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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 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.
Where, exactly? If you expect classes in English, then you betta' stay/study in the USA.
Or, you know, someplace like England where English originated. Unless y'all totally insist on learning in American, like you know?
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.
Not quite. In my university (Uppsala, Sweden) for example, most higher level courses are taught in English, the teachers and students are fluent in English, and there is a vibrant international community. The computer science program here is not bad, but I'd say it really doesn't matter... going abroad for a term or two will give you friends and contacts for life, invaluable experience and a much, much more attractive CV. So, just go for it!
(Shameless plug: studying at swedish universities is totally free, except for a nominal 40$ students union fee =)
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.
Nothing in the english/spanish world has the same opportunities in CS as the US, with few exceptions.
Which leads into my question: where is he currently studying? If the answer is MIT then your exceptions, the big names in Europe, - Oxbridge; Imperial College, London; Complutense de Madrid - are options. If it's somewhere no-one outside his state has heard of, the suitable suggestions are considerably different.
... 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.
Where, exactly? If you expect classes in English, then you betta' stay/study in the USA.
I'm from Denmark, and I graduated in computer science a few months ago from the University of Aarhus. All courses after the first year are required to be thought in English. Heck, we use American textbooks in most of our second and third year courses. But hey, if you ever come to Denmark, then don't spend all your time studying. That's not what going abroad for 6-12 months is all about. Make some new friends, go drinking and partying, pass your courses of courses, and come home with something cool to put on your CV :)
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
My nephew studied at a top notch "foreign" University, McGill in Momtreal. McGill ranks right up there with Harvard & MIT according to the The Gourman Report. You may find the Gourman Report useful in selecting a university with rated computer science curricula.
However, in the long, run two things you may consider:
1. CS alone may be "not enough" for good jobs now or in the future. Consider a strong related minor or additional major (say science, business, etc. ) to boost you marketable skills. CS, like Math is a required skill for the vast majority of the best future jobs, Don't think what's past is prologue for the future.
2. The best philosophy is probably to study hard now (get 2 majors in the U.S,) and leave travel to later or summers. When you look for a job, I doubt that studying in a foreign country is likely to add much, if any. It may even raise questions as to your diligence and motivation toward your career rather than fun.
What's past is NOT ALWAYS prologue for the future!
Odd thing is, we can understand perfectly when you lot use word like pants and vests and pavements wrongly, whereas you lot get hopelessly confused when you hear the slightest pronunciation difference.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
You really can't learn Chinese (written) in just a year or two.
Unless you're really a genius.
It's my first language, and I remember vividly the horrors of spending primary school cramping the characters into my memory. Worse, there are still plenty of characters that I can't reliably recall how to write (reading is much easier).
I've heard that spoken Chinese is much easier to learn for foreigners since there's few grammatical constructs.
Don't quote me on this.
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!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
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
I'll let you in on a secret. If your plan on getting a degree and going straight into work, you don't really have to concern your self to much with the quality of the course work.
As with in a year or two of starting employment you either have it or you don't. The people with the natural skill always bubble to the top no matter where they are from.
Also on initial employment during the interview phase foreign workers are typically automatically given a leg up on the locals. In most countries employers have figured out the foreign workers work harder.
Oh and the comment about the US having the best CS education. Stop reading American ratings. It's simply not true. The quality of the end result graduate is what matters. I have employed people from many many countries. There is very little that differentiates the quality of the candidate. The biggest issues with foreign workers are 1. English language skills, and the most annoying 2. Culturally indoctrinated fear of failure. ( Fear of failure results in employees lying about skills, completion times, and work completeness. Drives me nuts. If you can't do it SAY SO! we will work around it. )
Full disclosure - I am an NTU alumnus.
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?
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
What? Have you even BEEN to America? You'll find more pronunciation differences ABOUND here. America is a melting pot; people from all over the globe come here and put their own spin on English. (I myself was asked as a teenager where I was from, due to my apparently odd accent. I had at that time never even been outside of the country, my family had just moved around a lot inside America. I didn't think I had an accent at all.) Natural Americans have pronunciation differences even from other natural Americans, but no one is getting hopelessly confused here.
Don't put advice in your sig.
There is no comma in "Imperial College London", yes it is silly but then so was Sykes (rector when the college was rebranded).
I'm not a US citizen, but I'm not european either. I just finnished a semester of studying in Finland as an exchange student in Helsinki University of Technology's CS department (TKK) and I can say that the program is really good, and Finland is a really fun place. There's lots of courses in english; I took mostly theoretical CS stuff since I'm pretty advanced in my studies, but there's something for everyone there. I really recommend TKK both for its CS courses and its university life. You'll meet a different culture and have fun. As for the visa, I got a 6 month student residence permit (since I don't really need a visa to study there), which allowed me to work for 15 or 20 hours a week. Getting a tech job there is fairly easy for people who study at TKK and you only need to be fluent in english. BTW, everyone speaks english there. You really don't need to learn finnish unless you want to. In six months the only people I met who didn't speak english were a bus driver and a cashier. Go to Finland.
Because we speak English, those colonials speak American English, we have the superset of the language (we also get lots of film/television from the states) so understand it all, whereas the yankies don't have a clue. Oh and much like stamps (the UK does not have to put a country on because we invented them) there is no British English, it's damn English everyone else speaks some other form like American English or Australian English etc.
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
As far as I know, no restrictions. Anyone can come here and study for a Masters or Bachelors programme. In some programmes we have over half of the students from other countries. In fact, you can even get paid from the Swedish government through the Student Grant system! All you need to do is to find a nice Swedish guy/girl to live together with. When you share address, and "live under conditions similar to marriage" then you are automatically in "registered partnership", and eligible for national student grants (ca 350$ a month, with optional extra 600$ as loans)
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.
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.
It really is simple like that and a lot of people are already doing it. That's why the masters programmes at my uni (KTH) are crammed with mostly asian (China, Pakistan, etc) foreign students every year, coming here for a free (as in beer) and decent education. It's a pretty sweet deal of course and has caused some public debate whether this is viable or not, since it's all tax payers money funding it. In one of my CS courses there was an african guy in his late 30's enrolled so I guess it's indeed possible to work something out.
lived and worked in London for just over a year; this was not my experience. talking about subways and (street) blocks got me no end of odd looks. not to mention the confusion over what it meant to table something. at least one friend got herself into a rather awkward situation upon announcing to a random guy in a bar that she didn't like to wear pants (she preferred skirts). the confusion was entirely bi-directional: it took me quite a while to figure out what a skip was, and was reduced to a stammer when a female co-worker asked me for a rubber (i eventually handed her an elastic band).
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
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 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.
When you look for a job, I doubt that studying in a foreign country is likely to add much, if any. It may even raise questions as to your diligence and motivation toward your career rather than fun.
How odd. Over here, having spent one or two semesters in a foreign country is almost mandatory. It shows you can rely on yourself, are open for new experiences and culturally curious. Typically, it also improves your foreign language skills.
But that might be a cultural difference right there.
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