Anyone's DC going to Uni in USA???

[Cblue]

Hi all

Has anyone's DC applied/gone to USA Universities in the last few years?

DD in Y11 very keen so we are off to Boston/NYC to see some Unis.

Reading up on it, it seems like there are some good bursaries and scholarships open to International students at the Ivy Leagues which would make it viable.
Do any of the lesser Unis have the same?

We have been to the Fulbright University Fair in London and that just made her even more determined.

Has anyone got any tips??
And has anyone else done it!??

Thanks

The big Ivy's have decent funding so if she could get in then it would be more viable

don't limit yourself to the Ivys for funding. Other liberal arts colleges with great reputations provide similar.

And it is different for overseas students - for many of the colleges the online tool doesn't work for overseas students - so I would ask that specific question at your college tours and would also ask to meet with the financial aid office and ask very specific questions about funding for overseas students.

and would also ask to meet with the financial aid office and ask very specific questions about funding for overseas students.

Very good point. Many of the cheapest loans are backed by the US federal government. I doubt they'd be available to non US citizens as they'd have no way of enforcing collection of the loan.

pallisers, you also quite right that many of the smaller, non-ivy schools have very large endowments and plenty of merit aid to offer.

Do you have other children to put through the process now that your DD is settled?

One more Miss!

Doing college visits with her now - she is entering senior year. She is a straight A student with a high SAT, lots of extra curriculars in a private school that sends a lot of kids to Harvard (and stanford this year). We still aren't thinking of harvard for her. We've done the bowdoin/bates/colby tour and the amherst/U Mass A/Williams tour and will also do U of Chicago, Brown, Georgetown and George Washington in the next few weeks. Also BU, BC, and Tufts (if your dd is doing a BU tour she might want to look at Tufts at the same time - it is a much more contained campus than BU and that has its advantages. also a great school)

DS goes to Northeastern which is good but isn't for everyone - big urban campus and you have to have a hook (some sport or art or something) to find your tribe.

@cblue the other thing I would say is the financial aid offices are used to very up front questions and requests. You don't need to be nice or skirt around the issue. You can go in there and say "well dd looks like an excellent candidate whom this college would love to have so can you explain how you could make this affordable for us". US parents are very upfront about financial issues.

I think some of you are mixing up apples and oranges. There are private universities and State universities. The private universities charge the same tuition to everyone regardless of where they come from. The Ivy Leagues are all private. There are plenty of great State Universities and they charge more for out of state students (whether they come from another US State or the UK). An example of a good State University is UC Berkeley, or UCLA. The State Universities are generally cheaper than the private ones, but offer far less in the way of scholarships and financial aid. If you are an American student you must apply to FAFSA which is the national government run clearing house for financial aid and scholarships (note that some are loans and some do not need to be paid back). All the universities, colleges, community colleges use FAFSA regardless of whether they are private or public. I am not sure, but am guessing that foreign students will also have to fill out a FAFSA application.
As pallisers said, you must be completely transparent about your financial aid needs - it's the done thing and you won't get anywhere if you don't.

Students at American universities are very mollycoddled, they live on campus, always have a meal plan and are very supervised. I work at a university in NYC and I am always quite shocked by this. We are in the middle of this huge exciting city and the students are treated (and generally act) like they are at boarding school. My own kids wanted the freedom of a British university, where students are seen as more adult and the social life is amazing.

Wow Candyflip guess you don't get out much past the doors of the Uni you work at. There are a zillion universities in the US and a zillion different college experiences. Some people live on campus and some live off campus and some take advantage of what NYC has to offer and some don't. I am so disappointed that you have developed such a distorted view of American college life. Perhaps you need to get out a bit more and meet some people outside of your small little circle. The idea that all UK students are "more adult" and have a better "social life" than all US students is an absurdly uneducated and unsophisticated stereotype.

I sure hope you don't work directly with the students that you think so poorly of. Does your university know that you are that disdainful of what they do?

Here are some articles about applying for financial aid through the FAFSA for foreign students:
www.edupass.org/finaid/fafsa.phtml
www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-admissions-experts/2012/01/04/what-financial-aid-is-available-for-international-students
withfrank.org/how-to-pay-for-college/what-aid-do-i-qualify-for/aid-for-non-u-s-citizens/fafsa-for-international-students/

Where did you study SofiaAmes. My American colleagues agree. But I work in International education, so probably know more than you 😂

DH studied at Georgetown. Lived in dorms in his first year only. Had a pretty similar college experience to my UK experience.

I have to say - I don't mind if DD lives in dorms for the whole time depending on where she studies. Having seen the Stanford upper-classman residences (a chef for each house!) I'd be living there myself if I could...

I am not being completely fir, I work with students seeking higher degrees and I think MA teaching and research in the US is fantastic. But undergraduate degrees are motivated by the parents, (who are the consumers) they are even worse helicopter parents than the U.K. if you can believe! (Not everyone) My colleagues are very frustrated at having to deal with parents, although I am sure the U.K. is going that way too now that education is a commodity. I still stand by my statements that American undergrads are more ‘controlled’ than many other countries though.

completely fair

Again, I think it depends on the university and the student and there is definitely a fair amount of blame to be slung at society which forces parents into helicoptering (or being judged as bad parents).

In answer to your question I went to high school both in the USA and the UK and then went to MIT undergraduate where I lived in a dorm for a year (with a meal plan) and then off campus for the rest of the time (without a meal plan). I did my MBA in NYC at Fordham where I did not live on campus and I did my MArch at SCI Arc in Los Angeles, where once again I did not live on campus.

Of my peers' children who are currently off at Uni, most spent their first year on campus (some with a meal plan and some without) and then most, if not all moved off campus by their second year. Parents visit a lot more than they did in my day, but from what I read on Mumsnet, that seems to have changed quite a bit in the UK too since I lived there.

