ASK HN: Master degree in CS - USA or Sweden? | Hacker News Reader

ASK HN: Master degree in CS - USA or Sweden?

3 pointsJBiserkov5 comments

I'm about to finish my bachelor degree in informatics this spring. What are the advantages/disadvantages of learning/living in Sweden/USA

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Your question is not specific: Which school are you about to graduate from? Which school do you plan to attend in Sweden or USA? What have you done this far and what do you plan to do next? What do you strive for in your life?

At least, you should read http://paulgraham.com/cities.html

I guess it heavily depends on how much you're planning to spend. I'm not sure if the EU-wide tuition equality is already in place for Bulgarian and Romanian nationals, but if it is, that will make Sweden substantially cheaper than the US, unless you can get some kind of grant or scholarship.

EDIT: If you're planning to go to a top university, the US or the UK are probably good places to go. Unfortunately, the Times' university table http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=24... seems to be down at the moment.

Sweden/Finland: Free tuition. Only cost comes from the obligation that you must be a member of the Student Government/Union. That's about $100 / year. Living is more expensive than in the US.

If you are Bulgarian as your profile states, you come from inside the EU/EEA area, thus also Danish universities would be free for you.

If you want to build best networks for business, get into top universities in the USA. Tuition isn't that much better. Start-up scene is also nearly non-existent in Scandinavia - severe lack of funding opportunities.

If you plan to work in the USA, go to a US-based university. If in EU-area...

Maybe I'm a little biased but I'm going to pick the USA, and in particular, probably California. Here are 3 major reasons:

1. Perfect weather

2. Silicon Valley

3. We have a good portion of the top technical schools in the world (Stanford, Cal-Tech, Harvey Mudd, UC Berk, UCLA, USC), I think proportionally more than any other area at least.

But ultimately it depends on what you want to do. I personally go to UCLA, it's an awesome school, the faculty is great, the curriculum is challenging, and everyone is very friendly. I would recommend it, contact me if you want more information, charlesju[at]g-m-a-i-l(dot)com

It depends where are you from.

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