one year, usually taken by people who already have a degree in related fields (e.g. math or physics).
In the UK, my rule of thumb is: if they teach a functional language then they are decent. Edinburgh is where Standard ML was written (and Phil Wadler is in the faculty) -- oh, and is really good for Artificial Intelligence research too, so naturally, they're quite heavily into Prolog too. Cambridge also uses ML; York uses Scheme and Haskell. Warwick -- ML, I guess.
There's also the location to consider. Imperial is in London -- good place to be, but accomodation might be tough. Edinburgh is in, well, Edinburgh -- lovely place, a bit cold in winter, but not as bad as the northern parts of the US. York is on the east coast line, so it's less than three hours from either London or Edinburgh by fast train. Warwick, despite the name, is not in the quaint mediaeval town of Warwick, but in nearby Coventry (they obviously thought naming it the University of Coventry would not be good for business). Not far from London and Birmingham, though.
Michel
Fedora Project Contribut
This question is more appropriate for someone at your school. Do you have a Study Abroad Office or something similar? They could help you out. Or ask your academic advisor (please tell me it's not just small schools like mine that have them)--he or she would be able to figure out if something could work for you.
I'm assuming you're going to a big university or technical school. I am a computer science major at a small liberal arts college in the midwest, and at my school studying abroad is really no big deal no matter what your major. I, in fact, am leaving for a Spanish-language immersion trip to Mexico in about a week. I won't be doing any computer science, but, as others have said, there's no that reason you (like I will be doing) couldn't do some of your gen ed requirements while you're away. Again, your school or your advisor would be able to figure out what would work for you.
Additionally, you could look into a summer program, such as ones offered by ISA (or other organizations whose names I have forgotten...), or perhaps a January program if your school has a long enough winter break (no such luck here, as we have January term). Good luck!
R.Mo
Informatics Engineering programs in Chile are similar to CS + SE in the US. Check http://www.inf.utfsm.cl/ for one of the best engineering universities in Chile, and the best for CS. Also Valparaiso/Vin~a del Mar are great places to live.
Your study abroad office probably has lists of schools your university is affiliated with. While this is not a fully limiting factor, these programs often make credit transfer easiest. Try looking for International Development programs in science / engineering as well - your school might offer programs in English in various locations, even if you don't have language familiarity. I think my university has programs in Japan, China, India, Egypt, among others. A few programs that might work for you: Spain: Barcelona has various programs Chile: Pontificia Universidad CatÃlica de Chile - very highly ranked in South America England: Various options: Queen Mary, Oxford, Cambridge perhaps Scotland: Edinburgh is a great school and the city itself is really nice as well Australia: Melbourne, Sydney, many others with solid programs Hong Kong: A friend is studying there at the U. of Science and Technology and really enjoys it Good luck!
I'm in a similar position to you, actually. For me, I realized that by working hard I could pretty much finish my degree requirements by the end of my third year of school (which I will do). So, that left me with two "open" semesters in my Senior year that I'm going to use to finish up general college requirements, take more advanced CS classes. While it seems like it's impossible to finish all of those requirements, it's actually not that difficult I think. The reason that this is important is that you probably shouldn't expect to get credit to transfer back for technical courses you do abroad and instead use it as an opportunity to fulfill those liberal arts requirements if you have any.
The next bit of advice I have is to talk with your professors in your department and ask for their recommendations. At my school, the director of undergraduate curricula is the one that was most helpful to me, so maybe you could try to talk to an equivalent at your school. He or she will not only be familiar with the undergraduate requirements for CS, they'll probably also be the one who will be able to approve or reject credit you receive abroad as it applies to filling your major requirements. Additionally, they will probably know about other students from your school who have studied abroad before.
Ok, to answer your question about actual programs abroad, here are some places. To be fair, in the end I decided (for the time being anyway) not to study abroad for personal reasons. Anyway, my school (UNC-Chapel Hill) has a study abroad program particularly for CS majors between us and UCL (University College of London). Oftentimes even if a study abroad program is not offered at your university, you can arrange to do a program through another university, so if you're interested in this particular one let me know and I can get you more information. Additionally, I was considering and know friends who have gone to National University of Singapore, which also has a strong CS college.
My bigger point is this: don't expect too much out of study abroad from an academic point of view. There's just so much complication between different teaching systems, credit transfers, and potentially different languages that you're better off approaching it as an opportunity to learn things completely different than your normal semester's fare in the CS dept. Good luck!
'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
Regardless of what is said here (pros/cons of going), talk to your school's study abroad office before applying for a program (your school's or another's).
Some schools have a number of hoops that need to be jumped through, financial aid status, etc.
At the least, they can walk you through the process of getting course equivalents set up, before going, so when you transfer the credit in you have things signed by faculty in your school saying the courses will count to your degree.
My cousin spent some time in Sweden, I don't remember where, but he said the program was very good, and perhaps better than the American University he attended (not Ivy league, but fairly close). It did cost him some money, but was ultimately worth it for him.
For those of you who bring up India, I have a colleague who came from there; unless you get into the IIT's (Ind Inst of Tech), don't bother.
Personally, unless you find a program of similar or better quality and name, I cannot see why you would want to go. That said, Sweden is a good idea from what I have heard.
This is fairly straight forward.
Simply go to the school you are currently at and ask. The question is. Which schools abroad do you accept course credit from? Then from that short list make your choice.
Took me all of 1 day to figure out where I was going to go when I did it. It costs a fortune to study abroad but it well worth it.
One option is to study in Ireland. Trinity College Dublin (www.tcd.ie) is one of the top 50 universities in the world (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_College,_Dublin) and has a Computer Science (www.cs.tcd.ie) faculty which is recognised by Microsoft, Google and Intel as the best on the island as well as one of the foremost in English speaking Europe. I'm in my final year of the Computer Science course and can testify that the course is very good. Also, the large number of foreign students, both American and European, who visit for semesters all seem to leave happy.
Yes, I was there. (no, not there, but over there!)
