Parent of an Australian boy here. Top 15% of his class. Music, history, Econ, philosophy. Rugby is his sport. Our unis are huge and few offer the flexibility of a liberal arts education. We’re looking at US LACs. Anyone else with similar experience?
I’m not Australian but just to orient you–there are far fewer Australians going to college in the US than, say, Canadians or UK students to begin with, and then LACs are not necessarily getting their fair share of those. Still, most prominent LACs like to have a lot of countries represented in their student bodies.
So whenever I have seen lists of students by country, Australia seems to be one of those countries where there might be like 1 to 4 students at a time at a prominent LAC.
I guess my point is there are in fact others out there, but their representation in a forum like this might be a little sparse.
As an aside, who knows, but possibly all this would make it somewhat advantageous to be an Australian applicant to these LACs, in the same sense it might be advantageous to be from a very low population US state.
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You’d have to check because this isn’t a specialty for me and I may get their athletic strength wrong, but I think Middlebury, Vassar, Brown (not a LAC but not huge and very good for students who want to explore multiple subjects), and Trinity CT all have solid men’s rugby.
A boy interested in philosophy&history + possible rugby hook would make for a winning combination at these or other LACs.
If he’s a rising senior he should contact the coaches ASAP with transcript and athletic video to see if they’d offer a pre read.
If he’s a rising junior he’s got time to create a good video.
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Apparently Bowdoin College in Maine has a rugby team.
Have you checked the prices of LACs in the US? The cost of attendance at Bowdoin was for example a bit high for us when I ran the Net Price Calculator a number of years ago.
Another option is Canada. At least several small primarily undergraduate universities (the Canadian equivalent of a liberal arts college) in eastern Canada have a rugby league. Here is an example of one team’s web page.
We live in the northeast of the US, but had one daughter attend a small university in Canada. Some advantages of the Canadian schools (relative to LACs in the US) are lower prices and more predictable admissions.
I am pretty sure that in both cases rugby is a club sport, rather than an official varsity sport.
And of course these schools are a long way from Australia.
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Both Peter and Paul Holmes à Court went to Middlebury. Those outside Australia might not recognize the family name, but those in Australia likely know.
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In such cases, the number of countries represented across the entire student body may exceed 50.
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Men’s Rugby is a club sport. It is worth investigating how well funded each team is. Do they have a dedicated coach? Training trips? Subsidized travel?
Teams with counterpart varsity women’s programs (Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard & Princeton, for example) might benefit from that in the form of better facilities, support staff, etc.
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@CoogeeAus I am sending you a message look for the little notification on your upper right screen…I think.
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@MYOS1634 please correct me if I’m wrong. If this student holds dual citizenship U.S and Aussie, they will be considered U.S. citizens for admission purposes…BUT I believe their applications will be reviewed with those from the region where they reside.
Is that correct?
Of course, this would only apply if this student holds dual citizenship with the U.S.
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Yes, they would - domestic applicant pool for FA and Australia for regional specifics.
Is the student a dual national?
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Yes, born in the USA so he has two passports.
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Wesleyan made it to the Small College Rugby Nationals this Spring. It is a Club team, but under the athletic department so the team is able to hire a coach. They are a great group of guys who support each other on and off the field. The team plays both 15s and 7s depending on the season. I don’t know of any players from Australia, but there are several from the UK.
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Check out Saint Mary’s College of California - fabulous music and philosophy programs and there are MANY Australian athletes on campus in a variety of sports.
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One of my best friends married an Australian guy and has lived there for 20+ years now, her kids are dual citizens. I know that their plan to manage the differing school years and application/acceptance time frames is to apply to Universities in Australia, then defer for a year, so as to allow time to see if they get in to US schools and get acceptable cost/aid packages in which case they would then decline at the AUS school. That way all bases are covered.
They haven’t done this yet, as her oldest is now in their last year of school, but it’s the plan. They are also looking at LACs, mostly on the East Coast, because that’s where her family is. They toured several last year and I know that her child felt that they could be comfortable and “at home” at most of them, so if you are worried about fitting in, my tiny sample size of one suggests that might not be an issue.
I don’t know if any of that is helpful to you, but good luck with this process!
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Super helpful. Thanks.
Hi there. current australian at a top US LAC. It’s definitely one of the best decisions I made versus going to Uni Melb/Syd. Depends on your own income, your son could probably even get to an LAC if he’s super good at the academics and sport side of things. Considering sport, some LACs don’t have a varsity for Rugby and rather it’s club, meaning it’s a walk on. I’d say for your son to get further up the class and focus on the other things, that’s what will matter in this case if you want to go to Williams, Bowdoin, Amherst etc. If your son goes for Econ, LACs are HUGE especially considering if he’s planning to go into finance since top LACs are super targets, meaning banks and other financial institutions will hire directly from them, and look for applicants from those colleges.
Thanks. Which college are you at? We’d love to hear about your process to get there. DM me.
Hi! I’m a current Hamilton College freshman. We have Australians and New Zealanders here! Many of them are athletes. Don’t know any of them personally but I know they’re doing well academically and socially.
I am American, so I don’t know how much help I would be in this department.
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