The Quantifiable Criteria

With more than 1,700 English-taught programs, it can be hard to know how to narrow them down. We’re going to start by looking at four specific areas that are really quantifiable to help you start the process.

Slide 1: Choosing a University in Europe

Slide 2: Quantifiable Criteria

  • Budget
  • Qualifications
  • Field of study
  • Location – or not?

So with more than 1,700 English-taught programs, it can be hard to know how to narrow them down. We're going to start by looking at four specific areas that are really quantifiable to help you start the process. We're going to look at considerations when defining your budget, we're going to look at admissions criteria, we're going to look at figuring out the fields of study to explore, and also how much weight location should play into your decision. 

Slide 3: Adjusting Your Budget

  • 40,000/3 = $13,333 for 3 year program (11,316 euros)
  • 40,000/3..5 = $11,428 for 3.5 year program (9,699 euros)

So let's start by looking at budget. This is something you might think is super clear, but it's not. Let's say that when looking at US universities, you know you have a budget of $10,000 a year. Is that budget based on a four year program? Does it include room and board? Let's pretend that that's just your budget for tuition. If you have a $10,000 a year tuition for a US university, that probably means that you have $40,000 budgeted for overall tuition for the entire degree. So the majority of programs in Europe are three or three-and-a-half years long. So you need to know what your number is for each of those. So let's use that 10,000 number just because it's nice and round. So to figure out a three year program, I would divide 40,000 by three and know that my budget is $13,333 a year for three year programs. The same thing for three-and-a-half years, the budget is $11,428 for three-and-a-half year programs. 

So we also need to convert that to euros because the database is stated in euros simply because the exchange rates change so frequently. What I would do though, with both of these, is I would search up to 15,000 a year, focusing on the lower numbers, so that you don't miss out on something else that might be there and have a scholarship option to bring it down within your budget. 

Slide 4: Scholarships

  • Italy – income based at public universities
  • CAF in France
  • Holland Scholarships in Netherlands
  • Finland mandates

So speaking of scholarships, let's talk about that for a minute. So there aren't as many for international students, more of them are for third world countries. It's usually school specific as to whether or not they offer them, and there are sometimes tuition waivers based on merit. But there are these other opportunities as well. For instance, in Italy, at public universities, the tuition is based on family income. So in our database, we have Italian tuition at public universities listed as the highest bracket that they have, so that you can budget accordingly. Because you actually don't find out until you get there and you've already been accepted. And you go and, you know, bring in all your paperwork when you're registering, that's when they tell you what your tuition is. So it's a little bit nerve racking. So I think it's best to budget for the highest there. 

So then there are things like in France, they have CAF, and this is something that even international students can apply for. And it's sort of a housing stipend, usually it's around 100 euros a month, which certainly helps. And even though you get there and you apply, and you don't get the money for a few months, it's paid retroactively. So you're going to get it from your date of application, which is pretty cool as well. 

In the Netherlands, most schools offer Holland scholarships. This is just for the first year. And it's 5000 euros for the first year of study. And then Finland is really interesting. You know, Finland, used to offer free tuition to everyone-including international students. When that changed and they started charing tuition for international students, there was also a rule passed that required them to offer scholarships to tuition paying students. And these aren't just sort of, you know, piddly scholarships. For instance, there's this school,where all first year students receive an 80% tuition waiver. If they pass their first year of full time study, then the rest of their years, they have a 60% tuition waiver. And then, if you graduate on time, you receive a refund for the final year of tuition. So, you know, those things can matter a lot, is what I guess I'm trying to say. 

You're not going to see many living cost scholarships though for the tuition-free countries. And I say this because sometimes people want to limit their search to just the free programs, but scholarships and living costs can make a big difference. So let's look at an example of how this plays out.

Slide 5: Oslo, Norway

  • Tuition = 0
  • Housing = $4,344
  • Food = $3,722
  • Books = $1,240
  • Transportation = $744
  • Other/Leisure = $2,978

So there's Norway. Norway is one of the countries that offers free tuition at their public universities. I'm not going to lie, it's an amazing country. It's peaceful, but vibrant at the same time. But I'll tell you what, I've traveled to a lot of expensive cities, but I was blown away at how much day-to-day things cost here, like public transportation and other things you need for day-to-day living like band aids are crazy expensive. 

Slide 6: Tallinn, Estonia

  • Average Tuition = $3,840
  • Housing = $2,120
  • Food = $2,350
  • Books = $400
  • Transportation = 0
  • Other/Leisure = $2,000

Then you have Estonia. It's lesser known, and what I think of as a hidden gem for international students. It’s considered a Scandinavian country like Norway, but doesn't have the Nordic price tag, as you can see here. Now let's compare them here, if I can get the slide to change. 