Linus and RMS got into a fight, and RMS pulled out his katana....*shudder* ...and well, now Linus is sleeping with the penguins.
RMS was last seen rounding up the HURD to assault Antarctica to exterminate those pesky, compromising, commie penguins.
Wait! What?!?
Wow, those are some good med's the doctor gave me, nevermind!
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It is hard for Computer Science majors to find traditional semester-long study abroad opportunities. However, there are plenty of opportunities for slightly different things that let you be overseas AND learn more about CompSci.
This last summer, I participated in the International Summer School on Grid Computing (link to the '08 site). They do it in a different place every summer ('07 was Sweden, '08 was Hungary, I think '09 is France). It's short (2 weeks long), but it was still a great experience. Plus, OSG paid for all of the American students. I didn't have to ask my university (or myself) for a dime.
There are lots of other opportunities, too. Last year, PIRE started undergraduate research abroad (link for 2009). Fully paid, and you get a little stipend to help out.
Start searching for "intern abroad" or "research abroad" and you'll find many different opportunities. Most of them aren't a full semester and often fall in the summer (and rarely offer school credit), but you'll still get a great education and a chance to see great places.
... The advice my friend gave me when I considered it. I'm not CS, but my friend who went along with me to Japan was and I guarantee you'll get a recommendation from both of us. Not to mention everyone else else who participated in the program. In Japan, there's a program up in Sendai where you'll be able to do research in fields such as engineering and CS, which could be directly beneficial to your degree. But, even if you don't have classes that directly relate to what you want to do with your life, the experience will be entirely worthwhile regardless. You'll learn a lot about yourself, the world, and you'll get a rather impressive little thing to add to a resume. So, yeah. Do it.
Community Manager - Bigfoot Networks
Edinburgh University has a very strong Computer Science Course, plus it is in a great city, I know a lot of US people how have studied at edinburgh for a year so it shouldn't be a problem. :)
If you have never visited Scotland then you are missing out. Lets start with the important things. The drinking age is 18
My picks would be Australia, New Zealand or Ireland. All three have multiple Universities with strong CompSci departments, and I've heard good things from Americans studying CompSci, Math or Physics in all three countries. High course fees for international students are the main disadvantage.
Here's another question -- why study computer science abroad? Why not just backpack around South America during one of your breaks? Visit Macchu Picchu and neat stuff like that.
Are you looking to get something out of studying abroad rather than just travel? An extended stay, deeper contacts with the local citizens?
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Almost everyone around here is able to speak and understand english enough to get around (actually, the complaint I always hear from foreigners is that everyone speaks english so they can't learn Dutch) and all the Computer Science Master courses are given in English. And from my experience, the Bachelors are also given in English if there's even a single non-dutch student in the room ;)
Full disclosure - I am an NTU alumnus.
ITESM is a very well recognized technical university with several campuses all over Mexico. It is regarded as the MIT of Latin America and has many students from all over the world. Many U.S. companies recruit over there, including MS and Google. Right now I work in a large tech company in Austin and we have many engineers from this school. They're top notch. You should check that one out.
from it's cultural richness to its school girls and robots
just be in the lookout for -and avoid if possible- tentacle rape!
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I am not Dutch but I've traveled to the Netherlands. It's an awesome country with people who speak multiple languages, including English without any accent. Utrecht, IIRC, is the tech hub of the Netherlands with an university that offers computer science courses. See if you can take a course there. You'll meet some very friendly people and taste great beer while being able to travel easily throughout Europe. Plus there's also a bunch of American students there, which could be a good thing depending on what you want.
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Maybe a few residential courses from OU would be interesting.
Has anybody here from the US studied abroad while doing computer science? Was it worthwhile? Or anyone from outside the United States recommend a university program?
I have a BS in CS and I studied abroad for a year in London. However, I didn't take a single class relevant to my degree. When I left for London, I needed 2 CS classes to graduate. Basically, I transferred to another school, took their (awesome) study abroad program. Lived with a host family. Networked with people from all over Europe. Had the best time of my life. And met my French fiancee.
I more than doubled my student debt to do it (it's not cheap) but it was worth it. I didn't care about not having a CS class though I did well in all the classes I did take. I also joined the Rugby (Union) team of my college. Damn, it was a great time. I love Jolly Old London (Twickenham technically).
I'd recommend doing it. Heck, if you even have to ask, then I think you're probably wanting it enough that you should do it.
It has nothing to do with that you learn in the class room and everything about what you experience. Some of the best courses I had where the History courses offered at my England college.
Don't study abroad to take CS courses. Study abroad to experience a different culture and meet new people. Even if it's just an American in London, there's a lot to learn.
Even if it means, basically, taking a semester or year off of your normal course work to do it. Just know that it isn't cheap and that it's really something you want to do. I've seen several people on my study abroad program who did it and clearly didn't want to do it and wasted the entire trip crying in their bedrooms over missing boy/girlfriends.
Bon Chance!
ps. Know what you're looking for when studying abroad. Is it just a location? Or do you really want to integrate into the host country? Many programs out there are nothing but a school of Americans, secluded in an area, and you don't get much integration into the country. If you're reasonable good in a 2nd language consider a country with that a primary language. If you're not, fear not to go to an English speaking school (England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, etc.)
Don't study abroad if you're trying to focus on school work. That's NOT what it's about. Stay in the States and focus on your classes and your grades if that's what matters. You study abroad to experience life in a different place. Take classes that will expand on this experience. You don't want to be stuck in a computer lab for 40 hours a week to finish a programming project, when you can see the Tower de Eiffel from your window, kind of thing.
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
I'm a senior CS student at Rice University who studied abroad the first semester of my sophomore year. The hoops you have to jump through to study abroad are worth it.
You probably don't really need to take technical courses every semester: there may be a light one with courses you can put off. I had to take a 3 week summer course and adjust my schedule a bit, but I made it to Florence, Italy for a semester. If you absolutely cannot go abroad for a full semester, do a summer program or go after you graduate (I knew a kid who graduated, then still went abroad for the experience).
