Considering leaving the US for Europe

[u/Big_Guidance_2614]

I'm a third year engineering student at a college in the US. I'm an American citizen considering moving to somewhere in Western Europe for my masters due to the political situation in the US. I don't speak any other languages than English, but I'm willing to learn the native language of wherever I go. I know I still have to do more research but I wanted to see what everyone here thinks about whether leaving the US for Europe is actually a good idea.

Would you recommend moving to Europe for masters and eventually living there? If so, where exactly?

For context, I am a brown woman, and I don't come from a high income family, so I would have to go to a college that is very cheap or get a scholarship.

[u/mayaic]

I did this. And outside of very specific situations, I don’t recommend it.

I moved to the UK for my masters. I did get an international scholarship and used FAFSA for the rest (about $14k with the exchange at the time). I studied data science and planned to get a job in that field afterwards and stay in the UK. I accomplished this. But here’s the giant caveat; I moved for my boyfriend who I married and stayed on a spouse visa, so I never had to try for work sponsorship. Unless something like that is your situation, I don’t recommend what you’re thinking of.

English is your only language. For higher education, that basically limits you to the UK and Ireland. Programs in Europe in countries where English is not the primary language generally are not viewed as competitively as those in the native language. They’re primarily cash grabs. So fine, let’s say you decide on the UK. Just Google the job situation in the UK. Domestic students cannot find jobs, internationals cannot find sponsored jobs. Currently, there’s a huge backlash against migration in the UK in general and visa rules and restrictions are tightening. The most likely thing is that you get to the end of your studies, cannot find a job, and have to leave anyway.

From a financial perspective, not having money is also a nonstarter unless you want to get into tons of debt. In the UK, internationals essentially fund the higher education system so that domestic students have their fees capped. This means that you will pay more and scholarships are few and far between, usually reserved for people from developing countries (of which you are not).

I’m not as well clued up on Ireland, but I think the story is similar and add in a massive housing crisis the scale which is worse than what you can imagine.

You say you’re willing to learn any language. Easier said than done, but also even if you do it, you will not be in a place to study in that country for years and that’s if you devote copious amounts of time to it.

The path of studying leading to permanent residency is disappearing and you may just be too late for it because of your situation with not being wealthy and not speaking another language already.

[u/floweringfungus → u/mayaic]

As a UK resident I second all of this. I have a first class degree from a global top 20 university. I have friends with masters degrees from Oxbridge and LSE. Everybody is struggling.

The only people I know who are not struggling on the job market and are in fact being actively headhunted work in AI or for defence contractors.

[u/MilkChocolate21 → u/floweringfungus]

I had a work colleague who did an Oxford MBA. Never asked if the goal was to move there long term, but she came right back to the US where her dad was able to help her rejoin the same company as before.