DBA in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning - Walsh College - 12.5K USD

[nykorn]

A European degree can be obtained much cheaper. But will it have the same weight in the US labor market?

I can't answer your question, but which comparable European degree (DBA) would be much cheaper? I haven't found any under 12k

1) European countries usually pay students a salary to get a Doctorate. It is even better than a "free" education. You can also apply for stipends in the majority of countries for anything below doctorate level, which is free money (not a loan). In my case from Sweden I would get around $350 USD a month in a stipend from the government for taking Bachelor's or Master's level courses, but for Doctorate level I would get paid a normal full-time salary from the university.

2) Unless you went to an Ivy League school, or there is one single European school very famous for your field (think Karolinska for medical studies) American employers don't care if it's a European or American degree. Occasionally you would need to get a foreign credit evaluation to prove your European education is real, but that is only if you are trying to get a license or a work visa in the US. 

Having an American degree is NOT going to be any better in getting you a work visa to the US than having a European degree, the only benefit in the American degree in America is that you wouldn't have to pay extra to get a foreign credit evaluation when you apply for the visa. There are countless foreigners who physically come to the US for their college education, graduate, and still can't find anyone to sponsor a work visa for them and so they then have to leave the US. So an American degree isn't a magic ticket into the US itself. 

However an American degree IS a magic ticket to some places in Asia where they highly prioritize job candidates who have American education or an education which was entirely taught in English from a native English speaking country.

The big thing to keep in mind in Europe vs America is if you are planning on further studies. As an example, an American Bachelor's does not qualify you for many licenses or most further education in Europe because European Bachelors are 3 years of subject-specific credits while an American Bachelor's is only 2 years of subject-specific credits. America is usually more lenient on qualifications and will often just require "a finished degree", but European countries will specifically require a finished degree worth x amount of credits. European countries also often require 3-year or 5-year degrees for jobs in the US which do not require any degree at all, such as tax assistant jobs.

Having a Doctorate or a second Master's will absolutely help you get approved for a work visa when dealing with Immigration. Many countries give "bonus points" at Immigration for every additional Masters and every Doctorate (they don't care about additional Bachelors). US Immigration accepts non-NACES members and thus ENEB counts as an accredited Masters for them. Finding an employer to sponsor a work visa is far harder than actually qualifying for a work visa.

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One hope that I have in this program is that the school may, at some point, become AACSB accredited, which will make this degree extremely competitive. I will be reaching out separately to the school to better understand what their goals are in that sense.

If you get a degree before accreditation, when the school obtains accreditation in the future your old degree is still unaccredited. Most people (such as employers) would never research things that far, but it could potentially cause problems depending on what you are planning on doing with your degree.