College US vs. Europe?

Question

I'm in 9th grade right now, and I've been curious about this subject for a while. I am a dual citizen of the US and Ireland, but I currently live in the US. However, colleges here in the US are SO expensive! This made me wonder if I would be better off studying in a EU country? I am not sure what I will major in, but international business and economics has always fascinated me, so I might look into that area. I know English, and can SPEAK Spanish (mostly) fluently. I'm taking Spanish in school in hopes I'll be able to get the grammar and writing down. :) I am white racially, but Hispanic in ethnicity. The classes I hope to be/am taking in high school are:

9th Grade:

Study Hall

Honors Plane Geometry 21

PE (The state forces us to do 4 semesters)(1 semester)

Health (The state forces us to do 1 semester) (1 semester)

Honors Biology 11

Introduction to Business (1 semester)

International Business (1 semester)

Honors Spanish 31 (a 10th grade course)

Honors English 11

Honors World History 11

10th Grade:

Honors English 21

Honors Spanish 41 (11th grade course)

Honors World History 21 (I am required by the school to take 2 years)

Honors Pre-Calculus 31

Honors Trigonometry 41 (1 semester)

PE (1 semester)

Keyboarding 12 (As in piano keyboarding) (1 semester)

Study Hall

Public Speaking (1 semester)

Civics & Current Events (1 semester)

Chemistry 31

11th Grade:

AP Calculus AB

Physics 41

English 31

AP American History

PE (1 semester)

Statistics 42

Spanish 51

Study Hall

Computerized Accounting

12th Grade

AP Calculus BC

AP Environmental Science

English 41

College History 32 (In other words European History)(1 semester)

Study Hall

AP Spanish

Corporate Accounting (1 semester)

Keyboarding 22 (1 semester)

Advanced Accounting (1 semester)

PE (1 semester)

As for grades.....I have A- to A+ in all classes except English (I have a B+). I takepiano lessons, and am part of Mock Trial and Model UN. As for sports... I was thinking of trying out for tennis in spring. We are required to have at least 60 hours of community service to graduate, but I was thinking of doing somewhere near 120.

Anyways, I wanted to know what you think the pros and cons of going to college in the US vs. Europe for me specifically. Will a European degree be taken seriously in the US or vice-versa? I am not sure where I want to live, so I want my options open. If there's any information that I should know please mention it too. If it makes a difference, I plan to at least do a masters degree (or the equivalent in Europe, I'm not sure if they go by the same system.) Anyways, thank you!

Update:

@rawr: I KNOW it can be very expensive depending upon which school you go to. There are universities in my state that run anywhere from $10,000-$50,000. I just wanted to see if there were alternatives. Thanks for your input though....

Answer 1

Favorite Answer

One thing you need to know about European universities is that they don't operate on the 'liberal education' system that US universities have - so there's really no such thing as a 'major'. So for example if you wanted to study Economics, you need to already have decided on that before you apply to a university and apply directly for an Economics degree, you would then study Economics and related subjects from day 1.

An advantage to this is for example with law - there's no such thing as 'law school'. You apply to study law from year 1 in your university and graduate 4 or 5 years later with your law degree. There's no spending a few years beforehand studying totally unrelated stuff before you make up your mind what you want to do - you just get straight to it at age 18.

And yes of course each country recognises degrees from other countries - but you should always do some research in to universities which excel in the subject you want to study

Answer 2

You're "learning the language"? That's not going to be good enough for the very high level of comprehension needed for college, is it? England or Ireland might be better prospects.

Answer 3

You think colleges here are high? You go out of state it is double the price. You go out of the county it is probably triple or quadruple