Decide what school you want to go to based on whether you want to experience the culture or drink. A lot of the schools built for studying abroad have people who just go abroad to drink. I was at one of those schools although I would've liked more cultural things and less drinking. It's up to you.
I took no technical courses while abroad. I actually fulfilled a number of university requirements (arts and social sciences).
Make sure you clear all the courses you're going to take with your advisor: they should know you might be taking a semester off of CS. Make sure that you also get any classes you want to transfer approved beforehand. Get signatures.
(It may actually be cheaper to go abroad if you're currently going to a private school. If you have scholarships, some of them may pay for you to go abroad)
If you can't find some time to go, you don't want it bad enough. Feel free to contact me if you have any more specific questions.
--<Mike>--
Well, Europe is dying.
I need proof of this from a reliable source; has Netcraft confirmed it?
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I did most of my CS MS degree at Luleå University and there were usually four or five English-only CS students from the states. Some courses were taught in English and most not, but apparently enough so that they could piece together a semester. For the most part they said they were pleased about the experience, but then they may just all have been polite save for a few who didn't like it one bit.
Ok, a little off-topic but it would also look great on your resume. Come to Peru and help me teach programming to orphan kids in Peru. Im building a course in squeak (smalltalk, like LOGO on drugs :) to teach programming to the kids. The orphanage has over 630 kids and is all volunteer-run, with some volunteers living inside, mostly europeans. Watch some videos of the orphanage, its a youtube playlist and the last 2 videos are in english. I also have a software business with many years of experience working as a C++ programmer in top US software companies, and might be able to teach you a trick or two.
I went to Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany. It's an English-language institution, somewhat unique in Germany, as all courses are entirely in English and the curriculum is structured like at an American/Anglo-Saxon university. There's a nice big green campus with wild parties, very cheap booze etc. They have a pretty large CS dept (relative to the size of the university, 1200 students only!). Moreover, they are very open to the idea of exchange/visiting students, though it might be harder to just go there without worrying about the tuition unless your university has some sort of agreement with them (but very much doable, if you can afford it).
You can find more info here. The undergrad CS courses are quite technical and you can usually take courses at all levels, as long as the professor is convinced that you have the prerequisite knowledge.
Studying abroad is a really good idea and I encourage it quite a bit! Good luck.
Doomie
You'd probably have less chance than studying a broad in the USA. Just find yourself one of the "top 10" party universities, and DON'T TELL THEM YOU'RE A CS STUDENT!!!
Kevin Smith on Prince
I'm an electrical engineer at an American college with a bilateral agreement with CTU. They have a very different but still interesting English language engineering program, and a few CS classes. The school is free if you speak Czech (unlikely), and not too expensive if you only speak English. They are very amenable to fitting their schedule to yours if your school is on any kind of werid system (we have 3 10-week terms instead of two semesters, so we took our exams and left early without any problem) Prague is the mst dynamic and amazing city too, and the Czech Crown makes everything a bargain. Czech out their courses (hah!) to see if there is anything that grabs you. http://fel.cvut.cz/en/
One thing to consider is that you don't necessarily need to go through a formal study-abroad program. Such programs are often designed to do a lot of hand-holding, e.g. for students whose knowledge of the local language is limited. Since you already speak English and Spanish fluently, you probably don't need linguistic or cultural hand-holding in order to attend an institution in an English- or Spanish-speaking country. Your languages cover not only most of Latin America, Spain, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but other countries in which English is widely used in universities, such as the Netherlands and India. You may need to make arrangements to receive credit at your home university for courses take abroad or if you need to use scholarship money, but you don't have to go through a formal study-abroad program.
Another thing to consider is that, even if it is problematic to get the CS courses you want at a foreign institution, you might be able to get courses in related areas. Math and electrical engineering are obvious possibilities, but depending on your interests a foreign institution might be strong in something else relevant, e.g. biology or linguistics.
I'd like to study a broad... or two...
Libertas in infinitum
Let them study their own Broads.
I just finished a semester at Kungliga Tekniska HÃgskolan (The Royal Technical University) in Stockholm, Sweden. They've got an excellent CS program with sub-departments in all sorts of areas from robotics to cryptography. I just finished an excellent robotics course there (http://www.csc.kth.se/utbildning/kth/kurser/DD2426/robot-h08/). Some universities here (including mine) have a direct exchange with them and they're also part of the Erasmus exchange program.
Ok, a little off-topic but it would also look great on your resume. Come to Peru and help me teach programming to orphan kids in Peru. Im building a course in squeak (smalltalk, like LOGO on drugs :) to teach programming to the kids. The orphanage has over 630 kids and is all volunteer-run, with some volunteers living inside, mostly europeans. Watch some videos of the orphanage, its a youtube playlist and the last 2 videos are in english. I also have a software business with many years of experience working as a C++ programmer in top US software companies, and might be able to teach you a trick or two.
Seriously. Studying abroad is all about expanding your horizons, and anywhere you go you'll be immersing yourself in stuff that you aren't getting at home. Expect to learn more outside of the classroom than in. Take the time that you normally don't have in your CS/Engineering program to expose yourself to different courses... Language, culture, history, the arts. Would you rather tell a potential employer, "I have a CS degree and I got to go to $foriegnCountry," or would you like to say "I studied CS here, went to $foreignCountry, and learned some European economics and business Spanish while I was there?" (Employers love anything that will jump for those extra skills and knowledge - $diversity++.) Obviously the tradeoffs of any study abroad program are money and time. You will likely have to take a bit longer to graduate, and you might have to take on a bit more debt to get there (depending on where you go... and when I decided to study abroad I got several "surprise checks" to help out from people who I would never have expected anything from). But if you think about it, what's the rush? Those jobs will still be there after graduation. The benefits of doing it will most likely exceed the time and money cost of doing it.
