Best Cities for U.S. Students to Study Abroad

Top 10 Best Cities for U.S. Students to Study Abroad

The top ten best cities for U.S. students to study abroad are as follows:

• 1. Kyoto, Japan with Kyoto University – Overall Score: 7.86
• 2. Heidelberg, Germany with Universität Heidelberg – Overall Score: 7.81
• 3. Bangi, Malaysia with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) – Overall Score: 7.66
• 3. Leuven, Belgium with KU Leuven – Overall Score: 7.66
• 5. Prague, Czechia with Charles University – Overall Score: 7.64
• 6. Munich, Germany with Technical University of Munich – Overall Score: 7.68
• 7. Vienna, Austria with University of Vienna – Overall Score: 7.53
• 8. Tokyo, Japan with The University of Tokyo – Overall Score: 7.52
• 9. Delft, Netherlands with Delft University of Technology – Overall Score: 7.48
• 10. Warsaw, Poland with University of Warsaw – Overall Score: 7.47

In the top spot is Kyoto in Japan with an overall score of 7.86. Kyoto hosts its eponymous university which is ranked 57th in the world on Top University. The city has a low cost for a month’s rent in the city center with $576, along with a peace index of 1.53 and a low crime rating of 14.24.

Heidelberg in Germany is second with an overall score of 7.81, with an estimated student visa application cost of $88 and average flights costs of $600. The country also has a high score on the World Happiness Report with 6.75. For Universität Heidelberg, it is ranked 80th in the world and many of the courses are free for international students.

In joint third is Bangi, Malaysia with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Leuven in Belgium with KU Leuven, both with an overall score of 7.66. Bangi has a low cost of living with monthly rent for a one-bed apartment at $476, along with inexpensive meal only costing $3.33. Malaysia also has the cheapest cost student visa application out of the list at $12, while Belgium has high scores for quality of living with a happiness score of 6.91 and a low crime rating of 20.96.

Top 3 Best University Cities

From the overall research, alternate scores were calculated based on the academic focused metrics, the living costs, and the living quality of each city.

In first is Munich, Germany, with the Technical University of Munich having no annual tuition fees for international students on select degrees such as Management and Data Science. The university was also ranked joint 22nd and has an estimated student visa application cost of $88 and achieved an overall score of 9.7 for academic related metrics.

Zürich, Switzerland is in second place with ETH Zurich which is ranked 7th globally on Top Universities with an overall academic score of 9.5. Enrolling here has an estimated cost of $5,520 per year for tuition fees and costs an estimated $102 to apply for a student visa. Switzerland is also in third with Lausanne and EPFL École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne with an overall academic score of 9.4 and is joint 22nd with Munich on Top University.

With an overall living cost score of 9.2, Bogotá in Columbia is in first with Universidad de los Andes. Flight costs from the U.S. average at a low cost of $244 and the cost of a domestic beer is $1.18, while an inexpensive meal costs $5.41. Furthermore, the cost of one month’s rent in the city center is $476.

New Delhi, India is in second for living costs with an overall living cost score of 8.6, with one bottle of beer costing $1.82 and the cost of a month’s rent being only $230. Philippines’ Quezon City then follows in third with an overall living cost score of 8.5, with an inexpensive meal costing as little as $4.21.

Finland’s Espoo is in first with a peace index of 1.47 and a high happiness score of 7.74. It also has a low crime rating at 20.19 to give it an overall living quality score of 9.2.

In joint second is Copenhagen, Denmark and Helsinki, Finland, with an overall living quality score of 8.9. Helsinki has a slightly higher crime rating than Espoo with 25.51, while Denmark has a slightly better peace index with 1.38, with a low crime rating of 25.66.

Methodology

Each data point consists of the latest research available from reputable sources. All sources are destination specific level data points. The data was standardized using minmax normalization. The minmax normalization value is multiplied by 10 to create a score (between 0-10). A score of 10 is always the best result, while a score of 0 is the worst. Each city is then ranked on their overall rating to find the best cities for U.S. students.

The seed list was created by using Top Universities to find the top two universities per country. Universities were primarily selected if they were located in different cities in the same country, but some are duplicated due to their top universities being located in the same city.

Sources

Seed list and number of international students – https://www.topuniversities.com/

Average Flight Costs – https://www.skyscanner.net/
– Used the top five major airports in the U.S. and the cost of flying to the most local airport to the university and find the average of these costs.

Annual International Fees – University sites (when applicable, used Business Undergraduate Fees)

Student Visa Costs – Government and embassy sites

Cost of Student Accommodation for a term – https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/
– 1 bed apartment in the City Center

Cost of Domestic Beer – https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

Cost of an Inexpensive Meal – https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

Global Peace Index (to 2 decimal places and the lower number is considered more peaceful) – https://www.economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GPI-2024-web.pdf

World Happiness Report (to 2 decimal places) – https://www.worldhappiness.report/
– These have been reduced to two digital places.

Crime Index – https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings.jsp