[pm90]

May I propose an alternate solution? Get your degree from India. Most of the good universities have special considerations/ admission procedures for foreign students.

There will be plenty of differences from a University in the West; but for those with a sense for adventure, it might still be worthwhile

[PommeDeTerre]

Whether it's justified or not, the Indian higher education system in general has a pretty horrible reputation in North America and Europe. This is especially true when it comes to computing-related fields of study.

This bad reputation is likely due to the many extremely negative (and usually very few, if any, positive) experiences that many in the field have had with software development projects that were outsourced to India, and bungled by Indian-trained staff.

Getting such a degree may not be a bad thing to do, if it's the experience that one is interested in. But I'm not convinced that it'd get you a practical degree that'd be respected much, if at all, by employers or other institutions in western nations.

[pm90]

One thing that I wish more people would be aware of is that in India there are literally hundreds of 'engineering colleges' in every city. 90% of these colleges are junk, institutions started only to profit from the crazy demand for an engineering education. What that means is that there are too many people graduating with a 'Computer Science' degree. I'd be willing to bet that in a lot of these 'outsourcing experiences', they tried to hire the cheapest possible people and ended up with a crappy product.

Conversely, even the so called 'prestigious universities' produce graduates who are completely incapable of coding even if their life depended on it. But I've seen graduates from unknown universities with great talent and work ethic. They just didn't study that hard to get through the incredibly competitive exams when in high school.

I understand the reason for the bad reputation; but I think a HUGE opportunity is being wasted. There is a lot of talent out there, and some companies I'm familiar with have quietly recognized that. If you're building a team in India, make sure you're first employee can recognize talent and not just degrees.

Coming back to the original point: if, say, an American were to get a degree from some of the better known institutes, she would probably miss a lot of the exposure that being in a US university gives. Her professors wouldn't be that good. But if she's studying CS, she doesn't need the superb labs that I've seen in the US universities. The best universities use textbooks written by American authors, and have students that are quite proficient in programming.

I'm not sure how it would turn out, but it's not something that you can dismiss that easily.

[cafard]

No doubt true--but sorting out the reputation of colleges is hard enough when one can drive there in a day. I imagine that evaluating an Indian school would be very hard for most Americans without prior connections to that world.

[rayiner]

Indian degrees get very little respect here in the U.S. even relative to random "directional state schools." There is a reason Indian students almost always do some sort of graduate education here in the U.S.

If you're an American and smart and capable, the way to go is to load up on community college credits in HS, do a year of CC, then transfer to a state school with reasonable tuition for the least year and change.

If you've got some programming skill, it should be even easier. I earned enough during my summers in college programming to pay most of my in-state tuition and cost of living at my state school, and it wasn't even a particularly cheap one.

[r00fus]

It's not just Indian degrees, it's almost all foreign degrees from institutions that aren't well known. My wife's close-to-MBA-level BAC+5 degree from a reputable French university (ie, good but not Sorbonne) was pretty much not considered when she was searching for employment in the states. After she got an MBA here, she was much more employable.

[gav]

I've never had a problem with my UK degree in the states, though this may be because I'm at the point where it's just a check mark next to "the candidate has a relevant degree".

[pm90]

That actually sounds like a very good idea. I've heard that community colleges in US don't get the recognition that they deserve.

[seanmcdirmid]

For all the problem the US has, we still have much better universities than most countries, the effect that Indians would rather come here to study and get a decent degree which is actually quite a value compared to some of the shadier options back home. If you can't get into an IIT, which is very very competitive, there simply aren't any other decent options. Its not a serious option.

If you are going to go abroad to get a degree in a technical subject, I wouldn't recommend India or China. Singapore, Hong Kong, Austrailia, New Zealand have strong English speaking programs, Japan and Korea also have strong skills if you are willing to learn another language.

[te_chris]

Only if the institution is accredited wherever you want to work. I'm not at all saying that India does not have world class institutions, more that you really need to do your research with this stuff as I know here in NZ we have a very specific list of which institutions we'll acknowledge qualifications from and which we won't.

[geoka9]

It looks like for programming jobs it really doesn't matter where your degree is from. So this maybe a valid idea (in fact any university will do as long as you can speak the language they use to teach).

But for other occupations (doctors?) - I'm not so sure. Probably a Canadian medical school graduate will be able to get a residency position in the US, but a graduate from India?

[w1ntermute]

Actually, you're completely wrong. There are a ton of foreign medical graduates from India in the US. If you have ever seen an ethnically Indian doctor, there's a good chance he/she went to medical school in India.

[geoka9]

Did they get their American licenses straight out of medical school in India? Or they had to study for and take all the exams their American colleagues do?

[w1ntermute]

I believe they have to take tests to get certified as foreign medical graduates (probably more rigorous than the ones taken by American medical students). After that, they have to go through residencies in America.

[up_and_up]

Not a bad idea. What are the reputable schools a westerner could get into?

[pm90]

For engineering, the best university is IIT(govt. funded) and BITS Pilani (private). To get into them, you must take their entrance examinations (which are very competitive).

The National Institute of Technologies are a group of universities that give direct admissions to foreign nationals [0]. But be careful, only a few highly reputed ones might give a competitive education.

There are other universities like ManipalTech[1], VIT[2] which also give direct admissions to foreign nationals.

[0] https://www.dasanit.org/ [1] http://www.manipal.edu/INTERNATIONALSTUDENTS/UNDERGRADUATE/P... [2]http://www.vit.ac.in/

[w1ntermute]

Considering the quality of life[1] in India, I don't think it's worth it.

1: http://postmasculine.com/a-dust-over-india