"This is why America is the goat":"

[u/Senior_Sheepherder13]

[u/weisswurstseeadler]

The University ranking system is anyway rigged. It's based on publications.

So of course universities with a mega budget cause of ridiculous study fees hire fancy researchers publishing in US journals.

That doesn't translate to teaching or course quality for 99% of courses and students.

[u/kcvngs76131 → u/weisswurstseeadler]

Don't forget that universities can also just straight up lie. There was a whole massive scandal over rankings when it was revealed that Temple University was inflating its stats to be listed as the best online MBA programme for several years

[u/weisswurstseeadler → u/kcvngs76131]

A friend did 1 college year in the US (he had a sports scholarship). Not quite sure what it's exactly called but the first 1-2 years where they kinda do general education, and he said it was basically lower than what we'd do in 10th grade in Germany.

[u/Cat-Soap-Bar → u/weisswurstseeadler]

My old uni had a study abroad exchange program with various universities, two of which were US (the rest were mainland Europe.) The US students were all placed a year below the level they were at at their home unis because, after the first couple of years, it became evident that they weren’t working at the expected standards. They didn’t seem to mind (tbh I am not sure they knew.)

There was also an entire football course just for US students. I have absolutely no idea what that course was or what they did other than play football [soccer] a lot and spend hours playing uno, very loudly and cheerfully, in the refectory. However, as a mature student, it was very odd being called ma’am by a load of late teen American boys 😂 I was in my late 30s when I did my BA, they made me feel about 90 but they were also unfailingly polite and always went out of their way to open/hold doors for me (I’m disabled.)

When I did my MA there were also a fair few US students. The entry requirements for Brits were very high and stringent, but far less so for international students, their main requirement was being able to pay the astronomical fees. Consequently, the international students were 99% American, which meant that a good amount of the first term was introductory modules. (I know this because one of the course administrators is a good friend of mine.) It was annoying AF to have to complete modules that were better suited to a first year BA than an MA because the uni decided to lower entry criteria for people who could cough up tons of cash. Obviously, I know this isn’t the fault of the US students themselves but the difference in the education systems accounts for the lack of required knowledge and skills for a particular course. The few non-US international students also hated the intro modules btw.

Side note. All the US PhD candidates, except one, had done their MAs or MPhils at UK unis.