‘UK for undergrad-USA for postgrad’ path. Why is it a thing?

Dear UK postgrads, why do you think it’s very common for academics to pursue their Master/PhD at American universities (after graduated from UK unis). I’ve heard that basically USA has better funding opportunities and the government is more generous in terms of budget allocation, hence it holds greater research power. Is this true? Does that mean that doing a postgrad study at American universities is more academically-stimulating than in the UK?

Thanks.

PS. ~for STEM courses.

:charm:

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 1

username3911170

OP

17

@Doonesbury, dear mod.. can you please move this thread to postgrad forum? I accidentally picked the wrong forum for this one :smile:

Appreciated!

Reply 2

Doones

21

Original post by Çharizard

@Doonesbury, dear mod.. can you please move this thread to postgrad forum? I accidentally picked the wrong forum for this one :smile:

Appreciated!

Done.

Reply 3

username3911170

OP

17

Original post by Doonesbury

Done.

Thankss, Doones! @Doonesbury

Reply 4

SomeWelshGuy123

19

There is a general split between STEM PhDs and everything else. For STEM it is generally more advantageous to go to Oceania or North America due to better funding prospects and generally their advisers have more real-world experience in their field than their European counterparts who tend to go Bachelors-Masters-PhD back to back. For everything else this is reversed, with funding being easier to obtain in a field such as History here than it would be in North America,

Reply 5

username3911170

OP

17

Original post by SomeWelshGuy123

There is a general split between STEM PhDs and everything else. For STEM it is generally more advantageous to go to Oceania or North America due to better funding prospects and generally their advisers have more real-world experience in their field than their European counterparts who tend to go Bachelors-Masters-PhD back to back. For everything else this is reversed, with funding being easier to obtain in a field such as History here than it would be in North America,

Why do you think “their advisers have more real-world experience in their field” than their European/Brits counterparts do? I mean, it’s down to each individual, right?

Also, about the funding prospects, I’ve heard the contrasting. Yes, the government endownment for research is huge relative to the UK, but does that make it easier to get a fully-funded place there? (as a non-American) — especially at the top unis, such as MIT, Harvard, Caltech or Stanford.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 6

Dinasaurus

22

Asking why is it a thing seems silly, of all possible things that could be, is this something so hard to explain? That hopeful academics in an English-speaking major western country would like to study in another English-speaking major western country that has world famous universities?