以下是引用babypace在2007-5-12 5:28:00的发言:1. The alumni network is not only limited in Chinese student community, but also in international classmates from diversified industries. You may lose some of the connections in China, but you don't know this for sure. After many years, I still have connections with my colleagues in China. Why you don't have confidence in people on their desire of keeping a long term relationship? As a person who will work in the business world, keeping good relationships with people is very important, which requires a person not to be too short sighted.
2. In theory, people can train themselves in any countries as long as they are eager enough, they are persistent enough. I guess people who choose to come to US have seen the value of the combination of learning business theories and models and also experience the western culture, in which way they can speed up the process of self training. Life is on mutiple levels. So besides the learning and training part, the experience of adaptation to a totally different culture itself is a treasure.
3. Leading an easy life may not be everyone's dream. Sometimes, at a certain stage of life, you still want to challenge yourself. It's a matter of personality and choice.
4. I won't say that one can't learn from exchange programs. But as far as I know, 6 months or 1 year exchange program only gives a person very superficial impression of a culture or a business environment. One won't have enough exposure to the culture and society, which is outside the school. If there're no better choices, I would say exchange programs are better than none. Although two years' study in US is not very long time either, there're always chances of collecting more w/e in US too.
5. Regarding long-term return, no one can say anything for sure. But if you look at the big picture of the tread of globalization, then you'll know how important and how many advantages an oversea study and life experience in a different culture can offer you in the future.
After all, the choice should be based on personal status and personality. There's no definite answer. As I can see, a relatively young person won't lose too much if he/she choose to study abroad for a couple of years.