That is the core issue — people here think I “disdain” lower ranked US universities. This really is not the case. It’s just they are not price competitive with what Canada has to offer. That pretty much a fact at least as far as Canadian citizens are concerned.
The most likely outcome for my son is a top Canadian university. Where we save the tuition for a down payment on a home. And pay for a masters in the US.
We will take bigger risks with US universities. I am optimistic he will have some good options here probably just bellow the top tier. Whether they will be worth it another matter.
LSE and Imperial will be long shots as would UPenn or any other top US school. I think odds at LSE would be higher than Penn is he does well on TMUA.