American Universities

[Hobo]

My son is doing his GCSE's this year, and then will be doing Mathmatics, Further Mathmatics, Physics & Chemistry for A Levels, after which he is currently wanting to go to University in the USA to do engineering. Current preferences being;

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technnology
2. California Institute of Technology

then, in not particular order;

3. Berkeley
4. Standford
5. Princeton

I plan on taking him over in June/July this year to look around them, but wondered if anyone on here had looked at similar options for their children (or been to any of these themselves) and could offer and help/advise in respect of the universities themselves, or best routes to entrance as appreciate most of them only have a 4% acceptance rate (failing which it will be likely be Imperial, Cambridge of Oxford)

[SpeckledJim]

On the application you should definitely spell Stanford correctly.

But only on the application to Stanford. Don’t mention it on the others.

[brickwall]

Firstly, maximise your chances.
In the US AFAIK there aren’t limits on the number of universities you can apply to, so apply to them all.

And apply to UK options as well. You can’t apply to both Oxford and Cambridge (unless applying for an Organ Scholarship), so it will be one of the two plus Imperial plus whatever else to fill the UCAS options list.

Be aware that the US system is very different - in particular around dates and the SAT requirements. Familiarise yourself with what needs to happen when (sitting SATs, application deadlines, etc.).

Hopefully your son’s school will be familiar with sending people to the US universities mentioned, so can help guide you through the process.

[Hobo]

SpeckledJim said:

On the application you should definitely spell Stanford correctly.

But only on the application to Stanford. Don’t mention it on the others.

[vaud]

Also Google "Varsity Blues scandal" - not saying it still happens, but you can see the scale of the challenge and how high the stakes are for applicants (and parents)

Check which UK uni's have exchange agreements with the top US schools - some allow you to do a full year of exchange (or they used to)

[Hobo]

brickwall said:

Firstly, maximise your chances.
In the US AFAIK there aren’t limits on the number of universities you can apply to, so apply to them all.

And apply to UK options as well. You can’t apply to both Oxford and Cambridge (unless applying for an Organ Scholarship), so it will be one of the two plus Imperial plus whatever else to fill the UCAS options list.

Be aware that the US system is very different - in particular around dates and the SAT requirements. Familiarise yourself with what needs to happen when (sitting SATs, application deadlines, etc.).

Hopefully your son’s school will be familiar with sending people to the US universities mentioned, so can help guide you through the process.

Thanks.

I spoke with his school (or the head of year) about his intentions, and the response about it wasn’t great as the person I spoke to had very little understanding, and seemingley little experience of applying for American Universities. Maybe he was the wrong person to speak to, but was the one available at the time (which was rather off the cuff to be fair to them).

It’s a great school he currently attends and lots of children end up at Oxford or Cambridge, but clearly international interests is a lot more uncommon.

[Hobo]

vaud said:

Also Google "Varsity Blues scandal" - not saying it still happens, but you can see the scale of the challenge and how high the stakes are for applicants (and parents)

Check which UK uni's have exchange agreements with the top US schools - some allow you to do a full year of exchange (or they used to)

That’s for this Vaud. Wasn’t aware of the exchange programmes, and seemingley Imperial does and exchange programme with M.I.T.

That would certainly keep the wife happy as she would prefer to keep him in the UK (for personal reasons, not educational).

[vaud]

Hobo said:

That’s for this Vaud. Wasn’t aware of the exchange programmes, and seemingley Imperial does and exchange programme with M.I.T.

That would certainly keep the wife happy as she would prefer to keep him in the UK (for personal reasons, not educational).

The application process is also very easy (IIRC) as the universities assess that if you have got into the counterpart university then your skills are of sufficient quality. My former uni had a partnership with the University of California and fellow students had a great time (UCSB / UCSC). Quality of education was superb, but also the environment in which to learn.

[greygoose]

My cousin went to Stanford (albeit 25 years ago) and he really enjoyed it, the costs are pretty eye-watering though for international students at $75,000 per year, though all the universities are pretty similar on that list. My uncle did his degree at Oxford and then PhD at Berkeley, he said that the US college culture was very different to the UK and that was the hardest part for him to adjust to.

[The Leaper]

Yes, costs are steep. My nephew's son (they are all Brits but have lived in the USA for some time now) is in his 1st year at Mississippi Uni in the town of Oxford, MS. 1st year fees are $40,000. This includes education, lodging, all food etc, so not quite as steep as it looks.

R.

[SpeckledJim]

vaud said:

Hobo said:

That’s for this Vaud. Wasn’t aware of the exchange programmes, and seemingley Imperial does and exchange programme with M.I.T.

That would certainly keep the wife happy as she would prefer to keep him in the UK (for personal reasons, not educational).

The application process is also very easy (IIRC) as the universities assess that if you have got into the counterpart university then your skills are of sufficient quality. My former uni had a partnership with the University of California and fellow students had a great time (UCSB / UCSC). Quality of education was superb, but also the environment in which to learn.

This is what I did. A 4 year UK course, with a year in the US.

One big bonus being that I paid the low UK fees for my time in the USA, and my American opposite number who came to the UK paid his high US university fees for his time in the UK.

Big win, that was.

[Hobo]

SpeckledJim said:

vaud said:

Hobo said:

That’s for this Vaud. Wasn’t aware of the exchange programmes, and seemingley Imperial does and exchange programme with M.I.T.

That would certainly keep the wife happy as she would prefer to keep him in the UK (for personal reasons, not educational).