Slide 7: Cost of Living and Tuition

Oslo:

  • Tuition = 0
  • Housing = $4,344
  • Food = $3,722
  • Books = $1,240
  • Transportation = $744
  • Other/Leisure = $2,978

Total = $13,078

Scholarships? No

Tallinn:

  • Average Tuition = $3,840
  • Housing = $2,120
  • Food = $2,350
  • Books = $400
  • Transportation = 0
  • Other/Leisure = $2,000

Total = $10,720

Scholarships? Yes

There we go. So here we go. We have Oslo, Norway, free tuition, their budget. We have Tallinn, the average tuition in Estonia is $3,840. And so, as you can see, even though tuition in Norway is free, and Estonia is not, you pay less overall for a year of study in Estonia. And that's not even without possible scholarships that you may qualify for. 

Slide 8: 

Only 185 of the 2,000+ programs in the database cost more than $20,000 per year!

But here's the thing, we have over 2,000 programs in our database right now, bachelors programs, and only 185 of them cost more than $20,000 a year. And most of these are held at American universities that I wouldn't suggest anyway. It's really skewed my entire frame of reference. When I was first building the database, I still had the US tuition frame of reference. So even a $20,000 a year program seemed like a bargain compared to private and out-of-state tuition here. But now as I enter new programs in the database, I find myself thinking like $15,000 a year, that's outrageous! It's a good problem to have. 

Slide 9: Budget Action Step 1

So let's get into the action steps here around budget. You're going to find them in the download section to look at in more depth. But what we want to do is we want to figure out your numbers, so you know what you're looking for in the database. The first thing we want to do is figure out your tuition budget, like we did just a couple of minutes before. Don't worry about your room and board budget, we'll get to that in another step. But you want to figure out in euros, your budget for three year programs, three-and-a-half year programs, and four year programs. There's more information about this on the download. Please do look at it and fill it out. We're going to be using those later on. 

Slide 10: Budget Action Step 2

So Action Step number 2 is we want to ballpark your living cost budget. This might be based on room and board in the US. And you need to remember that housing in Europe doesn't include meal plans. I think it's on the homework sheet that I say that if your budget for housing does include food — you know, if you're basing it on US prices — you're going to want to subtract about 300 from that to give your housing budget. Again, that's on the download. You're going to find that there. 

We also want to look at flights home, how much it's going to cost for you to get — now I suggest, because you don't know where you're going to be going, see what the average round trip ticket price from your hometown to Paris is, and multiply that by the number of times you would come home. It will not likely be more than two or three times that you're coming home a year. So you have that budget there. 

So you might need to adjust your tuition number if you're looking at — like for instance, a program in Copenhagen, you would want to lower your ceiling for tuition because it's a more expensive city. But if you're looking at a program in Tallinn, like we talked about before, you might be able to increase your tuition budget, though it's not likely that you'll need to, since the cost of living is so much less. So we'll talk more about how to figure out these different costs a little bit later. For now, it's most important to know what you are and aren't able to spend for tuition, as well as living expenses. 

Slide 11: Admissions Qualifications

Germany, Denmark, Italy, Norway, and Netherlands college (not community college) Associate’s require one of the following:

  • IB diploma
  • 1 year of college
  • 3-4 AP scores of 3+
  • Sometimes Associate’s Degree
  • More APs don’t give you a better chance

So let's move on to the next quantifiable, which are the admissions qualifications. It's another one of those concrete factors. You can learn about this extensively in the Admissions course, but we will touch on it a little bit now. In the US, there are many reasons that the admissions process isn't transparent. The mentality here is that many people equate selectivity with quality, which is not correlated. Universities are then motivated to game the system, encouraging kids who would never get in to apply, since more rejections lead to a higher selectivity number. Luckily, that mindset is not the same in Europe. There are generally a set of criteria that a student must meet in order to be accepted. And these criteria, they're defined and they're transparent. 

So here's the thing, there are certain countries in which an American high school diploma is not the equivalent of that country's educational standards. In Denmark, Germany Italy, Norway and the Netherlands — but I want to note that it's only research universities in the Netherlands — you're going to need some AP scores, and IB diploma or one year of college or a full associates degree

Now the nice thing is they tell you how many you need. For most of them, You know it’s three AP scores of 3 or higher, for some, it’s four AP scores of 3 or higher. It doesn't matter if you have 10, it doesn't matter if you have 15, it doesn't matter if you have a 5 instead of a 3. That's just what you need so that your high school diploma is the same as theirs, if you don't have an IB or the college credits.Again, you want to look at the specific requirements though, for instance, Germany has very specific AP tests that are required which depend on the type of program you are applying to. But don't let this freak you out. This is only 300 of the 1,700+ programs that have these requirements. So if you don't have APs, you're fine. 

