Help with program and uni choice

[Thorne]

Even I've heard of Rovira before, and I've lived in Texas half of my life.
I believe you, but let's not make it as if Rovira I Virgili is a well-known or even mildly-known school to the overwhelming majority of people in the United States or Canada. It just isn't, like at all, and I'm not sure what the motivation would be to make it seem otherwise.

Plus, I highly doubt anyone in Canada is any more likely to have heard of Northern Arizona University than Rovira...

I don't doubt that one bit myself: First, Canadians are far more aware of American geography than Americans are of Canadian's (which is kind of a commentary on a separate issue with the American education system, but I digress) so something from Northern Arizona is not going to sound odd to a Canadian.

Secondly, it's not going to come across as odd to a Canadian that someone came from Northern Arizona University--an English-speaking American state school--versus a Spanish school with very few ties with the country and even fewer if any graduates of the school living there. I'm not saying NAU is a big deal in Canada either, but a school named Rovira I Virgili from Spain absolutely isn't a deal in Canada, and having lived on the border of Canada for 4 decades and being in Canada often during that entire amount of time (I should have citizenship, lol), I think I have maybe a little insight into the school conversation climate in a number of places there.

You're acting like the difference in name recognition between NAU and Rovira is the difference between John F Kennedy University and Johns Hopkins

At least in this context, it more than likely is, except Rovira is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar less known here than John F Kennedy University and JFK U isn't even that well-known here if we're going to be intellectually honest about it, so that speaks volumes.

I'm not convinced at all that Rovira I Virgili isn't going to raise some questions in this part of the world versus an American state degree with the name of an American state attached to it. Sorry, just don't buy that one. This is the same kind of conversation we had about Isabel, and while I'm on board with the Isabel deal I'm not pretending that it being on a resume won't raise questions because it is a Spanish school and not familiar to the overwhelming majority of people in this part of the globe. Rovira has a longer history than Isabel, but in this part of the world neither school is in the normal conversation about schools and the reason is simple: Americans are almost entirely going to American schools, and Canadians to Canadian schools. When both sets start going en masse to Spanish schools, then this will be a much different conversation.

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School rankings tend to be questionable. Employers are not using them, hiring managers have an idea of which schools are at the top and the ones they're unfamiliar with will attract their scrutiny.

The world rankings are a nice idea if you plan to be living or working internationally but most people aren't going to do that. I'm sure Rovira is a fine school, but if I'm trying to gain acceptance in North America it just makes sense to get a degree from a place that will raise the fewest questions. Now, if Canada is the aim, a Canadian school would be most ideal, but if you have to choose between an American school like NAU that would more than likely communicate familiarity immediately versus a Spanish school that pretty much every employer in Canada has never heard of and by name draws the person to have to look it up because it doesn't look like a name from a school in that region of the world, well, now that's a question and it may not work in your favor when someone with a degree from an instantly familiar school like the University of Toronto walks through the door.

I will not be using those degrees for employment. I just need one to bump up my score on the express entry list. I will be enrolling myself into a Canadian uni once I get permanent residency.

I am even considering ENEB masters and MBA with a pathway into a UCN DBA or even an MBA validation.

Well, at the risk of a reply such as "I'm independently wealthy and will never need a job for the rest of my life while living in Canada" (I'm kidding, but it's just the way the thread has been going, lol), I would just say that at some point you may need a job while in Canada and these things may matter to you at some point during that time, so it's never a bad idea to cover your bases.

My whole point is that for a foreign student (OP has stated that they are from India and looking to migrate to Canada), this degree shouldn't raise any more eyebrows than saying you went to Curtin University (Australia) or Wrexham Glyndwr (Wales). 

Given that I only heard of NAU on this forum and nowhere else prior to that, my assumption is that its name is not going to have much recognition outside of "Oh, it's in Arizona somewhere"

If you're from the anglosphere, any school in the anglosphere would probably be more recognizable than any school out of the anglosphere and would be almost expected for you to not get weird looks, sure, but OP is not from the anglosphere and thus isn't really party to the same rules yet. I've got friends from Canada who got degrees from various members of the EHEA and have had zero difficulties getting work, and their most common criticism of the US is that we are too closed-minded about where education must come from.

I mean, seriously, I've had people in the US tell me that Deakin University, #244 in the world and about #140 for their business school, would be a bad choice because "It isn't American," so pardon my incredulity at the very American notion that getting an education has to be geolocked to the USA.

I'm not trying to make the case that Rovira is more recognizable in Canada, only the case that 1) it will not likely affect immigration one lick and 2) OP should go after whatever education he thinks is best suited for him, especially since he's planning to go into school once he gets to Canada