Choosing a school by its program means starting from what you will actually study over the next three to four years, and only then considering the school’s name. The reverse approach — picking the school first and then settling for whatever major is available there — is the most common cause of switching majors midway or graduating with a degree that goes unused.
This article is for students and parents at the stage of building their school list.
Why rankings do not answer your question
University rankings measure things that can be measured at the whole-institution level: research output, faculty-to-student ratio, academic reputation, and degree of internationalization.
None of these indicators tell you how the specific program you intend to study is actually organized. A school ranked highly thanks to a strong biomedical division may have a very thin design department. Conversely, a school that does not sit near the top of the overall ranking may have an engineering faculty tightly connected to local industry and a very high graduate employment rate.
Rankings also shift depending on each ranking body’s methodology. The same school can sit hundreds of places apart between two different tables. If your decision changes depending on which table you read first, that is not a solid enough basis.
Choosing a school by its program starts with the syllabus
Every serious school publishes its curriculum syllabus on its official website. This is the most important document, and also the one fewest people read.
The syllabus shows what is taught each term, which courses are mandatory, which are electives, how many credits, and whether there is an internship. Reading the syllabi of three schools side by side, you will immediately see that three programs sharing the same name can differ enormously in content.
When reading, pay attention to three points. First, the ratio between theoretical foundation courses and applied courses. Second, which year specialization begins — some programs start specializing from year one, others not until year three. Third, how the final-year project or thesis is structured.
Six questions to answer before building your list
What does this program teach in the first year? If the first year consists entirely of general courses and you already know your intended major, consider a program that specializes earlier.
Who teaches the specialized courses? Faculty lists are usually on the department’s page. Whether instructors have real-world industry experience or are purely academic directly affects what happens in class.
What do graduates of this program typically do? Many schools publish employment reports by major. School-wide figures are far less useful than program-level ones.
Does the program require an internship, and does the school help find placements? A well-organized mandatory internship is worth far more than marketing claims about a corporate network.
What are the entry requirements, and what are you still missing? Answer this early so there is still time to catch up, especially on language certificates and prerequisite courses.
What is the total cost over four years? Not just tuition. This will be covered in detail in the next section.
Distinguishing a major’s name from its content
A difficulty few anticipate is that major names are not standardized across countries, or even across schools within the same country.
The same training content might be called “Data Science” at one school, “Applied Statistics” at another, and sit neatly within a narrow specialization of the Mathematics department at a third. Conversely, two programs both named “Business Administration” can differ in more than half their courses.
So when searching, do not stop at the major’s name. Take three to five specific courses you want to study and work backward to find which programs offer them. This method is slower but gives far more accurate results.
A trustworthy sign is the course description section. A school that publishes detailed descriptions for each course tends to be one whose program has been seriously reviewed.
Considering further study and work eligibility after graduation
A program’s relevance does not end at graduation. If you plan to pursue further study or work in a licensed profession, two things need checking right from the school-selection stage.
The first is whether the program is recognized by the relevant professional body. For fields such as engineering, accounting, architecture, or nursing, being on the recognized list directly determines the ability to practice later.
The second is whether the degree is recognized where you intend to work. This matters especially if you plan to return to Vietnam. The process for recognizing a foreign degree has its own requirements, and not every program meets them.
Checking these two things takes a few hours of reading. Skipping them can leave four years of study unusable for the work you actually want to do.
Building the list in three groups
After reading the syllabi, split your list into three groups instead of ranking by preference.
Safety group consists of schools where your current profile comfortably meets the entry requirements. You should have at least two schools in this group, and it matters that you would genuinely be willing to study there if the other options fall through.
Match group consists of schools where your profile falls squarely within the published requirement range. This is usually the largest group and where the final decision most often lands.
Reach group consists of schools where you fall somewhat short of the requirements. Keep this group to two or three schools, and only include one when the program is genuinely worth stretching for.
This grouping avoids ending up having submitted ten applications all at the same difficulty level with no fallback option.
Cost: look at the total, not just tuition
Tuition is the easiest figure to find, which is exactly why it tends to become the only figure people compare. In reality, costs beyond tuition often make up a large share of the total and vary enormously between cities.
The minimum list of items to add includes: housing, food, transport, health insurance, study materials, enrollment and administrative fees, and the cost of trips home.
A school with lower tuition but located in an expensive city may end up costing more overall. Conversely, a school with high tuition in a low-cost-of-living area can sometimes be the more reasonable option.
You should build a comparison table of the total four-year cost for each school on your list, noting the date the figures were collected. Both tuition and living costs change from year to year.
Where to verify information
Information about a school comes from many sources, and not all of them are equally trustworthy.
The most reliable source is the school’s official website, specifically the section for prospective students. Next is the host country’s education regulator or accrediting body, which publishes the recognition status of the school and its programs.
Intergovernmental organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publish comparative data on education systems across countries, useful when you are weighing two countries rather than two schools.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has documentation on degree recognition, worth reading if you plan to return home to work after graduating.
Forums and social media groups are useful for insight into the lived experience, but should not be used as a basis for information about programs, tuition, or entry requirements.
Four recurring mistakes
Choosing based on where friends chose to go. A program that suits someone else is no guarantee it suits you, even if the two of you were classmates throughout secondary school.
Overlooking the language of instruction. Some programs are taught in the local language even at schools with many international programs. This must be confirmed at the program level, not the school level.
Trusting the automatic translation of a school’s website. Entry requirements and academic regulations are places where a single mistranslated word can completely change the meaning. If unsure, write to the school’s admissions office directly.
Deciding before finishing the syllabus. This is the most costly mistake, and also the easiest to avoid.
Visiting the school or attending an online info session
Documents only tell part of the story. If possible, find a way to make direct contact with the program before deciding.
Most schools hold regular, free online info sessions, usually with a Q&A segment with a faculty representative. This is a chance to ask questions documents don’t answer: how many students are in a class, whether the final project is done individually or in groups, and what difficulties international students commonly face in the first year.
When attending, prepare questions in advance and ask about the specific program rather than the school in general. The more specific the question, the more valuable the answer.
If you can reach someone currently studying or who has graduated from that exact program, ask just one question: if they had to choose again, would they pick this program, and why. The answer to that question is often worth more than the entire info session.
Summary
Choosing a school by its program takes far more reading time than glancing at a ranking table, but it is the part of the work that determines the next four years.
The sensible order is: decide what you want to study, read the syllabi of the relevant programs, answer the six questions above, split the list into three groups, and only then factor in the school’s reputation and ranking.
Next Steps
Pick exactly the three programs you are most interested in and read all three syllabi in full this week. Once you have, your school list will almost certainly look different from before.
School profiles on M2W Edu clearly record the source and verification date of every piece of information, so you know whether the figure you’re looking at is still valid. When comparing multiple schools at once, having everything presented in the same structure saves you a great deal of time, and more importantly, helps you compare the things that actually matter.
