I am a current high school senior from California, and I applied to NTU for the English-taught International Relations major. I studied abroad in Taiwan at Tamkang University during my junior year and fell in love with Taiwan. I am currently applying for colleges and decided to apply to NTU. I visited the campus last year and loved it. Is this a good decision? I’m worried that a degree from NTU won’t be respected in the us job market. Other 外國人 in Taiwan have any knowledge on this subject?
After 4 years of Taiwan college study, if you can read Chinese newspaper and speak Chinese fluently (yes IR classes taught in English, so take Chinese language courses for 4 years, too), that’ll be worth as much as the degree or more on your job resume’.
Are you planning to do a Masters or anything?
My impression from friends in academia is that the quality of education at NTU and other universities in Taiwan can be quite good. (As with anywhere else, it depends how much effort you put in as a student.) However Taiwanese universities don’t have nearly as much of a reputation abroad and in job markets. These friends were discussing finding a job in academia post-PhD, which is very different from undergrad, though it seems related to your main question about the job market.
My
: Advantages are that you learn/improve Mandarin, make connections abroad (both important for IR jobs), and save tons of money compared to the US. The main potential disadvantage is how it will be received by potential future employers, which I personally cannot answer, but I imagine it would depend on your experience, internships, extracurriculars, etc. and also vary between different employers.