This is a selection of comments on topical issues and guides to applying for particularly challenging subjects such as for instance Medicine.
Rankings
Rankings are very useful but need to be used with care. They are certainly not a completely reliable guide to university quality, partly because different rankings use different criteria and methodologies, partly because most rankings rely upon reputation as a key indicator, partly because of the size and complexity of university institutions and lastly because of the minor distinctions between universities that determine a particular ranking.
Medicine
Applications to study Medicine are both complex and very competitive. The main problem that prospective students face is that most countries prioritise applications from their own nationals: the UK for instance only allows 7.5% of medical school places top be filled by non UK students.
Other complications would be the need to undertake a specialised test as part of the application process and the need for an interview.
The Liberal Arts
A Liberal Arts Education is the basis of US higher education and an approach that is now being adopted in many parts of the world: the University Colleges in the Netherlands, Arts & Sciences degrees in the UK, Liberal Arts colleges in Japan & Korea and Yale NUS in Singapore for instance. A Liberal Arts education is the opposite of specialised study: it provides a broad based education across subject and disciplinary boundaries and allows students the time to experiment with different options before deciding on their own preferred fields of study.
Choices
The current global market in higher education confronts students with a daunting range of choices: there are great university options available on every continent and these are listed in all international rankings. How to choose?