Help suggest some US schools for son's largely foreign list

Twoin18
Wed, 13 Jul 2022 22:18:21 +0000

Your position sounds very similar to my thinking five years ago. We had twins in a big Bay Area public HS who were both in the top 10 in a class of 400, and we were full pay but with a budget of $40K-$50K per kid. We also saw the UK as a potential way out of paying $70K-$80K per year, especially as spouse and I were both from the UK (and did undergrad and PhDs at Cambridge). S in particular loved PPE and the idea of going to the East Coast, but knew he would have to look for merit at private schools in the US, so he didn’t apply to some of the places he really liked such as Georgetown, Chicago and Brown. He did get into almost all of the places he applied to in the US that offered merit (GWU, American, CWRU, Macalester, etc) although his UK application results were disappointing.

Four years ago at the end of the admissions process I felt some dissatisfaction at their outcomes, especially compared to less talented classmates who’d ended up at MIT and Stanford (all because of major hooks, you wouldn’t have put these kids in the top 5 in the class, several not in the top 10) - the only unhooked kid who ended up at a top private went to Georgetown (also admitted to Dartmouth). The most purely academically talented kids (including all the NMFs) all went to UCs. And yet at the end of senior year events, parents were applauding a lot louder for kids going to those well known private schools than for the UCs. S had also never thought he would stay instate - the first time he even visited UCLA was after admission on Bruin Day, and he was extremely upset about not getting into Oxford after loving the three days he spent there for interviews.

But in retrospect I think their final choices (S18 went to UCLA with an Alumni Scholarship, D18 took a full ride to Utah - which was the cheapest option in both cases) were perfect for them. Being within driving distance was a huge benefit, especially during the pandemic, and the fact both had money left over in their 529s has been great for them. And I’m sure the opportunities S has had, including his internships and job after graduation, would not have been improved by spending more money on college.

All that’s a long way of saying that I don’t think that going overseas is a magic solution to your budget constraints, and it’s unwise to focus on those places and neglect options closer to home. If you consider UCLA and UCB as your “aspirational reaches” (and UCSD/UCSB as “realistic reaches”) then I think you’ll have a lot higher chance of being satisfied with the outcome than if you set your sights on either LSE or HYPSM.