High school preparation for US student looking at Oxbridge/Imperial

International Students
15

Well, the good news is that he’s not trying to reach for top American privates, and the publics aren’t generally so holistic (assuming you’ve met their basic requirements) when it comes to someone in-state as stellar academically as he is on track to be (assuming a tip-top GPA). UIUC CS is not a safety for anyone these days but 1. He’s on track to have a pretty good shot there (still not as insanely competitive to get in to UIUC CS as Ivies/equivalents) 2. They are strong (nationally ranked departments) in several quantitative majors that are easier to get in to than CS (that he can list as a second major). Engineering Undeclared allows you to not declare a major until after freshman year. There are also a bunch of CS+X majors that probably are easier to get in to than Engineering CS (as of now).

So taking the toughest quant classes possible but easier non-quant classes (and getting A’s in them) while just doing the ECs that interest him if he has time sets him up for both England and American publics.

Other options:

  1. He could get a bunch of AP credits that knock off a lot of Gen Ed requirements and graduate in 3 years or less at other state schools. The UCs and Wisconsin are required to give credit for 3’s on AP tests (he could probably graduate from UIUC in 3 years too).
  2. Purdue OOS isn’t much more expensive than UIUC in-state.
  3. Some top Canadian unis may not cost much more than UIUC in-state too (top ones tend to be even bigger, overcrowded, sink-or-swim publics, though). Waterloo CS has a stellar reputation and pipeline to Silicon Valley.
  4. If NMS, UT-Dallas is good in CS and has many good honors programs. NMS knocks off half of tuition costs at USC.
    5 You could consider moving to GA. Currently, a 3.7 HS GPA gets you the Zell Miller which covers in-state tuition costs and GTech has a high reputation in CS and other quantitative fields too. 3.0 HS GPA gets you the Hope Scholarship, which currently covers most of in-state tuition costs (they may adjust the amount and/or criteria depending on funding).
  5. He could (but may not) consider first starting out at a LAC with a 3-2 engineering partnership with Columbia/WashU/USC/RPI (the transfer to Columbia is not guaranteed these days, USC says they treat them like any other applicant while it’s nearly guaranteed for WashU). Costs may come out close to 4 years of UIUC engineering/CS in-state if he gets a full-tuition/full-ride scholarship to the LAC.