I did my BS at the University of Illinois and studied abroad for a semester at the Universidad de Bio-Bio in Concepcion, Chile. It was a fantastic experience and I'm glad I visited another country in the Americas before visiting Europe. The people there are amazing and the country is beautiful. You are less likely to find people who are fluent in English than in Europe, and overall it was a very eye-opening experience for me. The one class I took in computer science was data bases. The rest were culture classes. One thing I found strange about studying computer science in a foreign language, was learning SQL and having to explain to the class what some of the English words mean.... stuff I took for granted. You could avoid that if you want by taking algorithms or something not language dependent. Side note: Chilean Spanish is very unique and took me a while to get used to... but it was worth it!
IN the spring of 2005 or rather the last semester of my junior year, I attended Leeds University, based in Leeds, England. It was a school actually quiet unlike my home university of Vanderbilt. This school contained 40,000 or so kids, about four times the size of our whole university and half of a small city in England, akin to large public colleges all over the states. I was a cs/math major who had already completed the math degree and wasn't very far from the cs requirement.
With that said, I would like to describe some of my time there as a cs student:
Every class that I needed to take had anywhere from 100-250 kids in it at the same time. And according to some random luck I happened to take 3 different courses for different year students. I took Intro to Databases (I rarely attended, and probably would have without.), Computer Graphics (I enjoyed), and a computer security class taught by a young professor who was teaching to a class about 100 strong. In addition I also took 3 other courses. Philosophy of Sex, a Japanese/samurai history course, and a class on the methods and ethics off community safety (CCTV, Asbos, etc.).
The structure of the classes were a lot different than the states. 2 times a week and either an hour and half or three hours each lecture. The computing classes that I took each had homework assignments usually weekly sometimes only 3 the whole semester.
The cs courses were taught the same way basically as any average large American school.
But this was a good thing because it allowed me the ability to visit my girlfriend at Oxford and travel to Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, London, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and finally Morocco. After which I spent the summer in South Africa. It was a great 8 months of my life and a very tough time as well. I was actually really happy to spend my semester in Europe, only regret that I didn't skip school more often.
The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. 10 minute walk from coogee beach. They should put more of these up and Richard Buckland is their most charismatic lecturer with others as bad as he is good. But I reckon you could do worse than really knowing what you're in for before getting hold of visas, plane tickets etc. etc. http://au.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6B940F08B9773B9F
I had much the same set of problems and found decent universities in Tampere, Finland, Luleå, Sweden, and Accra Ghana that all participated in the ISEP program. My school offered a couple of different programs, but this one was notable insofar as it didn't require you to pay hardly anything extra. Unlike programs that expect you to pay massive chunks of cash for their own overhead and then full rate for tuition abroad, this one (and others like it?) just have the student pay tuition and room and board at the local university. They then get the same stuff from the receiving university.
On a related note, I ended up in Luleå which had the strongest English language CS program I'd ever seen. They also had a rather sizable community of foreign exchange students and a well-developed Swedish language program.
On a slightly less related note, no matter where you go you should make sure to take some non-engineering/non-CS courses. Studying international organizations and management abroad, even if only briefly, looks far better on a resume and will give you far more than any single engineering course. Be sure to make time for it.
You may find more opportunities in your field in research instead. What I have in mind is REU, Research Experiences for Undergraduate, a program sponsored by the NSF. There are many sites in the US - but there are also many abroad. My roommate spent a summer at CERN, loved it so much, spend the following semester there as well. Receiving a stipend, instead of paying for courses, is nice too. If you need credit, I'm sure you can talk to a professor to sponsor you for independent study credit.
Surely you can find other courses that will transfer and fulfill degree requirements? Composition or literature. History. Economics. Math?
As for suggestions on where to go, that really depends on where you want to travel. Australia would interest me. Or Spain. Possibly the U.S. or Canada if you're not already from one of those places.
one of which was University of Cape Town, South Africa. The courses were all in english and most of the professors were either south african or british. The quality of teaching was incredible compared to america. they teach you multiple skill sets (for example in my computer science courses i had to do several technical writing modules and the teacher really pushed students in the right direction when it came to avoiding redundant information, etc but he did it in a way that made the student feel very empowering. before going to SA i made sure the computer science courses would transfer back to my school in upstate ny (i did this by discussing with the actual professors who would have to sign off on it afterards). i highly recommend you do this before u go abroad.
after undergrad i decided to to the university of stuttgart in germany to do a masters in information technology/embedded systems. the program involved 1.5 years of courses. a 3-6 month internship at a company of your choosing (i chose IBM in germany) and a 6 month thesis. the whole program was in english and was free (even post graduate is subsidized there). they recently increased "tuition" though so now its 500 euros per semester...still way cheaper than in america. the courses are completely different from here in that your grade is based on a your performance during a 1-2 hour exam at the end of the semester. there is never really any homework that is collected. germans are pretty strict about doing lots of practice/study of their own accord so their policy is that you are responsible for preparing/doing work...not the professors. i dont like it but the stuff they teach is very high quality and done in a proper way. you really learn how to be meticulous about decisions you make and to justify everything you do. they are just really technical in general (as can be seen in their cars and other products for example). as an added benefit i learned fluent german (which many of the other foreign students didn't bother to do).
so all in all, i did 2 years at a community college in upstate ny, 2 years at suny albany. 0.5 years in south africa and then 2.5 years in germany. after all that i came back to america and got a job making 110k per year. i spent a lot of my freetime doing extra curricular computer-related activities though so i wouldnt attribute it entirely to "school-learned skills."
I went to a rigorous math/sci/engineering school and as a math major managed to study abroad and knock off some requirements at the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics. It is mostly for mathematicians, but some courses like combinatorics might be of interest for a CS major. And one course, Conjecture and Proof, is one of the best I ever took.
international travel would be a great way to realize how incredibly false this is. more likely than not, at some point you're going to end up doing something other than simply coding widgets from a spec (or from imagination). as soon as that happens, you need the experience that comes from getting away from your desk; preferably far away from your desk. on the mundane level, you'll almost certainly have to do something like turn customer requirements into specs and/or code; understanding the mindset of the person you're talking to is crucial there. or you might find yourself working with engineers in, or educated in, another country; again, understanding their mindset will make that go much better.
beyond that, there's lots of good suggestions here. personally, i like the ones that take you outside your standard course work, even if it costs you an extra semester or two, but if you're bound and determined to do it all in an academic context, just ask your school; any sizable US school will have administration folks who can tell you what your best options are.
