出国留学从成本面来看，首先包括直接经济成本：留学学费，留学生活费，留学申请费用，语言学习费用等，然后是直接时间成本：出国读书的时间，申请留学的时间，提高语言成绩的时间等等。

然后还有机会成本的经济部分，留学期间没有工作或者大学准备留学期间没有兼职所以少挣的钱，以及机会成本的时间部分，原来可以用来工作、旅游或者课余玩乐的时间现在用来准备留学和留学。

所谓风险自担，责任自负原则，就是当你清楚的算出来这些成本以后，你评估自己留学的预期收益乘以获得这个预期收益实现的概率，仍然是大于成本总和的时候，你就可以理直气壮的说，没问题，我这么留学是一个合理的决定。

如果说经济成本对于大部分中国孩子不能感同身受的话——因为大部分实际上都是从爸妈身上借过来的钱；那么时间成本，则是真真正正每个人身上要发生的开销，老妈再努力，也没法还你一个青春，因此这几年时间的成本，恐怕是同学们真正要算清楚的。

所以找张纸，把能算出来的成本写在左边，把出国的目标写在右边，就像淘宝购物似的比一比，这个价格是不是太高了，要买的东西有没有那么想要。

假如你经过一对比，感觉这个成本太高了，付出这么大的代价来留学，这个投资风险太大了，那么就有两种选择。一，讨价还价：选择一个成本更低的留学方案——比如申请奖学金，比如选短期的项目，比如申请容易上的大学，所以缩短准备的时间；二，要赠品或者换东西：选择一个收益更大的留学方案——比如同样开销，不如去个名校，或者既然出去，不如在外面把钱挣了再回来，或者其他。

依据这三个基本步骤为“道”，辅助着一些工具为“技”，我们就能做出自己的教育和职业发展的规划。有了规划和目标的留学，就像是走上跑道的运动员，他们绝对不会跑一步看一步，而一定是绽放自己全部潜力的去跑；也只有在这种情况下，人们释放出了自己全部的潜力，最充分的利用有限的时间和资源，实现更完整的自我。

再回到那个问题，有些朋友说，我出国的意义就在于，通过在国外全新的环境下挑战和生活，确定自己究竟想要什么，想得到什么。看过以上三条之后，我们就知道，出国寻找意义不是不可以，但是我们一定是在先穷尽了低成本的方法——交换学习、经验请教和测试挑战等环节之后，在清楚明白用留学的时间和金钱成本来实现找人生意义这个目标对于同学个人是划算的，值得的。那么这种情况下，我鼓励这位同学去继续发现自己的可能性。但是记住，一旦增加体验寻找自我本身成为目标后，就要牢记这个目标，如果出国以后没有去尝试体验更多的新的生活方式，而是盘踞在中国学生圈宅着；放假不打工，社交活动不参加，还不能开放学习国外文化，一天到晚在家刷人人刷微博——那么亲，这个目标就一定是定错了，这个留学的意义对自己也就不大了。

PS：感谢你已经可以看到这个地方，说明你对我的文章很认可，写完它到现在已经又过了6年了。坦率说，我也不是那么骄傲的认为自己就走的很完美，这一路上有一些曲曲折折但又不乏精彩的人生。我记录下了一些东西，

From the perspective of the cost of studying abroad, it first includes direct economic costs: tuition fees for studying abroad, living expenses for studying abroad, application fees for studying abroad, language learning fees, etc., and then direct time costs: time for studying abroad, time for studying abroad, time for improving language scores and many more.

Then there is the economic part of opportunity cost, which is the less money earned because there is no job during the study abroad period or no part-time job while the university is preparing to study abroad, and the time part of the opportunity cost. and study abroad.

The so-called risk and responsibility principle means that after you have clearly calculated these costs, you can multiply the expected income of your own study abroad to obtain the probability of realizing the expected income, and when it is still greater than the sum of the costs, you can be confident. Said, no problem, it is a reasonable decision for me to study abroad in this way.

If the economic cost is not empathetic to most Chinese children-because most of them are actually borrowed money from their parents; then the time cost is the real expense that will happen to everyone. Even if you work hard, you can't repay your youth, so the cost of the past few years is probably something that students really need to figure out.

So find a piece of paper, write the cost that can be calculated on the left, and write the goal of going abroad on the right, just like shopping on Taobao to compare, whether the price is too high, and whether you want what you want so much.

If you feel that the cost is too high after a comparison, and the investment risk is too great to pay such a high price to study abroad, then you have two choices. 1. Bargaining: choose a lower-cost study abroad plan—such as applying for a scholarship, such as choosing a short-term project, such as applying for a university that is easy to get into, so shorten the preparation time; 2. Ask for gifts or exchange things: choose a more profitable one The best study abroad plan - for example, with the same expenses, it is better to go to a prestigious school, or since you have gone out, it is better to earn money outside and come back, or other.

According to these three basic steps as "Tao" and some auxiliary tools as "Technique", we can make our own education and career development plan. Studying abroad with plans and goals is like athletes walking on the track. They will never take a step to watch, but must run with their full potential; and only in this case, people release themselves. Full potential, making the best use of limited time and resources, and realizing a more complete self.

Going back to that question, some friends said that the significance of my going abroad is to determine what I really want and what I want through the challenge and life in a new environment abroad. After reading the above three items, we know that it is not impossible to go abroad to find meaning, but we must first exhaust the low-cost methods - exchange learning, experience consultation, test challenges and other links, and clearly understand the time spent studying abroad It is cost-effective and worthwhile for students to achieve the goal of finding the meaning of life at the cost of money. In this case, I encourage this student to continue to discover his own possibilities. But remember, once increasing the experience and finding yourself becomes the goal, you must keep this goal in mind. If you don’t try to experience more new lifestyles after going abroad, but live in the Chinese student circle; you don’t work during holidays, socialize If you don't participate in activities, you can't openly learn foreign cultures, and you can check everyone's Weibo at home all day long-then dear, this goal must be set wrong, and the meaning of studying abroad is not great to me.

PS: Thank you for being able to see this place, which means that you approve of my article. It has been another 6 years since I wrote it. Frankly speaking, I am not so proud to think that I have walked perfectly. There are some twists and turns along the way, but there is no lack of wonderful life. I recorded something,