Slide 12: Tons of Options

And I want to show you that here. This is a map I put together because people do hear me talk about admissions and think, “Oh, no, I don't have APs. I'm really going to be limited.” But if you look here, this shows the green. Those are the countries that don't require you to have AP scores, or an SAT requirement countrywide for admissions. So you're really, really fine.

Slide 13: Qualifications Action Step

Are there countries you should eliminate due to admissions criteria?

So let's move on to the action step. Are there countries you should eliminate due to admissions criteria? I've talked to some students who find us their junior year and haven't taken APs and feel like then they need to take four AP courses their senior year. I really don't advise that. I think the focus should be finding other programs that would be a good fit for the admissions criteria that you have. So are there countries you should eliminate due to the admissions criteria? Take a note of that. That's going to help us weed things out as we create your own shortlist of programs. 

Slide 14: What to Study

So the next quantifiable is about field of study. We talked earlier about how many of the programs are three years in duration. A lot of that is because there aren't the non-major related Gen Ed requirements that we have here. A student in a chemistry program, for instance, won't be required to take Philosophy 101, though they will have the opportunity to explore non-chemistry related areas through their electives and through semester abroad. 

What this means though is when you apply to Europe, you're applying to a specific program at that university. Each department even usually has their own admission staff. It's basically like declaring your major ahead of time. I'm often asked what happens if later on you change your program, like people change their major here. Now the issue is this would require applying to a different program. Depending on what your school offers in English, it might mean applying to a different school. And then what about the credits? Well, it depends. If I'm transferring from an International Relations program to a Political Science program, it’s likely that there are similar required courses. You wouldn't have to take those over again. However, if I'm switching from International Relations to Computer Science, it's not likely that there are similar required courses, but often your credits will transfer as electives in those cases. 

So I love David Sedaris, and I was reading his most recent book and love this quote, “It used to be that I could eavesdrop on a conversation and learn that two men at the next table were doctors, or that one was the massage therapist and the other sold life insurance for cats. Now though, I have no idea of what anyone does, especially if the people I'm listening in on are under 40. I hear the words “integration” and “platform” a lot, but not in any recognizable context.” 

And I know it, I really relate to this feeling about the career choices there are these days that weren't around when I was in school myself. Just think about how many fields of study there are now that weren't around 25 to 35 years ago. You know, artificial intelligence, sustainability studies, digital media, cybersecurity. There are these possibilities we might not know to guide our kids towards — which is where diving into the database can be super helpful. 

Slide 15: General Areas of Study

So let's jump into fields of study. These are the general areas of study that we have all of the programs divided into. Each general area has a number of specific areas under it as well. So there are some students who know what general area they want to study. My one of our members, for instance, knew that he was interested in international relations and political sciences and the cultural language of the Middle East. Other than language, all of these are under social sciences. And there's actually a specific area called area studies, that almost always includes languages, that is under social sciences. So he could dive into the social sciences area of the database, using his other criteria around cost and admissions. So the program he actually is going to apply to is an example of one that combines many areas of study. 

In the first year, students study economics, history, culture, and politics. And then they start specializing on a region and language of that region that they select out of 8 choices, and 22 corresponding languages. And they look at those subjects with the focus on that region. And of course, it includes intensive language learning as well. 

So I know a lot of kids have interests in more than one area that aren't in the same field, like maybe economics and political science. And there are a number of programs that combine these. And when there are, they're listed under both business and they're listed under social sciences. So you don't have to worry about, you know, if there's a program that combines business and social sciences, you will find that in your social sciences search, and you'll find that same program in your business search. 

So some examples of programs like this, there are PPE programs, which are Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. These are really popular. And then there's sometimes variations on it like PPLE, which is Psychology, Political Science, Law, and Economics. And of course, there's some programs that are really broad, like a general social science program, a humanities program, a business program, and such. Many of these have students choose a specialization the second year, which is similar to declaring a major. There are also some liberal arts options. Most of these are in the Netherlands. And they allow students to choose their major from a much larger selection after the first year. 

Slide 16: Field of Study Action Step

  • Have an idea of what you want to study?

Jot them all down, even if they seem unrelated.

  • No idea

Start with the Netherlands and Ireland. Write down all that look interesting without worrying about budget or admissions. Are there themes?

So let's talk about the action steps for this one. This is a pretty important one. Let's pretend that you have absolutely no idea what you want to study at all. The first thing I'd suggest you do is to complete the course on choosing an area of study or have me do a what's my major list for you. We'll get into this topic more in depth in that course. But what I would suggest is going through the database and seeing what's out there, see what your choices are. I would start with the Netherlands and Ireland and check out the descriptions and websites for any program that catches your eye. Write down the ones that you find interesting so you can look for themes. Do this without the admissions and budget in mind. It's simply about seeing what's out there. And the reason I recommend the Netherlands is that they have the greatest number of English-taught programs, outside of Ireland of course. The range, the diversity, for both of these countries is huge. Unlike say France, which is mostly business programs. And most of their websites are really, really good and thorough. 

