I am writing this as my personal story on why I decided to go to college in the US. I want to preface this by acknowledging some of my privileges; I come from a well-off family that cared about my education, I have an EU passport and I had the chance to visit both the US and other EU countries before picking where to go.
About me: I was born and raised in the Balkans to a muslim Arab family, where I went to an American high school that helped me apply and then study in the US at the University of Rochester. I now work remotely in tech, while living in NYC.
Like many others, my parents had heard about the American dream and the opportunities the US presented, which inspired them to push me to try going to the US. I definitely grew up idolizing the US and wanting to go there, but nothing inspired me as much as actually visiting a university in the US. I was lucky enough to be able to attend a summer program at Stanford, which of course inspired me to come here even more. I started taking an SAT prep course and spent a lot of my free time on trying to prepare for US college admissions. I wanted to keep myself open to other options, so I considered universities worldwide that I would be interested in, but I was leaning towards either the UK or the US, mostly because they have the most top colleges in them and I could see myself spending university and working there afterwards. They are also both English speaking countries, which is way more convenient for me than having to potentially learn an additional 4th language in university.
The UK university applications process is way easier than the US, which surprisingly was a big factor for others, but I think it is still worth applying to both, so I did. I was pretty confident that I wanted to start a company in the tech space ever since I was young, but I definitely had hesitations on what I should study and where. I decided to go to the US, because even though it takes 4 years to graduate, I will get the flexibility to try out all kinds of classes. The US is also definitely expensive, but you can get a free college education depending on how strong your application is and which college you are looking to get into.US colleges have a lot more resources per student than UK colleges that have way bigger student bodies. The sense of community that US colleges offer, combined with having the US be a target for some of the most ambitious students from around the world. The courses were structured to continuously test and give out homework as well as projects, instead of the 1 exam at the end of the semester that decides the grade for the class in the UK.
Given the end goal for me as well as many international students is to make a good living following our education, I did some research on salaries and I realized that I could make way more money out of college and as an employee in the US than in the UK, especially if I go to a great university. Silicon Valley is the dream for a tech founder, and I was trying to get closer to that dream by studying in the US. The final major factor is that even though the US definitely has discrimination everywhere, I personally think that Europe in general is a far more racist and discriminatory place for minorities and this is coming from a tall white-passing man with a wealthy background, I can only imagine what it is like for others. All these factors made the US a much more appealing choice.
Author: Anonymous