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
I would also recommend you have a look at Delft University of Technology (www.tudelft.nl) in the Netherlands. As you'd expect from the Dutch, nearly everyone speaks fluent English, and this is particularly true in the academic community.
Last year, I spent two semesters studying abroad in Eindhoven Technical University (better suited for Electrical Engineering, my MSc), where I had all subjects taught in English, and everyone mentioned how TU Delft was a great university for studying Computer Science. Plus, I find the Netherlands to be a great country in terms of freedom ('Live and let live' is their motto, iirc), and it's also a great central hub to fly all around Europe.
And I wholeheartedly agree with what many are saying here: go and study abroad, but focus on getting to know the World, not just more CS. The experiences you'll have abroad will be far more valuable to you, your life, your way of thinking.
I have a friend that will start his Master degree in Computer Engineering in Germany at a University in 2 months. The University offers classes in English and German. Not only is it cheaper for him to study in Germany instead of staying in Florida but he also said the school offers much better classes than what he found within the US because only half is theory. I guess in 2 years I will find out if his choice was a good one.
The website of the school is http://www-englisch.fh-hof.de/
No one has yet mentioned University of Technology, Sydney, which has a reasonably good computer science department.
I second him. While I myself will study in the U.S. due to other reasons (primarily because while I'm fluent in Spanish, I prefer and dominate English more), the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamon does offer great courses in Computer Science. You should try also the Interamerican University (Universidad Interamericana), which is another local university.
:)
There are also many technology companies established here who have research labs, such as Hewlett-Packard, and local offices, such as Microsoft and Yahoo! (unfortunately Google doesn't yet have an office in Puerto Rico), as well as many other companies that focus on software development, or use it in some major way. There are tons of life and health insurance companies, in addition to financial institutions, who are now looking into technology to facilitate their business, so they're hiring many software engineers.
And being a bit redundant, we're bilingual here, so there's no problem as to which language you prefer to use. I hope you strongly consider PR.
You might consider the University of Evansville. They own Harlaxton Manor near Grantham England and have an Engineering/CS professor there every fall. There are about 170 students there each semester from various schools -- all credits transferable back to your US school.
I studied abroad in Quito, Ecuador for a semester while getting my Business Information Systems degree. I wasn't planning to take any CS/BIS courses while I was there, but ended up finding one that satisfied one of my major requirements. Anyways, it was a great experience and definitely worthwhile.
Since I've been out of school, I have learned that a lot of the countries that are strong in their IT outsourcing industry (India, Romania, Vietnam, etc.), have good academic programs specifically for CS. Sometimes, I wonder if some of these countries tend to prepare their college grads for the real IT world better than in the US (beyond just theoretical stuff). I don't know too many Spanish speaking ones, but you can try to do a little research to see which Spanish speaking countries are also strong with IT outsourcing. Just based on my very limited experience on the people/teams I have worked with, you can check Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and of course Spain as a start.
Also to reiterate what other people have said here, when you go to study abroad, you are mainly going for the experience to immerse yourself in a new culture. So if you can fit some of your major requirements in, that's a bonus - otherwise, just try to work the study abroad experience in and get a chance to experience a new place/culture/language different from your own. In many ways, that in itself is a ton more valuable than anything you can learn in most of your courses anyways.
Buen suerte!
In college, I spent a year on an exchange program to the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. It was quite possibly the greatest year of my life. If you go to Germany though, you have to know the language. That was perfect for me as I had studied German for 3 years and it was a great opportunity to better my German. The university system in Germany is very different than it is here (in the US). It is a lot more theoretical but at the same time it's very hands-on. But more than anything, I bettered myself socially. We can learn about technology anywhere in the world. But getting to know another language and culture and meeting people you never would been able to without going there is an incredible experience. Before you get tied down with kids, a wife, a mortgage, etc., go see the world. But do it for a year. 6 months is not enough. It took me 4-5 just to get acclimated (linguistically and culturally). Good luck!
I spend a year studying for my computer science degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara at the University College of Wales in Aberystwith. It was one of the best years of my life, and, in addition to leaning a lot about the subject, I learned about it from a non-US-centric point of view, which was quite interesting. I also learned a lot about the local culture (Aberystwith had a non-university population of about 15,000 and 41 pubs) and made some life-long friends. If an opportunity to study abroad lands in your lap, you'd be a fool not to grab it with both hands and squeeze all you can out of it. You will be learning computer science for the rest of your career, but you don't get many chances to live in a student community in another country.
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I don't post very often, but I felt compelled to reply to this one because of the profoundly positive effect that a study abroad program had on me. I did my final year of a BS in Physics abroad at the University of Bath in the UK. The U of Bath is a smallish, selective school that is primarily technical in nature. It might be comparable to, say, CalTech. While I can say that the focus of the program there was substantially different from the program at my home university, (Purdue), it was also an excellent program. I knew a couple people there who were studying CS. From what I heard about it, it seemed to be a good program also. The U of Bath has lots of international programs, so the typical international student will be living with people from all over the place. In the immediate proximity of my residence where people from France, Germany, Sudan, Korea, UAE, Belgium, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Greece, and Hungary. (Those are just the ones that I remember.) Having gone to a few different Universities for different purposes over the years, I can say that the biggest thing that differentiates them at the undergraduate level is the type of students that they attract. Basic CS theory is basic CS theory, and you would be studying the same stuff no matter where you go for the most part; the difference between universities is mostly who you would be studying it with.