The application process is also very easy (IIRC) as the universities assess that if you have got into the counterpart university then your skills are of sufficient quality. My former uni had a partnership with the University of California and fellow students had a great time (UCSB / UCSC). Quality of education was superb, but also the environment in which to learn.

This is what I did. A 4 year UK course, with a year in the US.

One big bonus being that I paid the low UK fees for my time in the USA, and my American opposite number who came to the UK paid his high US university fees for his time in the UK.

Big win, that was.

I'll definately look further into this option.

I'm aware of the larger US fees, but to be honest will live with them if needs be, as think its great that I have a son who has known for some time now what he wants to do for a living (albeit it will likely change/deviate), and where he wants to go to Uni, as I didn't have a clue at his age, so will support him in whatever as best I can.

Suppose the obvious question is does the year in the US negatively impact the learning in any way ?

[SpeckledJim]

Hobo said:

SpeckledJim said:

vaud said:

Hobo said:

That’s for this Vaud. Wasn’t aware of the exchange programmes, and seemingley Imperial does and exchange programme with M.I.T.

That would certainly keep the wife happy as she would prefer to keep him in the UK (for personal reasons, not educational).

The application process is also very easy (IIRC) as the universities assess that if you have got into the counterpart university then your skills are of sufficient quality. My former uni had a partnership with the University of California and fellow students had a great time (UCSB / UCSC). Quality of education was superb, but also the environment in which to learn.

This is what I did. A 4 year UK course, with a year in the US.

One big bonus being that I paid the low UK fees for my time in the USA, and my American opposite number who came to the UK paid his high US university fees for his time in the UK.

Big win, that was.

I'll definately look further into this option.

I'm aware of the larger US fees, but to be honest will live with them if needs be, as think its great that I have a son who has known for some time now what he wants to do for a living (albeit it will likely change/deviate), and where he wants to go to Uni, as I didn't have a clue at his age, so will support him in whatever as best I can.

Suppose the obvious question is does the year in the US negatively impact the learning in any way ?

Without giving away too many secrets, I found the level of education I experienced in the US to be dramatically below the standards that were expected of me in the UK.

Everything was spoon-fed and the amount of timetabling and monitoring was much greater in the US than the UK. Anecdotally the reason given for that was that US parents wanted lots of evidence of exactly what they're paying for. So whilst in the UK I was left largely alone to manage myself, in the US they were 'on it' in terms of regular measurement and attendance-tracking, etc.

But my UK university was 'a very good one' and my US university was 'an ok one', so I'm not comparing like-for-like.

American Pie, Van Wilder, Old School etc: All are basically documentaries. A very great time was had. But no big steps were really taken on the education front.

ETA: Sounds like your lad will be going somewhere very proper. And my experience is over 20 years old. So follow Mrs Jim's lead and maybe don't place much or any stock in my opinion.

Edited by SpeckledJim on Tuesday 7th February 12:06

[GiantCardboardPlato]

There are quite a few ‘admissions consultants’ type services and people in the US for colleges. As outsiders to the system, could be worthwhile. I guess they would help make you aware of the norms etc for applications, unwritten rules (“your personal statement isn’t for that”) etc.

[vaud]

Hobo said:

Suppose the obvious question is does the year in the US negatively impact the learning in any way ?

Not in the cases that I saw. It was compsci - and as I understand it part of the process the peer course owners inspected each other's content and exams to ensure similar topics were being studied, and to what level.

More recently I was a trustee of one of the largest Universities in the UK and the international placements were all well researched and inspected, as it came up as a reputation/teaching quality discussion a number of times.

[Hobo]

vaud said:

Not in the cases that I saw. It was compsci - and as I understand it part of the process the peer course owners inspected each other's content and exams to ensure similar topics were being studied, and to what level.

More recently I was a trustee of one of the largest Universities in the UK and the international placements were all well researched and inspected, as it came up as a reputation/teaching quality discussion a number of times.

Good to know.

The courses where a year overseas is an option charge heavily for that year, and if it were to adversely effect the other years UK study then it wouldn't be something I want to consider.

[vaud]

Hobo said:

Good to know.

The courses where a year overseas is an option charge heavily for that year, and if it were to adversely effect the other years UK study then it wouldn't be something I want to consider.

Given the desire for (good) Unis to monitor quality and student satisfaction, trust me it is something they monitor. They don't want part of their cohort returning after 2nd year and need to do catchup to pass year 3.

[Allegro_Snapon]

I did one term at MIT in 1990.
1) Having an English accent, coming from Manchester in "Madchester" days I got more flap action in 12 weeks than I have ever had in the rest of my life.
2) For a student on a UK grant (I did a lucrative summer job so could just afford the air fare and fees and increased cost of living) it was challenging financially.
3) Due to 1) I nearly failed one of the modules.........which would have got me failed on my UK degree as I wouldn't have been able to re-take back in the UK.
4) Due to success at 1) every football jock on placement from Texas tries to wind you up/put you down. Use the immortal line from Full Metal Jacket "Only steers and queers come from Texas and you don't look much like a steer to me". "Texas, that is down in Mexico isn't it?" is also a good one. Just make sure you can run through narrow gaps in crowds that a 300lb Quarterback can't.
5) Don't get into that Frathouse crap. See point 1) re ease of Poontang to be obtained just in the lecture theatres.

Strangely been back to Boston about 10 times with work and on holiday since and even when I was single it was never the same (though is my second favourite US city still); I was just a dumb Brit from work those times.

[usn90]

Nothing useful to add other than what an experience that would be!

Wish I thought of it

[vaud]

usn90 said:

Nothing useful to add other than what an experience that would be!

Wish I thought of it

When I went to visit friends on exchange in California it was absolutely incredible.