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

tamagotchi
Wed, 13 Jul 2022 22:54:40 +0000

Thanks, I really do appreciate your perspective. Your situation does sound similar to ours in a lot of ways!

I’m not sure why I haven’t been able to convey, however, that we aren’t looking at the UK primarily because we see it as a magic solution for budget constraints, or as an escape from US college admissions craziness. My kid is simply interested in these universities. He has been interested in the UK from the start (this probably started because of his interest in F1 racing). He also likes cold and gloomy weather, medium to large cities with a lot of cultural opportunities, and the idea of living and studying in a different country. LSE was literally the first school on his college list, then we looked into other UK possibilities, and then we started adding schools in Canada. And now, partly due to the helpful folks on this thread, we’ve also added some OOS US universities, most of which are matches or safeties, which is fine. It just happens that there are very few affordable OOS reaches.

This doesn’t mean we are neglecting options closer to home! He is definitely applying to the UCs, and not just the top ranked ones. He is a modest kid who doesn’t see himself as too elite to attend a lower ranked UC or a Cal State, and in fact he would be the first one to argue that there are things to love about UC Merced, for example.