<p>The Spectator in England had an article yesterday about the large numbers of British seniors who are choosing U.S. universities to attend. The writer listed the five most popular choices for British students in order:</p>
<ol>
<li> Univ. of Southern California</li>
<li> Harvard Universitiy</li>
<li> Univ. of Pennsylvania</li>
<li> BYU</li>
<li> NYU</li>
</ol>
<p>At Dornsife there is a group that gathers to watch the cricket matches.</p>
<p>Not to doubt your honesty, but can you link me to the source? I find this pretty surprising.</p>
<p>Southern California, as an area, traditionally had the largest Brit population outside the UK countries.</p>
<p>Correction: The article was in the Telegraph</p>
<p>zdm, </p>
<p>Here is the corrected information regarding the article. It was from the Telegraph dated 12 Aug. 2011. It was written by Edmund Conway who is Economics Editor for Sky News. He earned a degree at Harvard and wrote about his experiences at an U.S. university.</p>
<p>USC has more international undergraduate students than any other private U.S. university. One of SC's many active alumni clubs is in London. </p>
<p>Please use the search function and read the post on this forum listing new faculty members from Oxford and Cambridge.</p>
<p>It would be more informative if you could link to the article. I am intrigued.</p>
<p>Can't believe a major paper like the Telegraph got the purpose of the I20 wrong - the I20 is not a visa type, it's merely a supporting document issued by a university so an international student can get an F1 student visa from the USCIS.</p>
<p>Yessss. I love me some British guys.</p>
<p>Very good read! </p>
<p>Damn I love British. I should have picked USC then.</p>
<p>Great article! I've been taught in a British-curriculum school all my life so I know exactly what he's talking about.</p>
<p>zdm,
Please check a post by swr222 who is a graduate of Eton and Cambridge. He is doing graduate work at SC and has posted his impressions of the university experience. </p>
<p>You can find his post in a thread by JackUK on 6/20/2011. swr222's post was dated 6/23/2011.</p>
<p>FYI</p>
<p>"The writer listed the five most popular choices for British students in order:</p>
<ol>
<li>Univ. of Southern California
<ol>
<li>Harvard Universitiy</li>
<li>Univ. of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>BYU</li>
<li>NYU"</li>
</ol></li>
</ol>
<p>I'm sorry, I just don't think that this list is correct. I checked recently where some of the top London day schools (including Westminster, St. Paul's (both Girls and Boys, Godolphin, City (both Girls and Boys), South Hampstead, etc. Most of these graduates that go to Uni. in the US go to a pretty narrow range of East Coast schools (Ivy's, top LACs, Georgetown, UVA, Duke, NYU etc.) plus a few to other parts of the country, such as Chicago and Stanford. I am not aware of many London kids going to USC (although it is a great school) or BYU. However, the American School in London is sending 5 kids this year to USC, but technically those kids are probably American kids and not "British students".</p>
<p>Jack,
You are thinking of London and suburbs as Britain. The article probably included Scotland and Wales. It did not state England alone. Keep in mind USC has premier schools of music, theatre, architecture, cinema, gerontology and others that draw students from around the world. To study the violin with Midori or the cello with Ralph Kirshbaum is a dream for musicians who are at that talent level. Theatre alumni bring home Tonys, Academy Awards and Golden Globes year after year. Aspiring writers want to study with T.C. Boyle. Future neuroscientists hope to do research work with Honda Prize winner Dr. Antonio Damasio and Dr. Larry Swanson. The entrepreneurship program in Marshall is superb. Think of Kinko's, California Pizza Kitchen, Pinkberry, Wham-O, MySpace, Trader Joe's, Salesforce.com, Geocities.com, Dollar Rent A Car, Public Storage, Quiksilver, Vizio, Majestic Realty and Value America among many others were founded by USC business alumni. </p>
<p>Did you read the thread about faculty members from Oxford and Cambridge who will be joining the SC faculty this summer? </p>
<p>Gifts this year of over $600 million and rising will keep SC moving forward.</p>
<p>Jack,</p>
<p>If you do not believe the author why don't you write and ask where he found the statistics? I imagine it would not be that difficult to check on visas issued for study at U.S.
colleges/universities.</p>
<p>Don't forget that the Girls Gone Wild empire was started by a USC grad.</p>
<p>Hey there, Georgie Girl,</p>
<p>You raise some excellent points. I really like USC, and it is on the long list for both of my kids. However, in response to the article in the Telegraph and my earlier comments:</p>
<p>1) London and the surrounding suburbs (the “Home Counties”) has 20 million (out of 60m) UK people and a much larger percentage of the UK’s wealth and spending power. Therefore, historically a disproportionate number of British kids applying to UK universities are typically from the Southeast of England as their parents can afford the expense. This will probably increase now as 9 of the top 10 British private high schools are in/near London. Also, these are the kids who are being adversely affected by the Government’ unofficial quotas on the number of private school kids going to Oxford and Cambridge and hence applying to the US Ivy League and other top US schools. I know that there are kids from places like Belfast, Leeds and Liverpool who get scholarships to the Ivy League, but they are the exception, rather than the rule; </p>
<p>2) I am sure that the data in the Telegraph article is probably correct, but I am equally sure that the writer took it out of context. Harvard, Penn and NYU make sense and I am sure that USC is popular with UK kids (but not the most popular) but Stanford would be the first choice for top British students wanting to study in California, and NYU would be more popular among the larger private colleges. As I mentioned, he could have mixed in American citizens, graduate students, kids from the Middle East who went to British boarding schools, etc.; and </p>
<p>3) BYU, seriously? This makes the article less credible. The UK is not a very religious society, particularly among the white, English population. I just can’t imagine BYU (#75 in US News’ rankings) being that popular with hard-working and hard-drinking British 18 year olds.</p>