In general, I think most Americans would be well served by the experience of going somewhere else and living for a while. It doesn't really matter that much if you do school or work -- just go be somewhere that isn't the US for long enough to forget that you aren't in the US any more. Once you've gone a few days without thinking about the fact that you aren't in the US, you're probably in a good position to get a glimpse of the US as non-Americans see it. You'll also then be in a position to evaluate beliefs you may have about the US and the "American way," as some like to call it. All of this tends to cause a huge increase in self confidence. Once you realize that everything you really need to live for a year either fits in a big suitcase or can be acquired for a relatively small amount of money and that human nature is pretty much the same no matter where you go, you'll never look at anything the same way again. For me, this has resulted in a large improvement in my overall state of mind, and it allowed me to pursue happiness much more effectively.
I got a lot of things out of my Physics BS, but I'd put the study abroad experience about on par with the Physics in terms of what is valuable to me now, 6 years after graduation. I even failed a couple Physics classes while I was there and had to take them again when I got back. It was still worth it. I can't recommend a year abroad highly enough. Go somewhere -- it doesn't really matter so much where you go. Try to spend a year there if you can. Be open minded and respectful of the natives when you get there, and I can pretty much promise that you won't regret it.
Not all IT jobs require you to sit behind a desk. There are many IT jobs out there that require that you travel a great deal. Such is the case with most Communication Systems jobs, Military IT work and anykind of sales if you can swing it. I personally have been looking at the Polytechnico di Milano as I speak Italian and have a strong desire to move there permanantly. From my research so far, most classes are in English. Talking to a few friends, this school is considered the MIT of Europe. The only thing you have to foot is the bill which may not be near as much as our American schools would charge. This being on account of Italia's modified socialist government.
I studied a broad or two.
As mentioned previously, Georgia Tech has a study abroad program designed for CS students which goes to Barcelona for the summer. I think they sometimes accept non-GaTech students, and I doubt that it would be much of a hassle getting the credits transfered. I didn't participate in this program, but I heard a lot of great things from people who have. Here is the webesite: http://www.oie.gatech.edu/sa/programs/show.html?id=BCN
http://cecs.anu.edu.au/ http://www.anu.edu.au/
I'm a CS student in Taiwan, doing my Master's degree here. There are more and more universities here teaching all kinds of subjects in English, including computer science. The Taiwanese are very good at math, so you do need to study hard. If you're interested, you can try my university: www.ncu.edu.tw. If you go to the website you'll notice that there's a link for an English version of the website. Another thing that might be good about coming to Taiwan is that it's cheap! It's less than US$2000 a year for tuition, so you're set if you can get even a low scholarship from the university or maybe from the Taiwan office in your country.
Cambridge has an established exchange programme with MIT, so it might well be possible for someone studying at another university of similar stature to make private arrangements.
I think you're confusing Part II CS with the Diploma in Computer Science, which I believe has just been closed down. Part II CS is the third year of an* undergraduate course, although its difficulty level is about on a par with an M.Sc. in the US system.
* I would say "the CS undergraduate course" but the Tripos system doesn't exactly work like that.
The Wikipedia entry is here.
Zurich is a city which consistently scored the highest in Mercers Quality of Life Survey for a number of years now. Mind you, it's not the cheapest place to live or study.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
I know it isn't technically international, but the University of Hawaii has a couple of domestic exchange programs for mainlanders who'd like to try spending a semester here.
I went abroad to study a broad. Actually I studied many broads while I was abroad.
Too lazy to create a sig...
it's free, as an American, you could even pickup the girls there.
And I'll be happy to sell you a Canadian flag for your backpack!
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- aqk
F U
If what you want is to travel abroad, then do that. You want to fly to a foreign country and spend your time in front of a computer? The computers there look just like the computers here!
Instead: Finish your degree or skip a semester, pack a backpack, and fly to Argentina. Though unpopular among Americans, there are tons of Israelis (like me), British, Australians, and some other Europeans backpacking through South and Central America.
Travel in South America cost me about $700/month (~6 months), living reasonably, seeing all the sights, and taking buses from place to place. This is probably less than you're currently spending on rent. Starting your career a few months or a year late will have no long-term effect on your career. You could do it all on loans and have it paid back within months of work.
Don't go to Europe. Your money won't go nearly as far. And if you're looking for culture, leaving one westernized country of wealthy inhabitants for another westernized country of wealthy inhabitants seems bland. "Oh gee, here they say tea instead of dinner. How totally worldly I am now!" Bah!
I'm originally from New Zealand, but have travelled a lot. I can deal with English language accents and even dialects of many different kinds, including a variety of US accents from "deep" Southern accents to the softened/rounded speech of New England. One accent I really can't get the hang of though is what I heard in New York City. I really felt like I was surrounded by a foreign language there, and had a LOT of trouble communicating simple things to anyone.
Also, since I do spend a lot of time listening to accents, I'd have to say that you really don't hear US accents on US TV shows very much. The industry has created a somewhat "flattened" US accent that most actors tend to aspire to, and this is what people outside of the US become familiar with, so when surrounded by "real" US accents, it can be quite daunting. Older US TV really didn't do so, so the difference can be quite noticeable just by watching old shows compared to new (I just re-watched all of the original Twilight Zone series for example, and there's some VERY heavy accents in there (and not just Rod Serling - his is pretty strong though)).
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This is my local Uni and I started a course there last term. Even after six weeks of term, having been told about their shortcomings at week 3, they totally failed to provide the appropriate software that they had either recommended or insisted that we use (we would lose marks otherwise)!
I left in disgust and they returned my payments without comment. As far as I can determine the department is badly administered, as seemed to be the case with nearly every part of the university I had any dealings with.
Funny enough nobody seems to have thought of China - even though India has been mentioned... Well, I suppose I can guess why, since most /. readers are Americans.
To be perfectly honest, I don't think it makes too much difference to the quality of your degree whether you stay in the US or go to Europe, India or China. The most important benefits from studying abroad are culture and language. I would say China is at least on par with China as far as computer science goes, and probably ahead in maths. And learning Chinese is definitely going to be more useful than learning Hindi or other Indian languages, worthy though they be. Part of the reason is that there is one official Chinese language, Mandarin, that will give you access to all of China, whereas there are many Indian dialects and several scripts. Reading, writing and speaking Chinese is likely to give you a massive advantage in the future - the Chinese absolutely love it when foreigners make the effort and speak even a few words.
