@Archytas - My friends who had Rhodes scholarships, received Ph.Ds from Oxford, and returned to the US for additional professional graduate work, all counseled my son not to do his undergrad work in the UK, although he applied to Oxford anyway, for some of the same reasons you cite. But unless you attend certain flagship state universities or a handful of private university athletic powerhouses, the emphasis on “football” culture at US schools will be slight unless you choose to participate in that community. There are also many great colleges and universities in the US where GPA and standardized test scores matter a lot, and ECs are downplayed, in the admissions process. These schools - private and public - tend to be very generous with merit aid, so that counterbalances your claim that UK schools will be less expensive for you to attend. Work visas for American students are becoming very challenging to obtain if you need to earn income while an under-grad, or are considering the possibility of remaining to work after graduation. Finally, US law schools, MBA and PhD programs will care about what else you accomplished/cared about during your undergraduate years, and you won’t have the opportunity to get an internship or become a tutor’s research assistant or teaching assistant as you would as a top student in an American university. Best of luck!