So if you do have an idea of what you want to study, even if it's several areas, jot them all down, even if they seem unrelated. We'll get back to how to use this again in Lesson Three when we do the database walkthrough. 

Slide 17: Should Country Be a Factor?

So the last quantifiable we want to talk about is location. And this is actually one I don't think you should use, though many students initially think it's important. So we often think about places we have been, or we know of, and people tend to hone in on those. But there are so many places in Europe that I we might not think about when planning a vacation that are incredibly cool. So narrow it first on cost and program and see what pops up. In the next lesson, we're going to talk about what to look for in a city. 

But here are the other reasons I think location should not be a main factor. First of all, it's limiting. Let's look at France again. So they have what? 59 English-taught programs. Many of these are at expensive American schools. So the other 34, there are a couple of fashion design programs, a couple of social sciences, a few hospitality programs, and the rest are all business. So if you aren't interested in business, France probably wouldn't be a good fit for you. That said, you may have an opportunity to still study in France. Which brings me to the next reason that I don't think you should focus on location when you're looking for your degree program. I'm going to get into that in a minute. But let me explain this map to you because I love this map. And what this is, the number in parentheses is the number of English-taught programs in that country. And then the dollar sign, that's the average tuition for international students in that country. So I just love looking at this and seeing the choices and seeing the differences in price. I think it's really cool. 

Slide 18: Erasmus Plus

  • Study abroad while you study abroad!
  • Pay the same tuition as your home university

So anyway, let's go on to the Erasmus program. This is one of the coolest things about studying in Europe. So the EU sees the benefits of young people having international exposure. So they put money into encouraging students to study outside of their home country. So Erasmus Plus is an umbrella organization of the EU that covers many programs that encourage mobility among young people. So here's the awesome part. All students of European universities, even international students, can participate in their semester abroad, their study abroad programs. So if you're a student at a European university that participates in Erasmus, and most do, you have the opportunity to spend up to 12 months of your program on a European study abroad, and sometimes outside of Europe as well. This can be studying at another university, or it can be doing an internship in another country, or a combination of the two. You can use the 12 months for each level of study, meaning you can participate when you're getting your bachelor's degree. And then again, when you're getting your master's degree if you're in Europe. 

So there are logistical benefits to this program as well. For one, you're assured that your credits will transfer. And there are also structures in place to assist with housing and student life. And all of the internships have a written agreement that include a clear focus and specific project that will offer the student exposure to an occupation, an industry or field. So kind of make sure that you're not going to be spending your time fetching coffee. 

So there are a couple of reasons the Erasmus program is important to you in your search. First of all, remember that programs are usually just three years long. So spending a semester in another country, that's a significant part of the time. The other thing is that this opens up opportunities to study in countries that might be outside of your budget, because you paid the same amount as you pay for tuition at your home school. 

Slide 19: Should Country Be a Factor?

So if you're — let's go back to that map here. Let's say you are a student in Latvia, and you're paying $3,795 a year, and you end up going to Spain and your tuition is $15,000 a year for that semester, you're still paying the Latvia in $3,795 a year for tuition. So that's just one really cool aspect of it. 

Slide 20: Erasmus Plus

So there are also living stipends that you can apply for through Erasmus as well. But one other thing here is that you might be thinking, well, how could this help you study in France, if you don't want to study business? The thing is that there are a lot of schools that offer courses taught in English that aren’t part of a full degree program. And these are mostly there for the study abroad students. So there are a lot of options to take your electives, or whatever else, at schools in France that aren't listed in our database because it's not a full degree program. So you have a lot more options through study abroad, to choose to study in different places. 

We have an interview with the President of the Erasmus Student Network on one of our podcast episodes and he talked a lot about the program. And it's just really cool, you might want to check out that episode. 

Slide 21: Lesson 1 Takeaways

  • How to adjust your tuition budget for the European durations
  • How to factor living expenses and scholarship opportunities into your budget
  • Why free tuition might not offer the best bargain
  • Why you don’t need to freak out about APs
  • How to explore the different fields of study
  • Why location should not be a huge factor in your search

So that's Lesson One. You've learned how to adjust your tuition budget for European durations. You learned how to factor living expenses and scholarship opportunities into your budget. You learned why inexpensive tuition might be less expensive than free ones. You learned why you don't need to freak out about APs, how to explore the different fields of study, and why location should not be a huge factor in your search. 

Lesson Two is going to help you focus on what you should look for when you're looking at specific cities and programs and schools. It would also help you identify resources and red flags. 

So work on these action step programs, and then let's get to Lesson Two.