I can personally recommend Beijing Union University - I have several friends in the administration of the international department; have a look at their home pages: http://www.buu.edu.cn/home/indexe/indexe.htm (No, I don't get commission, I simply think it is a good university).
I studied CS at FU-Berlin, the program can be quite demanding, but it's very good. Some courses are taught in English, and in those courses you can write the exams in either German or English. If you're just going to spend a semester abroad, you may be able to get away with taking all your courses in English. You'll inevitably need to learn some German though, if only for social life (even though many people are fluent in English), but the effort may well be worth it. There is also a welcoming Linux geek society at the faculty. Oh, and Berlin is a very nice city. There's the typical tourist attractions, but also a large and very active hacking community which naturally provides lots of entertainment for CS students (projects such as the CCC, freifunk, C-base, bootlab). Beware -- many students have been known to end up stranded in these communities. Check here for information about application procedures for students from abroad.
IASESTE Arranges work abroad expriences
and they can likely recommend study abroad programs
http://www.iaeste.org/network/index.html
They organize typically 4 month summer exchanges and have a large international presence.
If you're looking for a cost effective exchange check with your university career center and international center, many of them already have "exchange partners" with other universities including arrangements for little or no fees (you will still have to pay the cost of living, although many help with that too).
I suspect that the US will be among the most expensive destinations, look at other english speaking countries like, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc... you don't have to go third world to make it affordable.
----- "Profanity is the one language that all programmers understand."
If you're at a university that has an engineering college, there are very likely already exchange programs set up for students in technical majors. I would check that out. Otherwise, nearly every university/college has some sort of international study office. You could ask them for help/advice as well.
Also, perhaps look through this list
http://www.aacu.org/resources/globallearning/studyabroad.cfm
IIE is specifically geared toward technical students. Take a look at them:
http://www.iienetwork.org/?p=StudyAbroad
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
I think it's pretty silly to categorically state "compared to america". Perhaps your undergrad college sucked, but in my experience it really depends on a) the institution and b) the individual professor.
I'm currently a student at a major research university (Wisconsin-Madison), at which some profs are excellent teachers while some are.. well, consumed by their research. I've also attended a small teaching university (Wisconsin-La Crosse) where the professors were hired largely for their teaching abilities. Most of the courses I took there were excellent.
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
If you're interested in Japan, check out Tohoku University. They're a technical school which does English courses in Japan. Being Japan, it's also pretty easy to get scholarships (I most everything paid for when I was accepted, including 2 round trips from US to Japan per semester, food, housing, etc.). Finally, since they're an English speaking school, they do a lot of work with study abroad students. The main downside to any study abroad program is transferring credits. Perhaps it is different at some schools, but at a fairly high level research university, it's almost impossible to transfer credits for anything outside of the core. The content has to be too similar. On the other hand, my school would let me transfer the courses as generic technical electives, so I'd recommend that to you.
Computers can make otherwise intelligent people stupid, much like slashdot.
I went to Georgia Tech for my BS in computer science, and spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona. Tech has some sort of exchange program with UPC (Universidad Politecnica de Catalonia) where UPC students come to Atlanta and Tech professors and students go to Barcelona. The CS courses offered all focused on UI, HCI, and i18n-type stuff; there were also courses offered in architecture and Spanish.
It was a hell of a lot of fun, I got to do a lot of traveling around Europe by myself and with friends, and being an out-of-state student it was actually cheaper than taking courses on campus.
You don't mention where you go to school now, but check with your CS department's advisors and see if they offer any similar programs, or get in touch with UPC and see if they can help you.
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when my boss was in California the cop got upset when telling him to put his hands on the hood, and my boss put his hand on his (hooded) jacket, instead of the car's bonnet. ;)
__
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Georgia Tech has a campus in France that teaches (surprise!) technical courses in English.
--Bruce
There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Not sure why it posted anonymously, but that was me.
"Oh, my head is paining me." 'Pain' is not a transitive verb. Use 'hurt' instead.
"You will bring the project files?" American English makes it 'verb subject?':
"Are you going to bring the project files?"
You will also need to get used to the fact that Indians speak many different languages, many of which have large numbers of syllables, and they can speak them very quickly. They do the same with English. You will not be able to listen quickly enough. Then again some people I have met from Mumbai have a very good standard of International English.
Organization: alphabetical, sometimes numerical or messy
Birthplace of the modern (ie stored program digital) computer. Decent CS programme in a fairly large department. Disclaimer: I work in the School of Maths there, as did Alan Turing.
I've spent time in the US midwest and what you say about TV tending to a sort of neutral accent is true. And for good reason - some accents (I have trouble with deep Southern ones) are almost incomprehensible to people from outside the region. And having visited NY, the phrase "Queen's English" might have quite the opposite connotation over there.
Of course it's the same in the UK, you wouldn't hear an actor using a real geordie or black country accent.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
We have two, one before and one after the security control :P
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while working on my B.S. at johns hopkins, i spent the year 98-99 at the engineering college ("beaucheff") of the university of chile in santiago. this is the country's premier technical school. the curriculum was quite rigorous, and i studied with some very serious professors including the current head of yahoo! research in spain and the director of the chilean council on nuclear power. lectures and projects are in spanish, textbooks are in english. like anywhere, the bureaucracy was a challenge. it comes recommended because i had a hell of a year.
As a CS major at Georgia Tech, I spent a term during my senior year at the university of Edinburgh in Scotland. I picked it basically because they spoke English and had an excellent CS reputation. I was able to arrange to have the credit for my Edinburgh courses count towards my CS degree (as some necessary 4th-year CS courses), although Georgia Tech wasn't absolutely thrilled with honoring the credit as being CS classes toward my degree, they made it quite clear they would prefer to award just general elective credit. I recommend working this out in advance in writing; I had a verbal discussion before I left and it became clear when it was time for me to petition for my degree that we had some misunderstandings during the conversation, luckily I was able to get them sorted out via e-mail but it very nearly delayed my graduation. Bring in a course catalog for both schools and sit down with an advisor in your college and get them to agree about what will count for what.
