I’m an American who just started my first year of undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore last month. I chose Singapore over the US because I wanted to live abroad, and Singapore checked pretty much every box for me: it’s in Asia, tropical, safe, developed, and English is the medium of instruction.
Now, even though NUS is a great university by global standards, the reaction I’ve gotten from many of my family members and friends is that choosing to study abroad as an American is inherently a downgrade, regardless of the university or country. That’s where my question comes from.
I was wondering if it’s an American dismissiveness thing, but it looks like other Americans in this thread think that’s nuts, too.
If you turned down Harvard, sure, maybe it’s a downgrade. I have to think a community or private school nobody’s ever heard of would be worse. Unless you’re planning to go back to the US to work, in which case US-first might bite you.