Thank you! I just did a practice ACT and got a 31- not great Ik but I made some absolutely stupid errors. SAT I haven’t done yet but the questions seem of around/ below GCSE standard so I should be fine. These will be my main focus over the summer. Thanks for the Harvard recommendation, I didn’t know much about their music scene! I know it has a great economic course and have dreamt about going to HBS for grad school (not undergrad tho for some reason).
Also 400k? I thought it was closer to 200k, and I can take out student loans- but that might narrow my applications down to only need blind schools because that is a LOT of money 
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For a really different experience from the UK and topnotch Economics:
Amherst, Williams, Haverford, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, (Wellesley) …depending on “fit” (ie. Match between your values, aspirations, and interests, and what their community offers: +/- political involvement, environmental concerns, drinking culture, spectator sports attendance, widespread athletic participation…
– just in case: “fit” on this forum is not “fit” as in “hot” colleges or “beautiful people”)
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I should be able to get the ACT score up significantly by the summer which is when I would take it, the exam wasn’t difficult but there were just a couple topics on the maths section I hadn’t covered yet (differentiation, logarithms)
Someone else mentioned Wellesley on another post, and the wide range of musical opportunities offered there. I haven’t actually heard of any of the other colleges before but I’ll be sure to check them out!
Just going to mention here that choir apart, not only is Selwyn beautiful and imo underrated, but it’s also right next to the Sidgwick site so you can roll out of bed 15 minutes before lectures 
(yes, I’m biased)
Re your question of whether or not US college is worth it - I don’t personally see it being “better” , especially if you are Oxbridge material. However, one thing I would point out is that they are very different experiences, so I think a good starting point is understanding both the course structures and what general university life would be like before deciding. It’s not just about networking - and if you are not going to end up working long term in the US (the most likely outcome), the benefits of building up a network there are dubious.
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The advantage of standardized tests is that the questions are… Standardized. So if you practice, notice what went wrong, correct the problem, retake, notice&correct… your score improves.
31 “cold”, mid year Sophomore year is actually pretty good. Plenty of time till Spring/Summer after Junior year.
Run the NPC on Harvard, Princeton, and Amherst or Williams. Is the result (“net cost”) affordable?
Note that for many UK students, attending a US college is actually cheaper than taking the state loans for UK uni - however if your parents can pay uni tuition fees outright then US colleges would likely be way more expensive since they use a sliding scale.
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Thanks for the insight! What do you mean by NPC?
Net price calculator
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What exactly do you mean by different experience? Like I know location is obviously one reason but what else comes under that umbrella?
I wasn’t thinking of location.
These colleges are tight-knit, undergraduate-focused communities. Classes tend to be small, with a lot of interaction between professor and students. Professors are in part hired for their ability to integrate students into their research. The alumni network tends to be powerful&influential (especially in the economic, financial, and political worlds - for Williams specifically, in the art world). Most students get their first degree, work, then go on to grad or professional school (Med school, law school, MBA, PHDs).
However because they’re small, they’re unlikely to be known outside the US. People “in the know” in the US know, most others don’t, so you won’t get the “wow” factor.
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All of this, and better weather? Sounds like a treat! Jokes aside thanks for letting me know, I’ll definitely look more into them. The more personal tight knit community is definitely a pull factor.
On a seperate note, I recently got admission for a reputable selective private sixth form (11th and 12th), with ties to Oxford university (Magdalen College School). Would going to a school like this elevate my chances at getting into a US university? Or would not make a difference since I am currently at a selective (non private) school anyway…
Well, if you really want better weather, there’s Davidson.
To give you an idea of the erstwhile students’ background, until a few years ago the college had maids doing the student’s laundry. (Lots of good jobs were lost when the college decided to get with the 21st century and have the students learn how to do it themselves.)
Here’s the list - I forgot to give you the link. This website won’t allow me to publish the link, but add an e to the word nich and you should find it. https://www.nich.com/colleges/search/best-colleges-for-economics/
Private college in the US (at least the top ones) now is about $90K/yr! And you cannot borrow in the US for college - your parents would have to borrow for you, and probably wouldn’t be able to, in the US. But if your parents are not wealthy, there are private colleges in the US that would give you some financial aid - you should apply to all of those that are need-blind for internationals, if they have economics, which they would.
With prep, you can get that ACT up to 35 or 36, starting from a 31 on your first try.
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Just some light reading:
I’m re-reading this myself and just to help you out a bit, you can probably skip the first 150 or so posts which in retrospect, are preoccupied with one poster and their child’s particular admissions journey. Things get a bit more whimsical around post #162:
NESCAC Spoken Here: - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums
They did not have maids doing the student laundry. They ran a laundry and dry cleaning on campus which was also used by the community. The laundry was included in tuition but was just wash in hot water and dry, no separating, etc. And the loss of jobs was significant to staff who had worked there their whole lives.
I agree checking out these sorts of very selective, very academicky, undergrad-focused colleges is a great idea for something truly different from a UK uni. With an Econ interest, I would definitely include Wellesley and Davidson. Another good warm weather option would be Pomona.
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I wasn’t being sarcastic about the job losses. It’s what struck me as most problematic in the situation.
But if you want, I will rephrase: as a way for OP to understand the students’ assumed habitus in relation to her concern about networking, she should think about the cultural significance of the college not yet having discontinued the traditional practice of people doing students’ laundry for them.
In my eyes, Davidson is as respectable as Bowdoin or Colgate, but located in a warmer climate.
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In addition to the many fine schools mentioned above, I might consider Vassar and Oberlin if I were interested in music.
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Honestly -if you are looking for some combination of prestige and connections/networks, which is what my impression from some of your earlier posts is, while many fine schools have been mentioned above I don’t see many that I would rank as par with Cambridge or LSE, particularly if longer term job prospects are going to be back in the UK. Again, it comes back to the question of what exactly you are hoping to get out of going to college in the US.
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Thank you for the recommendation! These colleges seem to be ranked highly for “liberal arts” but not so much for economics - what is liberal arts exactly?
People keep mentioning it but I never really figured out what exactly liberal arts colleges are, or how they differ from any other college😭
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