THE INSITUTION

Lets get more serious. When traveling abroad for studying purposes, this decision could be the most important one. Your whole learning experience will depend on the quality of your teachers, your classes, your modules and the greatness of your title!...So, be careful with the institution you choose to enrol. 

My tip? Get professional or reliable advice

Find advise: If you are a very self-taught person, you may think that you can find the perfect place to invest your course money, which can be true, or not... Let me tell you from my personal experience working on the field, there are many nice looking webpages with photoshopped images and disguised information. Worldwide, education is business! And the companies in the industry are usually very good at marketing themselves online. Get informed from neutral sources and get in touch with previous experiencers of the institutions you are analysing.

Using an agency: There are many myths about this, and even as it is hard to believe, let me tell you that it is not more expensive to use the professional advise of an agent. Most of the time, they work by a  commission percentages and if you skip this 3rd party, the only thing you are doing is saving the institution to give away this commission fee, but your course wont become any cheaper because of this. 

So, if you are willing, find a well recognised local agency in your country that can give you some specific information about institution rankings,  previous experience with other clients/students, international mixes within the institutions, visa requirements and they can even share contacts with you of people who have previously studied the same you want in the institution you are feeling attracted by...., it can save you lots of time while you focus on the important things prior your trip.

Factors you have to take into account when choosing the institution you will be spending most of your time are locations within the city, facilities on campus, number of students per class, international mix, reputation within the country and worldwide and expertise on the subject you will be learning about.