It was a very interesting experience for me. I quite simply didn't learn as much in the classes in general, and my classmates knew less about computer programming. I took one very good course there which got me thinking and taught me a lot, but it was the exception rather than the norm, my other courses were more disappointing. I distinctly recall one homework assignment in one of my AI classes where some senior level students were simply unable to complete the homework because the only language they knew was Prolog while the language pretty much required an imperative language of some sort. The professor apologized to the students for setting them a task some of them couldn't complete, instead of lecturing them for studying computers for years without learning the tools available to them. I'm sure there are students who don't really "learn" at Georgia Tech too, but it definitely isn't as common.
My first week was "welcome to Uni, time to go drinking." There was a lot more drinking and partying, and a lot less homework and studying. One professor apologized for assigning more than 2 hours of homework one week, which blew my mind.
In general, I enjoyed the experience tremendously, but I simply wouldn't count on really getting as much out of the actual courses as you would at home. Definitely study abroad to knock out some electives if you can, but I would be a bit wary of counting on getting really important classes done. If I had tried to get a key prerequisite done that I later needed to build on that knowledge when I came back to Georgia Tech, I probably would have been in real trouble due to not having really learned as much. If in the end you can't study abroad, you could still learn a lot just travelling for a month or two one summer or after you graduate. It's a fantastic experience and worth a bit of sacrifice and effort to pull it off somehow.
is competition good, or is duplication of effort bad?
I worked for a while in India, and am now in the US finishing my Masters in CS. Here are my two cents. :-) -- if you are being given this on a platter, why let go of the opportunity???
Computer Science education in the US is still leagues ahead of any other country in the world. The IITs and IISc in India are good institutions but still do not have significant research programs that compare with any of the top universities in the US. I suppose the story is similar across the world. Given the option, everyone in the world would like to be educated here in the US
I applaud your intentions of exploring the world -- I do believe that Americans should be more outward looking and understand the world around them better. Also many of the new business opportunities will likely arise out of South Asia and China in the next few decades.
However from a technical perspective, US is still the place to be as far as CS is concerned.
You would be much better off getting the best training that the US has to offer, and then going out into the wider world -- your skills will be much appreciated, and you can make a more substantial contribution to the world.
I am much impressed by the scientific culture that American universities inculcate in their students, and I do believe the world would be a better place if that culture were propagated more aggressively.
You'd probably have less chance than studying a broad in the USA. Just find yourself one of the "top 10" party universities, and DON'T TELL THEM YOU'RE A CS STUDENT!!!
I know this was meant to be funny, but most people I know (including myself) had absurdly good luck with non-American women. The rest of the world may claim to hate us, but if that's what it means to hate us, then I don't want to be liked.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
2. Given the fact that I've done quite a bit of research, I have bothered (a lot) to compare the curricula. When I say "opportunities" I mean the opportunity to get out of college and also be marketable.
Well, you should extend your research beyond curricula. Depending on what you want to do after graduation, whether your took that undergraduate algorithms class stateside or in Timbuktu is going to be either a) irrelevant, or b) totally and completely irrelevant.
I don't know if there even is a University in Timbuktu (I suspect that there is not), but studying abroad will definitely make you more marketable. In the modern, global economy, you'll have familiarity with another culture, another language, and will be comfortable working with people in another culture (even if it's not Malian culture). You'll have handled weird situations and weird bureaucracy. No amount of US-based corporate red tape can phase you after what you'll have already dealt with at a foreign Interior Ministry in another language.
I'm not trying to sell you on it, since you're already going. I just wanted to let you know that you won't need to hide it on your resume. Hell, when I graduated, I had a separate section for international experience.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
I majored in computer science and studied abroad at the University of Nottingham in England for one semester. My school (University of St Thomas) did not have a study abroad programs of their own for comp sci but they matched me up with an Arcadia University program that would handle all the credit transfers for me. I was happy with the result--I made good progress toward graduating and had a great time abroad. Arcadia even had me attend a cultural orientation in London and stay with a family for a weekend in Southport which added to the experience. Definitely talk to your study abroad office, they're there to help you. I know Butler University offers a program very similar to Arcadia's. I met students over there participating in both.
We have excellent schools, the University of Iceland and ReykjavÃk University (who are the AI world champions). Most of the lectures will be in Icelandic but some in English and all the material is in English. We're in deep recession if you haven't heard so our terrible exchange rate means that stuff is very cheap to you.
Some colleges have sister schools or branches abroad. I know Georgia Tech has a GT Lorraine campus in France.
Do what I did and take a summer off.
Actually, I did a co-op (for which I received somewhat useless credit from my university) which sent me to Europe and Africa to do some computer work. They were specifically looking for a single person to do this, and it wasn't a common opportunity in my experience, but I jumped at the chance.
The following summer, I took part of the summer off from my required courses. For some courses, our short summer semester was divided in two, and in the first 6 weeks I took an outstanding gen-ed course, and in the second 6 weeks I went on a study abroad trip to Italy and studied Italian and Renaissance art, neither of which I had studied before or had a prior interest in. We studied at an Italian University from Monday to Friday (sometimes Thursday) and traveled around on the weekends, and then the last week was spent traveling full time.
That was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life, and the irrelevant-to-my-degree but relevant-to-my-travels courses served as a nice break from my beloved 1's and 0's and greatly enriched the experience.
In short, I highly recommend finding a way to study abroad, even if it delays your graduation briefly.
Likely outside of a specific programming language, city architecture or an architectural class would be worthwhile to take. Some cities, like Prague as an example where I've visited, have intricate/ornately designed buildings, cemetaries and bridges, etc. Here in Seattle it is somewhat grid-like with interesting buildings and construction as well. I didn't take Computer Science, but took an architecture class in London and it was very interesting and helpful to learn human nature, design, function and aesthetics.