Well, I’ll just give you some ramblings, but be warned I’ve never personally studied abroad.
First of all, let me put in a quick plug for my own Alma Mater, the University of Amsterdam (link to english page).
Second: what kind of subject are you going to study? The choice of university is influenced by the subject (or major) you want to do. Lots of universities specialize, so general recommendations are pretty useless.
Third: do you want to complete a full Bachelors/Masters program, or only study for a year or so? It looks like the former. If you want to complete a full program, it is much more difficult to do so in non-English speaking countries if you do not speak the language. As far as I can tell from my old university, they do offer a major for English speakers, but the curriculum is severely curtailed.
Although mostly everyone in the Netherlands, and certainly at university, speaks passable English, offering a full course in English for the small percentage of students who don’t understand Dutch would be too taxing. There are a lot of courses open for foreign students which are specifically done in English, but that is not the case for all courses. Therefore although you may have great fun doing a year of study without learning the language, doing a full study is not recommended. My brother and sister both have attended a year at a foreign university (France and US) and seemed to have had great fun and learned the language well, but the additional academic knowledge was not very great; if that is the only goal you might better stay at home.
On the other hand, given that you still have several years to go, you might want to consider actually learning the language. It is an enormous asset if you have finished university education and are able to speak a foreign language fluently. You could try following courses for a few years. When you then get in the foreign country you probably will not yet be able to speak very fluently, but by being immersed in the language you will quickly pick up most of it. Do not worry about not being able to follow the lectures in the language: you should come in the summer before the lectures start, and for most local people academic language is foreign just the same.
If you are going to learn a language, think about which one to pick. Unfortunately Dutch is not very useful for you so I cannot in good faith recommend it to you (although you will be able to speak to Coldfire in his native tongue), better stick to something like French or Italian or even German.
Hope this helps.