Your colleagues might be frustrated by having to deal with parents, but it's kind of a necessary evil when the person paying for Uni is a parent. And the reality is that you can't apply to Uni without the signature of a parent and the completion of a FAFSA by a parent. Though, I'm surprised that they are having to deal with parents because once a student is 18, the schools are not allowed to give out information to the parents.
If you would prefer to avoid interacting with the parents, I would highly recommend getting a job at a Community College. My dc's are taking Community College classes while in high school and I haven't needed to be involved at all.

You think the parents aren’t coming to us at intake demanding to sign FERPA forms? Yeah, there are no 18 year old adults at college in the US.

And there aren’t many community colleges that have a high international student population. But thanks for the career advice.

And you only studied in the US? I don’t think you are the best placed to have this discussion.

I went to a USA University for a year abroad, University California Berkley, as part of my first degree at Edinburgh University (which gets respect, I got a masters, a PhD place easily, went to Columbia as a graduate student).

For my exchange year I paid, zero. It is the same cost as fees at home university.

I loved it and honestly because of that I would have preferred the whole degree there, but as others have said, the cost is insane. It was a bit tough to leave after the year, but I think I took it harder than most!

So maybe look into UK universities that have international exchange programmes?

Also for a broader programme, definitely somewhere like Edinburgh. She'll get an MA as standard, (mine was an MSci, we had the choice to take on the extra work and higher level, but I think with the arts it MA for everyone), that always looks good. I managed to fit in literature, languages, maths and science as my qualifying subjects before specialising.

I have to agree, from my experience, the plus sides of an American degree is the breadth of courses can take. I love that part. However I went Ivy league and was a year, sometimes two, ahead in my level for classes. So I ended up taking Junior year and even one Senior year (woah) classes, when I was actually a Sophomore from Edinburgh.

That said, I don't think anyone looks down on US degrees at all.

Whatever, CandyFlip....you asked where I studied, not what my qualifications were for evaluating the habits of US and UK university students. I actually have plenty of experience in this arena, but am not going to waste my time discussing it with you since you clearly have no interest in learning from anyone around you, especially not the distasteful Americans (who employ you).
And I do think your statistics on international students at community colleges is a little out of date. 17% of international undergraduates in the USA are studying at community colleges and are a huge financial boon to the community college system.

You have not studied at university in any other country than the US. So what are your qualifications for evaluating the habits of US and UK students? I did not call my employers distasteful. And 17% is not big.

Candy, I am not sure you are right, but you are identifying an important difference. My experience is only of observing the decisions made by DCs friends, a fair proportion of whom looked at the US for UG, and who are now looking overseas for PG. (Singapore and other Asian Universities seem to be increasing in popularity and seem to be offering quite generous financial support for able students.) I have also just spent some time in Asia where friend's children had quite an interesting take on their experience of UK Universities.

1. Britain like the US, has a mix of HE institutions. You dont compare a community college with Harvard, but equally friends who have managed student accomodation in Bournemouth suggest they are more hands on than those managing accomodation in Bristol.

1. The smaller US colleges, including the little Ivies, don't seem to appeal as much. The city reared UK students we know seem recognise that academic reputations are as good, but they seem too small and sheltered.

1. The reverse of you preferring the UK because 18 year olds are treated like adults, is an increasing preference for the discipline and academic focus in the US. No booze on campus is an attraction, and friends of DD report having to work harder and restrict big nights out to once a week.

1. Asian students were swapping horror stories with DD. Their parents have saved very hard to send them to the UK, often because their own parents were UK educated. They are sociable but also there to get a good degree. Oddly London seemed to work, with British students willing both to mix and to put their heads down. Oxbridge, Buckingham and Ireland were also liked. Concerns were mainly about big shared flats where no one washed up, and where freshers week lasted most of the first term. Liverpool and Birmingham had picked up bad reputations amongst the people we knew, but I suspect unless overseas students were careful in choosing accommodation that suited their lifestyles, other places would as well. it comes up often on this board, with some Universities, touted as having an "amazing" social life, also seeming to lack superivsion and care.

A different and random point. Several people heading for the US worried about UK school references. Apparently British schools culturally tend to give less effusive references than those expected by Anerican colleges. Class placement can also pose a problem, as UK students specialise so much more, and some schools have a very selective intake.

no booze on campus 😂😂 yeah, right, but it is all hidden, like boarding school. Yes, references are a massively different. Right about what though? The choices my children made were, of course, right for them.

"Right about what though? The choices my children made were, of course, right for them."

But thats it. We all want the University that is right for our child. Oddly the Universities in the UK that achieve the highest student satisfaction include the smaller quieter ones like Buckingham and St Andrews... incidently both popular with overseas students.

Actually my experience is that US universities, students drink way less.

1. ID checks are strict and legal age 21, friends don't split groups if some aren't old enough to go to a bar and if you aren't 21 with solid ID like a passport, you will not get in to one.

1. Any alcohol bought for parties at home tends to be beer kegs, incredibly weak, the students don't drink anywhere near as much.

1. When I was there as an undergrad there was an on the spot fine from the police if you were caught even carrying alcohol, not open, not drinking it, don't care about excuses like it's for friends, if you weren't 21 you could not have it in your possession.

1. The culture for drinking is different, in UK students were practically poisoning themselves with booze as teenagers and then doing all sorts because of it, in the USA they drank relatively small amounts of weak alcohol. I think the age limit and the policing on campus and dorms is very helpful controlling this.

1. In USA many students are paying an absolute fortune for their education, or getting massive six figure debts. So they don't want to mess it up. They go to class, they do their homework, they prepare.

@candyflip are you a Professor or admin staff?